Murdered by The State
|
|
| Derek Bentley | |
|
Murdered by The State | |
|
|
|
Derek Bentley was hanged, in January 1953, for his part in a robbery on a
confectionery warehouse in Croydon during which his accomplice, Christopher
Craig, shot and killed a police officer.
Although Bentley did not fire the gun that killed the officer; Bentley was
19 years old and the judge, the Lord Chief Justice at the time, Lord Goddard,
directed that Bentley was culpable in this crime and was, upon conviction,
hanged for this murder. Craig, being only 16 years old, was spared from
execution. Despite conflicting evidence over whether or not Bentley knew Craig was
carrying a gun and considerable debate over whether Bentley's, now
infamous words, "Let him have it", was an instruction to shoot the officer or
one to hand over such a weapon or even something else, the jury, following
the summing up by Lord Goddard, returned a guilty verdict for murder.
The jury never heard that Bentley was an epileptic with a mental age of
eleven, that he was dominated by the personality of Craig ( who had a deep
hatred of the police after his brother was convicted of robbery ), but, even
so, asked for leniency when they returned their verdict.
This request was not to be entertained and Bentley was subsequently hanged.
Bentley's family have for years now declared their belief that he was
unfairly treated and have demanded that the case be re-opened or
reviewed but numerous Home Secretaries have refused to consider such a
request. Now, 45 years on, the current Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, has
reviewed the case and has determined that the conviction was unsound and
that Bentley was denied a fair trial. Lord Goddard's handling of the case has
also been seriously criticised. Which begs the questions ....
The epitaph on Derek Bentley's tombstone reads, "Victim of British justice",
and, despite the quashing of this conviction, these words ring true today.
We should hang our heads in shame and ask how such an injustice came
to pass and ask how we can prevent such injustices in the future.
We cannot bring Derek Bentley back from the dead. As a society we must
see that no such injustice occurs in the future, in Britain or anywhere
else. If nothing else, this case proves that State Execution is fundamentally
evil, wrong, misguided and must not be tolerated.
A wrongly imprisoned man or woman may, in part, be recompensed for their
suffering after an unfair conviction but a wrongful execution is a finality
that cannot be reversed nor compensated for. Our thoughts must go out to the jurors who, in a time when, "Anything a
copper said was true", still had the courage to ask for mercy.
They judged on the evidence that they heard and listened to learned men
delivering their interpretations of the law and could do no more.
Although they may not, if we consider their actions in today's context ( where
we know that police officers and other figures of authority do lie and
conspire ), be entirely blameless in this case they were playing their part
as best they could. The role and actions of the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, and those
of The Prosecution do require further investigation.
It would be unfair to judge a man in his absence; nothing less than a Public
Inquiry will explain how it came to pass that a man, unfairly tried, had his
life taken from him. The Bentley family must be elated that they have finally seen justice done in
this case, after so many years, but this elation must be tinged by the knowledge
that one of their family was taken from them as a result of an unfair trial.
This ruling has come too late for Derek Bentley, "Victim of British justice".
| ||||
|
First published sometime before Tuesday the 16th of November, 1999
Last upload was on Tuesday the 23rd of September, 2003 at 19:00:52 |
