Murder of Stephen Lawrence

Stephen Adrian Lawrence (13Template:NbsSeptember 1974 – 22Template:NbsApril 1993) was an 18-year-old black British citizen from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus on Well Hall Road, Eltham, on the evening of 22Template:NbsApril 1993.<ref name="BBC inquiry">Template:Cite news</ref> The case became a cause célèbre: its fallout included changes of attitudes on racism and the police, and to the law and police practice. It also led to the partial revocation of the rule against double jeopardy. Two of the perpetrators were convicted of murder on 3Template:NbsJanuary 2012.<ref name=":1">"Stephen Lawrence murder: A timeline of how the story unfolded". BBC News, 7 March 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2013.</ref>

After the initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but, at the time, not charged;<ref name="BBC detective">Template:Cite news</ref> a private prosecution subsequently initiated by Lawrence's family failed to secure convictions for any of the accused.<ref name="bbcqna">Template:Cite news</ref> It was suggested during the investigation that Lawrence was killed because he was black, and that the handling of the case by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was affected by issues of race. A 1998 public inquiry,<ref name="Lawrence Inquiry">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}
(see also summary: Template:Cite news)</ref> headed by Sir William Macpherson, concluded that the original MPS investigation was incompetent and that the force was institutionally racist. It also recommended that the double jeopardy rule should be repealed in murder cases to allow a retrial upon new and compelling evidence: this was effected in 2005 upon enactment of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The publication in 1999 of the resulting Macpherson Report has been called "one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain".<ref name="bbcqna" /> Jack Straw said that ordering the inquiry was the most important decision he made during his tenure as home secretary from 1997 to 2001.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2010, the Lawrence case was said to be "one of the highest-profile unsolved racially motivated murders".<ref name="high profile">Template:Cite news</ref>

On 18Template:NbsMay 2011, after a further review,<ref name="cold case">Template:Cite news</ref> it was announced that two of the original suspects, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were to stand trial for the murder in the light of new evidence.<ref name="BBC trial">Template:Cite news</ref> At the same time it was disclosed that Dobson's original acquittal had been quashed by the Court of Appeal, allowing a retrial to take place.<ref name="cps statement May 2011">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Such an appeal had only become possible following the 2005 change in the law, although Dobson was not the first person to be retried for murder as a result.<ref>Double jeopardy man is given life, BBC News. 6 October 2006.</ref> On 3Template:NbsJanuary 2012, Dobson and Norris were found guilty of Lawrence's murder;<ref name="Dodd Laville 2012">Template:Cite news</ref> the pair were juveniles at the time of the crime and were sentenced to detention at Her Majesty's pleasure, equivalent to a life sentence for an adult,<ref name="sentencing remarks">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with minimum terms of 15 years 2 months and 14 years 3 months respectively<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> for what the judge described as a "terrible and evil crime".<ref name="irishexaminer">Template:Cite news</ref> In March 2025 Norris eventually admitted his involvement in the crime.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the years after Dobson and Norris were sentenced, the case regained prominence when concerns of corrupt police conduct during the original case handling surfaced in the media. Such claims had surfaced before, and been investigated in 2007, but were reignited in 2013 when a former undercover police officer stated in an interview that, at the time, he had been pressured to find ways to "smear" and discredit the victim's family, in order to mute and deter public campaigning for better police responses to the case. Although further inquiries in 2012 by both Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission had ruled that there was no basis for further investigation, Home Secretary Theresa May ordered an independent inquiry by a prominent QC into undercover policing and corruption, which was described as "devastating" when published in 2014.<ref name="Lawrence Inquiry" /><ref name="theguardian_2014_report_response">Template:Cite news</ref>

Stephen Lawrence

Stephen Adrian Lawrence was born in Greenwich District Hospital on 13Template:NbsSeptember 1974 to Jamaican parents who had emigrated to the UK in the 1960s. His father was Neville Lawrence, then a carpenter, and his mother was Doreen, then a special needs teacher.<ref name="BBC profile" /> Brought up in Plumstead, South-East London, he was the eldest of three children, the others being Stuart (born 1976) and Georgina (born 1982).<ref name="Stephen's Story">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Wilkins 2001 1">Template:Cite book</ref>

During his teenage years, Lawrence excelled in running, competing for the local Cambridge Harriers athletics club, and appeared as an extra in Denzel Washington's film For Queen and Country.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> At the time of his murder, he was studying technology and physics at the Blackheath Bluecoat School and English language and literature at Woolwich College, and was hoping to become an architect.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Attack

Lawrence had spent the day of 22Template:NbsApril 1993 at Blackheath Bluecoat School.<ref name="Sutcliffe 1999">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After school, he visited shops in Lewisham, then travelled by bus to an uncle's house in Grove Park. He was joined there by his friend Duwayne Brooks, and they played video games until leaving at around 10:00Template:Nbspm.<ref name="Sutcliffe 1999" /><ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> After realising that the 286 bus on which they were travelling would get them home late, they decided to change for either bus route 161 or bus route 122 on Well Hall Road.<ref name="Sutcliffe 1999" />

Lawrence and Brooks arrived at the bus stop on Well Hall Road at 10:25Template:Nbspm.<ref name=":0" /> Lawrence walked along Well Hall Road to the junction of Dickson Road to see if he could see a bus coming.<ref name="Macpherson C1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Brooks was still on Well Hall Road, between Dickson Road and the roundabout with Rochester Way and Westhorne Avenue.<ref name="Macpherson C1" />

Brooks saw a group of six white youths, which included then–16-year-old David Norris, crossing Rochester Way on the opposite side of the street near the area of the zebra crossing and moving towards them.<ref name="Macpherson C1" /> At or just after 10:38 pm, he called out to ask whether Lawrence saw the bus coming. Brooks claimed that he heard one of Lawrence's assailants saying a racial slur as they all quickly crossed the road and "engulfed" Lawrence.<ref name="Macpherson C1" />

The six aggressors forced Lawrence down to the ground, then stabbed him to a depth of about Template:Convert on both sides of the front of his body, in the right collarbone and left shoulder. Both wounds severed axillary arteries before penetrating a lung. Lawrence lost all feeling in his right arm and his breathing was constricted, while he was losing blood from four major blood vessels. Brooks began running, and shouted for Lawrence to run to escape with him. While the attackers disappeared down Dickson Road, Brooks and Lawrence ran in the direction of Shooters Hill. Lawrence collapsed after running Template:Convert; he bled to death soon afterwards.<ref name="Macpherson C1" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The pathologist recorded that Lawrence managing to run this distance with a partially collapsed lung was "a testimony to his physical fitness".<ref name="Macpherson C1"/>

Brooks ran to call an ambulance while an off-duty police officer stopped his car and covered Lawrence with a blanket. Lawrence was taken to Brook General Hospital by 11:05 pm, but he was already dead.<ref name="Macpherson C1"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Trials

Witnesses

All three (3) witnesses at the bus stop at the time of the attack said in their statements that the attack was sudden and short, although none were later able to identify the suspects.<ref name="Sutcliffe 1999" /> In the days following Lawrence's murder, several residents came forward to provide names of suspects and an anonymous note was left on a police car windscreen and in a telephone box naming a local gang<ref name="telegraph timeline">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> as the five main suspects.<ref name="Holohan 2005 123">Template:Cite book</ref> The suspects were Gary Dobson, brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight, and David Norris.<ref name="Holohan 2005 123" /> In February 1999, officers investigating the handling of the initial inquiry revealed that a woman who might have been a vital witness had telephoned detectives three times within the first few days after the killing, and appealed for her to contact them again.<ref name="BBC appeal">Template:Cite news</ref>

The five suspects were previously involved in racist knife attacks around the Eltham area.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Four weeks before Lawrence's death, Dobson and Neil Acourt were involved in a racist attack on a black teenager, Kevin London, whom they verbally abused and attempted to stab.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Neil's brother Jamie was accused of stabbing teenagers Darren Witham in May 1992 and Darren Giles in 1994, causing Giles to suffer a cardiac arrest.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The stabbings of victims Gurdeep Bhangal and Stacey Benefield, which both occurred in March 1993, in Eltham, were also linked to Neil and Jamie Acourt, David Norris and Gary Dobson.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Initial investigations, arrests and prosecutions

Within three days of the crime, prime suspects had been identified. No arrests were made at the time, however, until over two weeks after the murder. The police also did not investigate the suspects' houses for four days. Detective Superintendent Brian Weeden, the officer who had been leading the murder investigation from its third day, and who led the murder squad for 14 months, explained to the McPherson inquiry in 1998 that part of the reason no arrests had taken place by the fourth day after the killing (Monday 26Template:NbsApril) was that he had not known the law allowed arrest upon reasonable suspicion – a basic point of criminal law.<ref name="Guardian-1998">Template:Cite news – stated in the text to be "now, on the 49th day of the inquiry".</ref><ref name="BBC timeline">Template:Cite news</ref>

On 7Template:NbsMay 1993, the Acourt brothers and Dobson were arrested. Norris turned himself in to police and was likewise arrested three days later. Knight was arrested on 3Template:NbsJune. Neil Acourt, picked out at an identity parade, and Luke Knight were charged with murder on 13Template:NbsMay and 23Template:NbsJune 1993 respectively, but the charges were dropped on 29Template:NbsJuly 1993, the Crown Prosecution Service citing insufficient evidence.<ref name="BBC OTD">Template:Cite news</ref>

An internal review was opened in August 1993 by the Metropolitan Police. On 16Template:NbsApril 1994, the Crown Prosecution Service stated they did not have sufficient evidence for murder charges against anyone else, despite a belief by the Lawrence family that new evidence had been found.<ref name="Guardian-1998" /> The main issue was with the identification evidence by Brooks, which was seen as both tainted by procedural irregularities, and not strong enough under case law: this view was borne out by the later private prosecution.

Private prosecution

In September 1994,<ref name=":1" /> Lawrence's family initiated a private prosecution against the initial two suspects and three others: Jamie Acourt, Gary Dobson and David Norris. The family were not entitled to legal aid and a fighting fund was established to pay for the analysis of forensic evidence and the cost of tracing and re-interviewing witnesses.Template:Citation needed The family were represented by leading counsel Michael Mansfield QC, assisted by Tanoo Mylvaganam and Annie Dixon who all worked pro bono.<ref name="Lawyer funds">Template:Cite news</ref> The charges against Acourt and Norris were dropped before the trial for lack of evidence. On 23Template:NbsApril 1996, the three remaining suspects were acquitted of murder by a jury at the Central Criminal Court, after the trial judge, the Honourable Mr Justice Curtis, ruled that the identification evidence given by Duwayne Brooks was unreliable.<ref name="bbcqna"/> The costs of the prosecution were paid out of the public purse.

The Macpherson report endorsed the judgement, stating that "Mr Justice Curtis could [have] properly reach[ed] only one conclusion" and that "[t]here simply was no satisfactory evidence available".<ref name="Lawrence Inquiry" />

Subsequent events (1994–2010)

File:Murderers (Daily Mail, 1997).jpg

After the February 1997 inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing, the front page of the Daily Mail labelled all five suspects "murderers" and instructed them to sue if the assumption was wrong. Lawrence's parents and numerous political figures praised the Daily Mail for taking the potential financial risk of this front page.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

An inquest into the death of Lawrence was held in February 1997. The five suspects refused to answer any questions, claiming privilege against self-incrimination.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The inquest concluded on 13Template:NbsFebruary 1997, with the jury returning a verdict after 30 minutes' deliberation of unlawful killing "in a completely unprovoked racist attack by five white youths"; this finding went beyond the bounds of their instructions.<ref>Ailsen Daniels, Duncan Campbell, "'Unlawfully killed in an unprovoked racist attack by five white youths'", The Guardian, 14 February 1997, p. 1.</ref> On 14 February 1997, the Daily Mail newspaper labelled all five suspects "murderers". The headline read, "Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us." Underneath this headline appeared pictures of the five suspects: Dobson, Neil and Jamie Acourt, Knight, and Norris.<ref name="British Library">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> None of the men ever sued for defamation and strong public opinions rose against the accused and the police who handled the case.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In July 1997 an inquiry was ordered by the home secretary to identify matters related to the killing, known as the Macpherson Report, which was completed in February 1999 (see below). In 2002, David Norris and Neil Acourt were convicted and jailed for racially aggravated harassment after an incident involving a plain-clothes black police officer.<ref name="BBC Norris Acourt jailed">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2005 the law was changed. As part of the findings on the Lawrence case, the Macpherson Report had recommended that the rule against double jeopardy (the common law rule that, once acquitted, an accused person could not be tried a second time for the same crime) should be repealed in murder cases, and that it should be possible to subject an acquitted murder suspect to a second trial if "fresh and viable" new evidence later came to light. The Law Commission later added its support to this in its report "Double Jeopardy and Prosecution Appeals" (2001). A parallel report into the criminal justice system by Lord Justice Auld, a former senior presiding judge for England and Wales, had also commenced in 1999 and was published as the Auld Report 6 months after the Law Commission report. It opined that the Law Commission had been unduly cautious by limiting the scope to murder and that "the exceptions should [...] extend to other grave offences punishable with life and/or long terms of imprisonment as Parliament might specify."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

These recommendations were implemented within the Criminal Justice Act 2003,<ref>Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44). Opsi.gov.uk (23 December 2011). Retrieved on 2 January 2012.</ref> and this provision came into force in April 2005.<ref name="bbc double jeopardy">Double jeopardy law ushered out, BBC News. 3 April 2005</ref> It opened murder and certain other serious crimes (including manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, and some drug crimes) to a second prosecution, regardless of when committed, with two conditions – the retrial must be approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Court of Appeal must agree to quash the original acquittal because of new and compelling evidence.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 27Template:NbsJuly 2006, the Daily Mail repeated its "Murderers" front page. In July 2010, The Independent described the Lawrence killing – despite it having happened more than 17 years previously – as "one of the highest-profile unsolved racially motivated murders".<ref name="high profile" />

Cold case review and new evidence

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In June 2006, a cold case review commenced, involving a full re-examination of the forensic evidence.<ref name="cold case" /><ref name="BBC trial" /> Initially this was held in secrecy and not publicised;<ref name="Guardian forensics">Template:Cite news</ref> however, in November 2007, police confirmed they were investigating new scientific evidence.<ref name="Guardian forensics" /> The re-examination was led by forensic scientist Angela Gallop.<ref name="Imogen">Template:Cite news</ref>

The most important of the new evidence comprised:<ref name="chan4 evidence">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="bbc evidence">Template:Cite news</ref>

• A microscopic Template:Nowrap stain of Lawrence's blood in Dobson's jacket.<ref name="new evidence">Template:Cite news</ref> It had dried into the fibres and its tiny size implied this had happened very quickly. The forensic analysis concluded it had not been transferred there from elsewhere as dried blood, or perhaps later soaked into the fabric, but was deposited fresh, and would have dried almost immediately after being deposited due to its microscopic size.
• Fibres from Lawrence's clothing, and hairs with a 99.9% chance<ref name="dna">Template:Cite news</ref> of coming from Lawrence, found on Norris and Dobson's clothes from the time or in the evidence bag holding them.<ref name="dna"/><ref name="new evidence" />Template:Efn

The police unit manager involved in the matter commented that the new evidence was only found because of scientific developments and developments in forensic approaches that had taken place since 1996 which allowed microscopic blood stains and hair fragments to be analysed for DNA and other microscopic evidence to be found and used forensically.<ref name="new evidence" />

2011Template:Hsp–Template:Tsp2012 trial

Gary Dobson and David Norris were arrested and charged without publicity on 8 September 2010<ref name="BBC trial" /> and on 23Template:NbsOctober 2010 the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, applied to the Court of Appeal for Dobson's original acquittal to be quashed.<ref name="cps statement May 2011" /> Dobson was in prison at the time for drug dealing. Norris had not been previously acquitted, so no application was necessary in his case. For legal reasons, to protect the investigation and ensure a fair hearing, reporting restrictions were put in place at the commencement of these proceedings; the arrests and subsequent developments were not publicly reported at the time.<ref name="cps statement May 2011" />

Dobson's acquittal was quashed following a two-day hearing on 11 and 12Template:NbsApril 2011, enabling his retrial.<ref name="quash ruling">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 18Template:NbsMay 2011, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment and the reporting restrictions were partially lifted.<ref name="cps statement May 2011" /> It was announced by the Crown Prosecution Service that the two would face trial for Lawrence's murder in light of "new and substantial evidence".<ref name="BBC trial" /> The judgment of the court stated that "[i]f reliable, the new scientific evidence would place Dobson in very close proximity indeed to Stephen Lawrence at the moment of and in the immediate aftermath of the attack, proximity, moreover, for which no innocent explanation can be discerned".<ref name="quash ruling" /> The ruling also emphasised that this was to be "a new trial of a defendant who, we repeat, is presumed in law to be innocent," and suggested a cautious and fact-based reporting style to avoid contempt of court or risk of prejudice to the future trial.<ref name="quash ruling" />

A jury was selected on 14Template:NbsNovember 2011,<ref name="BBC jury">Template:Cite news</ref> and the trial, presided over by Mr Justice Treacy, began the next day at the Central Criminal Court.<ref name="BBC evidence">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="BBC DNA">Template:Cite news</ref> With the prosecution led by Mark Ellison QC, the case centred on the new forensic evidence and whether it demonstrated the defendant's involvement in the murder, or was the result of later contamination due to police handling.<ref name="chan4 evidence" /><ref name="bbc evidence" /> The spot of blood was so small that it would have dried almost instantly, leading to the conclusion that it was transferred at the crime scene. On 3 January 2012, after the jury had deliberated for just over 8 hours,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dobson and Norris were found guilty of Lawrence's murder.<ref name="Dodd Laville 2012" /> The two were sentenced on 4 January 2012 to detention at Her Majesty's Pleasure, equivalent to a life sentence for an adult,<ref name="sentencing remarks" /> with minimum terms of 15 years and 2 months for Dobson and 14 years and 3 months for Norris.<ref name="irishexaminer"/><ref name="BBC Guilty">Template:Cite news</ref> Time spent on remand by Dobson was not deducted from his minimum term to ensure his existing sentence for drug-related offences was served.<ref name="sentencing remarks" /> The judge's sentencing remarks were later published in full online.<ref name="sentencing remarks" />

The judge stated that the sentences reflected that Dobson and Norris were juveniles (Dobson 17, and Norris 16)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> at the time of the offence, which took place before the Criminal Justice Act 2003; the starting point for the minimum term was therefore 12 years. The judge acknowledged this was "lower than some might expect".<ref name="sentencing remarks" /><ref name="guardian juveniles">Template:Cite news – article explaining sentencing considerations where the crime took place many years previously.</ref> A similar crime committed in 2011 as an adult would have justified a minimum sentence of 30 years.<ref name="sentencing remarks" /><ref name="cps_guide">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn

Immediate aftermath of trial

Following the 2012 convictions, Paul Dacre, Daily Mail editor since 1992, issued a comment on his 1997 headline decision.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that if it hadn't been for the Mail's headline in 1997 —'Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing'—and our years of campaigning, none of this would have happened. Britain's police might not have undergone the huge internal reform that was so necessary. Race relations might not have taken the significant step forward that they have. And an 18-year-old A-Level student who dreamed of being an architect would have been denied justice. The Daily Mail took a monumental risk with that headline. In many ways, it was an outrageous, unprecedented step.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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Writing in the February 2012 edition of the Socialist Review, Brian Richardson suggested that Dacre was overselling his involvement in what had finally been achieved, stating:<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

It is ... disingenuous of Dacre to claim that the Stephen Lawrence Family Campaign would have petered out if his paper had not ridden heroically to its rescue. The "Murderers" story appeared in February 1997, almost four years after Stephen was killed. For much of the intervening period the mainstream press, including the Daily Mail, were openly hostile and suspicious of a family that so vocally criticised the police.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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Appeals

On 5 January 2012, it was reported that the Attorney General was reviewing the minimum terms at the request of a member of the public, to determine whether he believed them to be "unduly lenient", and if so whether to apply to the Court of Appeal for an increase in the minimum terms.<ref name="leniency">Template:Cite news</ref> Juvenile minimum life sentences in a 2000 review (i.e. before the 2003 act passed into law) varied from a "most common" minimum of 10 years to a maximum of 20, placing Dobson and Norris in the middle of that range.<ref name="leniency" /> On 1 February 2012, the Attorney General announced that he would not be referring the sentences to the Court of Appeal, as he believed that "the minimum terms [were] ... within the appropriate range of sentences".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 30Template:NbsJanuary 2012, it emerged that Norris and Dobson were seeking leave from the Court of Appeal to appeal against their convictions.Template:Citation needed

On 23Template:NbsAugust 2012, it was reported that Norris and Dobson had lost the first round of their appeal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 15Template:NbsMarch 2013, it was announced that Dobson had dropped his appeal against his murder conviction.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> Shortly after Norris was denied leave to appeal.Template:Cn

On 18Template:NbsMay 2022, it was reported that David Norris's request to be moved to an open prison in advance of his possible release was denied.Template:Cn

Further developments

In 2016 police released an enhanced image from a CCTV camera, showing the face of a witness they have not been able to identify.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In March 2025, David Norris admitted for the first time that he had been involved in the murder and that he had punched Lawrence.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Other inquiries and investigations

The Macpherson Inquiry

On 31Template:NbsJuly 1997, the home secretary, Jack Straw, ordered a public inquiry, to be conducted by Sir William Macpherson and officially titled "The Inquiry Into The Matters Arising From The Death of Stephen Lawrence", and published as The Macpherson report.<ref name="inquiry letter">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Its report, produced in February 1999, estimated that it had taken "more than 100,000 pages of reports, statements, and other written or printed documents"<ref name="inquiry letter"/> and concluded that the original Metropolitan Police Service investigation had been incompetent and that officers had committed fundamental errors, including failing to give first aid when they reached the scene, failing to follow obvious leads during their investigation, and failing to arrest suspects. The report found that there had been a failure of leadership by senior MPS officers and that recommendations of the 1981 Scarman Report, compiled following race-related riots in Brixton and Toxteth, had been ignored.<ref name="Lawrence Inquiry" />

Detective Superintendent Brian Weeden said during the inquiry that mistakes had been made in the murder investigation, including his own ignorance that he could have arrested the suspects four days after the killing simply on reasonable suspicion, a basic point of criminal law.<ref name="Guardian-1998" /><ref name="BBC timeline"/>

The report also found that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist. A total of 70 recommendations for reform, covering both policing and criminal law, were made. These proposals included abolishing the double jeopardy rule and criminalising racist statements made in private. Macpherson also called for reform in the British Civil Service, local governments, the National Health Service, schools, and the judicial system, to address issues of institutional racism.<ref name="Holdaway O'Neill 2006">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The report was criticised in an October 2000 article in The Times by Michael Gove (later an MP and cabinet minister), who wrote, "The tendentious reasoning and illiberal recommendations of that document have been brilliantly anatomised by the ethical socialists Norman Dennis and George Erdos and the Kurdish academic Ahmed al-Shahi in the Civitas pamphlet Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics."<ref name="Gove 2000">Template:Cite news</ref> The pamphlet referred to by Gove is a publication by the think tank Civitas, which criticised the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, its procedures, its findings and its reception, as well as broadly exploring what it called "The fanatical mindset... of the militant anti-racist" with references to Malcolm X among others.Template:CnTemplate:Clarification needed

The government gave the cost of the inquiry as £4.2 million, of which £3.5 million was paid by the Metropolitan Police.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Public complaints about mishandling of case

In 1997, Lawrence's family registered a formal complaint with the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), which in 1999 exonerated the officers who had worked on the case of allegations of racism. Only one officer, Detective Inspector Ben Bullock, was ordered to face disciplinary charges for neglect of duty. Bullock, who was second in command of the investigation, was later found guilty of failure to properly brief officers and failure to fully investigate an anonymous letter sent to police, but he was acquitted of 11 other charges. Four other officers who would have been charged as a result of the inquiry retired before it concluded.

Bullock retired the day after his punishment was announced, so that it amounted to a caution. Neville Lawrence, Stephen's father, criticised the punishment, saying that Bullock was "guilty on all counts." However, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Federation stated that Bullock had been "largely vindicated" in the proceedings.<ref name="BBC whitewash">Template:Cite news</ref>

On 10 March 2006, the Metropolitan Police Service announced that it would pay Duwayne Brooks £100,000 as compensation for how police handled his complaints about their actions toward him after the murder, characterized as "racist stereotyping" of him as a hostile young black man, according to a statement from Brooks' solicitors firm.<ref name="BBC sue">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="BBC payout">Template:Cite news</ref>

Concerns and inquiries of alleged police corruption and undercover officer conduct

Investigation into police corruption (2006)

On 25Template:NbsJuly 2006, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) announced that it had asked the Metropolitan Police to look into alleged claims of police corruption that may have helped hide the killers of Lawrence.

A BBC investigation alleged that the murder inquiry's Det. Sgt. John Davidson had taken money from known drug smuggler Clifford Norris, the father of David Norris, a chief suspect in the investigation.<ref name="BBC corruption">Template:Cite news</ref> Neil Putnam, a former corrupt police detective turned whistleblower, told a BBC investigation that Clifford Norris was paying Davidson to obstruct the case and to protect the suspects. "Davidson told me that he was looking after Norris and that to me meant that he was protecting him, protecting his family against arrest and any conviction," Putnam said.<ref name="BBC corruption"/> Davidson denied any such corruption.

The Metropolitan Police Service announced that it was to open up a special incident room to field calls from the public, following the BBC documentary The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence. The Independent Police Complaints Commission later stated that the claims made in the programme were unfounded.<ref name="BBC nocorruption">Template:Cite news</ref>

Sir William Macpherson{{#if:Macpherson Report|{{#if:|}}

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On 17Template:NbsDecember 2009, Independent Police Complaints Commission investigators and officers from the Metropolitan Police's directorate of professional standards arrested a former police constable and a serving member of Metropolitan Police staff on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice by allegedly withholding evidence from the original murder inquiry, the Kent investigation and the Macpherson inquiry. Dr Richard Stone, who sat on the Macpherson inquiry, commented that the panel had felt that there was "a large amount of information that the police were either not processing or were suppressing" and "a strong smell of corruption". Baroness Ros Howells, patron of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, agreed: "Lots of people said they gave the police evidence which was never produced."<ref name="Laville withheld">Template:Cite news</ref> On 1Template:NbsMarch 2010 the IPCC announced that "No further action will be taken against the two men arrested following concerns identified by the internal Metropolitan police service (MPS) review of the murder of Stephen Lawrence" and the two were released from bail.<ref name="Davies hidden evidence">Template:Cite news</ref>

On 6Template:NbsJuly 2023, the CPS decided that the four retired detectives who ran the original case would not face criminal charges for alleged corruption.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The mother of Stephen Lawrence said she wanted to see a review of the decision.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Revelations about undercover police conduct (2013)

On 23Template:NbsJune 2013, an interview with Peter Francis, a former Special Demonstration Squad undercover police officer, was published in The Guardian. In the interview Francis stated that while he was working undercover within an anti-racist campaign group in the mid-1990s, he was constantly pressured by superiors to smear Lawrence's family so as to end campaigns for a better investigation into Lawrence's death.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After the allegation, the home secretary, Theresa May pledged to be "ruthless about purging corruption from the police", and the prime minister, David Cameron, ordered police to investigate the allegations, saying that he was "deeply worried about the reports".<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Chief Constable Mick Creedon, who is leading Operation Herne, an ongoing inquiry into Metropolitan Police undercover operations against protest groups, said he would investigate the allegations as part of the inquiry.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October 2015 an inquiry was set up by the National Crime Agency to investigate allegations that members of the police force shielded the alleged killers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Needs update

The Stephen Lawrence Independent Review (2014)

Following the 2012 convictions of Dobson and Norris, further inquiries by both Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission ruled that there was no new evidence to warrant further investigation. After discussions with Doreen Lawrence, the home secretary Theresa May commissioned Mark Ellison QC (who had prosecuted Dobson and Norris) to review Scotland Yard's investigations into alleged police corruption.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The report, titled "The Stephen Lawrence Independent Review",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was presented to Parliament on 6Template:NbsMarch 2014. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said the report, which prompted an inquiry into undercover policing, was "devastating".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Ellison's report also found there were possible links between an alleged corrupt police officer and the murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan in 1987.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legacy and recognition

File:Floral Tributes to Stephen Lawrence in Eltham in 2023 (01).jpg

Floral tributes marking the 30th anniversary of Lawrence's murder in 2023; these have been placed around the memorial plaque to Lawrence in Well Hall Road, Eltham

An annual architectural award, the Stephen Lawrence Prize, was established in 1998 by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation in association with the Royal Institute of British Architects in Lawrence's memory.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

His mother, Doreen Lawrence, said, "I would like Stephen to be remembered as a young man who had a future. He was well loved, and had he been given the chance to survive maybe he would have been the one to bridge the gap between black and white because he didn't distinguish between black or white. He saw people as people."<ref name="BBC Guilty" />

In 1995 a memorial plaque was set into the pavement at the spot where he was killed on Well Hall Road. The plaque has been vandalised several times since then.<ref name="Plaque vandalism">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1999, Nicolas Kent designed a documentary play based on the trial, called The Colour of Justice. It was staged at the Tricycle Theatre and was later filmed by the BBC.<ref name="IMDB CoJ">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was also performed at the Guildford School of Acting for the 20th anniversary of the murder.

Peter Ackroyd, in his 2000 book London: The Biography, places the murder in the context of a historical pattern of “police incompetence and corruption … as old as the police force itself,” and that the investigation “revealed many instances of bad judgement and mismanagement; it also suggested implicit racial prejudice within the police force which has indeed been bedevilled [sic.] by that charge for fifty years.”<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

On 7Template:NbsFebruary 2008, the Stephen Lawrence Centre, designed by architect David Adjaye, opened in Deptford, south-east London.<ref name="BBC building">Template:Cite news</ref> A week later, it was vandalised in an attack that was initially believed to be racially motivated. However, doubt was cast on that assumption when CCTV evidence appeared to show one of the suspects to be mixed-race.<ref name="London vandalism">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust is a national educational charity committed to the advancement of social justice. The Trust provides educational and employability workshops and mentoring schemes. It also awards architectural and landscape bursaries.<ref name="Lawrence Trust">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2008 the Trust, with architects RMJM, created the initiative Architecture for Everyone to help promote architecture and the creative industries to young people from ethnic minorities.<ref name="Styart 2008">Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 2012, Doreen Lawrence received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14th Pride of Britain Awards.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Doreen Lawrence was elevated to the peerage as a Baroness on 6Template:NbsSeptember 2013, and is formally styled Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, of Clarendon in the Commonwealth Realm of Jamaica;<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> the honour is rare for being designated after a location in a Commonwealth realm outside the United Kingdom.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords as a working peer specialising in race and diversity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 23Template:NbsApril 2018, at a memorial service to mark the 25th anniversary of his death, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that "Stephen Lawrence Day" would be an annual national commemoration of his death on 22Template:NbsApril every year starting in 2019. Doreen Lawrence made a statement that Stephen Lawrence Day would be "an opportunity for young people to use their voices and should be embedded in our education and wider system regardless of the government of the day".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Part of the University of Reading's Student Union building was named after Stephen Lawrence in 1993, before being refurbished and renamed the ‘Stephen Lawrence Media Centre’ in 2013.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A Stephen Lawrence Research Centre was built at De Montfort University, located inside the Hugh Aston building. Lawrence's mother was appointed chancellor of the university in January 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The centre hosted a series of special events for the 30th anniversary of Stephen's murder in April 2023.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Needs update

In the media

The case and its immediate aftermath were dramatised in the 1999 ITV film The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Hugh Quarshie as Doreen and Neville Lawrence. A three-part sequel series, entitled Stephen, was broadcast in 2021. Quarshie reprised his role as Neville, alongside Sharlene Whyte as Doreen, and Steve Coogan as DCI Clive Driscoll.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Daily Mail journalist Stephen Wright has written about the Lawrence case, both before and subsequent to the prosecution. He received a Special Campaign Award as part of the 2012 Paul Foot Award for his work in the Lawrence case.<ref>Template:Cite news </ref>

Novelist Deborah Crombie uses the turmoil following the Stephen Lawrence murder as a flashback setting in her 2017 book, The Garden of Lamentations. The story includes police officers who were undercover on both sides of the protests, as well as widespread corruption for years afterward. Crombie includes an explanation of the murder in her author's note at the end of the book, but specifies that the rest of the characters are supposed meant to represent actual people.

Lawrence's murder was the subject of the three-part documentary miniseries Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation that was first broadcast on BBC One in April 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Following the BBC broadcast, the Metropolitan Police publicly named Matthew White as the sixth suspect on 26Template:NbsJune 2023. White had died in 2021 at the age of 50.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Race and crime in the United Kingdom
• Murder of Kelso Cochrane
• Murder of Kriss Donald
• Murder of Ross Parker
• Murder of Anthony Walker
• Murder of Richard Everitt
• 1993 Welling riots
• Death of Paula Hounslea – still-unsolved UK case in which the alleged killers similarly refused to answer questions at the inquest

Bibliography

• Ellis, Dr. Frank, The Macpherson Report: 'Anti-racist' Hysteria and the Sovietization of the United Kingdom, published by Right Now Press Ltd., London, 2001 (P/B), Template:ISBN
• Green, David G, (Editor), Institutional Racism and the Police: Fact or Fiction, published by The Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 2000, Template:ISBN
• Dennis, Norman; Erdos, George; Al-Shahi, Ahmed; Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics: The Macpherson Report and the Police, published by The Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 2000, Template:ISBN
• Cathcart, Brian; The Case of Stephen Lawrence published by Penguin Template:ISBN

Further reading

• Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (Macpherson Report)
• Refusal of leave for Norris to appeal
• Ellis review

External links

• Stephen Lawrence website
• "The life and legacy of Stephen Lawrence", The Independent, 8 January 2012.