Abstract
The article reviews the case of Stephen Lawrence, a black 18-year-old student stabbed to death in Eltham, South-East London, in April 1993. Because of police incompetence during the original investigation, the prime suspects were not arrested for 2 weeks; in July 1993 the Crown Prosecution Service dropped all charges, and did so again in April 1994. Scotland Yard then conducted an internal review, which was subsequently discredited. In April 1995 Stephen’s parents brought a private prosecution, which ended in the three defendants’ acquittal. At an inquest in February 1997, however, a verdict was returned that Stephen had been unlawfully killed by five white youths in an unprovoked racist attack. A second review conducted by Kent Constabulary on behalf of the Police Complaints Authority was established in March 1997 and was highly critical of the previous investigations. Later in 1997, the Government announced a public inquiry into the murder, where the suspects would be forced to appear and the failings of the police investigations would be scrutinized and published. The article summarizes the results of that inquiry.
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