RIP Gerry Conlan

[TiredCassandrasbed]

He passed away. Poor Man never recovered from false imprisonment for a crime he didn't not commit.

I thought the crazy court scene was supposed to be accurate.
Feelings must have been running very, very high.

The whole thing is just gut-wrenching. These poor people suffered terribly as did a lot of the young soldiers sent to NI (a lot of them still suffer PTSD too). There is blood on the hand of those in authority (police, government and IRA) who allowed these things to happen

Unrelated to NI, I found out today about the Battle of the Beanfield and the brutality there, it makes me realise just how awful the government was back then to allow these things to happen

RIP Gerry and Guiseppe

If I recall correctly, Denning, senior judge, described the possibility of british police lying to convict innocent people as an 'apalling vista' and therefore completely impossible to believe. That was probably in relation to the Birmingham Six but displays the attitude prevailing at the time.

Nobody wantedto believe the police did it again when they did in Plebgate. Nothing has changed.

I remember the news and the Guildford four being released, I would not be surpirsed if inside the court room they behaved not far off the films protrayal, they were pumped full of adrenaline.

Ah yes Lord Denning, seemed like a decent fellow

"In the summer of 1990 he agreed to a taped interview with AN Wilson, to be published in The Spectator. They discussed the Guildford Four; Denning remarked that if the Guildford Four had been hanged "They'd probably have hanged the right men. Just not proved against them, that's all". His remarks were controversial and came at a time when the issue of miscarriage of justice was a sensitive topic. He had expressed a similar controversial opinion regarding the Birmingham Six in 1988, saying: "Hanging ought to be retained for murder most foul. We shouldn't have all these campaigns to get the Birmingham Six released if they'd been hanged. They'd have been forgotten, and the whole community would be satisfied... It is better that some innocent men remain in jail than that the integrity of the English judicial system be impugned."

What a bastard.
Instead of worrying about the legal system being impugned he should have been working to make it fair and just.
Which it still is not.

It's also not true that no-one would have campaigned for their names to be cleared if they were dead. So even on the most practical, never mind moral, level, it's a stupid argument in favour of the death penalty.

Magiure 7, Birmingham 6 and the Guilford 4. There's SEVENTEEN innocent people who would have been murdered by the state if we had the death. Penalty in this country. Unfortunately for poor Gerry Conlan and many others, the police still lie and fit up the innocent.

I thought it was more a police corruption issue than a judicial issue, until the Lord Denning issue.

Actually Denning encompassed the mental state at the time
The 'appalling vista' view was endemic - better to view a miscarriage of justice than face the possibility that the judicial system was fucked.

I remember reading Chris Mullins and Ludovic Kennedy about these cases. Plus the Birmingham six of course.

Just awful. An awful period of time.

It could so easily happen again, I for one have very little trust in the Police to tell the truth having first hand experience of them lying.
I do not think they are all bad but I do think there is still a huge culture of them covering each others backs.
Judges too tell lies, Constance Briscoe being a case in point, shocking.

Constance Briscoe was she the lady who was involved in the MP and his wife speeding case and author of Ugly?

Yep.

Looking back at the way innocent people were deliberately and knowingly imprisoned I wonder have things changed? And if not who is feeling the brunt of police, establishment, media spin today?

And it strikes me that we should be teaching our children to question accepted opinions, establishnent views etc and should do so ourselves. Even when that makes us unpopular...

Its v easy to sympathise with gerry conlon today... its the people claiming mistreatment that 'everyone' despises that we should be also thinking about.

I know who is getting it in our era. It is the hypermobile and the parents of hypermobile children, who are being witch hunted by professionals who don't understand the extent of the syndrome associated with hypermobilty and all it's secondary syndromes, and the fashionable accusation of munchousens or fabricating illness on themselves or thier children that they call it now a days.

hypermobility.org/683/

HMSA are sorting some things out with NICE and EDSUK are sorting things out in parliament. It is a mess all the parents and children's lives being wrecked with these witch hunts.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lesley_Molseed this is another terrible miscarriage of justice case which some of you may remember. His defence lawyer went on to become Home Secretary when he should have been disbarred for the terrible quality of his defence. Stefan and his elderly mum had very little time together after his release

Stefan Kisko, that poor man and his poor, poor Mother, I cannot begin to imagine her pain.
An awful case and the family of the child have no end to their pain.

TiredCassandrasbed, not quite sure where you are coming from with this in relation to miscarriages of justice and the law.

Yes, God Bless You Gerry RIP.

I was gutted when I heard it yesterday. I cannot count the number of times I've seen that film when I've been sitting up late. It hurts to the quick and I cry every time.

:(

There's quite a few police forces with very murky pasts regarding certain cases.

The Met, West Midlands and South Wales police (who have had several long standing murder convictions overturned) to name but three.

What chills me about the Guildford and Birmingham bombings, as well as many similar atrocities, is that somewhere out there is the person(s) who did this, unknown and away from ever paying any penance for what they have done.

Also, if you read the "In the Back" section of Private Eye, there seems to be quite a few people in prison on very flimsy evidence.

I've been to a couple of the hearings of the Bloody Sunday Enquiry. OMG, how to uncover the lies,then get away with it.

Still, RIP Gerry.

Gertie, that is considered a crime.

Isn't it Conlon?

Gareth Peirce, the lawyer played by Emma Thompson in In the Name of the Father is still practising.

Her chambers includes the campaigning Harriet Wistrich, who has recently scored a victory for a vulnerable adult who was a victim of inappropriate advances from an MP.

Formidable and amazing women.