Two jailed for notorious London race murder

LONDON, (Reuters) – Two white men were jailed yesterday for murdering a black teenager in London 1993, a  landmark case which exposed the “institutional racism” of the  capital’s police in an official inquiry into the initial botched  investigation.

Stephen Lawrence

Judge Colman Treacy ruled Gary Dobson should serve a minimum  15 years and two months and David Norris 14 years and three  months for the murder of Stephen Lawrence at a bus stop, calling  it an “evil crime” motivated by “racial hatred.”
Lawrence was stabbed to death in the unprovoked attack,  lasting only around 10 seconds, by a gang of white youths. The  trial had heard that at least three more people had been in the  gang, all of whom are still at large.

The victim’s parents had fought a long legal battle to bring  their son’s killers to justice, forcing Britons to face up to  the casual racism that was still rife in an increasingly  multicultural country.

“A totally innocent 18-year-old youth on the threshold of a  promising life was brutally cut down in the street in front of  eye witnesses by a racist, thuggish gang,” Treacy told a packed  courtroom at the Old Bailey, London’s central criminal court.

Dobson, now 36, and Norris, 35, were found guilty on Tuesday   after a six-week trial that hinged on new scientific evidence  presented by prosecutors.

The relatively light minimum sentences reflect the fact that  Dobson and Norris were under 18 when Lawrence was murdered.

 ECHOES OF ROSA PARKS  

A lawyer who had previously represented the Lawrence family  said the case was a watershed for British society and had echoes  of the 1950s bus boycott that helped to transform race relations  in the United States.

“The Stephen Lawrence case was a Rosa Parks moment for  British society,” Matthew Ryder told BBC Radio 4.

“The (subsequent) inquiry took us beyond the crude, violent  sort of racism which every reasonable person would condemn and  it led us towards the more subtle forms of racism and  stereotyping which a lot of people previously dismissed.”

The case became a catalyst for change after exposing  deep-rooted failings in London’s Metropolitan Police.

A 1999 report by senior judge William Macpherson said the  murder had exposed “institutional racism” in the force and  accused officers of incompetence and a failure of leadership.