Two men convicted for notorious London race murder

LONDON, (Reuters) – A British court today  convicted two men of the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen  Lawrence, a landmark case that exposed racism in the London  police and led to a change in the law allowing suspects to be  tried twice for the same crime.
The 18-year-old student was stabbed to death at a bus stop  in southeast London in an unprovoked attack by a gang of white  youths shouting racist abuse.
Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, were found guilty  after a six-week trial that hinged on new scientific evidence  presented by prosecutors.
Lawrence’s mother Doreen and father Neville wept as the  verdicts were delivered at the Old Bailey, London’s central  criminal court, Britain’s Press Association reported.
Dobson protested his innocence as he was led from court  saying: “You have condemned an innocent man here, I hope you can  live with yourselves.”
The case became a catalyst for change after London’s  Metropolitan Police botched the initial investigation into  Lawrence’s death.
A 1999 report by senior judge William Macpherson said the  murder had exposed “institutional racism” in the force and also  accused officers of incompetence and a failure of leadership.
Since then, the police have overhauled their policies on  racism and tried to recruit more officers from ethnic  minorities, but the Lawrence case still weighs heavily on the  force.
The impact of the Macpherson inquiry was felt across the  public sector, with all bodies being required to put in place  policies to prevent and address racism.
The Lawrence case also helped end the judicial doctrine of  double jeopardy, which had previously prevented suspects from  being tried twice for the same crime.
One of the defendants, Dobson, had been acquitted of the  murder in 1996 when a private prosecution brought by the  teenager’s parents collapsed.
The Court of Appeal quashed that acquittal in May 2011 and  said Dobson could stand trial again, a decision made possible  after double jeopardy was scrapped in 2005.
The trial of Dobson and Norris, which began in November,  hinged on new forensic evidence linking the two men to the  murdered teenager.
Prosecutors said textile fibres, blood and hair belonging to  Lawrence had been found on clothing seized from the defendants.
The defence argued that the clothes were contaminated during  the police investigation because officers did not store them  properly.
The two men will be sentenced tomorrow. They face a  mandatory life term, with a minimum number of years to be set by  the judge before they can be considered for release.