Could EU Constitution help Stephen Lawrence suspects avoid retrial?
08 November 2007 It is widely reported that the five men accused of the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence could face a retrial after new DNA evidence has come to light. Three of them, Gary Dobson, 32, Neil Acourt, 32, and Luke Knight,31, were acquitted of murder in 1996, when a private prosecution brought by the Lawrence family collapsed. The original case against the two other suspects, Acourt’s brother Jamie and David Norris, both 31, was dropped before it reached court. Comment: The retrial of those accused of Stephen Lawrence’s murder is possible because of an amendment to the double jeopardy rule two years ago, which previously barred suspects being tried twice for the same crime. Under current UK law a retrial is possible if new evidence comes to light. However, if the EU Constitution was adopted it looks likely that the law would go backwards. The Charter of Fundamental Rights states: “No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again in criminal proceedings for a
