I have read with concern details concerning the wrongful convictions and imprisonment of three young black men known as the "M25 Three".
On the 15th-16th December 1988 three men conducted a series of violent attacks just off the M25 in Surrey. The tabloid press dubbed the perpetrators the "M25" gang and a £25,000 reward was offerred for there capture..
In March 1990 after a six week trial three black men Raphael Rowe, Michael Davis and Randolph Johnson were found guilty of the crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, they were convicted on the most tenuos of evidence. No direct, forensic, confessional or identification evidence linked the three to the crimes, and what evidence did exist was not only circumstancial but unreliable, contradictory and inconsistent with logic and common sense..
To begin with according to the victims of the offences the perpetrators were two white men and only when black man. Secondly, five indepent witnesses placed Rowe and Davis being dropped off at their home at precisely the same time as other witnesses, 10 miles away, saw the gangs car in the vicinity of the murder scene. Moreover, the principle evidence against the three black men was given by another three white men who had been suspects in the case. These men not only contradicted themselves and each other countless times while giving evidence, but fitted the descriptions given by the victims, their fingerprints were found on a car abandoned at the murder scene, and they admitted not only disposing of the cars and storing the property stolen during the robberies but also stealing the car used by the gang to get to the crimes..
These are the facts of this outrageous miscarriage of justice and something needs to be done !.
You are Home Secretary, you have the power to refer this racist injustice back to the court of appeal. I appeal to you, as a matter of urgency, to do this.
Yours..
Today I saw somethign that outraged me. Three people imprisoned that have not received British Justice. I speak of three black men, Raphael Rowe, Michael Davis and Randolph Johnson who were convicted of crimes committed by two white men and one black man around the M25 in December 1988.
I demand that you refer this case back to the court of appeal so that justice can be done.
Yours
re: M25 Three Campaign
I demand that you refer the M25 Three case back to the courtof appeal without further delay.
One feels bemused when they first read that the police issued appeals for information everywhere about two white men and one black and then promptly arrest three men who are black.
You wil, no doubt, have seen all the information put forward by the campaign and solicitors. It is not necessary, I suspect, to give you yet more of the documentation which so clearly suggests their innocence. However, there is strong a strong racial element in this case, and your own commitment to equal oppurtunities and recognition of the value of anti-racist work is testified by your political record.
I would simply request that you stay true to your evident anti-racist principles and underline your political courage by being willing to have this case reopened according to the proper channels.
yours