Derek Bentley

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Derek William Bentley (born June 30, 1933 , † January 28, 1953 in Wandsworth Prison in London ) was a British youth who was executed at the age of 19 for the murder of a police officer who had committed an accomplice of his. The case has preoccupied the UK judiciary for more than 45 years. Along with the execution of Timothy Evans, he is considered one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history. On July 29, 1993, Bentley was pardoned posthumously , and on July 30, 1998, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the judgment.

Life

Bentley grew up in difficult circumstances in the East End of London . During the Second World War it was buried in the rubble of a house after being attacked by a German V1 . As a result, he developed epilepsy and was far behind in his development. When he was sentenced, his mental abilities matched those of an 11-year-old. He could neither read nor write and had an IQ of 77.

The break-in

Together with the 16-year-old petty criminal Christopher Craig , he broke into the Barlow & Parker department store in the south London borough of Croydon on November 2, 1952 . Bentley himself was armed only with a knife and brass knuckles, Craig had a revolver with him. Witnesses to the break-in notified the police.

When it arrived at the scene, the two intruders hid on the roof of the house. The detective Frederick Fairfax, initially unarmed, climbed onto the roof and got hold of Bentley. However, he freed himself and, according to several police officers involved, called out: “ Let him have it, Chris! ”(German:“ Give it to him, Chris! ”) Craig opened fire and wounded Fairfax on the shoulder. However, Bentley was able to overwhelm Bentley again and learned from him that Craig had a .45 caliber Colt and an unspecified amount of ammunition with him.

After armed police were called to the house, several of them climbed the roof. One of the first was Police Constable (PC) Sidney Miles. While trying to cross the roof, Craig killed him with a shot in the head. After Craig had fired his ammunition, he jumped ten meters from the roof, causing himself several fractures. He was then arrested.

The process

The case of Derek Bentley was heard from December 9 to 11, 1952 at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London.

Craig did not have to fear a death sentence as he was still a minor . Bentley was of legal age, but obviously innocent due to his mental health . However, he had previously been recorded by the police for minor thefts, which was interpreted negatively in the process.

Craig and Bentley's case was heard under the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales , Judge Sir Raynor Goddard at the Old Bailey in London . The defense pointed out that Bentley was already in police custody at the time Police Constable Miles was killed. He was alleged to have evaded arrest, injuring a police officer, and police witnesses said he had ordered his accomplice, Craig, to shoot. Whether he really ever, as three of the four police officers involved said, “ Let him have it, Chris! ”Called is uncertain. Bentley and Craig and a fourth cop denied it.

During the process, the jury had to take various facts into account. It was unclear how many shots had been fired and by whom. The ballistician who examined the weapon and the circumstances of the incident had great doubts that the fatal shot was from Craig's weapon. Indeed, in the 1970s, there were rumors that Miles might have been killed by a colleague's bullet.

In addition, it was unclear what Bentley had meant by his exclamation “ Let him have it ” - if it existed at all. Although it can be interpreted as “give it to him, Chris!”, It is also possible that Bentley tried to convince his accomplice to hand over the gun (“ it ”) to the cop (“ him ”) and to surrender.

Despite a psychiatrist's finding that the illiterate Bentley had low intelligence and was mentally retarded, chief physician Matheson found that Bentley was not feeble-minded and therefore guilty.

The jury reached its verdict after 75 minutes, finding both Bentley and Craig guilty of the murders of PC Miles. However, she recommended that Bentley be pardoned. However, he was sentenced to death by hanging . Craig received an indefinite sentence as a minor and was released from prison after 10 years.

Doubts about the ballistic investigations, Bentley's deficits and the fact that he himself was not involved in the murder sparked sharp public protests against the verdict. Nonetheless, despite a petition signed by PC Miles' widow and over 200 members of the British Parliament , the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, David Maxwell Fyfe , refused to address the young, as yet uncrowned Queen Elizabeth II . The Queen could have commuted the death penalty to imprisonment on the basis of grace . In addition, the interior ministry forbade the psychiatrist to publish his test results. Labor MP of the district Northampton , Reginald Paget , brought the extent of his dismay expressed by drawing a comparison to Nazi Germany:

“The great condemnation of the German people was that they stood aside and did nothing when dreadful things happened. Now, a three-quarter witted boy of nineteen is to be hanged for a murder he did not commit and which was committed fifteen minutes after he was arrested. Can we be made to keep silent when a thing as horrible and as shocking as this is to happen? "

“It was the great fate of the German people that they stood by and did nothing when terrible things happened. Now a mentally retarded nineteen year old is about to be hanged for a murder he did not commit and which was committed 15 minutes after his arrest. Can we remain silent if something so terrible and shocking is to happen? "

Despite widespread national protest, Derek Bentley was executed on January 28, 1953 by England's executioner Albert Pierrepoint in Wandsworth Prison, London . On the night of his execution, more than 5,000 people gathered in front of the prison gates and protested the execution. They shouted “Murder!” And burned the notice on the prison gate that announced the execution.

Post-history

After the execution, Bentley's sister Iris organized a campaign to obtain a posthumous pardon for Bentley, which she achieved in 1993. However, an official review of the verdict only began after the Conservative British government, which had refused to reopen the case in 1992, was replaced by Tony Blair's Labor government in 1997 . On July 30, 1998, the verdict against Derek Bentley was overturned and Judge Lord Bingham acquitted him. Derek's sister did not live to see the sentence overturned. She died on January 22, 1997 of complications from cancer at the age of 64.

The case sparked a heated debate over the abolition of the death penalty in Britain. As before, after the 1911 siege on Sidney Street and other cases in which British police officers were killed or injured in the course of their duties, there was a discussion of police arming. The police officers known as "bobbies" still do their work today traditionally without firearms. Carrying and using firearms is reserved for a comparatively small number of specially trained officers (around 5600 out of around 120,000 as of 2016).

In his 1971 book To Encourage the Others , David Yallop reports extensively on Derek Bentley's mental deficits, the contradictions in the evidence of the police and the court, and the conduct of litigation. He also argues that Miles was actually killed by a weapon other than Craig's.

The case in popular culture

To Encourage the Others was also the title of a television film directed by Alan Clarke based on Yallop's documentary and starring Charles Bolton in the role of Bentley. Director Peter Medak filmed Derek Bentley's story in 1991 under the title Let Him Have It . The main role was played by the previously unknown Christopher Eccleston . A German version was released on DVD in 2006 under the title Gib's him, Chris! .

The story was also processed by several musicians, such as Elvis Costello in his song Let Him Dangle , by the band The Bureau in the piece Let Him Have It and by June Tabor with Bentley and Craig . The same title also bears a song by British folk musician Ralph McTell , in which he addresses the injustice against Derek Bentley. McTell's parents had known the Bentleys personally. He remembered:

"Even as an eight-year-old, I could see the horror and unfairness of executing a teenager for a murder he didn't commit."

"Even as an eight-year-old I could see the horror and injustice of executing a teenage boy for a murder he did not commit."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official Statistics: Police use of firearms statistics, England and Wales: April 2015 to March 2016. In: gov.uk. July 28, 2016, accessed on April 13, 2019 (English, Section 5. “Authorized firearms officers (AFOs)”).
  2. ↑ Police officer numbers drop by nearly 20,000 since 2009. In: BBC. July 21, 2016, accessed April 13, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Bentley, Derek
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bentley, Derek William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British youth who fell victim to a miscarriage of justice
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1933
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1953
Place of death Wandsworth (Prison) , London