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The last man to receive the death penalty in the UK in 1973 had a conviction for murder quashed at the Northern Ireland Court of Criminal Appeal on the 21st June 2013. \u00a0Liam Holden, originally from the Whiterock area of Belfast, \u00a0was convicted of the murder of a British soldier in September 1972 after a jury trial in April 1973 during which the prosecution \u00a0relied solely upon alleged confession evidence.<\/p>\n

Mr Holden was arrested in October 1972 in respect of the murder of Private Frank Bell who was shot while on patrol in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast in September 1972. \u00a0At the time of his trial in 1973 Liam Holden gave evidence that he was arrested by members of the Parachute Regiment who subjected him to torture in order to coerce a false confession before transferring him to the RUC. \u00a0Mr Holden contended that the torture, \u00a0involving mental and physical ill treatment, \u00a0included what is now described as water torture, and the threat of death at gunpoint. \u00a0 The trial ran in Belfast in April 1973 before a jury. \u00a0Mr Holden gave evidence both at the voir dire application to exclude the alleged confession evidence and at the trial hearing. \u00a0Alibi evidence was provided by the defence. \u00a0Despite the prosecution reliance on the alleged confession evidence only and the provision of both alibi evidence and evidence by Mr Holden, the jury in Northern Ireland in 1973 convicted him. \u00a0The trial judge sentenced Mr Holden to death “in the manner prescribed by the law” <\/em>. In 1974 the death penalty was commuted to a life sentence. \u00a0Liam Holden subsequently served 17 years in custody.<\/p>\n

Patricia Coyle, \u00a0solicitor with Harte Coyle Collins, Solicitors\u00a0& Solicitor Advocates, \u00a0initially submitted an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 2003 on behalf of Mr Holden on the basis that the conviction was unsafe. \u00a0The case was referred back to the Northern Ireland Court of Criminal Appeal in 2009 on the basis that the conviction was unsafe. \u00a0The reference to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC was made on a ‘blind’ referral basis, i.e. the reasons for the referral was contained in documents in a Confidential Annex\/dossier which was provided by the CCRC to the Court of Appeal and shared with the Prosecution but not provided to the defence team for Mr Holden.<\/p>\n

From 2009 to 2013 the defence made several applications to the court for disclosure of the contents of the Confidential Annex. \u00a0The majority of the contents of the Annex\/dossier were disclosed to the defence over the following 3 year period. \u00a0These documents were historical secret military documents including in particular the “Blue Card Rules” which undermined the legality of Mr Holden’s original arrest and subsequent detention by the military \u00a0in 1972. \u00a0Despite the disclosure of these documents to the defence the Public Prosecution Service indicated their intention to continue to oppose the appeal.<\/p>\n

In preparation for the appeal the defence also sourced and commissioned an expert witness, \u00a0Mr Ian Cobain, to provide opinion on the historical use of water torture by the British military. \u00a0Ian Cobain, a staff journalist with The Guardian newspaper, is a recipient of the Paul Foot Award for journalism for his ground breaking work on torture in Basra. \u00a0Expert evidence from Mr Cobain was submitted by HCC Lawyers to the Northern Ireland Court of Criminal Appeal in March 2013.<\/p>\n

On the 4th May 2013 the PPS indicated to the Court of Appeal that they were withdrawing their opposition to Mr Holden’s appeal and intended to offer no evidence at the appeal hearing. \u00a0On the 21st June 2013 the appeal hearing ran on an uncontested basis before the Court of Appeal resulting in the Court quashing the 1973 conviction.<\/p>\n

At the appeal hearing on the 21st June the defence sought the permission of the Court to circulate the historicial documents released from the Confidential Annex on the basis that they might assist other cases involving civilians unlawfully detained by the military in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. \u00a0The Ministry of Defence appeared at the appeal hearing and objected to the publication and distribution of these documents.\u00a0\u00a0Patricia Coyle indicated\u00a0her intention to defend the firm’s\u00a0application for publication and distribution. \u00a0A date was fixed for hearing on the issue for September 2013. \u00a0In September 2013 the MOD withdrew the objection to the publication and distribution of the historical documents.\u00a0\u00a0Harte Coyle Collins, Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates subsequently circulated the Blue Card Rules and other materials via the Solicitors’ Criminal Bar Association for Northern Ireland.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last man to receive the death penalty in the UK in 1973 had a conviction for murder quashed at the Northern Ireland Court of Criminal Appeal on the 21st June 2013. Liam Holden, originally from the Whiterock area of Belfast, was convicted of the murder of a British soldier in September 1972 after a jury trial in April 1973 during which the prosecution relied solely upon alleged confession evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legacy-cases","category-73","description-off"],"yoast_head":"\n