Liverpool Picturebook

Originally Posted by Bob Edwards

A conviction for the murder of a cinema manager, that sent a young Liverpool labourer to the gallows 53 years before, was overturned by the court of appeal on 10th June 2003.

George Kelly was executed at Walton jail on Merseyside in March 1950, following what was then the longest criminal trial in English legal history. His plea for clemency had been rejected by the home secretary of the day, James Chuter Ede. The three appeal judges, Lord Justice Rix, Mr Justice Douglas Brown and Mr Justice Davis, concluded the original verdict was "unsafe". The case was the oldest referred to the criminal cases review commission, the statutory body that investigates alleged miscarriages of justice. The crown did not attempt to uphold the conviction.

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