Patrick Murphy

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Charge:	Murder
Sentence:	20 years
Years Imprisoned:	3
Year Crime:	1969
Year Convicted:	1970
Year Cleared:	1973
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	United Kingdom
County or Region of Crime:	England
City of Crime:	Luton
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"Patrick Murphy was a co-defendant of David Cooper and Michael McMahon in the 1969 Luton, UK post office robbery in which a clerk was murdered. The getaway vehicle was identified as belonging to Alfred Matthews, who had a previous conviction for robbing a post office. In exchange for having all charges against him dropped, Matthews picked Cooper, McMahon and Murphy out of an identification parade. The three men were convicted on the basis of Matthews identification. Murphy's conviction was quashed in 1973 on the basis of alibi evidence that he could not have been at the scene of the robbery. McMahon and Cooper were released in 1980, and Cooper died in 1995 at 51, and McMahon in 1999 at 55, while still trying to get their convictions quashed, claiming that Matthews had randomly picked them from the people in the line-up as a way to have his charges dropped. On appeal the lawyer for the two men was Gareth Peirce, who also aided the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four. The police officer in charge of the case was Chief Superintendent Ken Drury, who was later jailed for corruption. The Criminal Case Review Commission referred the cases of Cooper and McMahon to the Court of Appeal on March 15, 2001. Cooper and McMahon's convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeals on July 31, 2003."
Conviction Caused By:	Perjury by the prosecution's chief suspect who had charges dropped in exchange for identifying the three innocent co-defendants.
Innocence Proved By:	Murphy's conviction was quashed in 1973 on the basis of alibi evidence that he could not have been at the scene of the robbery.
Defendant Aided By:	Criminal Case Review Commission
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"It Never Feels A Triumph: Interview with Gareth Peirce," Bob Woffinden, The Guardian, June 24, 2003"
Information Location 1:	"http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/story/0,3605,983665,00.html"
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Patrick Murphy

Charge:

Murder

Sentence:

20 years

Years Imprisoned:

3

Year Crime:

1969

Year Convicted:

1970

Year Cleared:

1973

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

United Kingdom

County or Region of Crime:

England

City of Crime:

Luton

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Perjury by the prosecution's chief suspect who had charges dropped in exchange for identifying the three innocent co-defendants.

Innocence Proved By:

Murphy's conviction was quashed in 1973 on the basis of alibi evidence that he could not have been at the scene of the robbery.

Defendant Aided By:

Criminal Case Review Commission

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"It Never Feels A Triumph: Interview with Gareth Peirce," Bob Woffinden, The Guardian, June 24, 2003"

Information Location 1:

"http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/story/0,3605,983665,00.html"

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Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: