UK court quashes convictions of 3 Black men in '70s case

Britain’s Court of Appeal has exonerated three Black men who were convicted of robbery nearly 50 years ago, the latest in a series of cases that have been overturned because they relied on the testimony of a corrupt police officer who later died in prison

LONDON -- Britain’s Court of Appeal has exonerated three Black men who were convicted of robbery nearly 50 years ago, the latest in a series of cases that have been overturned because they relied on the testimony of a corrupt police officer who later died in prison. The court on Monday quashed the convictions of Courtney Harriot, Paul Green and Cleveland Davidson, who were aged between 17 and 20 when they were accused of trying to rob a plainclothes detective on a London Underground train. The men always maintained their innocence and claimed that they were framed by the officer before his career ended in disgrace. “It is most unfortunate that it has taken nearly 50 years to rectify the injustice suffered by these appellants,” Judge Julian Flaux said. The case is one of several involving questionable arrests of Black men in the 1970s by a British Transport Police unit run by the late Detective Sgt. Derek Ridgewell. While a 1973 BBC investigation suggested Ridgewell was corrupt, the government ignored calls to re-examine his cases. The Court of Appeal took up the case late last year after it was referred by a commission set up to investigate miscarriages of justice.