
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 15, 1991                   TAG: 9103150027
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Medium

APPEALS COURT FREES BIRMINGHAM SIX AFTER 16 YEARS

The Birmingham Six, jailed for nearly 17 years after being convicted of committing the Irish Republican Army's bloodiest attack in England, were freed Thursday after the Appeals Court overturned their convictions.

The three appeal judges were told that the police wove "an intricate web of deceit" to secure the original guilty verdicts and that forensic evidence produced at their trial was now considered flawed.

Immediately after the verdict, Home Secretary Kenneth Baker announced in the House of Commons creation of a Royal Commission to undertake a two-year review of the English criminal justice system, including the "investigation of alleged miscarriages of justice once appeal rights have been exhausted."

An original appeal by the Birmingham Six was rejected three years ago, and only a sustained lobbying campaign by their families, civil rights activists and the Irish government, backed by a major TV documentary and two books, persuaded the home secretary to clear the way for the second appeal.

The Six are Hugh Callaghan, 60; Richard McIlkenney, 57; Patrick Hill, 45; William Power, 44; Gerard Hunter, 42; and John Walker, 55.

They took turns outside the court to vent their anger at the injustice and their joy over finally being freed.

"For 16 1/2 years we have been political scapegoats for those people in there behind us," said Hill, pointing to the court. "The police said from the start they knew we didn't do it. They told us they didn't care who did it.

"They told us we were selected and they were going to frame us," he added. "Justice! I don't think the people in there have got the intelligence or the honesty to spell the word, never mind dispense it."

Andrew Puddephatt, general secretary of National Council for Civil Liberties, said that the legal review should study the admissibility of uncorroborated confessions to the police, the establishment of an independent forensic service open to both prosecution and defense, and creation of an independent appeals review board to consider exceptional new evidence.

by CNB