BLACL SOCIAL HISTORY : STEPHEN LAWRENCE A BLACK BRITISH MAN FROM LONDON ; COLD BLOODED MURDER BY RACIST THUGS : GOES INTO THE "HALL OF GENIUS "

Stephen Lawrence 13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993 was a Black British man from Eltham, south east London, who was murdered in a racist attack while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993.
After the initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but not convicted. It was suggested during the course of that investigation that the murder was racially motivated and that Lawrence was killed because he was black, and that the handling of the case by the police and Crown Prosecution Service was affected by issues of race. A public inquiry was held in 1998, headed by Sir William Macpherson, that examined the original Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) investigation and concluded that the force was "institutionally racist". It also recommended that the double jeopardy rule should be abrogated in murder cases to allow a retrial upon new and compelling evidence; this became law in 2005. The publication in 1999 of the resulting Macpherson Report has been called 'one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain'. The then-Home Secretary Jack Straw commented in 2012 that ordering the inquiry was "the single most important decision I made as Home Secretary". In 2010 the case was described as being "one of the highest-profile unsolved racially-motivated murders".
On 18 May 2011, following a cold case review, it was announced that two of the original suspects, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were to stand trial for the murder in the light of "new and substantial evidence" becoming available. At the same time it was disclosed that Dobson's original acquittal had been quashed by the Court of Appeal, allowing a retrial to take place. Such an appeal had only become possible following the 2005 change in the law, although Dobson was not the first person to be retried for murder as a result.
A jury was selected on 14 November 2011, and the trial started on the following day. On 3 January 2012, Dobson and Norris were found guilty of Lawrence's murder, and were sentenced on 4 January 2012 to detention at Her Majesty's Pleasure, equivalent to a life sentence for an adult, with minimum terms of 15 years 2 months and 14 years 3 months respectively for what the judge described as a "terrible and evil crime". The sentences would have been far longer but the crime had been committed many years previously and before adulthood, requiring sentencing as juveniles according to the law as it stood at the time of the murder.
Stephen Lawrence was born on 13 September 1974. His father was Neville Lawrence, a carpenter, and his mother was Doreen, a special needs teacher. He was one of three children. He was brought up in Plumstead, South-East London. At the time of his death he was studying technology and physics at the Blackheath Bluecoat School and English language and literature at Woolwich College, and was hoping to become an architect.

Lawrence had spent the day of Thursday 22 April 1993 at Blackheath Bluecoat School. After school, he went to Lewisham to look around shops. After this, he travelled by bus to an uncle's house in Plumstead. He was joined there by Duwayne Brooks, and they played video games until leaving in the late evening. After realising that the bus on which they were travelling would get them home late, they decided to change buses on Well Hall Road. Lawrence walked along Well Hall Road to Dickson Road to see if he could see a bus coming. Brooks was still on Well Hall Road, part way between Dickson Road and the roundabout with Rochester Way and Westhorne Avenue. At this point, Brooks saw a group of five or six white youths on the opposite side of the street. At 10:35 pm, he called out to ask whether Lawrence saw the bus coming. Brooks claimed that he heard one of Lawrence's assailants saying: "What, what, nigger?" as they all quickly crossed the road and 'engulfed' Lawrence, who then received two stab wounds to a depth of about 5 inches (13 cm) on both sides of the front of his body, in the chest and arm. Both of the stab wounds severed axillary arteries. Brooks began running, and shouted for Lawrence to run to escape with him. They both ran in the direction of Shooters Hill, though Lawrence collapsed and bled to death after running 130 yards (120 m).
It is surprising that he managed to get 130 yards with all the injuries he had, but also the fact that the deep penetrating wound of the right side caused the upper lobe to partially collapse his lung. It is therefore a testimony to Stephen's physical fitness that he was able to run the distance he did before collapsing.