Ludo and the Power of the Book
By Richard Ingrams, Constable, £20
Between 1961 and 1986, Ludovic Kennedy wrote five books about miscarriages of justice which had an enduring impact in focusing the nation’s attention on the deficiencies of the criminal justice system. Until then, this had been virtually sacrosanct – non-lawyers, it was generally accepted, should not be encouraged to pass comment on the intricacies of criminal law.
Yet, as a result of the shafts of penetrating light shed by Kennedy, there were startling developments. Timothy Evans, who had been executed for a murder committed by John Christie, was posthumously pardoned; a Scottish man, Patrick Meehan, was pardoned and released from prison; and, in England, Michael McMahon and David Cooper, who had been wrongly convicted of the Luton post office murder, were set free by the home secretary.
