§ 42. Mr. Mullinasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the persons whose convictions for murder have subsequently been quashed on appeal or who have otherwise been released before completion of their sentences because of doubts about the safety of the convictions during the period 1979 to the present day.
§ Mr. John PattenInformation is not readily available in the form requested regarding those who have had their conviction for murder quashed on appeal. However, there have been three cases since 1979 where such convictions were quashed following reference to the Court of Appeal by Home Secretaries under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968. These are Albert Edward Taylor, conviction quashed on 13 March 1979; Mervyn John Scott Russell, conviction quashed on 6 December 1983; and Geoffrey Mycock, conviction quashed on 20 June 1984. In 1980 David Cooper and Michael McMahon were released early from their life sentences for murder by exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy.