Essay On Stephen Lawrence

Stephen Lawrence was born on 13th September 1974 and lived in Eltham, South East London. He had both his parents, Neville and Doreen Lawrence, a brother Stuart and a sister Georgina. He was a typical teenager; he went to school, had a busy social life, was committed to his family and was in part-time employment. He had plans to become an architect and always wanted to have a positive impact in the community he lived in (www.stephenlawrence.org.uk). Stephen was of black British ethnicity, and at 10:35pm on the 22nd April 1993, a gang of white youths saw this as enough reason to attack the 18 year old (www.bbc.co.uk).

Stephen had spent the afternoon with his friend Duwayne Brooks. They were heading back home together later than they usually

Duwayne Brooks was with Stephen at the time of the murder which meant he was a potential eye witness. The metropolitan police received a number of tip-offs which gave them five names, Neil Acourt, Jamie Acourt, Gary Dobson, David Norris and Luke Knight, all of which were believed to have racist views and were known for violence. However the police didn’t make any initial arrests because they believed it was important to gather evidence on the suspects beforehand. Eventually arrests were made and clothing was seized after the Lawrence family accused the police for not acting on the tip-offs during a conference. All five suspects soon walked free due to a lack of evidence and Duwayne Brooks eyewitness evidence not being reliable enough. This was thought to be the end because at the time there was law in place stating that nobody could be tried twice for the same crime (www.bbc.co.uk, Casciani D,

Now however, DNA like blood stains can microscopic and still be found and tested. These techniques led to the findings of blood, hair and fibres, all of which proved to be vital evidence. (www.metro.co.uk).

Low Copy Number (LCN) is another method that is now used. LCN is a type of DNA profiling. It works by copying DNA molecules enough times so that the DNA can be detected by the analyser. When using the LCN technique the DNA sample is often copied about 34 times. This technique is capable of turning just one molecule of DNA into a number of molecules. There are other DNA profiling kits like SGM+ and the Identifier which work much the same as the LCN (www.theforensicinstitute.com).

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is another development in forensics. PCR is another technique used to amplify and copy small molecules of DNA. Although forensics has developed since 1993, there are still many tests that take place in the laboratory that require DNA to be a sufficient size. PCR has been said to be one of the most important scientific advancement in molecular biology