Satpal Ram is a British man who was charged and convicted of killing Clarke Pearce in

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during a fight in 1986. His case has drawn some controversy due to alleged mistreatment by the courts and the British prison system due to his racial background.

Background

According to Satpal Ram, he and two friends visited a restaurant in November 1986. While there, an altercation broke out among Ram and his two friends and another group of six people also in the restaurant. The argument, which was initially over Asian music being played on the restaurant's radio system, became a physical fight. Ram said that he stabbed one of the party of six, Clarke Pearce, in self-defence after Pearce attacked him with a broken bottle. Pearce was taken to hospital with knife wounds and later died. Consequently, Satpal Ram was arrested for murder and convicted in 1987.

Controversy

Later debate and controversy arose among the British media when it was alleged that his

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did not meet with him and only saw him for about forty minutes before the trial. The jury was claimed to have also missed vital evidence because no interpreter was provided to translate for a Bengali-speaking waiter who had been present at the incident. It is also alleged that the judge was to have said he would interpret but also that he couldn't speak the

Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second m ...

. Artists such as Asian Dub Foundation and

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have championed Ram's cause. Other reports of Ram being beaten, starved, repeatedly strip-searched, and made to spend large periods of time in solitary confinement also arose, resulting in accusations of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

within the criminal justice system. The protest for Ram's release from prison involved a song by the Asian Dub Foundation entitled " Free Satpal Ram".

Release

Satpal Ram was released from Blantyre House Prison on parole in June 2002. His initial release, as recommended by the parole board in 2000, was overturned by the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

at the time,

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...

. His release in 2002 resulted from a

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

ruling which stated that government executives such as the Home Secretary had no right to overrule a decision of a parole board.https://web.archive.org/web/20020923110537/http://www.blink.org.uk/pdescription.asp?key=847&mid=&grp=2&cat=169 - Retrieved: July 1, 2014

References

External links

Satpal Ram on www.innocent.org.uk
- Archive of articles by the British newspaper "The Guardian" regarding Satpal Ram.
Satpal Ram on www.writesite.org.uk
- Satpal Ram writes about his case in the book ''Judge For Yourself How Many are Innocent'' by LA Naylor (Roots Books, 2004) on pages 196 - 227. The book covers other alleged and proven miscarriages of justice in the UK. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ram, Satpal Living people Year of birth missing (living people) British people of Indian descent British people of Bengali descent British people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by England and Wales Prisoners and detainees of the United Kingdom