Them Hang!
Socialist Republic1976Internment, repression and the courtsCivil rights movementInternment, repression and the courtsCivil rights movement
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The Special Criminal Court was set up in 1939 under the wartime emergency measure, the Offences Against the State Act, and was reactivated in May 1972 when it became clear to the Government that juries could not be relied upon to convict people for the ‘crime’ of Republicanism, Its main feature is that it deprives those brought bafore it of the ¢lamentary civil right of trial by jury; instead, three judges, appointed by the Government, pass judgement, The spokesmen of successive governments have defended the existence of this measure — the sort of thing normally associated with dictatorships and Nazi was originally jointly charged with them had his trial postponed so that he could receive medical sustained Injuries consistent with having been beaten up while in custody).
The case of the Murrays is outstandingly vicious, We reject the right of the Government case, and in any other case that may arise in the fugure, Against the State Acts are a violent suppression of civil rights, We call on all those who oppose state repression of basic civil rights to demand:
1. That the Government commute the death sentences on the Murrays;
3. That the Murrays be granted their right to trial by jury;
4 That the Offences Against the State Acts statute book, * $0, they were condemned without a jury trial were extracted by torture, (Another person who treatment, after a doctor had testified that he had are:
in Ireland. to sarry out the barbaroys act of hanging in this The Special Criminal Court and the Offences 2. That the death sentence be abolished altogether;
and the Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Acts, which Provide for non-jury courts and other violations of civil liberties, be removed immediately from the The Murray Defence Committee was established by a group of citizens who met-to discuss their opposition to the death sentence passed on Noel and Marie Murray in a Dublin Hall on Monday 14 June 1976, The objects of the Murray Defence Committes 1. The total abolition of capital punishment To ensure that the sentence of death is not carried out on the Murrays or any other Irish citizen, To secure the establishment of an independent commission to enquire into all the circumstances surrounding the arrest, charging and sentencing of the Murrays to death. To endeavour to have the trial of the Murrays reopened on the grounds of natural justice and human rights and that fresh scientific evidence not hitherto offered in Irish court: be admitted for the purposes of reconsidering the issues involved, The committee intends to achieve these objectives by the mobilisation of Irish and international opinion behind these demands.