The Alan Turing pardon bill
Second reading in the House of Lords on 19th July, 2013
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/alanturingstatutorypardon.html
Scientists for Labour is supporting the private Members Bill to give a statutory pardon
to Alan Turing, who is seen as the founder of computer science as well as being an
eminent mathematician and wartime codebreaker. In fact, the computing world’s
highest honour, the Tuning Award, equivalent in stature to a Nobel Prize, is named
after him. The campaign to pardon Alan Turing, who was convicted of taking part in
homosexual acts in 1952, has been supported by the Labour Party since November
2012. Scientists for Labour urges Labour peers and MPs to back this Bill which
formally acknowledges that Alan Turing was a victim of prejudice."
Pressure grows for full pardon
Since Gordon Brown’s apology to Alan Turing in 2009 (1), pressure has grown for a
full pardon. In early 2012 the Coalition refused to do this, with Justice Minister Lord
McNally saying: ‘A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan
Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. He would
have known that his offence was against the law and that he would be prosecuted.’
However, Alex Bailin QC and John Halford, both specialists in human rights law,
said that McNally’s moral justification for refusing to pardon Turing did not hold
water ‘Were Turing alive, the petitions [for his pardon] would receive a very different
response. Under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, a person convicted under antihomosexual laws (including section 11 of the 1885 Act) may apply to the secretary of
state for such a conviction to be “disregarded” (providing the conduct in question
would not now be a criminal offence).
‘A disregarded conviction has the effect that a person “is to be treated for all
purposes in law as if the person has not been convicted of the offence”. But section 92
applies only to living persons. The government's intention when passing section 92
was to recognise the injustice of the repressive old laws—even though they were
validly passed at the time.’ Bailin and Halford said that there was provision within the
2012 act to pardon those who were not alive: ‘section 96 of the 2012 Act expressly
provides that the secretary of state's power to grant pardons is not restricted by
section 92.’(2)
Private Members Bill
After failing to get the Government to agree to the pardon, Liberal Democrat peer
Lord Sharkey put down a Private Members Bill, which had its first reading on 9 May
2013. Explaining his reasons for putting forward this Bill, Lord Sharkey said: ‘If my
Bill becomes law, as I hope it will, then this will finally go some way towards
acknowledging the debt we all owe to Alan Turing and grant him the pardon he so
clearly deserves’. The Bill is co-sponsored by Ian Stewart, Conservative MP for
Milton Keynes South, and Julian Huppert and John Leech, Liberal Democrat MPs for
Cambridge and Manchester Withington, respectively.
Supporters
Professor Stephen Hawking, Lord Rees (Astronomer Royal), Sir Paul Nurse
(President of the Royal Society), Lord Currie of Marylebone, Lord Grade of
Yarmouth, Lord Faulkner of Worcester, Lord Sharkey, Lord Smith of Finsbury,
Baroness Trumpington, Sir Timothy Gowers (Cambridge University) and Dr Douglas
Gurr (Science Museum) all signed a letter to the Telegraph published in December
2012:
‘We write in support of a posthumous pardon for Alan Turing, one of the most
brilliant mathematicians of the modern era. He led the team of Enigma codebreakers
at Bletchley Park, which most historians agree shortened the Second World War. Yet
successive governments seem incapable of forgiving his conviction for the then crime
of being a homosexual, which led to his suicide, aged 41… It is time his reputation
was unblemished.’
Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, April 2013:
‘The Government says it cannot turn back the clock and pardon Alan Turing. But one
hundred years on from his birth, it is time for us to correct the historical wrong.’
James Asser, co-chair of LGBT Labour, November 2012:
‘We owe a great debt to him and his colleagues. It is only right and proper that after
60 years, Alan Turing receive his pardon. It is time that the coalition government
started to listen to the public support for a pardon and reconsider their position. 60
years is long enough.’
Background
In 1952 Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 was still in force. Also
known as the Labouchere Amendment, this made gross indecency a crime. Victorian
sensibilities did not allow ‘gross indecency’ to be defined; however, it was broadly
used to prosecute homosexual men where sodomy could not be proved. It was
repealed in 1967 as the result of a Private Members Bill put to the house by Desmond
Donnelly MP. At the time he was a Labour MP.
In 1952 Alan Turing was prosecuted using this archaic law. Rather than go to prison,
Alan Turing accepted a treatment of chemical castration. Chemical castration is
designed to reduce the libido and sexual activity. On 23 May 1954 Turing’s
housekeeper found him dead in bed. A verdict of suicide was recorded by the coroner,
and at the time it was thought that this was a desperate act to end the persecution he
was suffering as a result of his conviction. However, this verdict has since been
questioned by Turing experts.
1. PM apology after Turing petition, BBC News, September 2009,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8249792.stm
2. Alan Turing pardon: we need a shift in legal position, The Guardian, Alex Bailin QC and John
Halford, 19 December 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/dec/19/alan-turing-pardon-shiftlegal-position