Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Why I’m against posthumous pardons, even for Alan Turing

Pardoning those convicted under laws we now disagree with is an irrational surrender to the emotional tide

Alan Turing and colleagues working on the Ferranti Mark I Computer, 1951 Photo: SSPL/Getty 
issue 26 July 2014

Ross Clark is a columnist I try to read because he is never trite. So I was sorry to miss performances of his musical play staged earlier this month. Shot at Dawn is about a sister’s quest for a recognition (after his death) of her brother, Harry Briggs, a soldier in the Great War who was executed for desertion.

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