The week got off to a busy start for the royals on April 23. Shortly after Kate Middleton gave birth to her third child, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attended a memorial service to honor the life of Stephen Lawrence – the victim of a racist attack that occurred 25 years ago. Wearing a black Hugo Boss dress, Meghan met Stephen’s mom Doreen Lawrence at the somber event. Prince Harry even read out a message of support from his dad Prince Charles during the service. Want to know more? Here are five reasons why Stephen’s death is still such an emotional subject for the Brits:
- Stephen Lawrence was just 18 when he was stabbed to death by a gang of racist youths on April 22, 1993. The aspiring architect was waiting for a bus with his best friend Duwayne Brooks in South East London when up to six men attacked and stabbed him after one shouted, “What, what n—–?” During the 2011 murder trial, Duwayne testified that his friend spoke to him before he bled to death. The devastated pal said, according to the Daily Mirror, “He kept saying to me, ‘What’s happening to me?’ as he was bleeding from the neck.”
- Stephen’s murder became a landmark case in the U.K. because police botched the investigation. A day after the killing a letter identifying the suspects was left in a phone box and cops put their homes under surveillance. Fives suspects were arrested in May and June 1993, according to BBC News but, although brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, David Norris, Gary Dobson and Luke Knight were arrested only two were charged with murder. Those charges were later dropped.
- On February 14, 1997 the Daily Mail newspaper took an unusual step by naming all five suspects and printing their faces on the front page. The headline branded them “murderers” (even though they hadn’t been convicted) and invited the suspects to sue if the accusation was wrong. The bold step came after the Crown Prosecution Service refused to prosecute the case in 1994, and a private prosecution launched by Stephen’s parents Doreen and Neville Lawrence failed in 1996.
- In February 1999 a public inquiry headed by Sir William Macpherson accused the Metropolitan Police of “institutional racism” for failing to investigate the murder properly. The failure led to crucial evidence being lost. While three of the suspects were acquitted when the 1996 private prosecution collapsed, in 2011 Gary Dobson and David Norris were eventually charged and tried for Stephen’s murder based on new forensic evidence. They each received life sentences in 2012.
- April 22 has been declared Stephen Lawrence Day, an annual memorial to remember the teen. British prime minister Theresa May made the huge announcement at the memorial service in Stephen’s honor at St-Martin-in-the-Fields church in London on April 23.