The Legendary Case That Ended Britain's Death Penalty.jpg

During this time, Valerie met a suspect named Henratty, and when she saw him, she was certain he was the perpetrator. The perpetrator's manner of speech was quite distinctive, and Henratty also spoke in a similar way, had a similar build to the perpetrator, and his eyes visible between the mask looked similar too. And the witness who said they saw Michael's car move testified that the person's face they saw resembled Henratty's. Although Henratty had no serious criminal record, he was a criminal with a record of committing light crimes like theft, so police agreed with the statement, and he was charged with serious crimes including murder, rape, and vehicle theft, and the trial began.

However, the truth was there was far too little evidence to definitively say Henratty was the perpetrator. There was a result from testing the semen found on the victim's underwear showing both Henratty and the perpetrator were type O blood (at that time there were no modern DNA testing techniques), but since 40% of the British population at that time had type O blood, it was such a common blood type that it was meaningless. The only real evidence was the witness's testimony and the victim's consistent statements. Even Henratty was a terrible driver, it was strange that he stole the car, and he was someone without even an assault record, let alone murder.

But surprisingly, the court's decision was execution. Henratty's family appealed multiple times but the verdict was not overturned, and eventually Henratty left a will saying "even if I die, please clear my name" and was executed by hanging. With no physical evidence, relying only on testimony—and from a victim who didn't even see the perpetrator's face clearly, only heard his voice, and from a witness who likely didn't see well from a distance—the death sentence based on such testimony caused British public opinion to boil over. But then even more shocking news came that would further inflame public opinion: surprisingly, Michael, who was killed by the perpetrator, turned out to already be a married man with two children and another wife, and had been in an affair with Valerie. Once it was revealed that the only witness was the mistress, the truthfulness of her testimony became highly suspect, and there could have been more suspects like Michael's real wife, but Valerie's whereabouts became unknown after the trial and the court refused to budge on its opinion at all.

British public opinion literally flipped. The impact was so massive that John Lennon himself met with Henratty's family at the time to offer condolences, and numerous journalists, detectives, and crime experts began investigating the case directly. Then another shocking fact was revealed: the witness who said they saw Michael's car could not have possibly seen the car given the time and location at that moment—in other words, it was false testimony. It was even revealed that police vaguely knew the testimony was false but ignored it just to close the case and move on. People mourned Henratty across Britain and held gatherings. With the thought that an innocent victim had been created, opposition to capital punishment became extreme, and 3 years after the incident, Britain abolished capital punishment for ordinary crimes. But despite this, a retrial for Henratty never took place. Henratty was legally a criminal who committed serious crimes, but no one thought of him that way. Numerous lawyers volunteered their time and money trying to clear his name even after his death, but the British court stubbornly stayed silent, and 36 years passed. 36 years after the incident, in 1997 in Britain, dozens of books and hundreds of articles were written about Henratty,