Ynch Law: Appeal Hrow Out

Scan page 2

Marie Murray, convicted with her husband Noel of the non-capital murder of Garda Michael Reynolds and at present serving a life sentence has at last had her appeal heard at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin.

As we outlined in Socialist Press 124 the Murrays were the victims of a judicial frame-up.

Last Tuesday the Appeal Court not only dismissed Marie's application against conviction but refused her leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The appeal, like her trial, was a farce.

In two hours flat the Appeal Court confirmed the trial judge's contention that whether Marie's constitutional right had been violated or not was "irrelevant" , unles the violation was conscious and deliberate! on the basis of a statement Marie had been convicted made under threats and intimidation.

PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report Marie Murray Next door she could hear her husband being tortured. She claims she was told he would die if she did not sign.

The appeal was even more farcical in that the court looked at Marie's alleged statement in which she is supposed to have claimed that her gun went off while she was trying to free her husband.

Ballistic evidence showed that the bullet which killed Garda Reynolds was not fired in the manner Marie is supposed to have claimed.

Therefore, the appeal was denied.

At the appeal Marie was not allowed to speak.

Even her "counsel" had little to say and, as a member of the Murray family said, he seemed to be there simply to give a legal rubber stamp to the proceedings.

Meanwhile, while Marie was in court her husband Noel was in the Curragh Military Detention Centre where he and other prisoners have been 'on the blanket' protesting against prison conditions.

Nothing has been heard from them since news of their protest came just before Christmas (see Socialist Press 130).