Barrister Usha Sood on the Stephen Lawrence verdicts

This is Usha Sood's Guest Column, published in today's Nottingham Post:

Barrister Usha Sood on the Stephen Lawrence verdicts

Usha Sood, human rights barrister based at Trent Chambers writes about the verdicts in the Stephen Lawrence case

Over the years since the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, we have quietly buried the term "institutional racism", that was originally levelled at the police and other services by the McPherson Report.

In 2011 the Notts Race Equality Council was closed down, despite 50 years of assistance in the field.

This abandonment has unfortunately occurred without achieving full racial justice and tolerance in the UK, while only limited relief for the Lawrence family came from the conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris, two of the perpetrators of the murderous, unprovoked attack.

In 1999, I was invited by the then Home Secretary Jack Straw to join his McPherson Steering Group to tackle the recommendations of the Lawrence Inquiry, including to institute detailed changes to police processes, monitoring and recruitment, and other measures to combat racism.

This group included the Lawrence parents, Doreen and Neville, who tried time and time again to ensure that the agenda remained focussed on raising awareness about the need for fundamental change among those delivering such important services.

During my tenure on the Steering Group, later Home Secretaries (David Blunkett and Charles Clarke) assumed the steer over the implementation of the McPherson recommendations, but like the Lawrences, I noticed that the Government's will to instill change wilted with Blunkett and Clarke, and the group was eventually disbanded.

A large measure of constructive recommendations had however already been implemented by then, and continue to help the quest for a level society, with effective action against hate crime.

The death on Boxing Day of a young Indian student in Salford, in a similar unprovoked killing, is an all too painful reminder that the search for respect for human life and dignity still needs nurturing, and that society has still to overcome ingrained racism.