So, the UK government finally pardon Alan Turning (BBC News) for his 1952 conviction for homosexuality.
This is just days after blocking access to LGBT web sites for most young people in the UK.
2013-12-24
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Pardon. wtf!!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand what point your comment is trying to make.
DeleteTuring was a genius of early computer science and also contributed greatly to code breaking at Blethley Park in WWII. He was treated very shabbily after the war and it is right that the UK government has pardoned him. Very belatedly, but better late than never.
Hi Owen, we are entirely in agreement.
ReplyDeleteEveryone who was prosecuted and harassed under the same laws Turing was should also be pardonned. It shouldn't be a privilege of the famous.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, David Allen Green in the New Statesman had the best take I've seen on this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newstatesman.com/david-allen-green/2013/07/putting-right-wrong-done-alan-turing
I think as most people have said, an apology or some kind of "overturning" of the verdict rather than a "pardon for the offence" would be preferable. A pardon, in some way, seems to confirm a crime. More to the point, it is one out of around 80,000 men convicted of the same thing. What about the rest? ... And so on.
ReplyDeleteThe reasoning I've heard for not overturning the whole law and pardoning everyone who was convicted is that there are still many thousands of people alive who were convicted and declaring the law unjust would invite large compensation claims from them all.
DeleteThis, of course, is a crappy reason since they probably are due some compensation for their troubles!