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Lois Winstone |
Singer backs ‘Free Sam’ campaign
SINGER Lois Winstone, daughter of actor Ray, is headlining a series of music and art events in support of Sam Hallam as the 22-year-old enters his sixth year in prison.
Ms Winstone, the 27-year-old who goes by the stage name Baby Bo, will perform with the Winter Kings band at the “five years of injustice gig” in the Macbeth bar, in Hoxton, on Monday.
Light artists will beam messages of support for Mr Hallam across landmarks in Hoxton Square at 7pm tonight (Friday), and 100 helium balloons will be released at a candlelit vigil outside St John the Baptist Church in Pitfield Street, in Hoxton, on Tuesday evening.
Mr Hallam, a school friend of Mr Winstone’s nephew, was given a life sentence in 2004 for the gang murder of trainee chef Essayas Kassahun on the St Luke’s estate, in Finsbury, in 2004.
His supporters argue that no forensic or CCTV evidence linked him to the murder scene and that fresh witness evidence must be heard in the Court of Appeal.
His mother, Wendy Cohen, has vowed that she will never give up trying to clear her son’s name.
“It’s a never-ending road,” she said.
Last year a dossier of fresh evidence was sent to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice.
Ms Cohen said: “The CCRC’s funding keeps being cut. Less funding means fewer caseworkers, so it takes longer to process cases.”
At the Labour Party conference two weeks ago, Hackney councillor Sally Mulready raised Mr Hallam’s case with Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw.
Campaign spokesman Paul May said: “It’s a disgrace that 20 years after the Guildford Four were exonerated, innocent prisoners like Sam Hallam are waiting for justice. Sam case should be referred to the Court of Appeal without any further delay.”
Gerry Conlon, who was wrongly convicted for the 1974 IRA pub bombings in Guildford at the age of 21, believes Mr Hallam is innocent and will join the vigil on Tuesday.
For more information on the Sam Hallam campaign, contact www.samhallam.com |
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