Campaigners Call For Change To Law After Stourbridge Nightclub Death
28 June 2018, 07:23 | Updated: 28 June 2018, 07:47
24 year-old Ryan Passey was stabbed to death at Chicago's nightclub in August 2017
A petition set up to change the law, to allow families to appeal a jury's verdict has got more than 15,000 signatures.
It's after the death fo 24-year-old Ryan Passey last summer.
A man admitted the stabbing in court, but was cleared of murder and manslaughter by a jury and allowed to walk free.
Jason Connon's a family friend of Ryan's and told Capital there needs to be some way to challenge that decision.
#WATCH @RespectForRyan are calling for a change in the law after a man walked free after a stabbing at Chicago’s in #Stourbridge
— Capital Brum News (@CapitalBIRNews) June 28, 2018
In court, a man admitted stabbing Ryan Passey but was cleared of murder or manslaughter #CapitalReports pic.twitter.com/VmJFQmnkcV
The campaign needs 100,000 signatures for a debate to go to parliament.
On the petition website, campaigners say:
"We invite the Prime Minister - Theresa May and the Home Secretary - Sajid Javid to change the current law to allow equal rights of appeal for both the prosecution and defence and to allow us appeal against the Jury's decision to a higher court
"At present the families of victims have no right of appeal against a perverse acquittal by a jury.
"It is currently not a fair or equal judicial system when a judge and jury can be held to be wrong when the accused has been convicted, but are infallible when the accused has been acquitted."
