Government rejects pardon request for Alan Turing

[Mister_Jinks]

I spotted this morning.

BBC News - Government rejects pardon request for Alan Turing

If you don't know who Alan Turing is then have a read.

Alan Turing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and I would really recommend his biography - The Enigma.

Anyway, I'm just wondering what people think of this judgement given Turing's huge contribution to the field of computer science. He has been referred to as the father of the digital computer. However, Turing's role in the Allied victory in WWII is not to be understated. He was instrumental in breaking German ciphers which allowed Allied intelligence to intercept German secret communications and so on. See

Enigma machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The exact influence of Ultra on the course of the war is debated; an oft-repeated assessment is that decryption of German ciphers hastened the end of the European war by two years

Given that

In 2009 former Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an official apology to Mr Turing, labelling the treatment he had received as "utterly unfair" and "appalling".

shouldn't he have been given a posthumous pardon also perhaps?

Also, on conviction

Turing was given a choice between imprisonment or probation conditional on his agreement to undergo hormonal treatment designed to reduce libido. He accepted chemical castration via oestrogen hormone injections.


This would be considered barbaric nowadays. I accept that from a technical point on view, Turing was tried and convicted of an offence that was a crime at that time. However, there is a letter of the law versus the spirit of the law.

What think ye?

P.S. This is not a thread to discuss the issue of homosexuality, just the issue of the pardon and whether one was warranted or not. Thanks.

[Ulster-Lad]

Shouldn't this be in Foreign Affairs?

[Mister_Jinks]

Shouldn't this be in Foreign Affairs?

Maybe. Mods, please move if you feel fit. I think that justice is ok though although it's obviously not an Irish justice issue.

[we have turned the corner]

I agree with the sentiments above - the man definitely deserves a pardon, especially as the previous British Governement already made a formal apology.

[Des Quirell]

I would add the excellent "The Man who Knew too Much" by David Leavitt to the reading list in the OP.

The rejection - based on "precedent" - reminds me of the infamous "appalling vista" reasoning.

Just because justice leads you to decisions that are difficult to implement or which may be challenging to carry through doesn't mean that you should shrink from making them.

In any event, the legal system depends on precedent as one of its major foundational bases. The system is *obliged* to create precedent when necessary. Instead, this decision dismisses the idea of creating precedent without actually explaining why it does so.

It should be of no difficulty whatever to issue a general pardon to those convicted of homosexuality while simultaneously protecting the state from paying damages to any surviving convicted people.

To do so would be a great tribute to Turing.

[Skrynesaver]

In fairness to them they decided they wouldn't re-write history, the conviction stands and the resulting tragedy of Turing's early death indicts the criminal laws of the time, a pardon is intended to clear a persons name where new evidence has emerged etc...

When the issue of granting a posthumous pardon was raised in the House of Lords a government minister said the option had already been considered and rejected at the time of the 2009 apology. Lord Sharkey said that even though Turing had been "convicted of an offence which now seems both cruel and absurd", a pardon is not appropriate because he was found guilty of something that was a criminal offence at the time.

This seems a reasonable position to me - after all are they to revise all convictions under laws since recinded

[TropicalCandy]

Incidentally, did we pardon any of the people we convicted? Do you have to do something noteworthy to deserve a pardon for this? seems like a blanket pardon should be issued.

[ShoutingIsLeadership]

Well I've learned something today. Thanks, Mister_Jinks

[Verhofstadt]

At least put UK government in the title of the OP..

[EvotingMachine0197]

Yes, he certainly should have been granted the pardon.

Just because it was a criminal offence at the time, does not mean that discretion cannot be exercised now, especially given that now there is full acceptance that the laws at the time were absurd.