SIR DAVID NAPLEY

Sir David Napley died on September 24, 1993, aged 79. For many years he was England's most famous and influential solicitor. He was instrumental in setting up the Tom Sargant Memorial lecture and gave the first lecture in 1989. In that lecture he called for an independent tribunal to deal with miscarriage of justice cases - a body that was eventually set up some 14 years later ( the CCRC).

He worked on several suspected miscarriages of justice cases including the famous Stafford-Luvaglio case in the early seventies and the Jock Russell case in 1982 - one of Tom Sargant's most famous cases. Napley took the Stafford case to the Appeal Court twice and finally to the House of Lords. This was at a time when the appeal court was far more difficult to deal with than it is now.

David Napley also played a leading part in the formation of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences which has always supported research into miscarriages of justice.

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