The email arrived in Mark McDonald’s inbox at 3pm on 2 October. It was forwarded by a solicitor he worked with, with a note reading “FYI!” McDonald, a senior criminal defence barrister, read it carefully, and then reread it. His most famous client, the convicted murderer Michael Stone, was to have his case taken up by the body that investigates miscarriages of justice. Less than three months earlier, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) had closed the Stone file. Now, unexpectedly, it was reopening it.
Stone is serving three life sentences for the murders of Lin Russell and her daughter Megan, and the attempted murder of Lin’s other daughter, Josie, in 1996. He was first convicted in 1998, then his conviction was quashed in 2001 after a prosecution witness admitted lying on the stand. Stone was retried that same year, and again convicted. Both his appeals have failed. But he has always said he is innocent.
