George Kelly, 27, who was executed for the murder of...

George Kelly, 27, who was executed for the murder of Leonard Thomas, the manager of a cinema in Liverpool, during a robbery in March 1949, had his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal.
The English court also overturned the conviction of Charles Connolly, who was alleged to be Kelly's accomplice and was jailed for ten years after admitting robbery and conspiracy to rob.
Thomas's assistant, John Catterall, 30, was also shot dead during the robbery, but Kelly was tried only for one murder to avoid another trial. Lord Justice Rix, sitting with Mr Justice Douglas Brown and Mr Justice Davis, ruled that the murder conviction should be quashed because Kelly did not get a fair trial.
Crucial to the appeal was the discovery of a document that proved a key prosecution witness had lied in court. The document was a statement by a criminal, Robert Graham, who claimed in court that Kelly and Connolly had confessed their roles in the murders to him while the three of them were in prison.
He told the court that the first time he spoke to police about the murders was in November 1949, but the document proved that he had given a statement two months earlier implicating another man, Donald Johnston.
It was argued on behalf of Connolly's widow, Eileen, that he had no choice but to admit robbery because he feared a death sentence. Connolly's brother, Eddie, said: "Words can't explain how I feel after 54 years. We've known all along they were innocent."
The cases of Kelly and Connolly were referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body that considers possible miscarriages of justice.