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Ireland court dismisses case against only man charged in 1998 Omagh bombing

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Irish Special Criminal Court on Wednesday dismissed the case against the only man criminally convicted for a role in the 1998 Omagh bombing, finding that the evidence against Colm Murphy was not strong enough to support the conviction. In 2002, The Special Criminal Court originally sentenced Murphy to 14 years in prison for providing cell phones to those who planted the bomb. Murphy was granted a retrial in 2005 when the appeals court found that the evidence against him had been mishandled by the police. During the retrial, the court found that the tainted evidence, which included false statements and illegal references to Murphy's previous convictions, could not support the case. Despite the lack of criminal convictions related to the bombing, which killed twenty-nine people and injured hundreds more, a civil lawsuit was successfully brought against those involved. In June, the Belfast High Court found four men, including Murphy, responsible for the bombing and awarded £1.64 million to 12 plaintiffs. In December 2007, a Belfast judge found Sean Gerard Hoey not guilty of murder in relation to the bombing, ruling that there was insufficient DNA evidence linking Hoey to the bomb to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he made the device. In 2005, the Irish Public Prosecution Service dropped charges against another suspect, Anthony Joseph Donegan.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).