Liberty In Jeopardy

In the words of Peter Hitchens:

The foul murder of Stephen Lawrence has been misused by the politically-correct establishment for many purposes - there's a chapter on the astonishing Macpherson report in my Abolition of Liberty, which I urge everyone to read. But the worst of all has been the exploitation of righteous anger to overcome the principle that one trial must be enough.

Allow anything different, and the state can simply use repeated prosecution to persecute those it doesn't like. It's also another major attack on juries and the presumption of innocence, and also on the finality of law - without which there isn't really a rule of law at all. Of course, if you want to chuck this ancient safeguard in the bin, then it is wise to pick a case on which everyone agrees that justice hasn't been properly served under the existing rules, and on which the liberal left - who used to be quite hot on such liberties - are likely to be on your side, or neutralised.