Transatlantic Justice
To many people, even the political savy, the name Cherie Booth may sound ordinary, or may not even ring a bell. It’s not a particularly overwhelming name, nor does it have a lot of presence. It’s a very simple sounding English name that could belong to any woman.
Nor did it sound familiar to to a Belleville man, David Middleton, the father of Becky Middleton, a Canadian teen slain while the family was on vacation in Bermuda.
Middleton said when the name Cherie Booth came up in discussion with his legal team, “the name didn’t mean anything to me.”
“Nobody even mentioned to me whose wife it was,” he said.
Just who is Cherie Booth? And why is she concerned with this case that dates back to 1996?
Those familiar with British politics will know the name, but those outside of it won’t. It isn’t a name familiar to those who follow their own nation’s politic follies. It is the name of the wife of embattled British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In Britain, she has prominence. But, in the recent years, the British attorney has been caught up in a few controversies, including one that became known as ‘Cheriegate’. She has also been compared to former first ladies, Hilary Rotham-Clinton and Nancy Reagon.
So why was a woman, who is a high-profile figure in British law, and thus politics, getting involved in a case that is outside of her legal realm?
Kelvin Hastings-Smith, Middleton’s Bermuda lawyer, said Booth was asked to join the legal team because of her administrative law abilities and her record in human rights issues.
The Middleton team also had been hoping to find new avenues to charge the man responsible for the slaying of the Middleton girl. But, under Bermuda law, a person cannot be subject to Double Jeopardy. So, they decided to have the man charged and convicted on other charges.
The prime suspect in the case was acquitted of the charge of murder, while his accomplice confessed to being an accessory to murder, and was sentenced to five years in prison. The charges that neither were tried on were kidnapping, sexual assault or rape, which the Middleton team hopes to try the prime suspect on.
While Booth’s office didn’t comment on the case directly itself, the fact alone that she is going to go outside of her legal realm to fight for human rights and justice where there was a miscarriage of justice in the eyes of the victims, says something about human nature and the need for justice and equal access to the same type of justice regardless of socio-economic status.
Slaying moves British PM’s wife
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