By Stuart Ross
In September 1992, Peter McBride was shot dead by British soldiers in the New Lodge area of North Belfast. He was one of the hundreds of people — mostly Catholic — acknowledged to have been killed by the army or Royal Ulster Constabulary since "the Troubles" began in Ireland nearly 30 years ago.
McBride was shot in the back as he ran from a foot patrol of four Scots Guards. The soldiers had already stopped and run an identity check on the 18-year-old. They had also carried out a thorough body search, so they knew McBride was unarmed. Nevertheless, the soldiers claimed that at the time McBride was shot they thought he was leading them into a trap and was carrying a coffee jar bomb.
Guardsmen Jim Fisher and Mark Wright were sentenced to life imprisonment for McBride's murder. Throughout the course of their trial, neither Fisher nor Wright expressed remorse. The two were also branded "untruthful and evasive" by the court. At the time of sentencing the judge made it clear that the shooting "was not a panic situation which required split second action or indeed any action at all."
Prior to the conviction of Fisher and Wright, only two British soldiers had ever been convicted of the murder of Irish civilians while on duty. Lee Clegg — a private in the notorious Parachute Regiment — was one of these soldiers.
Clegg was convicted of the 1990 murder of 18-year-old Karen Reilly. After serving less than four years of his life sentence, the soldier was freed on licence. His early release was met with widespread protest (and rioting) and further undermined what little confidence many nationalists had in the then-Tory government's attitude to the "peace process".
Last month the Court of Appeal overturned Clegg's murder conviction. He will now have a new trial. An unprecedented high-profile campaign had pushed for Clegg's release. Establishment figures such as Prince Charles, the colonel-in-chief to the Parachute Regiment and former defence minister Malcolm Riftkind supported the convicted killer's bid for freedom. Tory MPs, senior military figures and newspaper editorials also championed Clegg's case.
These same people are now calling for the release of Fisher and Wright.
A public relations firm has been hired to coordinate the release campaign. Campaign supporters argue that because the two soldiers have already served longer sentences than any other soldier convicted of the same crime, "natural justice" means they should be released. They also argue that the two were "only doing their duty" and that they were doing what they were trained to do.
The Pat Finucane Centre, a Derry-based human rights group, have been quick to point out the "deeply racist" nature of the Fisher and Wright campaign. "The premise behind the entire thing", said a spokesperson, "is that an Irish life is somehow worth less than another life".
Neither the murder of McBride nor the subsequent campaign to release his killers has figured prominently in international media headlines; the recent expulsion of Sinn Féin from the peace talks and the latest wave of shootings and bombings have ensured that.
Nevertheless, an early release for Fisher and Wright will have profound implications for an already floundering peace process.
For more information, visit the Pat Finucane Centre web site.