AllMovie

Racism and the failure of the judicial system in Great Britain are the key themes of this searing docudrama produced for British television and based on an actual incident. Stephen Lawrence (Leon Black) was an 18-year-old black man living in London who, while waiting for a bus, was attacked and killed by gang of racist thugs armed with knives. Stephen's parents, Neville and Doreen Lawrence (Hugh Quarshie and Marianne Jean-Baptiste), were understandably distraught by the death of their son, and were determined to see justice done. However, thanks to a faulty investigation by police and the ineptitude of an overburdened court system, the men who obviously committed the crime were allowed to go free, which sent Neville and Doreen on a long and difficult crusade to confront the system that failed them and put the men who killed their son behind bars. The Murder of Stephen Lawrence first aired in the United States as part of the PBS anthology series Masterpiece Theatre.