Benedict Birnberg, who has died aged 93, was a radically minded solicitor whose practice helped victims of domestic violence, supported the anti-Apartheid movement, and acted on behalf of an eclectic range of clients: some eccentric, others famous, and some notorious.
Of the many high profile clients Benedict Birnberg represented in his long career as a lawyer, one meant more to him than others. It was Iris Bentley whose “educationally subnormal” brother Derek
There were moral and practical considerations to ending the barbarity of state executions in Britain. They are still relevant today, says writer and former Guardian crime correspondent Duncan Campbell