Luther Pendragon has been brought on board by campaigners fighting
to overturn the conviction of Krishna Maharaj, a UK citizen on death row
in Florida.
Maharaj, 59, was sentenced to death in 1987 for the murder of two former
business associates. An appeal against his conviction will be heard next
week, 13 years after his imprisonment.
Luther Pendragon is working on a pro bono basis in an effort to generate
the kind of coverage that surrounded the Louise Woodward case.
The agency’s client, solicitors firm Freshfields, has also been working
on the case pro bono. The client for both firms is effectively the
Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center.
Luther Pendragon first became involved when Freshfields asked the agency
to drum up support for an appeal in Parliament. Over 300 MPs, peers and
MEPs signed a petition which forms the basis of Maharaj’s appeal.
The agency was brought back on board last week for a press conference in
Parliament on Thursday. Ben Rich, who is overseeing Luther Pendragon’s
contribution to the campaign, said: ’Over the next week we will be
making as much noise here as possible.’
The agency is looking for a PR counterpart in Florida to promote the
case to the US media and opinion formers.
Maharaj is appealing on the grounds that the trial judge, Howard Gross,
was struck off after allegations he had accepted bribes in another
case.
Gross was replaced by Harold Solomon who, despite having the power to
impose sentence, never heard part of the evidence.
