The Devlin Commission was a commission of inquiry set up in 1959 under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Devlin, later Lord Devlin, after African opposition to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, particularly its farming and rural conservation policies, and demands for progress towards majority rule promoted by the Nyasaland African Congress under its leader Dr Hastings Banda led to widespread disturbances in Nyasaland and some deaths.
As was established by Judge Devlin in the 1957 trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams, causing death through the administration of lethal drugs to a patient, if the intention is solely to alleviate pain, is not considered murder even if death is a potential or even likely outcome.
L. Patrick Devlin, professor of communication at the University of Rhode Island
Hewett described how both officers were astounded at the Attorney-General's decision to charge Adams with the murder of Morrell, since her body had been cremated and therefore there was no evidence to present before a jury.
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The senior officer, Detective Superintendent Herbert Hannam of Scotland Yard was known for having solved the infamous Teddington Towpath Murders in 1953.29 He was assisted by Detective Sergeant Charles Hewett.
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Amongst many commercial and criminal cases that Devlin tried, one of the most famous was the 1957 trial of John Bodkin Adams, an Eastbourne doctor indicted for murdering two of his patients – widows Edith Alice Morrell and Gertrude Hullett, one of them elderly.
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Bodkin-Adams was tried and controversially found not guilty on the Morrell charge and even more controversially, the prosecutor – Attorney-General, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller – entered a nolle prosequi regarding the Hullett charge.
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Controversially, the Attorney General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller entered a plea of nolle prosequi regarding the Hullett case, an act later described by the presiding judge Patrick Devlin as "an abuse of process".