is no answer to misjudgment: it is certainly no answer to death." On 28 May 2010, Downing Street announced that Macdonald would be made a Liberal Democrat life peer in the 2010 Dissolution Honours List, which was gazetted on 15 June. The Letters Patent were gazetted on 15 July, dated 12 July granting him the title of Baron Macdonald of River Glaven, of Cley-next-the-Sea in the County of Norfolk. On 13 July 2010, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, announced to Parliament that she had invited Macdonald to oversee a government review of counter terrorism and security powers, to ensure that legislative measures in place were proportionate and consistent with the rule of law. In October 2010, as part of Turkey's accession negotiations to the European Union, and on the recommendation of the Council of Europe, the European Commission invited Macdonald to lead an EU mission to Turkey to assess that country's commitment to free expression and a free press. In January 2011, it was announced that Macdonald was to succeed the late Lord Bingham of Cornhill as the chair of Reprieve, the leading international anti-death penalty and prisoners' rights organisation. In April 2011, he joined the Council of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. In November 2011, he was elected an honorary fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford and from 2012 to 2021 he was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford. In 2015, he became Chair of The Orwell Foundation which awards the Orwell Prize for journalism and political writing. Macdonald publicly criticised the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 in February 2016, saying it was a threat to freedom of academic expression and research. In 2020, he became President of the Howard League for Penal Reform. In October 2020, he said that the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill had "gone too far" in protecting Government authorities from prosecution: he called for explicit limits on the crimes covered by the bill, so that it would not permit murder, torture or sexual violence. Personal life In 1980, he married Linda Zuck, a television producer for production company Illuminations based in Islington. They have two sons and a daughter, and three granddaughters. References Directors of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales) Members of the Inner Temple British barristers Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford 1953 births British King's Counsel Members of Matrix Chambers People educated at Bishop Wordsworth's School People from Salisbury People