After the initial investigation , five suspects were arrested but not charged . It was suggested during the investigation that Lawrence was killed because he was black , and that the handling of the case by the police and Crown Prosecution Service was affected by issues of race . A 1998 public inquiry , headed by Sir William Macpherson , examined the original Metropolitan Police Service ( MPS ) investigation and concluded that the force was institutionally racist . It also recommended that the double jeopardy rule should be repealed in murder cases to allow a retrial upon new and compelling evidence : this was effected in 2005 upon enactment of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 . The publication in 1999 of the resulting Macpherson Report has been called " one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain " . Jack Straw , Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001 , commented in 2012 that ordering the inquiry was " the single most important decision I made as Home Secretary " . In 2010 the case was said to be " one of the highest-profile unsolved racially motivated murders "
institutionally racist
Institutional racism
Murder of Stephen Lawrence