LONDON: A man who has spent nearly 40 years in jail for murder had his conviction overturned by a London court on Tuesday after advancements in DNA testing techniques cast doubt on his guilt.

Peter Sullivan, believed to be the victim of the longest miscarriage of justice in Britain, was sentenced to life in 1987 for the murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall, who was found dead after leaving her place of work in the northwest England town of Bebington, close to Liverpool, the previous year.

He applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission — an independent body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice — in 2021, raising concerns about his police interviews, bite-mark evidence presented in his trial, and what was said to be the murder weapon, the commission said in a statement.

The commission then obtained DNA information from samples taken at the time of the offense and found that the profile did not match that of Sullivan. His case was then sent to London’s Court of Appeal, which quashed the conviction on Tuesday based on the new evidence.

“This is an unprecedented and historic moment. Our client Peter Sullivan is the longest-serving victim of a miscarriage of justice in the UK,” his lawyer told reporters outside the court.

Reading a message from Sullivan, the lawyer said: “What happened to me was very wrong, but it does not detract or minimize that all of this happened off the back of a heinous and most terrible loss of life.”

Sullivan had applied to the CCRC questioning DNA evidence in 2008, but forensic experts advised at the time that any further testing would be very unlikely to produce a DNA profile.

The techniques used in the testing that led to his case being referred were not available at the time of his first application, the CCRC said.

Merseyside Police, which reopened the investigation in 2023, said there was no match for the DNA identified on the national DNA database, adding that they were committed to doing “everything within our power” to find to whom it belonged.

“The truth shall set you free ... As we advance toward resolving the wrongs done to me, I am not angry, I am not bitter,” Sullivan said in his message.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration is cutting another $450 million in grants to Harvard University a day after the Ivy League school pushed back against government allegations that it’s a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism.

In a letter to Harvard on Tuesday, a federal antisemitism task force said Harvard will lose grants from eight federal agencies in addition to $2.2 billion that was previously frozen by the Trump administration.

The letter said Harvard has become a “breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination” and faces a “steep, uphill battle” to reclaim its legacy as a place of academic excellence.

“There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus, and by prioritizing appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited the school’s claim to taxpayer support,” the letter said.

It was signed by officials at the Education Department, Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration.

University officials did not immediately provide comment on the letter.

Harvard has faced escalating sanctions from the White House after becoming the first US university to openly defy the government’s demands to limit pro-Palestinian activism and end diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

Trump, a Republican, has said he wants Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status, and the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to revoke the school’s eligibility to host foreign students.

Last week, the Education Department said Harvard will receive no new federal grants until it meets the government’s demands.

The Trump administration has demanded Harvard make broad leadership changes, revise its admissions policies and audit its faculty and student body to ensure the campus is home to many viewpoints.

The demands are part of a pressure campaign targeting several other high-profile universities. The administration has cut off money to colleges including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, seeking compliance with Trump’s agenda.

Harvard is suing to block the federal funding freeze.

Harvard President Alan Garber disputed the government’s allegations in a Monday letter, saying Harvard is nonpartisan and has taken steps to root out antisemitism on campus. He insisted that Harvard is in compliance with the law, calling the federal sanctions an “unlawful attempt to control fundamental aspects of our university’s operations.”

The government’s letter on Tuesday said Harvard has repeatedly failed to address racial discrimination and antisemitism on campus. It cited the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down Harvard’s use of race in the admissions process, along with a recent internal report at Harvard detailing cases of antisemitic harassment.

___ Collin Binkley has covered Harvard for nearly a decade — most of the time living half a mile from its campus.