The British government has given Alan
Turing a posthumous pardon.
According to the AP, the pardon was
officially granted by Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday.
Turing, described as a brilliant
mathematician, helped crack the German Enigma machine code – a
triumph of computer science and a turning point for the Allies in
World War II.
He died an early death for
acknowledging that he was gay. In 1952, Turing and Arnold Murray
were charged with gross indecency after Turing disclosed their
relationship to detectives investigating a break in at Turing's
Manchester home. Turing was
convicted and given the choice of going to prison or submitting to a
form of chemical castration via estrogen hormone injections. He
chose the latter. The therapy left him impotent and he developed
breasts.
It is widely
believed that he committed suicide two years after his arrest by
eating a cyanide-laced apple.
“He helped
preserve our liberty,” lawmaker Iain Stewart, who lobbied for the
pardon, told the AP. “We owe it to him in recognition of what he
did for the country – and indeed the free world – that his name
should be cleared.”