Turing Apology

In response to a petition signed by British intellectuals, British prime minister Gordon Brown has issued an apology for the British legal system's treatment of Alan Turing in the 1950s.

Turing was a computer scientist famous for breaking the Nazi code during World War II and for his work in advancing computer science and, some would say, founding, modern computer science. He was convicted after admitting to having committed consensual sexual acts with another adult male. As part of the conviction, he underwent chemical castration, which, it is widely believed, led to his premature suicide by cyanide.