20 September 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

LAPD shooting stirs residents’ anger

originally published by: Socialist Worker.org
published: 15th September 2010

The Los Angeles Police Department struck again the day before Labor Day. A 37-year-old Guatemalan day laborer (who witnesses say was unarmed) was shot in the head and killed by an officer from the notorious Rampart Division, site of one of the worst police scandals in U.S. history.

But this time, the shooting resulted in an eruption of protest, with residents angrily confronting police for several nights and an ongoing vigil to demand justice in yet another case of deadly police violence. The killing took place in the Westlake area of LA, which is sandwiched between the increasingly gentrified downtown and the predominantly immigrant MacArthur Park neighborhood.

20 September 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Death penalty cases impose singular burden.. of proof

originally published by: Delaware Online
published: 14th September 2010

Fairness, justice, equal protection – there is no context for which these ideals are more important than death penalty trials.

Our Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. A death sentence that is arbitrarily imposed or handed down without proper consideration of mitigating evidence (evidence about the crime or the defendant that suggests the death penalty is inappropriate) is cruel and unusual and unconstitutional.

Can our criminal justice system ensure that a death sentence meets these constitutional standards?

15 September 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

How did Michael Jarrett Lowe die?

source : Scepticpeg
published : 9th September 2010

In September 1974, a 17 year old boy was found dead inside a chimney in a disused shop in Islington. The circumstances surrounding the death of Michael (or Jarrett as he was known by friends) remains a mystery but his friend, Bill, is convinced it wasn’t an accident.

Jarrett was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 7th October 1956. After Jarrett’s father left his mother, Jarrett and his mother moved to London in 1961 and settled in Islington before then moving to Kings Cross. His mother eventually remarried in 1966 and Jarrett had a younger brother and sister. He was popular with his peers, enjoyed football, school, attending a local disco and eating ice cream.

Jarrett attended Highbury Grove School in Islington and it was during his final year there he began getting in to trouble. A local playground worker has spoken of how Michael would be locked out of his home for returning late and forced to sleep on the street and had also began getting into trouble with the police. He left school in 1972 and would regularly stay with his friends due to him being locked out of home – sometimes for a week at a time.

By 1973 Jarrett’s life had spiralled further downwards and he was placed in to the care of Islington social services. He was arrested in January for burglary and appeared at Old Street Magistrate’s Court where his residential address was given as Highbury Crescent children’s home.

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