Cameron Todd Willingham exoneration was written but never filed by Texas judge

originally by: Huffington Post
published: 21 May 2012

A Texas judge who reviewed the controversial 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham planned to posthumously exonerate the father who was put to death for killing his three daughters in a house fire.

Scientific experts who debunked the arson evidence used against Willingham at his 1992 trial and a jailhouse witness who recanted his shaky testimony convinced District Court Judge Charlie Baird in 2010 that “Texas wrongfully convicted” him. But Baird’s order clearing Willingham’s name never became official, because a higher court halted the posthumous inquiry while it considered whether the judge had authority to examine the capital case.

7 May 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Police handcuff 12-year-old girl

originally by: The Voice
published: 6 May 2012

Police could be sued by a mother who says officers handcuffed her 12-year-old daughter during a raid in her home.

“We are in the process of taking legal action,” said Tina Ayres.

Ayres said her daughter was left traumatised on Monday (April 30) after officers barged into her home in Tottenham, north London and handcuffed her daughter.

Ayres said she was on her way to work in Haringey, north London when she got a distressing call from her daughter, Pasha Ayres- Solomon.

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18 April 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

‘A true horror story’: The abuse of teenage boys in a detention centre

originally by: The Guardian
published: 13 April 2012

“My name’s Kevin Raymond Young and I’m 52 years old.” There’s something desperate about the way Young says it, as if he’s clinging to the wreckage of his identity. Young was 17 when he was sent to Medomsley detention centre in County Durham. He’d already had a tough life – taken into care at two, sexually and physically abused by those who were meant to look after him – but this was something different. As soon as he starts to tell his story, he’s in tears.

His experience of Medomsley in 1977 has shaped, or disfigured, his life ever since. He was convicted of receiving stolen property – a watch his brother had given him; the first he had owned. The police asked if he knew where it had come from. No, he said. Could it possibly have been stolen, they asked. He thought about it – well, yes, possibly. He was sentenced to three months’ detention.