Death row Briton pleas to US Supreme Court

Linda Cartyoriginally published by: The BBC
26th February 2010

A British grandmother on death row in Texas is lodging a last-ditch appeal with the US Supreme Court.

Linda Carty, 51, faces execution within months unless the court agrees to rehear her abduction and murder case. A video plea in support of Carty, who was born on St Kitts to parents from the British territory of Anguilla, will be submitted to the court.

Campaigners say her conviction in 2002 for the murder of a 25-year-old woman was “catastrophically flawed”. The appeal from her legal team will be made alongside a document from the British government outlining its concerns over her sentence.

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Abu-Jamal generates support worldwide

Mumia Abu-Jamaloriginally published by: AFRIK.COM
19th February 2010

Many, like Victor Toro from Chile, see Abu-Jamal’s legal battles as symbolizing struggles of oppressed people worldwide. “For us, Mumia is our Mandela. He is a political prisoner and a revolutionary,” said Toro, who was expelled from Chile in 1976 due to his activism against the notorious dictator Augusto Pinochet – whose U.S.-backed regime tortured Toro and his wife.

“In America there is racism and violence against people of color,” Toro said recently during a Philadelphia event for Abu-Jamal, the former radio reporter and Black Panther Party (BPP) member from 1968 to 1970 during his mid-teenage years.

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The life of a death penalty lawyer

Legal Hammeroriginally published by: New York Times
11th February 2010

Toward the beginning of “The Auto­biography of an Execution,” David Dow relaxes after a speech with the celebrated death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean. “It was the first time I went drinking with a nun.”

Prejean tells Dow, who has represented more than 100 death row inmates over 20 years, that “support for the death penalty is a mile wide, but just an inch deep.” Dow responds: “Well, Sister, I believe you can drown in an inch of water.” This book is Dow’s effort to drain the puddle.

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