13 April 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Campaigner: ‘Pressure cuts deaths in custody’

originally by: Socialist Worker Online
published: 13th April 2011

Tippa Naphtali is the cousin of Mikey Powell, who died in police custody in 2003. He spoke to Socialist Worker

“Smiley Culture’s case should be a spark to help light up the issue of deaths in custody. I’m one year younger than him. I had the privilege to meet him. He was such an icon in the 1980s and 1990s, I looked up to him back in the day.

Because no other victim of death in custody has been as high profile a figure, as sad as it is, we need to use the opportunity. We need to raise the fact that this has been going on for a long time.

There is remarkable little mention of deaths in custody in the media. We have to keep it in the limelight. One difficulty for families is that there is lots of support in the early days then it dies away. It is important to keep pushing.

2 April 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Metropolitan Police apology over Daniel Morgan murder

originally by: BBC News
31st March 2011

Scotland Yard has apologised to the family of a private detective killed in south-east London in 1987, for a corrupt investigation into his death. Daniel Morgan, 37, was found with an axe in his head in Sydenham but nobody has ever been convicted of murder. Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin told a Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) meeting “failings” by officers. The entire legal case collapsed this month.

Mr Morgan’s family has called for a full judicial inquiry. The father-of-two from Monmouthshire was found with an axe in his skull in a car park outside the Golden Lion pub. Five people were arrested in 2008 but none was ever convicted.

2 April 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Supreme Court declines case of Troy Davis

originally by: The Christian Science Monitor
published: 28th March 2011

The US Supreme Court on dismissed the appeal of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis, whose loud and persistent claims of innocence attracted the support of death penalty opponents around the world and forced a series of extra hearings to investigate his case. In the end, court after court rejected his pleas.

On Monday the high court, without comment, dismissed three appeals filed on Mr. Davis’s behalf. The action opens the way for Georgia authorities to set an execution date. Davis was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1989 shooting death of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail. He’s been on death row since 1991.