13 February 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Supreme Court ruling welcomed by rights organisations

Press Release by: INQUEST
8th February 2012

Hospitals must ensure that they take appropriate steps to prevent voluntary psychiatric patients from taking their own lives, according to a landmark judgment handed down today by the Supreme Court.

The unanimous ruling, which has been welcomed by leading mental health and human rights organisations, held that Pennine Care NHS Trust had a duty under article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights to protect the right to life of Melanie Rabone, and failed in this duty when she took her own life in April 2005.

Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind said:

Today’s judgment recognises that a positive duty is owed towards patients with mental health problems at times when they are most at risk of harm. The law now applies whether or not a patient has been formally detained.

7 January 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Lawrence convictions should be treated as new evidence of a ‘joint enterprise’

by: Society of Black Lawyers
released: January 2012

The Society of Black Lawyers is calling for the immediate prosecution of the three remaining men who are suspected of being involved in the racist murder of black teenager, Stephen Lawrence in 1993. The call follows the conviction and sentencing of David Norris and Gary Dobson who were both given life sentences at the Old Bailey today.

Norris was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years and three months and Dobson received 15 years and two months. Both were sentenced under old guidelines and as if they were juveniles because both were under 18 when the crime was committed.

1 January 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Capital punishment on the decline in Texas

originally by: Star-Telegram
published: 26th December 2011

The American public’s opinion on the death penalty has been changing steadily in the past 17 years. A 2011 Gallup Poll showed that 61 percent of people in the country favor capital punishment, down from 80 percent in 1994. A majority of Americans still believe that capital punishment is a justified and proportionate option for those who commit the most heinous premeditated crimes.

But they also believe that if the state is going to exact a punishment from which there is no turning back, the criminal justice system must be as fair as humanly possible.

And when jurors are given an effective alternative to a sentence of death — life without the possibility of parole — they use it.