4WardEverUK

Government ‘supports Carty clemency bid’

Linda Carty
Linda Carty

all credits: The Press Association
8th July 2010

The Government is prepared to do “anything that is necessary” to help a British grandmother who is on death row in Texas for killing a young mother. Linda Carty, 51, was convicted in 2002 over the abduction and murder of a 25-year-old woman after a trial which supporters say was “catastrophically flawed”.

The US Supreme Court decided in May not to review the case which means that Carty’s legal options have been exhausted. But security minister Baroness Neville-Jones said on Thursday at question time in the House of Lords that the Government was doing everything it could to support her attempts to get clemency.

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Oscar Grant shooting: officer found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

Oscar Grant
Oscar Grant

all credits: The Guardian
9th July 2010

A white police officer who shot dead a black man in a controversial case in Oakland, California, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The family of Oscar Grant, the victim, expressed their disappointment with the outcome. They had been hoping for a murder verdict.

Grant, 22, was shot in the back by policeman Johannes Mehserle, 28, while lying on the platform in a railway station on 1 January 2009. Mehserle claimed he had thought he had his Taser in his hand rather than his gun.

The shooting, which was shown on YouTube, led to a riot in Oakland, and there were fears of further trouble if Mehserle had been found not guilty. Police were yesterday deployed in riot gear in case of any outbreaks of violence.

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Child custody restraint manual is to be released in full

Office Binderoriginally published by: Children’s Rights Alliance
date unknown

After three years of secrecy and resistance, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) has agreed to hand over the instructors’ manual which governs the use of physical restraint in the country’s four privately-run child prisons.

This victory for child protection comes days before the YJB and Ministry of Justice were set to argue at an Information Tribunal appeal hearing that handing over the document would pose a serious risk to prison security and public safety.

The YJB was appealing against an order by the Information Commissioner in December 2009 that the document be given to the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE).

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