Police neglected cell death man, says jury

originally by: BBC News
18th May 2011

Failures by custody staff at Bath police station contributed directly to the death of a man found drunk in the street, an inquest has found. Mark Graeme Read, 39, who was taken into custody for his own safety, choked to death on his own vomit. The jury at Flax Bourton Coroner’s Court returned a verdict of accidental death contributed to by neglect. Avon and Somerset Police said it had now implemented recommendations for improving its custody practice.

Mr Read, from Frome, in Somerset, had been out celebrating the birth of his seven-week-old daughter when he was arrested for being drunk in 2008.

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.