Troy Davis files Supreme Court appeal

originally by: Macon.com
24th January 2011

Attorneys for Troy Anthony Davis are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a federal judge who decided last year the Georgia death row inmate failed to clear his name after getting a rare chance to prove his innocence. Davis’ latest appeal, filed Friday, says the U.S. District Court judge ordered by the Supreme Court to hear his innocence claim last year “evinced a clear hostility to Mr. Davis and his claims throughout the hearing.”

Davis has long said he could prove he was wrongly convicted of the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail if a court agreed to hear new evidence.

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New Cross Fire: 30th year anniversary

New Cross Fire
Image Credit: BBC News

On This Day – New Cross
BBC Archive

18th January 2011 will mark 30 years since the controversial fire that claimed many lives and left many questioning the quality of the police investigation into the deaths. There are those that say it was an accident and others, a deliberate racist attack the authorities couldn’t be bothered to investigate! The New Cross Fire was a devastating house fire which killed 13 young black people during a birthday party in New Cross, southeast London on Sunday January 18, 1981.

The black community were shocked by the indifference of the white population, and accused the London Metropolitan Police of covering up the cause, which they suspected was an arson attack motivated by racism; the protests arising out of the fire led to a mobilisation of black political activity.

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Praise for suspending Scott sisters’ sentences

Free the Scott Sisters
Free the Scott Sisters

originally published by: WAPT.com
29th December 2010

Gov. Haley Barbour met Thursday (23rd Dec 2010) with the NAACP, a day after he suspended the double life sentences for Jamie and Gladys Scott, sisters who have spent years in prison for a robbery that netted $11.00. “We all worked together to make justice work in this state,” said National NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. “I’m here to thank the people and the governor of Mississippi. When you are right, you are right. Gov. Barbour, you were right today.”

According to court records, the Scott sisters were found guilty in 1994 of luring two men down a road near Forest, where three young assailants used a shotgun to rob the men. Gladys Scott is now 36 years old and Jamie Scott is 38 years old.

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