30 March 201015 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Coker Family Statement follows inquest

submitted by: Ken Fero
published: 3rd March 2010

The family of Paul Coker who died in police custody on 6th August 2005, today welcomed the verdict of the jury at Southwark Coroners’ Court which was highly critical of the care and treatment Mr Coker received from the police and the police doctor.

The jury found Mr Coker was suffering with a form of Excited Delirium (otherwise known as Acute Behavioural Disorder) which is a very serious condition and which can prove fatal unless treated straight away.

Police officers failed to recognise that Mr Coker was suffering with this condition and the jury found that this was because of failures in police training and also because of the failure of police officers to communicate properly with each other and with the police doctor.

30 March 201015 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Death row inmate protests his innocence more loudly each time execution is cancelled

originally published by: irishtimes.com
27th March 2010

Troy Davis fasted and prayed, chose his last visitors, and gave instructions for his own burial. “We had to order a hearse,” recalls Davis’s older sister, Martina Davis Correia. “It was parked in front of the prison door; our sister passed out when she saw it.

We were told we’d have to pay $1,000 for the autopsy. The state was about to kill Troy, and they didn’t know the cause of death? They told us we couldn’t witness the execution because they needed the chairs for the family of the victim . . .”

Davis, who is black, will turn 42 this year. He has spent more than half his life in prison for the murder of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty white policeman, a crime he has always denied.

4 March 201015 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Training of police officers criticised over cell death

originally published by: The BBC
3rd March 2010

Inadequate training and communication between officers led to them failing to recognise the condition of a cocaine addict who died in police custody.

Paul Coker died at Plumstead police station hours after he was arrested for breaching the peace at his girlfriend’s home in August 2005, an inquest heard. He told officers “I can’t breathe, you’re killing me”, during the arrest.

The inquest jury at Southwark Coroner’s Court found officers did not recognise the “symptoms of excited delirium.”Two hours after his arrest at Lucy Chadwick’s house in south-east London, Mr Coker, 32, became unwell and collapsed after being transported to cells, the inquest heard. Selena Lynch, the assistant deputy coroner, told jurors that a pathologist’s report gave the cause of death as cocaine intoxication.