12 December 201420 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Debra Jean Milke has murder charges dismissed

source: Daily Mail Online
published: 12 December 2014

In a scathing critique of Arizona’s criminal justice system, a state appeals court on Thursday ordered the dismissal of murder charges against a woman who spent 22 years on death row in her son’s killing.

The Arizona Court of Appeals said the charges against Debra Jean Milke in the 1989 death of her son Christopher can’t be refiled. A three-judge panel said it agrees with Milke’s argument that a retrial would amount to double jeopardy. The court held that prosecutors’ failure to turn over evidence that could have helped Milke’s defense was egregious, calling the actions ‘a severe stain on the Arizona justice system.’

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16 November 201420 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Jimmy Mubenga begged for his life before dying on deportation flight

source: IB Times
published: November 14, 2014

A teenager has told the Old Bailey how Angolan man Jimmy Mubenga pleaded for his life while he was “viciously” manhandled on a deportation flight out of Heathrow.

Mubenga, 46, was being deported to Africa after serving a two-year prison sentence for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was travelling on a Boeing 777 when he became agitated and had to be restrained by guards and handcuffed with his seat belt on.

4 November 201420 December 2022 4WardEverUK

G4S guards ignored deportee Jimmy Mubenga’s cries for help, court hears

source: The Guardian
published: 4 November 2014

Three G4S guards who forcibly restrained an Angolan man during his deportation ignored his repeated cries for help as they held him at the back of an aircraft before he died, a court heard on Tuesday.

Passengers on the plane on the runway at Heathrow airport heard Jimmy Mubenga, 46, shout “I can’t breathe” as the guards pinned him in his seat for more than 15 minutes, the jury was told at the beginning of the guards’ trial for manslaughter.

More than half an hour after the struggle began, Mubenga became “motionless and starry eyed”, the Old Bailey heard. He was taken off the aircraft and pronounced dead at hospital a short time later.

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