Lawrence killers lose appeal to challenge conviction

Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence

all credits: The Voice
published: 23 August 2012

The two men found guilty of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 have lost their first round of their attempt to challenge their convictions.

Gary Dobson and David Norris were jailed for life in January for the murdering the black teenager near a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London.

Dobson is serving a minimum of 15 years and two months, and David Norris 14 years and three months. Their applications for permission to appeal were rejected by a single Court of Appeal judge, who considered the papers from the case.

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Death of Chavis Carter ruled a suicide

originally by: theGrio
published: 20 August 2012

An autopsy report released Monday lists the death of a man shot in the head while his hands were cuffed behind him in an Arkansas patrol car as a suicide.

The state crime lab report, signed by three medical examiners, said the muzzle of a gun was placed against the right side of 21-year-old Chavis Carter’s head when it was fired. Jonesboro police released the report to The Associated Press and other news organizations under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The report said the manner of death was ruled a suicide based on autopsy findings and investigative conclusions from the Jonesboro police department.

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‘Lessons Will Be Learned’ after the death of Sean Rigg, say police

Police & Restraintoriginally by: The Platform  
published: 11 August 2012

The mealy-mouthed phrase ‘lessons will be learned’ seems to be  the last refuge of all senior police officers when caught out with no one else to blame and no other way to explain away a public scandal.

We heard it again on Newsnight (BBC2) on 1 August as Assistant Commissioner Simon Byrne, the second most senior officer at Scotland Yard, squirmed in his seat and comprehensively failed to convince anyone that his force had behaved ethically or honourably in relation to the squalid and eminently preventable death of Sean Rigg at Brixton Police Station in August 2008.

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