29 January 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

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.

29 January 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

SERCO and youth justice agencies condemned for unlawful treatment of vulnerable boy

originally by: INQUEST
27th January 2011

The jury at the second inquest into the death of 14 year old Adam Rickwood in Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham on 8 August 2004 today returned a damning narrative verdict criticising failings by Serco, the private company running Hassockfield, the Youth Justice Board, Prison Service restraint trainers and the Lancashire Youth Offending Team.

Following today’s verdict, Adam Rickwood’s mother Carol Pounder said:

“Nothing can bring Adam back. I have waited over six years for truth and justice. All I have ever wanted is to find out the truth about what happened to my son and for those responsible for unlawful assaults to be held to account”.

11 January 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Illinois votes to abolish death penalty

originally by: Chicago Tribune
5th January 2011

The death penalty would be abolished in Illinois under legislation the House approved for the first time Thursday, but the ban’s fate is uncertain in the final days of the General Assembly’s lame-duck session. The historic vote comes 10 years after then-Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on the death penalty following revelations that several people sent to death row were not guilty.

The capital punishment ban still has some hurdles to clear. But the vote represented a growing recognition that DNA and improved technology in criminal science have exposed an uncertainty in verdicts that cannot be reversed once a death sentence is carried out.