Poli-Tricks and Just-Ice

Zimbabwe Vote Rigging
originally published: 4th July 2008
all credits: Sky News

Secret footage showing how Robert Mugabe's supporters rigged Zimbawe's elections has been uncovered.

A prison guard working in Harare central jail used a hidden camera to capture images of people being forced to fill in their ballot papers in front of Zanu-PF officials. Having passed the video to The Guardian newspaper, Shepherd Yuda, 36, then fled the country with his wife and children.

He hoped the footage would help draw further attention to the violence and corruption in Zimbabwe - to which he lost his uncle, who was an opposition supporter, two months ago. Using a hidden camera, Yuda filmed the days running up to the run-off election in which Mugabe claimed victory with 90% of the vote.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) leader, had earlier said his party would not be participating in the run-off because of intimidation. "I had never seen that kind of violence before," said Yuda, of the run-up to the election. "How can a government that claimed to be democratically elected kill its people, murder its people, torture its people?" Yuda filmed prison officers having to fill out of their forms in front of Zanu-PF supporters. He also shot rallies where voters were told they should pretend to be illiterate so that an official could fill in their ballot for them on behalf of Mugabe. He was able to film the MDC's general secretary, Tendai Biti, in leg irons in jail.

Biti, now on bail, faces treason charges which carry the death penalty. He said of leaving the country: "I don't regret doing this, although it is a painful decision I have taken. "We can live without the memories of seeing dead bodies in the prison, dead bodies in the street, dead bodies in my family. "I've lost my uncle. My father was also beaten by Zanu-PF. I am praying to God: please God deal with Zanu-PF ruthlessly."

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Investigator Blasts U.S. Justice System
30th June 2003

After a two-week fact-finding tour of U.S. prison and detention facilities, a U.N. human rights investigator has blasted the administration of President George W. Bush for a rash of shortcomings in the country's flawed justice system and continued violations of the rule of law.

Unleashing a stinging barrage of attacks, Professor Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary and arbitrary executions, singles out the existence of racism in the application of the death penalty in the United States, and the lack of transparency in the deaths of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility housing suspected terrorists.

Full Report >
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Plea to Texas Courts

Appeals Court Weighs Plea to 'Correct Miscarriage of Justice'
28th March 2008

Nearly 10 years after Rodney Reed was convicted of murder and condemned to die, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals now is tasked with deciding whether he should receive a new trial.

Reed's lawyers, including former CCA Judge Morris Overstreet and former Texas Defender Service attorney Bryce Benjet; argue that if Reed's Bastrop jury had known of the available evidence in the case, it would not have convicted Reed of the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites. "If a jury had the opportunity to review all of the evidence, they would've made a different decision," Overstreet told reporters outside the CCA building on March 20. "This court can do what it needs to do to correct a miscarriage of justice."

Reed was convicted of killing 19-year-old Stites, a Giddings resident, as she drove to work for an early-morning shift at the Bastrop HEB on April 23, 1996. Stites was strangled with a belt and her body dumped alongside a country road just north of town; the red pickup truck she was driving – which belonged to her fiancé, Jimmy Fennell, then a Giddings Police officer – was found in the parking lot of Bastrop High School.

Although DNA evidence on Stites' body eventually led investigators to Reed, who acknowledged having an affair with Stites, no other evidence tied Reed to the crime. Reed's supporters argue that Fennell is a far more likely suspect because he was upset about Reed and Stites' relationship.

In fact, although the state claims that Fennell was initially a suspect, documents in the case reflect that police never seriously pursued him: They failed to process fully for evidence from his pickup truck and instead returned it to him within days of the murder. Moreover, they never searched the apartment Stites and Fennell shared, even though it was the last place Stites was known to be alive.

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Death Penalty "Walk 4 Life"

International Human Rights Activist to "Walk 4 Life" to Abolish the Death Penalty

Andre Latallade, also known as Capital-"X" will walk from Trenton New Jersey, approximately 1,700 miles to the Governors mansion in Texas in an attempt to bring awareness to the death penalty.

The death penalty has recently been abolished in New Jersey, and Texas is known as "the busiest killing state." He is trying to "build a bridge between the two groups of victims, the executed, and their families and the victims and families of violent crimes."

Andre says "separated we call for life or death, I say we unite and call for solutions." He asks that life without parole be called for as opposed to the death sentence. Currently all executions are "on hold" while the Supreme Court rules whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual.

The walk will begin on March 31, 2008 approximately 5PM. Latallade estimates it will take around 54 days walking 8 hours a day minimum, about 3.5 mph. He will take one break for 3 days about one-third of the way to participate in the Hip Hop Association's HHEAL Festival in the Bronx, New York. Latallade is a hip hop artist himself and is known by the name of Capital-"X" on stage. Andre has created a video about his "Walk 4 Life." Andre will walk through 10 of the 12 highest executing states.

Latallade said "I think it can bring unity. Unite everybody that is fighting injustice, and keep that unity till the end. Can we make this big enough to apply international pressure on the USA?" He says "I have Italy behind me as well as London organizations, France, Denmark and Croatia. I am reaching out to Puerto Rico." Various non profit organizations, human rights groups, and other abolitionists support Andre on his "Walk 4 Life."

Capital-"X" will try to raise funds to educate people on the death penalty, and monies raised from this event will be donated to murder victim's families and abolitionist groups.

Anyone interested in supporting "X" and uniting in this cause to Stop Capital Punishment, can email Andre at this address: projectrevolution2010@gmail.com

Donations much appreciated.

Visit the Walk4Life video blog >

News Digest (Society)

US police 'dumped paralysed man'
13th February 2008

Four US sheriff's deputies have been suspended after deliberately dumping a quadriplegic man out of his wheelchair to search him, officials have said.
Brian Sterner was tipped onto the floor of the Florida police station after being arrested over a driving offence.

Unable to walk since a 1994 accident, he has only partial use of his arms and no feeling below the sternum. The incident in January was caught on a CCTV camera in the jail in Hillsborough County, which incorporates Tampa.

Charlette Marshall-Jones, the deputy who actually forced the man from the chair, has been suspended without pay.

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Get prisoners into open jails, governors told as cells fill up
12th February 2008

Prison governors have been told to move as many inmates as possible to open jails as an emergency response to the latest surge in prisoner numbers, which have reached a new record of 81,681 in England and Wales.

The Prison Service has had to declare the system "house full" for the first time since last June in the face of a population rise of more than 400 since the start of this month as a result of a sudden increase in short-sentence and remand prisoners.

Prison Service managers last week crowded 375 prisoners into emergency police cells, with dozens more held overnight in court cells pressed into service in London and Mansfield for three nights. Conditions in the west London court cells have been criticised by Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons.

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4WardEver UK Launches 'OutCry'

4WardEver UK launches a new service in February 2008

OutCry International

www.outcry-international.moonfruit.com

The interactive website for families affected by deaths and abuses in custody including police, secure units, prisons and death row.

Subscribers get their campaign listed, and can chat live and share their news to fellow campaigners and families worldwide using the chat and blog/news facilities.

• Provides a shared blog where families can quickly and easily post their own news, updates and photos
• Has a live chat messaging service so families and campaign activists can chat in real time 24 hours a day across the globe
• Members can post details of events, meetings and memorials etc in the OutCry calendar
• A shared email bulletin service. Members just submit their information to 4WardEver and it is circulated on the site members listing

Sign-up up for FREE membership

We are trialling this site for approximately 1 year – continuation will be based upon popularity and demand of the service

“Together we are stronger”

Death Row Briton 'Innocent'

Death Row Briton 'Innocent And Angry'

A Scottish man who spent more than 20 years on death row has hit back at the family of the girl he was accused of killing, who told him he would "burn in hell".

Kenny Richey made the comments to Sky News presenter Kay Burley in his first TV interview since being released from jail in the US.

The 43-year-old, who once came within an hour of execution, was freed after reaching a plea deal over the arson attack in which two-year-old Cynthia Collins died.

When asked for his reaction to an outburst from the toddler's aunt who told him "you will burn in hell", he said: "She'll be burning there first long before I will.

"I've got nothing to burn in hell for and as far as there being a hell, there is no hell anyway, this is hell.

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On its Sixth Anniversary, Calls Resound Worldwide for Closure of Guantanamo Bay Prison

Source: Democracy Now

Over 800 men and boys, so-called “enemy combatants,” have been held without charge at Guantanamo since January 11, 2002.

We speak to Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. We’re also joined by London-based writer Mogib Hassan. His cousin, Fawaz Mahdi, was jailed in Guantanamo for over five years. He was released in June but has been suffering severe psychological problems and has tried committing suicide several times.

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Recent News Headline:
21st December 2007

Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Deghayes has spent his first night of freedom at home after more than four years at the US detention camp.
See Video/Audio Footage >

Justice for Kenny Richey - Released, coming home to Scotland

Home for Christmas - Briton free after 20 years on death row

A Briton who has spent 20 years on death row in an American prison will be freed today, his lawyer said yesterday.

Kenny Richey, 43, once came within an hour of being executed but has agreed a plea deal that will allow him to come home to Edinburgh. Richey was put on death row in January 1987 after being convicted of starting a fire in which Cynthia Collins, aged 2, died. His conviction was overturned this year.

Human rights campaigners welcomed the news of his pending release, with his lawyer describing it as a "complete victory". Ken Parsigian, his lawyer, said: "It is the greatest Christmas present that I or Kenny could have asked for. Kenny is excited and he is thrilled. He is a little nervous as he now has to find a way to get back into the real world."

He is expected to fly from Ohio to Edinburgh tomorrow. He left his mother's home in Edinburgh aged 18 to live with his American father.

At a court hearing today he will plead no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering. He will be sentenced to time already served. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but a statement that no defence will be presented. It is treated as a guilty plea by the courts.

Karen Torley, his former fiancée, who helped to lead the fight for his freedom, said: "It was something I had always expected to happen. I just did not expect it to happen now. I am delighted for him and his family. It was always a disgrace that the Ohio justice system found Kenny guilty in the way it did and totally shocking that they put him on death row then fought tooth and nail to keep him there. The authorities have effectively accepted that they never had a case in the first place."

During Richey's trial, prosecutors had claimed that he started the fire as a jealous attack on his former girlfriend and her new lover, who lived in the flat below. Richey always protested his innocence and refused a plea bargain that would have led to an 11-year sentence for arson and manslaughter.

On August 10 the Cincinnati Court of Appeal overturned his sentence. He was moved from the notorious Mansfield Correctional Institution in September to the low-security Putnam County Prison.

Clive Stafford Smith, a director of Reprieve, which campaigns against the death penalty, said: "An innocent man gets a death sentence because he had an incompetent lawyer at trial, his conviction is reversed two decades later, and then he has to enter a plea to avoid a second death sentence. It was the right thing to do - nobody can expect him to trust a system that already got it so terribly wrong - but it's an insane process nevertheless."

Kate Allen, of Amnesty International UK, said: "He now joins the ranks of those released from American death-row prisons when they should never have been there in the first place."

Source for this article: The Times, Thursday 20th December 2007

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3076029.ece

News Digest (July 07)

Woman died after one police shot

A woman shot by a police marksman after a stand-off in a Kent market town died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, an inquest has been told. Ann Sanderson, 37, was shot after police received reports of a woman armed with a gun in Sevenoaks in the early hours of Monday.

DNA of under-10s on government database
The DNA fingerprints of more than 100 children aged under 10 are stored on a government database despite their being younger than the age of criminal responsibility, it emerged today.

Prison suicides up to two a week as jail numbers soar
Suicides in prisons have risen to two a week, with 43 so far this year as overcrowding in England and Wales bites more deeply, the chief inspector of prisons told MP's last night.

Family sues MoD over Iraq death
The family of an Iraqi man who was beaten to death while in British military custody are suing the Ministry of Defence. Lawyers for the children and father of Baha Mousa, say they are looking for "hundreds of thousands of pounds" in damages.

Ministers lose manslaughter vote
The government has been defeated in the Lords over plans to exclude prisons from its Corporate Manslaughter Bill. Peers voted by a majority of 91 to reinstate their amendment saying the offence of corporate manslaughter must apply to people who die in custody.

Police & Prisons in the News

Four guards cleared of jail death

Four prison officers charged over the death of an inmate have been cleared. Michael Bailey, 23, from Birmingham , was found dead at Rye Hill prison on the border of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire in March 2005. Daniel Daymond, 23, and Samantha Prime, 29, both of Rugby, and Paul Smith, 39, from Warrington, were cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence.

See Central News Video Clip >>

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Pressure Builds to Close UK Women's Prisons

Following the deaths of six women in one year at a women's prison in England , pressure has been building to close the facilities. Last week an independent commission echoed a reform group's critical report in August. Sarah Campbell was, at 18, the youngest of six women who died between August 2002 and August 2003 at Her Majesty's Prison Styal, a women's prison in Cheshire in Northwest England.

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Gung-ho cops in terrifying raid

Brick lane residents are furious after police mounted a heavy handed anti-terror style raid even though the operation had no connection with terrorism. Cops stormed several homes near Brick Lane in London's east-end, dressed in full riot gear and brandishing powerful automatic pistols on 28th March.

"Racism doesn't matter" say judges

Judges have ruled that victims of racism cannot defend themselves no matter how serious the abuse.

The bizarre Appeal Court judgement came in an today in the case of Farouq Kamara, who was jailed for 13 years last August after trying to protect his family against a racist attack.

The father-of-six and his family suffering six years of horrific race attacks in the Hampshire village of Stubbington, near Portsmouth.
Mr Kamara, 46, has always insisted that he was going to use the Rossi 22 calibre handgun to commit suicide after racist locals turned his life into a living hell.

But when village youths launched yet another violent attack on his wife and children last March the Manchester-born IT expert threatened to kill the yobs.
Yet Mr Kamara did not brandished the pistol in public, let alone pulled the trigger, and had never physically assaulted anyone.
His family suffering hundreds of race attacks since moving to the village and claim they were offered little protection from the police.

The devout Muslim pleaded guilty to charges of possessing an illegal firearm and ammunition, which was discovered under a tree, and he was sentenced to 13 years, with an order that he serve a minimum of five years.

Judge Hooton, sentencing him at Winchester Crown Court last August, did not made any reference to the campaign of racial abuse when sentencing his client. But today (29 June) at the Appeal Court, Lord Justice Scott Baker and Justice Mitting denied Mr Kamara permission to appeal against his sentence.

The judges rejected claims that the jail term was too harsh because the 'exceptional circumstances' of race attacks had not been taken into account.
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