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69815950 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Charlise%20Mutten | Killing of Charlise Mutten | Charlise Mutten, a nine-year-old Australian girl, allegedly disappeared from the Wildenstein Estate wedding venue at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains area of New South Wales, Australia on 13 January 2022. Mutten, who lived with her grandmother in Coolangatta, Queensland was visiting her mother, Kallista Mutten, and her mother's fiance, Justin Stein, at the property, which is owned by Stein's family. The child's body was discovered on 18 January, about 65 km from Mount Wilson. Stein has been charged with her murder.
Family background
Charlise Mutten had lived with her maternal grandmother at Coolangatta since she was five years old. Her parents had split up soon after she was born and she did not have ongoing contact with her father. Her mother Kallista had been jailed for three years after being convicted of dangerous driving occasioning death and driving with an illicit substance in her system. Her mother's fiancé, Justin Stein, was released on parole in November 2020 from a six-and-a-half year sentence for drug possession in 2016. His family owns the Wildenstein Estate. The couple corresponded for the last two years of Kallista's prison sentence, and were engaged soon after her release. They had been engaged for 13 months at the time of Charlise's disappearance.
Disappearance
Mutten was allegedly last seen on the afternoon of 13 January, however, her disappearance was not reported to police until the next day. A wide search by emergency services over five days failed to find her. Neighbours told police they saw a car leaving the resort without headlights at about 4.30 am on 14 January.
Body discovered and murder charge
On 18 January, police discovered the child's body in a barrel near the Colo River, about one hour from Mount Wilson. Stein was arrested at his home in Surry Hills and charged with murder. On 13 January he had tried unsuccessfully to launch a boat at several locations after buying five 20 kg bags of sand. His vehicle was subsequently tracked to Colo River using GPS and CCTV records. The vehicle, a red Holden Colorado ute towing a boat, was sighted at Marsden Park, Drummoyne, Windsor and Colo River. A large object in the tray of the ute was no longer present after the ute left Colo River.
Police allege that Mutten was killed on either 11 or 12 January when she was left alone with Stein while her mother stayed overnight at a caravan park, also owned by Stein's family. Police confirmed that Charlise died from a gunshot wound from a small-calibre firearm.
Stein is being held on remand at Silverwater prison. His next court appearance is due on 18 March 2022.
Media identification
The Mutten case has highlighted a New South Wales law which is harsher than every other state. From the time that the accused is charged with a crime involving a child, the child’s name, and any information identifying them, can no longer be reported. This is despite the child's name being widely circulated during the earlier search for her. In Mutten's case, a senior family member had to give the media permission to identify her.
See also
List of solved missing person cases
References
2020s missing person cases
Crime in Australia
Deaths by firearm
Formerly missing people
Incidents of violence against girls
January 2022 crimes
Missing person cases in Australia |
69983847 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Amir%20Locke | Killing of Amir Locke | Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black American man, was fatally shot on February 2, 2022, by a SWAT officer of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation.
The shooting is under review by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Hennepin County attorney's office, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey imposed a moratorium on most no-knock warrants on February 4.
Background
Persons involved
Amir Locke was a 22-year-old Black man born in Maplewood, Minnesota, and raised in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul suburbs. According to his mother, Locke was starting a music career and planned to move to Dallas the following week.
Mark Hanneman has been a police officer in Minneapolis since 2015. He is a member of the Minneapolis Police Department's SWAT team. According to personnel records released by the department, Hanneman had three past complaints, all closed without disciplinary action. Prior to working with the police department, Hanneman was employed as a police officer in Hutchinson, Minnesota, starting in 2010.
Search warrant
Locke was shot while police were executing a search warrant in relation to a homicide that occurred in nearby Saint Paul, Minnesota, in January 2022. The Saint Paul Police Department applied for a "knock and announce" warrant, and the Minneapolis police department insisted on a no-knock warrant, according to the St. Paul Police Department. Police also had "probable cause pick up and holds" for three people. Amir Locke was not named in the search warrant and was not a target of the homicide investigation.
Incident
On February 2, 2022, police unlocked and opened a door to an apartment at approximately 6:48 a.m. Police body camera footage reviewed by reporters "showed several officers quickly rushing into the apartment at the same time", several yelling "Police! Search warrant!", one officer yelling "Hands, hands!", and another yelling "Get on the ground!" Locke was lying on a couch wrapped in a blanket, and an officer kicked the couch. Locke then sat up and turned toward the officers while holding a gun, and in a still image released by police, his trigger finger is along the barrel of the gun. He was then shot twice in the chest and once in the wrist by Hanneman. The time from when police entered the unit, to when Locke was shot, was less than 10 seconds.
Locke was treated at the scene and transported to Hennepin Healthcare, where emergency medics pronounced him dead at 7:01 a.m.
Investigations
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension opened an investigation and Hanneman was placed on paid administrative leave.
An autopsy report published on February 4 by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner classified the manner of Locke's death to be homicide due to gunshot wounds.
The office of the Attorney General of Minnesota will work with the Hennepin County attorney's office to review the case. Prosecutors will determine whether to bring criminal charges against Mark Hanneman.
No-knock warrant policy moratorium and review
Following the killing of Amir Locke, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey imposed a moratorium on no-knock warrants on February 4, with an exception for "an imminent threat of harm to an individual or the public and then the warrant must be approved by the Chief", such as hostage situations or extreme domestic violence. Racial justice activist DeRay Mckesson and professor of police studies Peter Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University will work with the city to review possible changes to the no-knock warrant policy during the moratorium.
On February 7, the Minneapolis City Council Policy and Government Oversight Committee began discussion about no-knock warrants. Minnesota legislators also plan to consider a ban on most no-knock warrants, and Governor Tim Walz has indicated he will sign the legislation. The Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct Review is also reviewing the no-knock warrant policy.
Reaction
Family
The parents of Amir Locke said the death was an "execution". His parents also stated their son did not live at the apartment. The family said Amir was "a deep sleeper" and may have been startled and "grabbed for his gun". The family also said he had a gun license and a concealed carry permit, and had a gun for protection due to his work for DoorDash.
Minnesota attorney Jeff Storms and civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci are representing Locke's family as legal counsel. On February 4, Crump stated, "If we've learned anything from Breonna Taylor, it's that we know no-knock warrants have deadly consequences for Black American citizens." At a press conference on February 7, Crump stated, "Warrants create chaotic, confusing circumstances that put everyone present at risk and those people are disproportionately marginalized people of color."
On February 10, family members of Locke and Breonna Taylor held a press conference with Crump, Storms, and Romanucci, and called for a ban on no-knock warrants.
Officials
On February 3, Minneapolis interim police chief Amelia Huffman said both a knock and no-knock warrant were obtained as part of a St. Paul Police Department homicide investigation so the SWAT team could make its best assessment, and that it was "unclear" if Locke was connected to the St. Paul investigation. A spokesperson for the police department refused to comment due to the ongoing nature of the homicide investigation. Body camera footage was released to the public after Representative Ilhan Omar and members of the Minnesota House of Representatives called for the immediate release of the footage.
Based on a still shot from the body cam footage, Huffman stated "That's the moment when the officer had to make a split-second decision to assess [...] an articulable threat, that the threat was of imminent harm, great bodily harm or death, and that he needed to take action" to protect himself and other officers. Huffman also stated, "Ultimately, that decision of whether that threshold was met will be examined by the county attorney's office that reviews this case." Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison stated "Amir Locke's life mattered" when it was announced that his office will work with the Hennepin County attorney's office in its review.
Minnesota Representative Esther Agbaje, who resides in the building where Locke was shot and was home at the time, said "We need to continue to have a serious conversation about what does policing look like in this city, so it's safe—not only for the police officers but also for the people who live here." Minnesota House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler said, "Minnesotans deserve a thorough and impartial investigation into the events that led to Mr. Locke's death, including the Minneapolis Police Department sharing inaccurate information in the immediate aftermath."
Community groups
On February 2, local civil rights activists held a vigil and asked police and city leaders for more information, including who authorized the SWAT team. On February 4, during a press conference by Interim Chief Amelia Huffman and Mayor Jacob Frey after the body camera footage was released, reporters and community members, including civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, challenged Huffman about her initial description of the body camera footage. Huffman had initially stated officers "loudly and repeatedly announced police search warrant before crossing the threshold into the apartment" and then later encouraged people to "make their own assessment" after the footage was released.
On February 7, the Minneapolis NAACP called for a moratorium on no-knock warrants throughout the state, "pending a determination by the Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Board as to whether the no-knock procedure is an appropriate use of police power". The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted a lack of a police command to Locke to drop the gun or a warning that he would be shot. The ACLU of Minnesota called for a ban on no-knock warrants.
According to Rob Doar, the senior vice president of governmental affairs in the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, "Mr. Locke did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances, he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening." According to the Chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, Bryan Strawser, "Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure." A statement from the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, the local police union, includes: "Policing, particularly with a SWAT team, is a dangerous, high-stress profession where officers are forced to make important split-second decisions in defense of themselves and fellow officers, especially when weapons are involved".
Protests
In Minneapolis—Saint Paul
On the evening of February 4, protesters in cars began honking outside Minneapolis City Hall and then moved through downtown towards where the shooting occurred, until about 8:00 p.m. On February 5, hundreds of people in Minneapolis protested Locke's death. On February 6, protesters gathered outside Huffman's home in the Cedar-Isles-Dean neighborhood of Minneapolis to demand her resignation.
On February 8, high school students in St. Paul and Minneapolis organized by MN Teen Activists walked out of class in protest and marched to the residence of the governor. Jerome Treadwell, the executive director of MN Teen Activists, stated, "Our message today is that we need to protect young black lives. We are humans, we deserve to live and we have hopes and dreams."
On February 11, a protest of approximately 100 people marched through south Minneapolis during the evening to demand justice over the police killings of Amir Locke and Winston Boogie Smith, who had been killed by law enforcement on June 3, 2021. Along Lake Street, several properties were vandalized and tagged with anti-police and anarchist graffiti. Some demonstrators threw rocks at the Minneapolis Police Department's fifth precinct station building.
On February 16, approximately 40 protesters gathered outside the home of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to demand justice over Locke's death.
On February 20, protesters gathered outside the Minnesota State Capitol building in Saint Paul for a "Justice for Amir Locke" rally.
Elsewhere
In Chicago, Illinois, a protest over Locke's death was held on February 11—the first protest in that city over his death.
In Portland, Oregon, protesters planned a demonstration for February 19 in response to the police killings of Amir Locke and Patrick Kimmons, who was fatally shot by Portland police officers in 2018. As people gathered for the demonstration, five people were injured by gunfire, and one woman was killed during a nearby shooting in Normandale Park.
See also
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, February 2022
List of killings by law enforcement officers in Minnesota
2020–2022 United States racial unrest
2020–2022 Minneapolis–Saint Paul racial unrest
Notes
References
External links
Minneapolis public data, "February 2, 2022 officer-involved shooting"
2022 controversies in the United States
2020s in Minneapolis
Filmed deaths in the United States
Minneapolis Police Department
Filmed killings by law enforcement
African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
No-knock warrant |
70000653 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Jay%20Abatan | Killing of Jay Abatan | Jay Abatan died in hospital in January 1999 following an altercation outside the Ocean Rooms nightclub in Brighton, UK. Abatan had been celebrating a promotion at work when a row over a taxi resulted in several men assaulting him and his brother. He was seriously injured and died in hospital five days later. Two men were charged with manslaughter but were not prosecuted, then two separate reviews of the investigation made by Sussex Police reported major errors and the killing was later announced to have been racially motivated. The family of Abatan campaigned for justice, supported by local Members of Parliament. In 2010, an inquest was held and returned a verdict of unlawful killing. A vigil was held outside Brighton police station in January 2022.
Killing
Jay Abatan was born in England and moved to Nigeria when he was six years old. He moved back to England at the age of 18 and became an accountant, working first for the Inland Revenue and then for PricewaterhouseCoopers. He lived in Eastbourne and was engaged to be married with his partner; they had two children together, aged 8 and 9. On the night of 23 January 1999, he went out in Brighton with his brother Michael Abatan and another friend to celebrate his promotion at work to senior tax advisor. They went to a wine bar, then to the Ocean Rooms nightclub on Morley Street in Carlton Hill. At 2:30 am, they left the club and called a taxi. A taxi arrived and the three believed it was for them, so they asked the two men inside it to get out. An altercation started with those men and others, in which the two brothers were assaulted. Jay Abatan was punched two times in the face and fell over, fracturing his skull on the pavement. His brother was kicked and punched as he tried to help him. The attackers then drove off in the taxi.
Jay Abatan regained consciousness in the ambulance, then slipped into a coma and was taken to the intensive care unit at the hospital. He died of his injuries five days later. Michael Abatan survived the assault and began a campaign for justice; Abatan's family was convinced that the attack had been racially motivated. Michael Abatan commented in 2019 "all the people that got hit that day were mixed race. No white people got hit.". Two men were quickly arrested by Sussex Police and charged with manslaughter, then the charge was dropped for lack of evidence. They were also charged with affray and causing actual bodily harm of Michael Abatan, and at trial by jury they were found not guilty. The judge did not tell the jury that Jay Abatan had been killed in the attack. One of the two former suspects committed suicide in 2003 and the same year the Abatan family and Sussex Police offered a reward of £175,000 for any help in finding the killers.
Legacy
After the Abatan family pressured for more information about what had happened, an investigation by another force, Essex Police, ran from July 1999 until December 2000. It found that there had been 57 serious errors made by Sussex Police, which included not taking the details of witnesses and not setting up a crime scene. Recommendations made by the Macpherson Report about the murder of Stephen Lawrence had not been followed. Sussex Police refused to release the full report, but parts were leaked to the press, leading to the force offering a public apology to the Abatan family and stating for the first time that the killing was racially motivated.
Sussex Police replaced the entire investigation team with 36 new detectives and launched a new enquiry. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) invited a second report from Avon and Somerset Police, led by Ken Jones, which again found that Sussex Police had made serious mistakes. Jones then became Chief constable of Sussex Police and promised to keep the family informed, although the force then refused to release the IPCC report. It also did not authorise an inquest.
In 2005, three police officers were disciplined for blunders they had made. A detective superintendent was found guilty of five misconduct charges and was docked nine days' pay; later in the year, two detective inspectors were found guilty of misconduct. Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, commented that the errors made by Sussex Police demonstrated that "institutional racism was alive and well in Britain today".
The family continued to campaign for justice, supported by local Members of Parliament Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) and Des Turner (Brighton Kemptown). Bottomley supported the Justice for Jay campaign and Turner tabled an early day motion in 2007. In October 2010, an inquest was held after pressure from Abatan's family. The coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, saying that Abatan had been assaulted with two punches to the face in a fight which was "entirely unprovoked and entirely unexplained". The head of the Sussex Criminal Investigation Department told the inquest that the police had interviewed 750 people, including 47 out of a total 49 visitors to the Ocean Rooms who had been identified from CCTV footage.
It emerged in 2014 that a serving police officer had been drinking at Ocean Rooms with the two men who were charged with manslaughter, a fact which had not been previously disclosed; Michael Abatan said that he no longer trusted the police. In response, Sussex Police said there was no evidence that a police officer had been involved in the attack and that the investigation had been closed in 2013.
In 2020, Jay Abatan was remembered at a Black Lives Matter march in Brighton and Sussex Police offered a reward of £10,000 for any new information relating to the case. The family of Jay Abatan held a vigil outside Brighton police station on 29 January 2022.
See also
List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom (1990s)
References
1999 deaths
1950s births
History of Brighton and Hove
English accountants
Deaths in England
Unsolved murders in the United Kingdom |
70110065 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Athar%20Mateen | Killing of Athar Mateen | Athar Mateen was a senior producer of Samaa TV. On 18 February 2022, 8:29 AM Mateen was killed in a firing incident on a car near North Nazimabad Five Star Chowrangi area of Karachi.
According to police and FIR, the incident took place during the robbery while the incident is under investigation. The incident took place at 8:29 a.m., according to CCTV. Matin is survived by two daughters and a wife.
Reactions
Prime Minister Imran Khan directed that every effort be made to bring the accused to justice. Expressing deep sorrow, he strongly condemned the incident and said that the mourners share in the family's grief.
Sindh Governor Imran Ismail strongly condemned the killing of Athar Matin and directed Additional IG Karachi to take action for the arrest of the accused. He said that police should ensure the protection of life, property, and honor of citizens while Sindh government should take practical steps to eradicate lawlessness.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah expressed sorrow over the death of Mateen and took notice of the incident, and demanded an immediate report from Additional IG Karachi. He also directed the concerned authorities to arrest the killers immediately.
References
2022 deaths
Deaths by person in Pakistan
2022 crimes in Pakistan
People murdered in Pakistan
Deaths by firearm in Pakistan
2022 murders in Pakistan |
70142456 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Latjor%20Tuel | Killing of Latjor Tuel | Latjor Tuel was a black man fatally shot by Calgary police on February 19, 2022 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Tuel refused to drop a stick, and stabbed a police dog in the neck, during a lengthy confrontation with police.
Latjor Tuel
Latjor Tuel was born in South Sudan and his family claimed he was a child solider for the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army before moving to Canada as a refugee, approximately 20 years prior to being killed. His family also claimed he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, and that he provided financial support to family members in South Sudan.
Events of February 19, 2022
Calgary police reported that at approximately 3:40 pm on the 19 February 2022, they responded to a call from the public reporting a man assaulting others, while holding weapons, near a bus stop close to the intersection of 45th Street and 17th Avenue S.E. in the Forest Lawn area of Calgary. Callers reported a man carrying a knife and holding a stick, and one caller reported the man had hit someone with the stick. When officers arrived at 3:46 pm, Tuel was holding a knife and a stick. Video of the incident shows officers speaking with Tuel as he sat on the sidewalk, and officers are repeatedly heard telling Tuel to drop or throw away his knife. At 4:02 pm, Tuel got up and an officer discharged less-lethal baton rounds at him. Tuel then ran towards police, and a police dog was allowed to approach him; Tuel stabbed the dog in the neck and hit it with his stick. Police then discharged a taser at Tuel. Police surrounded Tuel, who was still holding his knife and stick, and during a confrontation, Tuel was shot four times, by two different officers. The police dog was taken to an animal hospital in life-threatening condition. Tuel died at the scene. No police officers were injured.
Reactions and response
While police have described Tuel as holding a weapon, multiple friends have challenged that account stating that he used a retractile cane as a mobility aid. Friends have also criticized police for killing Tuel, specifically pointing out that it is natural for people to defend themselves against charging dogs.
Calgary's Police Chief Mark Neufeld defended the actions of his officers, "the call that the police responded to was not—when reported—about mental health. It was a complaint of an assault involving a man in possession of a knife and a stick in a busy public area". On February 23, 2022, Neufeld was questioned by the police commission about the killing and stated the Tuel may have faced systemic barriers, but also that the actions of his officers were not racially motivated.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, Alberta's police oversight body, are investigating the incident.
Jyoti Gondek, the mayor of Calgary stated the events were devastating and tragic and that questions needed to be answered by the investigation.
Calgary Black Chambers called for an inquiry into Tuel's death, and made comparisons with the Calgary Police Service's assault of Godfred Addai-Nyamekye and killing of Anthony Heffernan.
On February 26, 2022, a crowd of demonstrators gathered in downtown Calgary calling for justice for Tuel.
Fundraiser
A GoFundMe campaign was created to raise funds to repatriate Tuel's body to South Sudan and to fund legal action.
See also
No Visible Trauma (2020 documentary about the assault of Godfred Addai-Nyamekye and killing of Anthony Heffernan)
Lost Boys of Sudan
References
2022 in Alberta
Calgary
Deaths by firearm in Canada
Deaths by person in Canada
Killings by law enforcement officers in Canada
Lost Boys of Sudan |
160516 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Carlo%20Giuliani | Death of Carlo Giuliani | Carlo Giuliani was an Italian anti-globalization protester who was shot dead while attacking a Carabinieri van with a fire extinguisher, by an officer who was inside the van, during the anti-globalization riots outside the July 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy
making his the first death during an anti-globalization demonstration since the movement's rise from the 1999 Seattle WTO protests.
Photographs showed Giuliani, a 23-year-old Roman living in Genoa, throwing a fire extinguisher towards the van, a pistol firing a shot in return from the van, and Giuliani's body having been run over by the van. Charges against the officer were initially dropped without trial as a judge ruled that the ricocheted bullet was fired in self-defense, but the incident became a point of public scrutiny.
Eight years after the incident, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Italian forces had acted within their limits, but awarded damages for the state's procedural handling of the case. Appeals upheld the ruling, and Giuliani's family later filed a civil suit.
Giuliani was memorialized in music tributes and public monuments, and is remembered as a symbol of the 2001 G8 protests. The 2002 documentary Carlo Giuliani, Boy, recounts the incident.
Incident
In July 2001, anti-globalization demonstrators protested the 27th G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, where leaders of the world's major industrialized nations met. Among these protesters was Carlo Giuliani, a 23-year-old Roman Italian and resident of Genoa, whom a police officer shot and killed during what had become a riot two miles from the summit. It was the first death in an anti-globalization demonstration since its rise from the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. According to a Reuters photographer, who took photographs of the incident, Giuliani and several other young, male protesters had surrounded and attacked a police van with rocks and other weapons. Italian television broadcast several photographs, in which Giuliani threw a fire extinguisher at the van. A hand from inside the van then fired a pistol in response, and Giuliani collapsed behind the van. Further photographs and reports show that the van had run over his legs twice after he was shot. The Italian interior minister confirmed that Giuliani had been hit by a bullet fired in self-defense by a police officer, who was later hospitalized for his injuries.
The New York Times said it was unclear why the riot police had live ammunition, whereas other Genoa riot police used water cannons, riot sticks, and tear gas elsewhere in the city. About 1,000 people attended Giuliani's funeral in Genoa, his coffin ornamented in ferns and A.S. Roma's flag.
Investigations
In the case against Carabiniere Mario Placanica, evidence was given by a ballistics expert that the fatal bullet had "ricocheted off plaster". All charges against Mario Placanica were dropped when Judge Daloiso, who presided over the case, concluded that the fatal bullet that struck Giuliani was not directly aimed at Giuliani, and ruled that Placanica had acted in self-defense. The case was not taken to trial.
However, during a later trial in Genoa of some demonstrators allegedly involved in clashes the same day Giuliani was killed, the same forensic doctor, professor Marco Salvi, who had been a consultant to Silvio Franz, the prosecutor who led the case against Mario Placanica, testified that Giuliani had been the victim of a "direct hit", thus contradicting the evidence previously given and laying doubt on the decision made based on the alleged change of direction of the bullet. Medics tending to Giuliani after he was run over testified that his heart was still beating, and this was confirmed by professor Salvi during the trial in Genoa. To confuse the situation further, in late 2003 Placanica told the Bologna daily Il Resto Del Carlino that "I've been used to cover up the responsibility of others." He claimed that the bullet found in Giuliani's body was not of the caliber or type fired by the pistols of the Carabinieri, and claimed the deadly shot had come from somewhere in the piazza outside.
After making this statement, Placanica was involved in a car accident that his lawyer claimed was "very suspicious." Placanica was allegedly kept in seclusion following the incident, and his parents were not allowed to visit him in the hospital.
On August 25, 2009 the European Court of Human Rights notified in writing its judgement in the case of Giuliani and Gaggio vs. Italy. It judged no excessive use of force was used and it was not established that Italian authorities had failed to comply with their positive obligations to protect Carlo Giuliani's life. The Court did judge Italy had not complied with its procedural obligations in connection with the death of Carlo Giuliani and has awarded a total of € in non-pecuniary damage to the three applicants. In 2010, the case was referred to the Court's Grand Chamber on appeals from both sides; the Grand Chamber has held in 2011, that there had been no violation of the European Convention, although seven judges from seventeen dissented.
Legacy
Giuliani's' death had an immediate effect of quelling the 2001 G8 protests and the longer-term effect of reducing the public profile of the next summit. The Saturday protest in Genoa was expected to be its largest, with 100,000 participants, but turnout was halved after the killing as groups withdrew. Nonviolent demonstrators, in hindsight, distanced themselves from groups whose battles with police they blamed for ruining their peaceful message. The G8 announced that the next summit would instead be held at a remote resort at a fifth of the 2001 summit's size to reduce opportunities for violent protest.
In 2002, Francesca Comencini directed a documentary film titled Carlo Giuliani, ragazzo about the shooting. It was screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Multiple songs have paid tribute to Giuliani's memory.
References
Further reading
External links
Photos showing the sequence of events in detail
Website dedicated to investigating Giuliani's death
1978 births
2001 deaths
Deaths by firearm in Italy
Death of Carlo Giuliani
Death of Carlo Giuliani
People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Italy
Deaths by person in Italy
Italian anarchists
Filmed killings by law enforcement
Protest-related deaths
21st century in Genoa
2001 in Italy
July 2001 events in Europe
Group of Eight
Police misconduct in Italy
Events in Genoa |
360568 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Leah%20Betts | Death of Leah Betts | Leah Sarah Betts (1 November 1977 – 16 November 1995) was a young woman from Latchingdon, Essex, United Kingdom, who died shortly after her 18th birthday after taking an ecstasy (MDMA) tablet, and then drinking approximately 7 litres of water in a 90 minute period. Four hours later, she collapsed into a coma, from which she did not recover. Her death received extensive media coverage, and her family have since campaigned against drug abuse.
Initial press and public reaction
When Leah Betts was first admitted to hospital in a coma, her family released her image to the national media as an example of the dangers of illegal drugs, specifically ecstasy, in an attempt to deter other young people from using drugs. This campaigning continued for years following her death.
Leah's mother, Dorothy May Betts, had died of a heart attack three years prior, in 1992, at age 45. Following this, Leah lived with her father Paul Betts (a former police officer), her stepmother (a nurse), and her brother William, who was seven years younger.
The fact that Betts's life was typical of middle-class families in Britain was a likely factor in the widespread coverage of her death. For many years prior, the media had portrayed typical drug users as being from broken homes in inner city areas and the "sink" council estates—or the former mining towns mostly in the north of England—where drug abuse had become commonplace since the decline of that industry and the rise in unemployment in the communities which had largely relied upon it. It was suggested that the pill she had taken was from a "contaminated batch". Not long afterward, a 1,500-site poster campaign used a photograph of a smiling Leah Betts (not a picture of her on her deathbed, as some sources erroneously claim) with the caption "Sorted: Just one ecstasy tablet took Leah Betts".
Alternative rock band Chumbawamba responded with their own 'anti-poster' reading "Distorted: you are just as likely to die from eating a bay leaf as from an ecstasy tablet".
Death and inquest
Betts died on the morning of 16 November 1995, five days after being admitted to hospital, when her life support machine was switched off. Her funeral took place on 1 December 1995 at Christ Church, Latchingdon. She was buried alongside her mother at St. Mary Magdalen church in Great Burstead, Essex.
A subsequent inquest determined that her death was not directly caused by the consumption of ecstasy, but rather the result of the large quantity of water she had consumed. She had apparently been in observation of an advisory warning commonly given to ravers which stated drinking water would help her avoid dehydration as a result of continuous dancing. Leah had been at home with friends and had not been dancing, yet consumed about of water in less than 90 minutes. This resulted in water intoxication and hyponatremia, which in turn led to serious swelling of the brain, irreparably damaging it.
However, the ecstasy tablet may have reduced her ability to urinate, exacerbating her hyponatremia; a symptom known as SIADH. At the inquest, it was stated by toxicologist John Henry, who had previously warned the public of the danger of MDMA causing death by dehydration, "If Leah had taken the drug alone, she might well have survived. If she had drunk the amount of water alone, she would have survived."
Police response
Essex Police assigned 35 officers and major resources to identifying the suppliers of the tablet Betts had taken. However, after an investigation that cost £300,000, the only people charged were four of her friends who had been present at the house, two of whom accepted police cautions with the other two prosecuted. Of these, one received a conditional discharge, while the other was acquitted after a retrial.
Subsequent events
After Betts's death, the media focused on the claim that it was the first time she had taken the drug. It was later determined that she had taken the drug at least three times previously. Her father, Paul, subsequently became a vocal public campaigner against drug abuse. He and his wife were present at the press conference at which Barry Legg MP launched his Public Entertainments Licences (Drug Misuse) Bill, which allowed councils to close down licensed venues if the police believed controlled drugs were being used at or near the premises.
It was reported that the £1m Sorted posters campaign was the pro bono work of three advertising companies: Booth Lockett and Makin (media buyers), Knight Leech and Delaney (advertising agency), and FFI (youth marketing consultants). Booth Lockett and Makin counted brewers Löwenbräu as one of its major clients, at a time when the alcohol industry saw increasing MDMA use as a threat to profits. The other two companies represented energy drink Red Bull, a professional relationship that had earned Knight Leech and Delaney £5 million and was described by one of FFI's executives as such: "We do PR for Red Bull, for example, and we do a lot of clubs. It's very popular at the moment because it's a substitute for taking ecstasy."
The December 1995 murder of three alleged drug dealers in Rettendon, an event dubbed the "Range Rover murders", has been suggested by the media as a potential act of revenge for Betts's death.
See also
Anna Wood, an Australian teenager who died in similar circumstances three weeks prior to Betts' death
Moral panic
Overdose
Rachel Whitear
Recreational drug use
Responsible drug use
War on drugs
References
External links
Her best friend talks to the Observer 10 years on
TheDEA.org: Hyponatremia. An account of Leah Betts's death with some discussion of the medical mechanisms of hyponatremia-induced brain death.
1977 births
1995 deaths
Accidental deaths in England
Drug-related deaths in England
People from Maldon District
Crime in Essex |
658801 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Malice%20Green | Death of Malice Green | Malice Green (April 29, 1957 – November 5, 1992) was an American resident of Detroit, Michigan who died after being assaulted by Detroit police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers on November 5, 1992. Both officers were later convicted for Green's death. The official cause of death was ruled to be due to blunt force trauma to his head.
Budzyn and Nevers were patrolling in Detroit in plain clothes in an unmarked vehicle. Green had pulled up to a house known for drug activity. Budzyn asked Green for his driver's license and Green then walked around to the passenger side of the car and sat in the passenger seat with his legs out the doorway. Green looked through the glove compartment, then grabbed something from the car's floor. Budzyn asked Green to let go of the object. Green allegedly failed to relinquish a vial of crack cocaine. After refusing to let go, Nevers struck Green in the head with his flashlight approximately 7 to 14 times during the struggle which, according to the official autopsy, resulted in his death.
After the struggle, Green was transported to a local hospital for treatment of the head injuries sustained in the struggle and died.
Initial reaction
The incident occurred only months after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which protested the acquittal of police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King (Green was also a black man). Unlike in Los Angeles, Detroit PD's Chief Stanley Knox suspended the seven officers present at the scene of the crime within 24 hours of Malice Green's death. Charges for four of the officers soon followed.
Sergeant Freddie Douglas, the only black officer on the scene of Green's murder, was charged with involuntary manslaughter for failing to intervene. Officer Robert Lessnau was charged with assault. Officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn, partners, were charged with 2nd degree murder for Green's death. Known by many in the neighborhood as Starsky and Hutch, they were both highly decorated, with a documented history of excessive force complaints. Larry Nevers was a former member of the STRESS (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets) unit in Detroit, which was disbanded in 1974 after 20 black men were shot by its police over a 3-year period. He was months away from retirement at the time of Green's death.
Prior to jury selection, Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young stated that Green was "literally murdered by police" on national television.
Legal proceeding
Coroner's reports
The report was done by Dr. Kahlil Jiraki, the most junior coroner in the department. It was alleged by the defense that his report was rushed due to workload and his impending vacation.
The autopsy showed cuts to the scalp as well as subarachnoid hemorrhage and brain contusions. However, there were no skull fractures, no other bone fractures. Green's heart was enlarged and the arteries hardened. Toxicology results ultimately showed that Green had a cocaine level of 0.50 micrograms.
Jiraki concluded that the death was caused by blunt force trauma, which caused swelling of the brain. Jiraki testified in Budzyn and Nevers' trial that the damage was done by "fourteen blunt force trauma blows to the head." He stated that his boss, Dr. Bader Cassin, agreed that Green's drug consumption was as "insignificant as the color of his eyes" in relation to the cause of death.
However, under cross-examination, Jiraki testified that there was no swelling noted in the report, nor any fractures to the skull. In the trial of Sgt. Douglas, Jiraki reduced the number of blows to seven (which fit with Nevers’ testimony). And, at Nevers' second trial, Dr. Cassin testified that he examined the body the day after Dr. Jiraki made his examination (this second exam was never disclosed to the defense prior to, or during, the first trial) and that drugs played a major part in Green's death.
After the second trial, Jiraki sued the coroner's office, claiming that he was pressured by his superiors to change his findings to state that cocaine contributed to Green's death (which he refused to do) which would have supported the police officer's defense. He was awarded $2.5 million. The coroner's officer later alleged during the civil trial that Jiraki was fired for supposed mental instability and absenteeism.
Dr. Jiraki's testimony was supported by the prosecution's medical expert Dr. Michael Baden. After the trial, Baden allegedly told a pathologists' conference that he came to his conclusion based on information surrounding the circumstances of Green's death and the facts in the exam.
Budzyn and Nevers' defense presented three experts, one of whom stipulated that they identified eleven blunt-force injuries to Green's head. However, they testified that Green's head injuries were entirely "superficial" and "could not have caused his death." They noted that Green had no fractures, no significant bleeding or bruising of the brain, and no swelling of the brain. It was their opinion that Green died as a result of cocaine and alcohol abuse, combined with his physical struggle with police as he resisted arrest, and the minor head injuries. They stated that these things, in combination, caused a surge of adrenaline which overloaded the electrical circuits in Green's brain resulting in brain seizure, respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and death.
Trial
Then-Assistant Wayne County Prosecutors Kym Worthy and Douglas Baker tried the case against Budzyn and Nevers. Judge George W. Crockett III, in Detroit Recorder's Court, presided. The officers were tried together in Detroit after being denied a change of venue. Budzyn and Nevers were allowed separate juries. Both juries were composed of a majority of black citizens (two whites on Nevers' jury, one on Budzyn's), and both juries reached unanimous verdicts.
The testimony of the responding EMTs was very damaging to Budzyn and Nevers' case. All of them testified that Green was covered with blood and was hanging from the driver's side door when they arrived. The EMTs further said that Nevers struck Green in the head with his heavy police flashlight repeatedly, even though Green was not offering any significant resistance. Two of them stated that Nevers told Green to open his hands and hold still, and that, when he did not, Nevers hit him with the flashlight. They described Green as "dazed" and "stuporous" during the incident, saying that Green was uttering only a few words like "wait" while Nevers was striking him. Lee Hardy, one of the responding EMTs, testified during the separate assault trial for Robert Lessnau that he witnessed the former officer kicking Green in the head while he laid prone on the street.
During the trial, movies were provided for the jurors' entertainment while they were sequestered, including the film Malcolm X. The film depicts scenes of police brutality being perpetrated by white police officers, including the recent beating of Rodney King. It also contains a voiceover that claims white police officers are the direct descendants of the Ku Klux Klan. Both juries were shown the film on at least two occasions during the trial.
Aftermath
In December 1992, the city of Detroit paid a civil agreement of $5.25 million to Malice Green's family.
Officers Nevers, Budzyn, Robert Lessnau, and Freddie Douglas were charged in the death. Ultimately, charges against Sgt. Douglas were dropped, and Lessnau was acquitted of assault. On August 23, 1993, the jury found Budzyn and Nevers guilty of second degree murder. Two months later, Nevers was sentenced to serve 12 to 25 years in prison and Budzyn was sentenced to serve a lighter sentence of 8 to 18 years in prison.
In 2007, Larry Nevers wrote a self-published book titled Good Cops, Bad Verdict. He died in February 2013.
Appeals
On July 31, 1997, the Michigan Supreme Court granted a new trial for Walter Budzyn, mostly on the grounds of showing the movie Malcolm X (the movie's opening scenes show video of the Rodney King incident) to sequestered jury members while they waited to begin deliberating. It was learned that a political appointee of Mayor Young had made it onto the jury and she was instrumental in showing the movie to jury members. Budzyn was immediately released from prison. He was retried, and on March 19, 1998, he was again found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and in January 1999 the Michigan Court of Appeals reinstated his four-year prison sentence. He had already served the minimum under the first conviction, and was released.
Larry Nevers' 1997 appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court was denied. However, Nevers was successful on his appeal to a federal court, with United States District Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff overturning the verdict and ordering his release on December 30, 1997. Zatkoff cited the showing of Malcolm X and its footage of the Rodney King beating video as creating a "harmful effect" on their verdict decision and thus counted as justification for not only overturning his conviction, but also granting him a writ of habeas corpus. In 1999, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed Judge Zatkoff's decision, with the United Supreme Court afterwards denying the prosecution's bid for a writ of certiorari. Nevertheless, Nevers was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in May 2000. He was sentenced to 7–15 years in prison. In March 2003, this conviction was overturned by the Michigan Court of Appeals, but in September 2003, the Michigan Supreme Court upheld that conviction. On May 13, 2005, Nevers lost a bid to appeal the conviction in federal court. During this process, Nevers was treated for lung cancer and was released in 2001 to serve the rest of his sentence at home.
Popular culture
Outsider musician Wesley Willis' song "Larry Nevers/Walter Budzyn" is about the trial and aftermath of the beating.
Insane Clown Posse mention Mr. Nevers as someone who is going to receive retribution for his crimes in their song "Wagon Wagon" from Ringmaster
Underground Resistance dedicated their release Message To The Majors to Mr. Green.
Although not written about the death of Green, US rock band Pearl Jam included a picture of Green in the booklet for their 1993 album, Vs, beside lyrics to the song "W.M.A." which alludes to racial profiling among US police.
The single Fight Music by Detroit-based rap group D12 references the death of Green.
See also
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States
References
External links
Human Rights Watch : Detroit Incidents
White ex-officer guilty in black motorist's death
Michigan ruling overturning initial conviction of Budzyn
Federal ruling overturning initial conviction of Nevers
Police brutality in the United States
Victims of police brutality
Deaths in police custody in the United States
American victims of crime
People from Detroit
Crimes in Detroit
1992 deaths
1957 births
November 1992 events in the United States
Detroit Police Department |
873265 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Blair%20Peach | Death of Blair Peach | Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979) was a New Zealand teacher who died during an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in April 1979 Peach took part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall against a National Front election meeting in the town hall and was hit on the head, probably by a member of the Special Patrol Group (SPG), a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service. He died in hospital that night.
An investigation by Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police's Complaints Investigation Bureau concluded that Peach had been killed by one of six SPG officers, and others had preserved their silence to obstruct his investigation. The report was not released to the public, but was available to John Burton, the coroner who conducted the inquest; excerpts from a leaked copy were also published in The Leveller and The Sunday Times in early 1980. In May 1980 the jury in the inquest arrived at a verdict of death by misadventure, although press and some pressure groups—notably the National Council for Civil Liberties—expressed concern that no clear answers had been provided, and at the way Burton conducted the inquest.
Celia Stubbs, Peach's partner, campaigned for the Cass report to be released and for a full public inquiry. An inquiry was rejected, but in 1989 the Metropolitan Police paid £75,000 compensation to Peach's family. In 2009 Ian Tomlinson died after he was struck from behind by a member of the Territorial Support Group, the SPG's successor organisation; the parallels in the deaths proved to be the catalyst in the release of the Cass report to the public. The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, released the report and supporting documentation. He also offered an official apology to Peach's family.
The policing of the demonstration in Southall damaged community relations in the area. Since Peach's death the Metropolitan Police have been involved in a series of incidents and poorly conducted investigations—the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, the death of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, the botched 2006 Forest Gate raid and the death of Tomlinson—all of which tarnished the image of the service. Peach's death has been remembered in the music of The Pop Group, Ralph McTell and Linton Kwesi Johnson; the National Union of Teachers set up the Blair Peach Award for work for equality and diversity issues and a school in Ealing is named after him.
Background
Blair Peach
Clement Blair Peach was born in Napier, New Zealand, on 25 March 1946, to Clement and Janet Peach. He was one of three brothers, the others being Roy and Philip; the former was a solicitor and led the family's legal campaign after Blair's death. Blair was schooled at Colenso College, then studied education and psychology at the Victoria University of Wellington, where he co-edited the Argot literary magazine with his flatmate Dennis List and David Rutherford. During his studies Peach visited Britain and liked the country. After graduating he was employed in several temporary jobs, but was turned down for compulsory military training for having an "unsuitable character". He emigrated to Britain in 1969 and was soon employed as a teacher at the Phoenix special needs school in Bow, East London. In 1970 he entered a long-term relationship with Celia Stubbs; they had first met in New Zealand in 1963 when she was visiting the country. Peach helped raise Stubbs's two daughters from her previous relationship, and the couple regarded each other as husband and wife.
Peach was politically active and joined the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP), Socialist Teachers' Association and the local branch of the National Union of Teachers. He was also a committed opponent of racism and was active in the Anti-Nazi League. He had been arrested previously when campaigning on political issues, and in 1974 he was charged with threatening behaviour after challenging a local publican's refusal to serve black customers; he was acquitted.
Southall
As a result of the population transfers after the 1947 partition of India over ten million people were impoverished. From the late 1950s a significant number of them relocated. Many Sikhs and Hindus left the subcontinent to settle in Greater London, particularly Southall, where shortages of workers at factories, and the employment prospects at nearby Heathrow Airport meant jobs were easily obtainable. Some of the early arrivals found work at the R. Woolf and Co Rubber factory; by 1965 all the lower level workers were from Poland or the Indian subcontinent. Racial discrimination in the workplace was common; 85 per cent of those Asian workers who had been given entry into the UK on the basis of their education or training, were only employed in unskilled or semi-skilled roles. Kennetta Hammond Perry, in her history of post-war immigration, identifies the reasons as being "in part because of perceptions about their level of competence and stereotypes about their ability to speak English". Indian workers also faced discrimination from the white-dominated trade unions, and so formed their own organisation, the Indian Workers' Association (IWA).
During local elections of the 1960s anti-immigration rhetoric was used by some candidates, successfully in many cases. Smaller right-wing parties used immigration as a platform on which to stand, including in Southall. In the local elections of May 1964, the anti-immigration British National Party (BNP) polled 15 per cent of the vote in Southall; in the general election that October the BNP leader, John Bean, received 9.1 per cent in the Southall constituency. Bean won 7.4 per cent of the vote at the 1966 general election. The BNP's successor, the National Front, recorded 4.4 per cent of the vote at the 1970 general election.
In June 1976 the racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar in Southall—outside the offices of the IWA—led to the former chairman of the National Front, John Kingsley Read, stating "one down, a million to go". Chaggar's murder led to the formation of the Southall Youth Movement (SYM) to challenge the rise in racism and attacks from the National Front. Rioting in the area took place between police and Asian youths and members of Peoples Unite, a similar group to the SYM, but consisting of young Afro-Caribbeans.
Special Patrol Group
The Special Patrol Group (SPG) was formed in 1961 as a specialist squad within the Metropolitan Police. It provided a mobile, centrally controlled reserve of uniformed officers which supported local areas, particularly when policing serious crime and civil disturbances. The SPG comprised police officers capable of working as disciplined teams preventing public disorder, targeting areas of serious crime, carrying out stop and searches, or providing a response to terrorist threats. In 1978 there were 1,347 SPG members in forces across the UK, 204 of them in the Metropolitan Police Service. They were divided into six units, each of which contained three sergeants and 30 constables. Each unit was commanded by an inspector.
The use of the SPG proved controversial to some. It was involved in the Red Lion Square disorders, when Kevin Gately, a student demonstrating against a National Front march, was killed from a blow to the head from a blunt instrument; the perpetrator was never identified. Accusations were made that the police were inappropriately violent towards those demonstrating. The former chief constable, Tim Brain, writes "their critics viewed them with suspicion as a force within a force"; the Metropolitan Police history observes that "their presence sometimes came to assume unwanted symbolic significance". The former chief constable Geoffrey Dear states that the SPG "might apparently solve one problem but in its wake create another of aggravated relationships between minority groups and the police in general".
The SPG was disbanded in 1986 and, replaced by District Support Units (DSU). After receiving bad press, the DSU were replaced by the Territorial Support Group in January 1987.
23 April 1979
In the run-up to the 1979 general election, the National Front announced that it would hold a meeting at Southall Town Hall on 23 April 1979, St George's Day. Southall was to be one of 300 parliamentary seats for which the organisation put up candidates. Prior to the Southall meeting, similar events had resulted in clashes with anti-racist protesters, including in Islington, North London, on 22 April, and in Leicester the following day. At both events, police had been injured trying to keep the two sides separate.
A petition of 10,000 residents was raised to cancel the meeting, but to no effect. Ealing Council had blocked previous meetings by the National Front, but, under the Representation of the People Act 1969, they allowed the party to use the hall. The day before the meeting a march by the IWA was planned from central Southall, past the town hall, and ending at Ealing Town Hall. Approximately 1,200 police officers were on duty along the five-mile (eight-kilometre) route; 19 people were arrested. Two counter-demonstrations for the day of the meeting were planned: a picket on the pavement opposite the hall, and a seated demonstration outside it. To deal with the potential violence, 2,876 police officers were drafted in, 94 of whom were on horseback; they arrived at 11:30am and demonstrators began gathering at 1:00pm in preparation for the 7:30pm National Front meeting.
The number of demonstrators at the town hall rose, and included some whom the police considered militant elements. There were some clashes between police and protesters and a small number of arrests ensued. The police decided to establish a sterile cordon around the town hall, although they still allowed a small, contained demonstration in the High Street. Cordons were set up on Lady Margaret Road, the Broadway, High Street and South Road. Between 2:30 and 3:15pm, at the High Street cordon, missiles were thrown at the police, who used riot shields to contain the crowd.
According to the official police report, between 5:30 and 6:30pm the level of violence rose as the crowd at the High Street cordon again began to throw missiles and at about 6:20pm between 500 and 2,000 protesters tried to breach the police lines. In response, mounted officers were brought in to disperse the crowd. The author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who was present at the demonstration, thought the mood changed when the police tactics changed from containment to dispersement, which triggered the missile-throwing reaction from the crowd.
A house on Park View Road, the headquarters of Peoples Unite, was used as a first aid post. The official police report states that the residents were "a group of mainly Rastafarians" who were squatting at the premises, and that these occupants threw missiles from the house at police in the street. SPG officers entered the house and an altercation broke out in which two officers were stabbed. Those in the house—including those manning the first aid post and those receiving treatment—were beaten with truncheons, and an estimated £10,000 of damage was done to the contents of the house, including the equipment for the band Misty in Roots; the group's manager, Clarence Baker, went into a coma for five months after his skull was fractured by a police truncheon. All those inside were removed from the property, regardless of what they were doing, and there were subsequent complaints by the inhabitants of racist and sexist abuse by the police. Seventy people were arrested either at or near the address. At the trial of one of those arrested, one of the SPG officers involved reported "there was no overall direction of the police forces at this time" and the situation was "a free for all".
National Front members began arriving from 7:00pm. At its scheduled time their meeting took place. During the assembly, one of the organisation's speakers called for "the bulldozing of Southall and its replacement by a 'peaceful English hamlet'". Four members of the public were allowed into the hall to fulfil the requirements of the Representation of the People's Act, but a journalist from The Daily Mirror was stopped from entering because the newspaper he worked for was considered to be "nigger loving". When the meeting ended at about 10:00pm, some of the attendees gave Nazi salutes on the steps of the town hall before being escorted to safety by the police.
Once the meeting was underway, the police decided to clear the area of demonstrators and allowed them to pass along the Broadway towards the crossroads with Northcote Avenue and Beachcroft Avenue. At about 7:30pm Peach, with four friends, decided to return to their cars and moved towards the junction. The group had been on the Broadway since they arrived in the area at 4:45pm. At around the same time a flare or petrol bomb was thrown either at or over a police coach on the Broadway. The driver—with a policeman standing next to him—drove the coach through the crowd; no-one was injured, but eyewitnesses said that the mood of the crowd changed at that point. Two SPG vans drove westwards along the Broadway and collected two crates of bricks and bottles that the crowd left behind as they retreated. Items were thrown at the two vehicles and a police inspector on a building roof radioed to the central control unit that there was a riot in progress.
Peach and his friends turned off the Broadway down Beachcroft Avenue, thinking they were heading out of the area, but not realising the road only connected to Orchard Avenue, which led back to South Road and the heavy police cordon there. There was a group of 100 to 150 protesters on the corner of the Broadway and Beachcroft Avenue and the SPG vans of Unit 3 drove to the junction of the Broadway with Northcote Avenue and Beachcroft Avenue to face them. As the officers deployed out of the vehicles they were hit by missiles from the crowd. One officer was hit in the face by a brick which fractured his jaw in three places. The inspector leading the unit radioed "Immediate assistance required".
The official investigation into Peach's death states that the events leading up to this point, while difficult, were relatively straightforward, but that "further description of what happened" is hampered by "conflicting accounts [that] have been given by private persons and also by police". The radio call from Unit 3 was picked up by SPG Unit 1, two of whose vans drove into Beachcroft Avenue from the Broadway entrance and stopped at the corner with Orchard Avenue. They deployed while under bombardment from bricks and stones. The first person to exit the van was Inspector Alan Murray, who had charge of the first van of Unit 1 (called Unit 1-1), and was followed by constables Bint, White, Freestone, Richardson and Scottow. Murray and his men were using riot shields, had their truncheons drawn and worked to disperse the crowd. During this action Peach received a blow on the head. Fourteen witnesses stated that they saw it happen and said that it was a police officer who was responsible. One resident told the inquest that she:
saw blue vans coming down Beachcroft Avenue. They were coming very fast − as they came round Beachcroft Avenue, they stopped. I saw policemen with shields come out − people started running and the police tried to disperse them. I saw police hitting. I saw a white man standing there ... The police were hitting everybody. People started running, some in the alley, some in my house ... I saw Peach, I then saw the policeman with the shield attack Peach.
Peach was taken into a nearby house—71 Orchard Avenue—after one of the residents saw him being hit. He was given a glass of water, but could not hold it. His eyes were rolled up to the top of his head and he had difficulty speaking. The residents soon called an ambulance, which was logged at 8:12pm; it arrived within ten minutes, and Peach was taken to Ealing Hospital. He was promptly operated on because of a large extradural haematoma but his condition worsened through the procedure. He died at 12:10am on 24 April.
There were 3,000 protesters in Southall on 23 April. The police arrested 345 people. 97 police were injured, as were 39 of the prisoners. 25 members of the public were also injured, of whom Peach was one. A member of the National Front was found near Southall train station, badly beaten. He spent two days in intensive care before being released.
Aftermath
Within a day of Peach's death, Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police's Complaints Investigation Bureau began an investigation of the events and statements were taken from members of the SPG that day. Sir David McNee, then the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, also undertook his own eight-day review of the demonstrations, although he did not include Peach's death as part of his analysis.
The inquest opened on 26 April 1979; John Burton, the coroner for West London, oversaw the proceedings. On the opening day he allowed Peach's family to have a second post-mortem examination undertaken by an independent pathologist; the inquest was then adjourned for a month. It reconvened on 25 May 1979 and was again adjourned after Cass appeared as a witness and said that his investigation would take between two and three months more. By that time, he and his team had interviewed 400 people. Burton said that the inquiry would reconvene after Sir Tony Hetherington, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), had been given the report.
Despite statements by the police and the incumbent government that the trouble at Southall was caused by outsiders to the area, only 2 of the 342 charged were non-residents of Southall. Instead of holding the trials locally, they were held away in Barnet. Lalith de Kauwe, writing for Bulletin—the publication of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers—writes that while initially 90 per cent of the defendants were found guilty, this dropped to 70 per cent once the press began to publicise the matter.
On 12 June 1979 Peach's body was laid out at the Dominion Cinema in Southall; 8,000 people filed past it. The following day he was buried at East London Cemetery, where between 5,000 and 10,000 people were in attendance. Three days after the funeral, McNee defended the actions of the SPG and told a black reporter "I understand the concern of your people. But if you keep off the streets of London and behave yourselves you won't have the SPG to worry about."
Cass investigation
One member of SPG Unit 1-1 was questioned by Cass's team in early June 1979 after the forensic report stated that Peach was probably not killed by a police truncheon, but by a lead-filled cosh or pipe. A search of the unit's lockers found 26 weapons—including police truncheons—many of which were unauthorised, including coshes and knives, as well as sets of keys and a stolen driving licence. Cass's team raided the home of PC Grenville Bint, where weapons and Nazi memorabilia were found. Bint stated he collected the memorabilia as a hobby.
During his investigation Cass held several identification parades, including for Officer F, Officer G and Officer I. These were identified by the barrister and historian David Renton from the inquest as PCs Raymond White, James Scottow and Anthony Richardson, respectively. No witness managed to identify the man they saw hitting Peach. It later transpired that one officer present at the riots shaved off the moustache which he had that day, while Inspector Murray grew a beard and refused to take part in the identity parades. Many of the uniforms that the police wore that day had been dry-cleaned before they were inspected. Cass ran up against misleading stories from the members of Unit 1-1, and in his report he stated: "The attitude and untruthfulness of some of the officers involved is a contributory factor." He continued "The action of these officers clearly obstructed the police officers carrying out their duty of investigating this serious matter." Cass decided that he had identified the individual whom he considered most likely to have hit Peach, but that there was "no evidence of a conclusive nature":
The officers in that carrier after disembarking, who could have assaulted Clement Blair PEACH were Officer E, Officer H, Officer G, Officer I, Officer J and Officer F, and I give them in that order of possibility.
Renton identified these officers as Murray, Bint, Scottow, Richardson, Freestone and White, respectively. Cass's report was accepted by the police as being accurate, and in his 1983 autobiography McNee wrote "when all the evidence was assembled it showed that Blair Peach had died from a blow to his skull. The evidence pointed to the fact that the blow had been struck by a police officer."
Coroner's inquest
Cass finished the investigation in February 1980; 30 investigators had worked for 31,000-man-hours during his enquiries. He finished his initial report on 12 July 1979, which was sent to the DPP, who, while praising the work he had done, stated that "there was insufficient evidence to justify a prosecution". The inquest reopened a week later. Both Burton and the lawyers representing the Metropolitan Police were given copies of Cass's report, but refused to provide copies to the lawyers representing the Peach family or those representing the Anti-Nazi League. Burton used Cass's report to determine which witnesses to call and which to ignore. Michael Dummett, Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford University, examining the case for the National Council for Civil Liberties, observes that as only the coroner and police lawyers had copies of the report, "it was impossible for anyone ... [else] to obtain a complete picture of the evidence". The question of whether the family were allowed to view the reports was taken to a Divisional Court, who ruled that as the report was the property of the police, they had the right to withhold it.
Legal counsel for the Peach family requested that the inquest be held in front of a jury, which Burton rejected; the inquest was again adjourned. The High Court rejected a challenge to overturn Burton's decision, which then went to the Court of Appeal where Lord Denning stated that the inquest should reconvene in front of a jury.
In early 1980, sections of the Cass report were published in The Leveller (January 1980) and The Sunday Times (March 1980). Details included in both publications were the names of Murray, White, Freestone, Richardson and Scottow. The latter publication indicated that the decision by the DPP not to prosecute the policemen "left the investigating officers in the invidious position of appearing party to a cover up, should their report ever become public". In April 1980—the one-year anniversary of Peach's death—members of the group "Friends of Blair Peach Committee" picketed outside police stations holding posters that named the six members of SPG Unit 1-1 and the words "Wanted for the murder of Blair Peach".
The inquest reconvened on 28 April 1980, and was expected to last several weeks. Both pathologists—David Bowen for the coroner and Keith Mant acting for the family—came to the same conclusions: that death was from a single blow, not a police truncheon, but a "rubber 'cosh' or hosepipe filled with lead shot, or some like weapon". Both stated that Peach had a thin skull, but not, as Mant observed, "pathologically thin". He described the action that caused the injury as "a very severe, single blow".
The inquest closed on 27 May 1980 during which time 83 witnesses were called. A verdict of death by misadventure was given. The criminologists Phil Scraton and Paul Gordon consider that, given the conclusions of the Cass report, unlawful killing would have been a more appropriate verdict. In its leader the following day, The Times said that "the Peach inquest failed to provide a clear and believable explanation of the events in question"; it also stated that Peach's death should continue to be investigated.
The National Council for Civil Liberties expressed concern at the way Burton conducted the inquest. The organisation felt uneasy with a theory that he put to the jury: that Peach was killed by "some political fanatic" in order to make him a martyr against the police. During the course of the inquest, Burton wrote to ministers to say that the question of whether Peach was killed by a police officer was a "political 'fabrication'". He also wrote to the home secretary, lord chancellor and attorney general, claiming that there was a conspiracy to spread false information about Peach's death; he accused several media outlets, including the BBC, of producing what he described as "biased propaganda". In 2010 The Daily Telegraph considered that Burton had shown a "lack of sympathy ... towards Mr Peach's death".
After the inquest Burton wrote a seven-page article entitled "The Blair Peach Inquest – the Unpublished Story", which he wanted to publish in the Coroners' Society annual report. In the article he said that some civilian witnesses lied and were "totally politically committed to the Socialist Workers Party", and he thought that some of the Sikh witnesses "did not have experience of the English system" to give reliable evidence. He was persuaded not to publish the account by civil servants, who considered that the report would "discredit the impartiality of coroners in general and Dr Burton in particular".
Subsequent events
There were several calls for a public inquiry to examine the circumstances surrounding Peach's death and the role of the police; 79 MPs supported such a hearing, but the government refused to hold such a review. The Peach family also challenged the Metropolitan Police in court for the Cass report and supporting papers to be released. In February 1986 the Court of Appeal ruled that the police should release the statements and supporting papers, but not the report itself. The family also sought to claim damages from the Metropolitan Police and in June 1988, after eight years of trying, they were awarded £75,000. The political historian Mick Ryan observes that the Peach case is an example where "compensation is ... paid in tacit admission that a wrong had been committed". In April 1999 Paul Boateng, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, was the final minister who turned down the request for a public inquiry, saying the event had happened too long ago to be beneficial.
Following correspondence with the Peach family at the time of the twentieth anniversary of Peach's death, Commander Ian Quinn of the Metropolitan Police's complaints bureau undertook a review of investigation in 1999. The family were not told of the investigation or its outcome.
On 1 April 2009, at the 2009 G20 London summit protests, a member of the Territorial Support Group, the SPG's successor organisation, struck Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor, who collapsed and died. The parallels in the deaths of the two men proved to be the catalyst in the release of the Cass report to the public. Stephenson also officially apologised to Peach's family. That June the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson announced that Cass's report and supporting documentation would be released.
SPG Unit 1-1
After Stephenson's announcement that the Metropolitan police would publish the Cass report, Murray stated that he believed he was the officer referred to in the report as "Officer E", but said that "Under no circumstances was I involved in the death of Blair Peach. I was not involved in his death. I'm as certain as I can be." Murray considered Cass's report to be "pure fabrication to justify his failure to identify the perpetrator of this act". Angered at the handling of the initial investigation, Murray left the police and joined his brother's jewellery business in Scotland before becoming a lecturer in corporate responsibility at the University of Sheffield.
Two days after the Nazi memorabilia and unauthorised weapons were found in his possession, Bint was transferred out of the SPG. Richardson and Freestone were transferred out soon afterwards; Scottow and White voluntarily transferred. All the officers left the police force shortly after the investigation ended.
Undercover Policing Inquiry
In 2021 evidence was provided to the Undercover Policing Inquiry that the Metropolitan Police monitored Stubbs with undercover officers for about twenty years. This included taking photographs at Peach's funeral and creating an attendee list report, and monitoring the 20th anniversary event planning in 1998.
Impact
Following the actions of the police at Southall, the Asian community in the area felt that relations between them and the police had broken down; many saw the police as aggressors. One member of the community said "Our feeling now towards the police is one of shock. In India the police are very brutal, but none of us believed until Monday night that the police here could behave equally brutally." The journalists Mark Hughes and Cahal Milmo consider that the action of the SPG "became a symbol of police corruption".
Writing after the release of the Cass report, the leader in The Times opined that following Peach's death, "the Metropolitan Police entered a dark place from which they have been struggling to emerge ever since". In 2010 Andy Hayman, the former assistant commissioner for Specialist Operations at the Metropolitan Police, wrote that Peach's death brought the service and the SPG into disrepute. It led to an undermining of confidence in the police and "creat[ed] a distrust of officers that in some quarters, has proved difficult to shake off". The criminologists Chris Greer and Eugene McLaughlin considered Peach's death alongside the Metropolitan Police's actions in relation to the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, the death of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, the botched 2006 Forest Gate raid and the death of Ian Tomlinson; they described the "succession of institutional scandals, cover-ups and botched investigations" that had tarnished the image of the service. Writing in the light of Tomlinson's death, Philip Johnston, a journalist with The Daily Telegraph, observed that Peach was one in a number of incidents where there had been unwarranted police aggression. Johnston wrote that while at the time of Peach's death many people would have sided with the police, that is no longer the case. "Many of those from the countryside who attended the Westminster rally against the ban on fox-hunting bear the scars of a brutal confrontation with the police, which changed their view of them for ever."
Legacy
Public reaction to Peach's death, and other underlying racial tensions including excessive police use of the sus law, ultimately led to the 1981 Brixton riot and a public inquiry by Lord Scarman.
A primary school in Southall was later named after Peach. The Blair Peach Award was set up by the National Union of Teachers in 2010 to commemorate the former union member and as recognition of exemplary work by current members in schools and Union branches for equality and diversity issues. In 1989 the poet and activist Chris Searle edited One for Blair, an anthology of poems for the young.
The injury to Clarence Baker was commemorated in The Ruts's song "Jah War". The Two-Tone album The 2 Tone Story is dedicated to Peach's memory. Several songs have been written in Peach's memory, or referring to his death, including The Pop Group's 1980 song "Justice"; the 1982 song "Water of Dreams" by Ralph McTell; and "Reggae Fi Peach" by Linton Kwesi Johnson, which contains the lyrics:
Blair Peach was not an English man,
Him come from New Zealand,
Now they kill him and him dead and gone,
But his memory lingers on.
See also
Liddle Towers
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
Books
Official reports
Journals
News articles
Internet and audio visual media
External links
Investigation documents released by the Metropolitan Police Service
1979: Teacher dies in Southall riots Video of events by BBC News; first broadcast 23 April 1979
Blair: our brother, our friend by Paul Foot
New Zealand left-wing activists
Socialist Workers Party (UK) members
New Zealand schoolteachers
1946 births
1979 deaths
Protest-related deaths
Deaths by beating in the United Kingdom
New Zealand people murdered abroad
Victoria University of Wellington alumni
Police misconduct in England
1979 in London
Southall
Deaths by violence in the United Kingdom
New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom
New Zealand trade unionists
British trade unionists
1970s crimes in London
April 1979 events in the United Kingdom
History of the London Borough of Ealing
Deaths by person in London
Metropolitan Police operations |
903776 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20President%20%282006%20film%29 | Death of a President (2006 film) | Death of a President is a 2006 British docudrama political thriller film about the fictional assassination of George W. Bush, the 43rd and at the time, incumbent U.S. President, on 19 October 2007 in Chicago, Illinois. The film is presented as a future history docudrama and uses actors, archival video footage as well as computer-generated special effects to present the hypothetical aftermath the event had on civil liberties, racial profiling, journalistic sensationalism and foreign policy.
Plot
Broadcast in the year 2008, the film is presented in a TV documentary style format, combining talking head interviews, news coverage clips and video surveillance footage surrounding the assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush in Chicago around a year earlier on 19 October 2007. The president is fatally shot by a sniper after he addresses an economic forum at the Chicago Sheraton Hotel, before which an anti-war rally had taken place. News outlets immediately begin reporting on the incident along with its political ramifications. After authorities earlier arrest and interrogate war-protesting detainees, Jamal Abu Zikri (Malik Bader), an IT professional of Syrian origin, becomes the prime suspect.
Vice President Dick Cheney, now president, uses the possible al-Qaeda relationship in connection with the suspected assassin, Zikri, to push his own domestic political security agenda. He calls for the legislation of PATRIOT Act III, trying to increase the investigative powers of the FBI, the police, and other government agencies over American citizens and foreign residents as he contemplates attacking Syria.
As his wife Zahra (Hend Ayoub) listens to the verdict with family attorney Dawn Norton (Patricia Buckley) in a packed courtroom, Zikri is convicted of killing the U.S. President and sentenced to death based upon dubious forensic evidence. Meanwhile, a new report which surfaces, substantiated by interviews with Marianne Claybon (Chavez Ravine), indicates that the perpetrator is most likely her husband Al Claybon (Tony Dale), a veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, who lived in Rock Island, Illinois, and who also was the father of David Claybon, a U.S. soldier recently killed in the Iraq War. The assassin, who blames President Bush for the death of his son, killed himself after Bush's assassination. Claybon's suicide note, addressed to a second son, Casey Claybon (Neko Parham), an Iraq War veteran living in Chicago who was previously considered as a suspect, reads:
Ten months after President Bush's assassination, Zikri remains on death row at the Stateville Correctional Center, because government officials are deliberately delaying his legal appeal. Moreover, in his dead father's Rock Island house, Casey Claybon finds evidence of his father's planning of the shooting. The most incriminating piece of evidence is a copy of a top secret presidential itinerary outlining, to the minute, President Bush's Chicago whereabouts on 19 October 2007. The news report ends while the U.S. Government continues investigating how presidential assassin Al Claybon obtained that top secret document.
The final closing titles of the film inform the viewer that President Cheney's USA PATRIOT Act III was signed into permanent law in the U.S., stating the following: "It has granted investigators unprecedented powers of detention and surveillance, and further expanded the powers of the executive branch".
Cast
Hend Ayoub as Zahra Abu Zikri, the wife of convicted assassin Jamal Abu Zikri. She comes to believe her family has been targeted by authorities due to their Middle-Eastern heritage.
Brian Boland as Larry Stafford, lead Secret Service agent assigned to the president. He ultimately failed in preventing the president from being assassinated, as he discusses the day's events and security precautions leading up to the tragedy.
Becky Ann Baker as Eleanor Drake, personal advisor to the president. She dutifully assisted in preparing his speeches and was one of the first few people to learn of his death at the hospital.
Robert Mangiardi as Greg Turner, First Deputy of the Chicago police department, in charge of coordinating security arrangements for the war protest as well as handling the blocking off of city streets for the presidential motorcade. He expresses his displeasure with the violent tone of the protesting public.
Jay Patterson as Sam McCarthy, White House correspondent for The Washington Post. From time to time, he expresses his disapproval with the government's basis for holding Zikri. He believes they have no definitive evidence linking him to the assassination other than the fact that he might have flirted with the thought of terrorism by visiting an enemy country.
Jay Whittaker as Frank Molini, a war protester caught and arrested by police in the ensuing chaos after the initial shots were fired at the president. In his possession was a banner depicting a gun being fired at Bush. However, he was later found not to be the assassin.
Michael Reilly Burke as Robert H. Maguire, special agent in charge at the FBI, involved with reporting directly to new president Dick Cheney on his investigation surrounding evidence related to the assassination.
James Urbaniak as Dr. James Pearn, an FBI forensic examiner assigned to the case to collect and catalogue evidence against any possible suspects. He obtains a partial fingerprint of Jamal Abu Zikri from traces of gunshot residue at the crime scene, but notes that it is only associative evidence and not necessarily enough evidence for a conviction in a court of law.
Neko Parham as Casey Claybon, son of possible suspected assassin Al Claybon. A war veteran who did not particularly support Bush, but who also claimed to have no knowledge of the assassination. He was initially arrested in the melee following the killing, as he walked through the streets of downtown Chicago looking for employment.
Seena Jon as Samir Masri, a Yemeni American protesting at the war rally outside where the President was speaking. Members of his family were deported back to Yemen after overstaying their travel visas following the 9/11 attacks. Masri was at the rally to protest Bush's policies and was arrested as a suspect.
Christian Stolte as John Rucinski, FBI investigator with the joint terrorism task force, assigned with interviewing detainees including Jamal Abu Zikri. Skeptical, he stresses his suspicions about Zikri's whereabouts on the day of the assassination as well as his military history after analysing his statements.
Chavez Ravine as Marianne Claybon, wife of suspected possible assassin Al Claybon. She finds it hard to comprehend her patriotic husband could have had any connection with the killing.
Patricia Buckley as Dawn Norton, Jamal Abu Zikry's defence attorney. She immediately expresses her challenging task of defending her client who the FBI believes has connections with terrorist organisations. She relates her difficulty by conveying that any person suspected of involvement with Al-Qaeda unfortunately equates to a guilty verdict in American society.
Malik Bader as Jamal Abu Zikri, the suspected assassin, a Syrian national working at an IT firm in a building neighbouring the Chicago Sheraton. He was convicted of the crime, but appealed the verdict while being held on death row due to minor forensic evidence implicating him in the assassination.
Tony Dale as Al Claybon, the figure cited as a strong likely suspect of the assassination who ended up committing suicide after he supposedly killed the president. He was a Gulf War veteran distraught over a second son's death from the Iraq War, blaming Bush for his misery.
Production
Filming
The funeral scenes in the film include footage taken from archival coverage of Ronald Reagan's funeral, and President Cheney's eulogy for President Bush is a news clip of Cheney's eulogy for Reagan. CGI special effects and existing footage of President Bush helped to re-create the filming of his assassination. The rifle used by the perpetrator in the film was actually an airsoft replica of an AR-15. Image editing software was used to add the actors' images to photographs with President Bush.
Although all imagery related to Bush's assassination was created using digital special effects, an apparent actual death, captured on tape, is included in the film during a piece of war footage in which an Iraqi insurgent prepares to launch a rocket, but is shot in the head first. Except for specific scenes, most of the actors portrayed in the film were not told of the premise surrounding the story.
During a post emergency surgery news conference, the chief physician's comment that he had "never seen such a strong heart in a man of the president's age", is a reference to President Ronald Reagan's own attempted assassination. In addition, the interview of a middle-aged African American outside the hospital recalls an interview of a witness on the streets of Washington, D.C. in 1981 following that assassination attempt. Filming was done entirely on location in Chicago, Illinois.
Music
The film score was composed and conducted by Richard Harvey. Sound effects and music elements were mixed by Alex Riordan.
Director's notes
The film's director, Gabriel Range, noted that the film is not "a leftist jeremiad" and further said:
The purpose of the film was not to imagine how the world stage would reset with the assassination of George Bush. The intent of the film is really to use the assassination of President Bush as a dramatic device—using the future as an allegory to comment on the past. [....] If people go to the cinema expecting to have some great moment of catharsis watching the president being shot, I suspect they're in for a pretty big surprise. I think that anyone who's expecting this to be a liberal wet dream is in for quite a shock ... It was very important that the film was not a political rant. It was not just a condemnation or polemic because I think that polemics are easy to dismiss.
Release
The official premiere was at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2006.
Television
In Europe, it was broadcast in the UK on 9 October (More4), 19 October 2006 (Channel 4), in Finland on 18 October 2007, in Switzerland on 21 August 2011 (SF 1) and in France on 28 January 2014 (Polar)
Box office
Newmarket paid one million dollars for the U.S. distribution rights. The total production budget for the film is estimated to have been two million dollars. Two of the largest U.S. cinema chains, Regal Entertainment Group and Cinemark, refused to screen the film; a Cinemark spokesman told UK newspaper The Guardian: "The assassination of a sitting president is problematic subject matter". In addition, major U.S. broadcasters CNN and National Public Radio refused to broadcast advertisements for the film. The film was screened in the U.S. for 14 days, showing at 143 theatres at its widest release. Worldwide, it grossed $869,352. The Japanese motion picture ethics committee, the Eirin, prevented Death of a President from being shown in most cinemas in 2007, saying that the film's Japanese title ("Bush Ansatsu", translated as "Bush Assassinated") is inappropriate.
The film was scheduled to begin showing in Japanese cinemas on 6 October 2007.
Home media
The Region 2 Code widescreen edition of the film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2006, followed by the Region 1 Code version in the United States on 3 April 2007. Special features include interviews and commentary with screenwriter Simon Finch, editor Brand Thumim, line producer Donall McCusker and director Gabriel Range. A theatrical trailer is also included with the extras.
Reception
Politicians
The central conceit of Death of a President was much criticised by those who believed it exploited the subject of presidential assassination, and that by doing so, was in bad taste. Gretchen Esell of the Texas Republican Party described the subject matter saying, "I find this shocking, I find it disturbing. I don't know if there are many people in America who would want to watch something like that." Hillary Clinton, then junior United States senator from New York, told The Journal News of Rockland, Westchester, and Putnam counties at the annual New Castle Community Day in Chappaqua that, "I think it's despicable. I think it's absolutely outrageous. That anyone would even attempt to profit on such a horrible scenario makes me sick."
Simon Finch, the co-screenwriter, replied saying that Clinton had not seen the film when she commented. The Bush administration did not comment about the film; as White House spokesperson Emily Lawrimore remarked, "We are not commenting because it doesn't dignify a response."
Critical review
Critics had varied opinions about Death of a President. The Metacritic aggregate website rated it at 49, "Mixed or Average", based upon 30 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes rated it at 39%, "Rotten", based upon 101 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "In this unconvincing fictional documentary, the tense 30 minutes that lead into the title event is outweighed by the boring, melodramatic hour preceding it." In Time magazine, Richard Corliss placed it in the context of other fictional assassinations, such as The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908), Suddenly (1954) and television programmes like 24 (2001–2014); concluding that it was "not an incendiary documentary, but a well-made political thriller." In the Village Voice, J. Hoberman said it was "dramatically inert, but a minor techno-miracle" and that it "skews more theoretical than sensationalist ... Bush is presented as a martyr." James Berardinelli commented that "If this was a serious examination of the possible long-term ramifications of George Bush's current foreign policy, or if it had anything interesting to say about Bush's legacy, it might be justifiable. But that's not the case. The decision to use Bush rather than a fictional representation of him is for no reason other than self-promotion."
Of the critics who liked Death of a President, Rex Reed of The New York Observer identified the film as "Clever, thoughtful, and totally believable. This is a film without a political agenda that everyone should see." In the Toronto Star, Peter Howell said, "The film's deeper intentions ... elevate it into the company of such landmark works of historical argument as Peter Watkins's The War Game, Costa-Gavras's Z and, closer to home, Michel Brault's Les Ordres. Every thinking person should see Death of a President." In Film Journal International, Frank Lovece mused that the film's condemnation "by politicians and pundits from James Pinkerton to Hillary Clinton is understandable and completely predictable: They can't not comment, so when they do, they have to play to their audiences. None of them seriously believes that this work of fiction will really make someone take a potshot at the president, and anyway, the attempt on President Ronald Reagan's life came out of a crazy guy's fascination with Jodie Foster, so you may as well decry movies starring blonde former child actresses." Jim Emerson, editor of RogerEbert.com exclaimed, "Death of a President is electrifying drama, and compellingly realistic. The actors chosen for interview segments (including the mom from Freaks & Geeks as a presidential speechwriter) are unerringly authentic as real people, speaking spontaneously before a documentary lens -- even when it's clear they've rehearsed in their heads what they're going to say, and may even have told these same stories any number of times before."
The film has been reviewed in 2014. The Prince George Citizen columnist Neil Godbout called the film "a powerful statement about racial prejudice, [politicians' exploitation on] events for their own purposes, and [reporters' willingness] to tell stories [told] by government sources without question to get the scoop and break the story first." Indiewire critic Andre Seewood wrote that the film does not "suggest that [George W. Bush] actually be assassinated by British agents." Seewood further wrote that it is "not a direct insult to an enemy but hypothetical criticism of [UK's] ally cleverly disguised as a television news journal in countries where freedom of speech is mutually respected."
Awards
The film won a total of 6 awards including; the International Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) from the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, the International Emmy Award for the TV Movie/Mini-Series category in the (UK), the RTS Television Award in the Digital Channel Programme category from the Royal Television Society, the RTBF TV Prize for Best Picture Award from the Brussels European Film Festival for director Gabriel Range, the Banff Rockie Award from the Banff Television Festival for the film, and one for director Gabriel Range. The film also received a nomination for Best Visual Effects from the British Academy TV Awards in 2007.
See also
Assassinations in fiction
The Interview
References
External links
Death of a President Official Site
Death of a President at Allmovie
Death of a President at Rotten Tomatoes
Death of a President at Metacritic
Death of a President at Box Office Mojo
British films
British television films
2006 drama films
2000s thriller films
2006 films
Films set in Chicago
Cultural depictions of George W. Bush
Political mockumentaries
American mockumentary films
British mockumentary films
Political thriller films
American political drama films
American films
Films about presidents of the United States
American alternate history films
Films about George W. Bush
Films set in 2007
United States presidential succession in fiction
British drama films
International Emmy Award for Best TV Movie or Miniseries
Films set in 2008
Films scored by Richard Harvey |
1016122 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Elizabeth%20Shin | Death of Elizabeth Shin | Elizabeth Shin (February 16, 1980 – April 14, 2000) was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student who died from burns inflicted by a fire in her dormitory room. Her death led to a lawsuit against MIT and controversy as to whether MIT paid adequate attention to its students' mental and emotional health, and whether its suicide rate was abnormally high. Although her death was first thought to be a suicide, both MIT and her parents stipulated that it may have been an accident in the subsequent amicable settlement between MIT and the Shins.
Raised in West Orange, New Jersey, Shin was the salutatorian of her graduating class at West Orange High School.
Incident
On April 10, 2000, a student named Andrew Thomas heard a smoke alarm in Elizabeth's dorm room. Although the door was locked, Thomas could smell smoke and could hear crying coming from within the room. When MIT police broke down the door, they saw Shin "engulfed in flames, flailing on the floor in the middle of her room." Sixty-five percent of her body was covered in third-degree burns, and she died several days later.
Lawsuit
On January 28, 2002, Shin's family filed a $27.65 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the school and several administrators and employees. They accused the school of "breaching its 'promise' to provide an appropriate medical diagnosis and treatment of Shin, as well as reasonable security, emergency services, and level of care". The lawsuit alleged that despite numerous warning signs, such as sending emails to faculty members saying that she was depressed and wanted to kill herself, she received minimal attention. MIT counseling services sometimes relegated duty to her parents, discharged her with minimal treatment, or failed to take action in response to her emails. Shin's parents say that their daughter's death was the 10th of 12 suicides committed by MIT students since 1990 and was foreseeable by the school's administrators and its Mental Health Services employees.
As part of its defense, MIT implied that Shin's mental health problems started before she entered MIT, including a possible suicide attempt when Shin missed becoming valedictorian of her graduating class.
After the incident, MIT announced an upgrade of its student counseling programs, including more staff members and longer hours. MIT and campus police officers were cleared of wrongdoing in June 2005, but the case against MIT administrators and mental health employees continued. The Shins' lawyer David Deluca commented that the counts against MIT might have been limited by the "immunity that the institution enjoys" as an educational institution.
MIT continued to deny wrongdoing.
On April 3, 2006, MIT announced that the lawsuit had been settled for an undisclosed amount. The Shins released a statement, saying, "We appreciate MIT's willingness to spare our family the ordeal of a trial and have come to understand that our daughter's death was likely a tragic accident. This agreement will allow us to move forward in the healing process."
The Shins' lawyer stated that the results of a toxicology test indicated that Elizabeth had overdosed on a nonprescription medication before the fire that could have prevented her from responding appropriately to the blaze. This evidence may have played a part in the Shins' later admission that Elizabeth's death was an accident.
MIT had experienced nine suicides since 1990, provoking controversy as to whether MIT's suicide rate was abnormally high.
According to an unreferenced 2011 article in The Boston Globe, MIT's suicide rate was not higher than other colleges, refuting an earlier The Boston Globe article cited in The New York Times. The picture is muddied by conflicting studies, unequal comparisons, the sparse nature of the event of suicide compared to other activities, conflicts of interest of reporting parties, and changes in the attitude and actions of academic administrations over the decades.
MIT statement
MIT Chancellor Phillip Clay announced the trial settlement with this message to the community on April 3, 2006:
References
External links
MIT sued, denies liability in death of Elizabeth Shin
Short tribute
1980 births
2000 suicides
American people of Korean descent
Suicides by self-immolation
Suicides in Massachusetts
Deaths by person in the United States
Deaths from fire in the United States
Massachusetts Institute of Technology people
People from West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange High School (New Jersey) alumni |
1164302 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Jeremiah%20Duggan | Death of Jeremiah Duggan | Jeremiah Joseph Duggan (10 November 1980 – 27 March 2003) was a British student in Paris who died during a visit to Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany, after being struck by several cars on a dual carriageway. The circumstances of Duggan's death became a matter of dispute because, at the time he died, he was attending a youth "cadre" school organised by the LaRouche movement, an international network led by the American political activist Lyndon LaRouche.
German police concluded that Duggan had committed suicide after running several kilometres from the apartment in which he had been staying, then jumping in front of early-morning traffic. A British coroner rejected a suicide verdict in 2003 after hearing the London Metropolitan Police describe the LaRouche movement as a political cult. Duggan telephoned his mother, Erica Duggan, fifty minutes before he died, apparently distressed about his involvement in it.
Arguing that German police had not investigated the case thoroughly, Erica Duggan commissioned forensic reports which suggested the car accident might have been staged and that Duggan had died elsewhere. After protracted litigation in the UK and Germany, the High Court in London ordered a second inquest in 2010, and in 2012 the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court ordered the Wiesbaden police to reopen their investigation. In 2015 the coroner upheld that Duggan had been killed in the accident, but rejected a suicide verdict, adding that unexplained injuries suggested an "altercation at some stage before his death."
The LaRouche movement attributed criticism of its involvement in the case to LaRouche's political opponents, including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US Vice President Dick Cheney, who they say sought to discredit LaRouche over his opposition to the 2003 Iraq War and his criticism of the anthropogenic global-warming theory.
Background
Duggan family
Jeremiah Duggan was born in North London to Erica Duggan, a Jewish schoolteacher from South Africa; and her husband, Hugo Duggan, who was raised in Ireland. Erica's father left Berlin in 1933; many family members were killed during the Holocaust. Erica in turn left South Africa due to apartheid. She, Hugo, Jeremiah and his two older sisters made their home in the London suburb of Golders Green. Duggan's parents divorced when he was aged 7.
Duggan attended Fitzjohn's Primary School in Hampstead, Quainton School for Boys, and won a scholarship to Christ's Hospital school in Sussex as a boarder. After his A-levels, he spent time in India then trained in Israel as a youth leader. Duggan was interested in the arts, music and the theatre, and in 2001 moved to Paris to study French at the British Institute and English at the Sorbonne. Duggan's mother said he became interested in politics after 9/11; his strong opposition to the Iraq War led him to become involved with the LaRouche movement.
LaRouche movement
Lyndon LaRouche and his German wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, ran a global political network of publications, committees and a youth cadre based in Leesburg, Virginia, United States, and in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. The movement in Germany is represented by the Schiller Institute and the Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität party. LaRouche stood as a presidential candidate in the US eight times between 1976 and 2004. He was jailed in 1989 for conspiracy to commit fraud, a prosecution he claimed was politically motivated.
From the 1970s the movement became associated with the promotion of conspiracy theories, and at times with the use of violence against opponents, the fraudulent use of donations, and antisemitism. There was criticism of its recruitment methods; according to The Sunday Times, recruits were isolated from their families, encouraged to give up their studies, and subjected to intense verbal pressure before being asked to accept the LaRouche worldview. Members said the allegations were misrepresentations, and LaRouche strongly denied the charge of antisemitism.
LaRouche was particularly critical of Britain and of the Tavistock Institute in London, a psychotherapy and social sciences charity that the movement associated with British intelligence. In 1999 a LaRouche publication claimed Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was threatening to assassinate LaRouche, probably with backing from the British royal family. Duggan's family came to believe that this worldview affected the movement's perception of Duggan when the conference participants learned that he was a British Jew who, as a child, had attended the Tavistock Clinic for counselling when his parents divorced.
Duggan's involvement with the movement
Nouvelle Solidarité
Duggan's first contact with the LaRouche movement was in Paris in January 2003, when he bought a copy of the LaRouche French-language newspaper, Nouvelle Solidarité, from a booth near the British Institute, outside the Invalides station on the Paris Métro. The man who sold him the paper was Benoit Chalifoux, a writer for the newspaper and one of the movement's "organizers", or recruiters.
Duggan was strongly opposed to the Iraq War, as were Chalifoux and his group of friends from the LaRouche movement. Protests were taking place worldwide in the weeks leading up to the invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003. Duggan began seeing more of Chalifoux's group and was invited to attend a Schiller Institute conference near Wiesbaden, the LaRouche movement's European headquarters. Duggan and his parents assumed it was an anti-war conference. His mother searched for material about LaRouche on the web in vain; possibly she or her son misspelled the name as "Laroche."
Conference
Duggan and Chalifoux travelled to Wiesbaden on 21 March with eight other men. Duggan stayed in a youth hostel at first, then with two other recruits in an apartment belonging to two Schiller Institute managers.
The conference, "How to Reconstruct a Bankrupt World," was held in Bad Schwalbach, near Wiesbaden, from 21 to 23 March. LaRouche was the keynote speaker, with a speech entitled "Physical Geometry as Strategy." According to April Witt in The Washington Post, he told the audience that US President George W. Bush was an unreformed drunk (he is a teetotaler), Woodrow Wilson had founded the Ku Klux Klan from the White House, John F. Kennedy was killed by a domestic American operation, and the US was using the war in Iraq to "ignite catastrophic global warfare." The plot to launch a world war was being influenced, he said, by people who "like Hitler, admire Nietzsche, but being Jewish ... couldn't qualify for Nazi Party leadership, even though their fascism was absolutely pure! As extreme as Hitler! They sent them to the United States." The people behind the plot were the "independent central-banking-system crowd, the slime-mold," he said, the same people who had brought Hitler to power in the 1930s.
Youth cadre school
After the conference, Duggan attended a LaRouche Youth Movement cadre school in Wiesbaden with 60–70 others. Chalifoux, the recruiter who had accompanied him to Germany, returned to Paris. According to another potential recruit, there were hours of lectures, seminars and one-on-one meetings every day, as well as chanting and singing.
Duggan reportedly stood out because he was British and Jewish. A document from the Metropolitan Police, submitted to the first inquest, said the Schiller Institute and LaRouche Youth Movement blamed the Jewish people for the Iraq war and other global issues, and that "Jeremiah's lecture notes and bulletins showed the anti-Semitic nature of [the] ideology." According to Duggan's mother, the Schiller Institute's scientific adviser, Jonathan Tennenbaum, told her that when Duggan heard the Jews being blamed for the war during a seminar, he had stood up and said, "But I'm a Jew!" One participant said the others put him "through the wringer" because of it.
According to Witt, Duggan may have been placed under further pressure because he told the others he had attended the Tavistock Clinic as a child for counselling when his parents divorced. Duggan's conference notes showed that someone at the conference referred to the Tavistock as a "brainwashing" centre.
Incident
Visit to Frankfurt
Duggan and his French girlfriend had planned to meet in Paris on Tuesday, 25 March. Instead he called her that day, two days before his death, to say he had no money for the fare home and was unable to get a ride until Sunday. He told her "very serious things" were happening and that he would explain when he returned.
On 26 March, Duggan accompanied LaRouche members to Frankfurt to hand out LaRouche literature in the streets, then to see the Rembrandt collection at the Städel museum. When one member asked what he thought of the artwork, he started crying. The woman invited him to step outside for some air. Duggan kept repeating that he did not trust LaRouche and said he wanted to go back to England. She told him he was free to leave and could phone her if he wanted to, which seemed to reassure him. She last saw him with one of his roommates sitting on the steps of the museum around 8:30 pm.
Duggan's telephone calls
One of the Schiller Institute managers in whose apartment Duggan was staying told The Sunday Times that he and his roommate returned to the house around midnight. They had no key so the manager opened the door for them. According to the roommate (speaking after Duggan's death to his girlfriend), Duggan could not sleep and kept switching the lights on and off. He repeated that he was unable to trust LaRouche and felt trapped.
At around 4:20 am—by now Thursday, 27 March—Duggan called his girlfriend on the roommate's mobile phone. She said he was speaking very quietly; sounded agitated and confused; complained that he no longer knew what was true and real; and that someone was conducting experiments with computers and magnetic waves, perhaps on him. She asked him to take a train to Paris in the morning. According to the roommate, Duggan then telephoned his mother, after which he ran out of the house. Mrs. Duggan said the first call came at 5:24 am German time (4:24 am in the UK):
And he said, "Mum, I'm in ... big trouble ... You know this Nouvelle Solidarité?" ... He said, "I can't do this ... I want out." And at that point the phone was cut. And then it rang back again almost immediately. And the first thing that he said that time was, "Mum, I'm frightened." I realised he was in such danger that I said to him, "I love you." And then he said, "I want to see you now." ... I said, "Well, where are you, Jerry?" He said, "Wiesbaden." And I said, "How do you spell it?" And he said, "W-I-E-S." And then the phone was cut.
After the calls, according to the roommate, Duggan asked, "Why did you choose me?" and said he wanted to go out for a cigarette. The roommate went too but pressed a doorbell by accident while looking for the light switch at the bottom of the stairs; he said this appeared to make Duggan panic and he ran off. He said he ran after Duggan briefly before going back to the apartment.
Death
Just over thirty minutes later, at about 6:00 am, two drivers heading into Wiesbaden town centre saw a man run toward them on the Berliner Straße (Bundesstraße 455), a four-lane dual carriageway. The spot, near an Aral garage, was around five kilometres (c. three miles) from the apartment in which Duggan had been staying, and not far from the LaRouche offices in the Wiesbaden suburb of Erbenheim. One of the drivers said Duggan ran toward him with outstretched arms. The car, a BMW, clipped him with the wing mirror. He appears to have fallen, but got up and continued running toward the traffic that was heading into town. Both drivers reported the incidents to police.
At 6:14 am, as the police were taking details, they were told that a man had run into a red Peugeot further ahead on the same road. The driver saw Duggan move onto the road in front of him. The car swerved from the inside lane to the outside, but the driver said Duggan leapt in front of the car, arms raised and mouth open. The car hit him, denting the passenger door and shattering the passenger window and windscreen, and throwing Duggan into the path of a blue Volkswagen Golf, which ran over him. He was certified dead at the scene at 6:35 am.
The view of the German police was that Duggan had arrived at that stretch of road after running 5 km from the apartment. Duggan's family complained that the police had failed to establish that. Other allegations included that he had spent the night at the nearby LaRouche offices and ran from there to the road, and that he had run onto the road from a car. Forensic reports commissioned by Erica Duggan suggested that he may have died elsewhere and been moved onto the road after the fact, a position the coroner rejected in 2015.
Early response
Within minutes of Duggan's second telephone, Erica contacted the British emergency services and was advised to call her local police station in Colindale, Barnet. She told them she believed her son was in danger. They transferred her to the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard, but when she explained he had become involved with Nouvelle Solidarité they had no idea what she meant.
At 7:40 am Duggan's roommate telephoned his girlfriend in Paris to ask if she had heard from him; he said Duggan had left the apartment and had not returned. At around 11 am Erica rang the roommate's mobile phone; because he did not speak English, he passed it to a Schiller Institute manager. The manager reportedly told her the group was a news agency, adding, "We cannot take responsibility for the actions of individuals. We think your son has psychological problems." She said she would call the local hospitals to see whether Duggan had been admitted. Shortly after this, the manager and Duggan's roommate, along with another member, handed his passport, bag and rucksack to the Wiesbaden police station.
The manager told The Independent: "I believed he had psychological problems, based on the conversations he had with people. I don't know what happened on the night he died, but the Schiller Institute played no part in his death." The police report stated that the manager told them Erica had called "since he had severe asthma and was not getting in touch with her." Later Erica said her son had not had asthma since childhood.
According to one of those present, around 25 members of the movement were asked to assemble in the local LaRouche office that morning, in a meeting attended by Helga Zepp-LaRouche. They were told that Duggan had killed himself. A LaRouche recruiter from Paris told the meeting that Duggan had been to the Tavistock Clinic, apparently giving the impression that he had been there recently. Zepp-LaRouche reportedly said that Duggan might have been sent from London to harm LaRouche.
Inquiries
First German investigation
Wiesbaden police reportedly concluded within three hours that Duggan committed suicide. LaRouche officials were said to have told police that Duggan had been a patient at the Tavistock Clinic and had suffered from "suicidal impulses." That view of him shaped the rest of the inquiry, according to The Sunday Times.
An emergency doctor gave the cause of death as "open, cranio-cerebral trauma following traffic accident," injuries that he said were consistent with the accident as described by the drivers. The accident investigator noted marks on Duggan's clothes consistent with having been in contact with the underside of a vehicle. The braking had left marks on the road; Duggan was lying about 23 metres beyond the point of impact. The investigator took 79 photographs of the scene, although the cars were moved before he arrived.
German authorities did not conduct an autopsy because the cause of death had been established and there was no evidence of foul play. His clothes were not returned to his family and were assumed to have been destroyed. The police took no formal witness statements. Witness evidence was recorded as "brief, sometimes contradictory, notes," according to The Daily Telegraph. Nothing suggested that the drivers had any connection to the LaRouche movement or Duggan. The Wiesbaden public prosecutor closed the case after three months. In 2004 he told the BBC:
We are 100 percent certain that it is suicide, suicide as we call it, that as a consequence of his own behaviour, and with no one else involved, he threw himself in front of a car, of several cars, and died on the third attempt.
Under German law, Arlett said that he could investigate further only if there existed "concrete evidence of third-party involvement," and there was none; the Schiller Institute had been mentioned in connection with the death only because Duggan had attended an event of theirs. Officials maintained the same position in 2007 and 2009.
First British inquest
Duggan's body was flown back to England on 31 March 2003, where a non-forensic post-mortem examination was conducted on 4 April by pathologist David Shove. Shove found head injuries, bruising on the backs of the arms and hands, blood in the lungs and stomach, and a full bladder. A blood sample showed no drugs or alcohol.
Shove was not called to attend the inquest, which took place in November 2003. Robert Hawthorne, an accident investigator, told the court that Duggan may only have appeared to leap in front of the cars: "The drivers may have perceived that he leapt when in actual fact he was either running to clear the cars or what they saw was the post-impact movement of Jeremiah as he was flung around." The court heard testimony about the conference Duggan had attended. A Metropolitan Police memo was entered as evidence: "The Schiller Institute and the LaRouche Youth Movement ... blames the Jewish people for the Iraq war and all the other problems in the world. Jeremiah's lecture notes and bulletins showed the anti-Semitic nature of [the] ideology." The coroner, Dr. William Dolman, delivered a narrative verdict:
Jeremiah Joseph Duggan received fatal head injuries when he ran into the road in Wiesbaden and was hit by two private motor cars. What other fact do we know that I must add? I really must add that he had earlier been in a state of terror. It is a word not commonly used in a Coroner's court but no other word would reflect his state of mind at the time.
Private forensic reviews
Erica Duggan set up the "Justice for Jeremiah" campaign in April 2004 with legal support from the British Foreign Office. In 2005 she hand-delivered a list of questions to Shove, the pathologist who had performed the autopsy. When she showed him Duggan's autopsy report, he allegedly replied that Duggan had been "severely beaten around the head" and said he had not realised it had been a traffic accident. Shove declined to sign a statement to that effect and apparently could not be located for the second inquest.
Six forensic experts hired by Erica examined Shove's autopsy report and photographs taken by accident investigators in Wiesbaden. A forensic pathologist suggested that bruises on Duggan's hands and arms were defensive injuries. Paul Canning, a forensic photographer formerly with the Metropolitan Police, and Alan Bayle, a forensic scientist, suggested that Duggan may have died elsewhere and been placed at the scene. Bayle argued that the Peugeot windscreen had been hit with a crowbar or a similar instrument, while Canning wrote that he found nothing to suggest that the cars had made contact with Duggan. Two other forensic experts expressed similar views.
Those views were challenged during a High Court hearing in 2008 regarding the application for a new inquest. Contrary to the claim that there was no sign that Duggan had come into contact with the cars, there were "traces on the underside of the Golf," according to Cecilia Ivimy on behalf of the Attorney General. She described the argument that the accident had been staged as requiring someone to have inflicted head injuries after the phone call to Erica, placed Duggan on the road, inflicted damage to two cars, scattered debris, and created skid marks, all without attracting attention. In 2010 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany called the allegations outlandish. The Wiesbadener Kurier criticised what it saw as the defamation of "two completely innocent motorists."
Second British inquest
Relying on the forensic reviews, Erica applied in May 2007 for a new inquest. A cross-party group of MPs signed an early day motion that month calling on the Attorney General to support the application. After protracted legal action by Erica, the High Court ordered the new inquest in May 2010.
The inquest took place over three days in May 2015 at North London Coroner's Court before the coroner Andrew Walker. Walker rejected the view that the accident had been staged, calling it implausible. The court heard from Catherine Picard, a French expert on cults, that Duggan might have experienced "intense pressure and psychological violence" at the conference, including one-on-one sessions, hours of lectures, and "being subjected to repeated conspiracy theories and antisemitic discourse." Matthew Feldman, a historian at Teesside University and expert on the far right, testified that, if other participants had learned that Duggan was Jewish, British and had attended the Tavistock Clinic, "it would have been taken very seriously by the movement." Walker delivered a narrative verdict:
... Jeremiah Duggan received fatal injuries following a collision with two cars on the Berliner Strasse and died in a road traffic collision. ... There are a number of unexplained injuries that suggest that Mr. Duggan may have been involved in an altercation at some stage before his death.Varney, Merry. "Coroner rejects suicide at inquest into British student found dead in Germany", press release, Leigh Day, 22 May 2015.
He added that Duggan's attendance at the conference, the methods used to recruit young people, Duggan having expressed that he was a Jew and British, and questioning what he was being told "may have had a bearing on Mr. Duggan's death in the sense that it may have put him at risk from members of the organization and caused Mr. Duggan to become distressed and seek to leave." He said that he "totally reject[ed] that this was a suicide."
Second German investigation
Duggan's family appealed unsuccessfully in 2006 to the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) in Frankfurt regarding the decision to close the German police investigation. Their appeal against that decision was rejected by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court in 2010.
A second appeal to the Oberlandesgericht succeeded in 2012. In what the Berliner Zeitung described as an extremely unusual decision, the court ordered the Wiesbaden prosecutor to re-open the inquiry. The court said that a pedestrian leaving the LaRouche offices in Wiesbaden, in the direction of the town centre, would have reached exactly that junction in the Berliner Straße, and "would have had to cross the four-lane road if he did not want or was unable to turn back."
The new investigation opened in April 2013. As of 2015, prosecutors were reportedly investigating allegations against two individuals, one German, one French, on suspicion of causing bodily harm resulting in death. Erica criticised the appointment of the same police officer who had presided over the case in 2003, accusing the German authorities of "institutional racism" akin to that of the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry. In 2014 the Board of Deputies of British Jews asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to arrange an independent investigation, and in 2015 asked the British Foreign Secretary to raise the issue with the German government.
LaRouche response
In 2006 LaRouche issued a statement saying the allegations were a hoax stemming from a campaign orchestrated by Dick Cheney, then Vice President of the United States, and Cheney's wife Lynne. In 2007 the LaRouche movement published a letter from the Metropolitan Police, dated 14 July 2003, that it said was obtained under the British Freedom of Information Act, in which an officer wrote that he had been assured the case had been fully investigated in Germany.
The Schiller Institute issued a statement in 2007: "The Schiller Institute has always maintained that it had no involvement whatsoever in Jeremiah's death, and has expressed its sympathy to the Duggan family." In 2015 a spokesperson told Newsweek that the allegations were "utterly preposterous":
At no time has Ms Duggan ever presented any evidence or facts that refute the findings of the German authorities concerning the suicide of her son. Instead, over the last 12 years she and her representatives and collaborators have propounded wild conspiracies theories promulgated by the political enemies of Mr LaRouche in and around the British Monarchy and the circles of the now discredited former prime minister Tony Blair.
See also
List of unsolved deaths
Notes
References
Further reading
Justice for Jeremiah, Duggan family website.
"Facts of the Duggan Case", Executive Intelligence Review, LaRouche movement.
2003 in Germany
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
English people of German-Jewish descent
English people of Irish descent
English people of South African descent
Deaths by person in Germany
Death of Jeremiah Duggan
People from Hampstead
Unsolved deaths
March 2003 events in Europe |
1214420 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Azaria%20Chamberlain | Death of Azaria Chamberlain | Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain (11 June 1980 – 17 August 1980) was a nine-week-old Australian baby girl who was killed by a dingo on the night of 17 August 1980 during a family camping trip to Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory. Her body was never found. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo. However, Lindy was tried for murder and spent more than three years in prison, despite there being "no body, no evidence of motive and no eyewitness evidence that even vaguely incriminated the Chamberlains" and that "it appears that none of these witnesses—campers, rangers, trackers, searchers or local police who initially attended the scene—doubted that the baby had been taken by a dingo". Michael was also put in jail for some time. Lindy was released only after Azaria's jacket was found near a dingo lair and new inquests were opened. In 2012, 32 years after Azaria's death, the Chamberlains' version of events was officially supported by a coroner.
An initial inquest held in Alice Springs supported the parents' claim and was highly critical of the police investigation. The findings of the inquest were broadcast live on television—a first in Australia. Subsequently, after a further investigation and a second inquest held in Darwin, Lindy was tried for murder, convicted on 29 October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Azaria's father, Michael, was convicted as an accessory after the fact and given a suspended sentence. The media focus for the trial was unusually intense and aroused accusations of sensationalism, while the trial itself was criticised for being unprofessional and biased. The Chamberlains made several unsuccessful appeals, including the final High Court appeal.
After all legal options had been exhausted, the chance discovery in 1986 of Azaria's jacket in an area with numerous dingo lairs led to Lindy's release from prison. On 15 September 1988, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned all convictions against Lindy and Michael. A third inquest was conducted in 1995, which resulted in an "open" finding. At a fourth inquest held on 12 June 2012, Coroner Elizabeth Morris delivered her findings that Azaria Chamberlain had been taken and killed by a dingo. After being released, Lindy was paid $1.3 million for false imprisonment and an amended death certificate was issued.
Numerous books have been written about the case, and there exist several pop culture references notably using some form of the phrase "A dingo ate my baby" or "A dingo took my baby". The story has been made into a television movie, a feature film entitled Evil Angels (released outside Australia and New Zealand as A Cry in the Dark), a television mini-series, a play, a concept album by Australian band The Paradise Motel, and an opera (Lindy, by Moya Henderson).
Coroner's inquests
The initial coronial inquest into the disappearance was opened in Alice Springs on 15 December 1980 before magistrate Denis Barritt. On 20 February 1981, in the first live telecast of Australian court proceedings, Barritt ruled that the likely cause was a dingo attack. In addition to this finding, Barritt also concluded that, subsequent to the attack, "the body of Azaria was taken from the possession of the dingo, and disposed of by an unknown method, by a person or persons, name unknown".
The Northern Territory Police and prosecutors were dissatisfied with this finding. Investigations continued, leading to a second inquest in Darwin in September 1981. Based on ultraviolet photographs of Azaria's jumpsuit, James Cameron of the London Hospital Medical College alleged that "there was an incised wound around the neck of the jumpsuit—in other words, a cut throat" and that there was an imprint of the hand of a small adult on the jumpsuit, visible in the photographs. Their Yellow Holden Torana was also seized in Queensland and flown by military aircraft to Alice Springs. Following this and other findings, the Chamberlains were charged with Azaria's murder.
In 1995, a third inquest was conducted which failed to determine a cause of death, resulting in an "open" finding.
Case against Lindy Chamberlain
The Crown alleged that Lindy Chamberlain had cut Azaria's throat in the front seat of the family car, hiding the baby's body in a large camera case. She then, according to the proposed reconstruction of the crime, rejoined the group of campers around a campfire and fed one of her sons a can of baked beans, before going to the tent and raising the cry that a dingo had taken the baby. It was alleged that at a later time, while other people from the campsite were searching, she disposed of the body.
The key evidence supporting this allegation was the jumpsuit, discovered about a week after the baby's disappearance about 4 km from the tent, bloodstained about the neck, as well as a highly contentious forensic report claiming to have found evidence of foetal haemoglobin in stains on the front seat of the Chamberlains' 1977 Holden Torana hatchback. Foetal haemoglobin is present in infants six months and younger; Azaria was nine weeks old at the time of her disappearance.
Lindy Chamberlain was questioned about the garments that Azaria was wearing. She claimed that Azaria was wearing a matinee jacket over the jumpsuit, but the jacket was not present when the garments were found. She was questioned about the fact that Azaria's singlet, which was inside the jumpsuit, was inside out. She insisted that she never put a singlet on her babies inside out and that she was most particular about this. The statement conflicted with the state of the garments when they were collected as evidence. The garments had been arranged by the investigating officer for a photograph.
In her defence, eyewitness evidence was presented of dingoes having been seen in the area on the evening of 17 August 1980. All witnesses claimed to believe the Chamberlains' story. One witness, a nurse, also reported having heard a baby's cry after the time when the prosecution alleged Azaria had been murdered. Evidence was also presented that adult blood also passed the test used for foetal haemoglobin, and that other organic compounds can produce similar results on that particular test, including mucus from the nose and chocolate milkshakes, both of which had been present in the vehicle where Azaria was allegedly murdered.
Engineer Les Harris, who had conducted dingo research for over a decade, said that, contrary to Cameron's findings, a dingo's carnassial teeth can shear through material as tough as motor vehicle seat belts. He also cited an example of a captive female dingo removing a bundle of meat from its wrapping paper and leaving the paper intact.
The defence's case was rejected by the jury. Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murder on 29 October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Michael Chamberlain was found guilty as an accessory after the fact and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
Appeals
An unsuccessful appeal was made to the Federal Court in April 1983. Subsequently, the High Court of Australia was asked to quash the convictions on the ground that the verdicts were unsafe and unsatisfactory. However, in February 1984 the court refused the appeal by majority.
Release and acquittal
The final resolution of the case was triggered by a chance discovery. In early 1986, British tourist David Brett fell to his death from Uluru during an evening climb. Because of the vast size of the rock and the scrubby nature of the surrounding terrain, it was eight days before Brett's remains were discovered, lying below the bluff where he had lost his footing and in an area full of dingo lairs. As police searched the area, looking for missing bones that might have been carried off by dingoes, they discovered Azaria's missing matinee jacket.
The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory ordered Lindy Chamberlain's immediate release and the case was reopened. On 15 September 1988, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned all convictions against Lindy and Michael Chamberlain.
The questionable nature of the forensic evidence in the Chamberlain trial, and the weight given to it, raised concerns about such procedures and about expert testimony in criminal cases. The prosecution had successfully argued that the pivotal haemoglobin tests indicated the presence of foetal haemoglobin in the Chamberlains' car and it was a significant factor in the original conviction. But it was later shown that these tests were highly unreliable and that similar tests, conducted on a "sound deadener" sprayed on during the manufacture of the car, had yielded virtually identical results.
Two years after they were exonerated, the Chamberlains were awarded $1.3 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment, a sum that covered less than one third of their legal expenses.
The findings of the third coroner's inquest were released on 13 December 1995; the coroner found "the cause and manner of death as unknown."
In December 2011, Elizabeth Morris, then one of the Northern Territory coroners, announced that a fourth inquest would be held in February 2012. On 12 June 2012, at a fourth coronial inquest into the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain, Morris ruled that a dingo was responsible for her death in 1980. Morris made the finding in the light of subsequent reports of dingo attacks on humans causing injury and even death. She stated, "Azaria Chamberlain died at Ayers Rock on 17 August 1980. The cause of her death was as a result of being attacked and taken by a dingo." She subsequently offered her condolences to the parents and siblings of Azaria Chamberlain "on the death of [their] special and dearly loved daughter and sister", and stated that a new death certificate with the cause of death had been registered.
Media involvement and bias
The Chamberlain trial was highly publicised. Given that most of the evidence presented in the case against Lindy Chamberlain was later rejected, the case is now used as an example of how media and bias can adversely affect a trial.
Public and media opinion during the trial was polarised, with "fanciful rumours and sickening jokes" and many cartoons. In particular, antagonism was directed towards Lindy Chamberlain for reportedly not behaving like a "stereotypical" grieving mother. Much was made of the Chamberlains' Seventh-day Adventist religion, including allegations that the church was actually a cult that killed infants as part of bizarre religious ceremonies.
One anonymous tip was received from a man, claiming to be Azaria's doctor in Mount Isa, that the name "Azaria" meant "sacrifice in the wilderness" (it actually means "Helped by God"). Others claimed that Lindy Chamberlain was a witch.
It was reported that Lindy Chamberlain dressed her baby in a black dress. This provoked negative opinion, despite the trends of the early 1980s, during which black and navy cotton girls' dresses were in fashion, often trimmed with brightly coloured ribbon, or printed with brightly coloured sprigs of flowers.
Subsequent events
Since the Chamberlain case, proven cases of attacks on humans by dingoes have been discussed in the public domain, in particular dingo attacks on Fraser Island (off the Queensland coast), the last refuge in Australia for isolated pure-bred wild dingoes. In the wake of these attacks, it emerged that there had been at least 400 documented dingo attacks on Fraser Island. Most were against children, but at least two were on adults. For example, in April 1998, a 13-month-old girl was attacked by a dingo and dragged for about one metre (3 ft) from a picnic blanket at the Waddy Point camping area. The child was dropped when her father intervened.
In July 2004, Frank Cole, a Melbourne pensioner, claimed that he had shot a dingo in 1980 and found a baby in its mouth. After interviewing Cole on the matter, police decided not to reopen the case. He claimed to have the ribbons from the jacket which Azaria had been wearing when she disappeared as proof of his involvement. However, Lindy Chamberlain claimed that the jacket had no ribbons on it. Cole's credibility was further damaged when it was revealed he had made unsubstantiated claims about another case.
In August 2005, a 25-year-old woman named Erin Horsburgh claimed that she was Azaria Chamberlain, but her claims were rejected by the authorities and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Media Watch programme, which stated that none of the reports linking Horsburgh to the Chamberlain case had any substance.
Later events
Michael Chamberlain died of leukaemia on 9 January 2017, aged 72.
The National Museum of Australia has in its collection more than 250 items related to the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain, which Lindy Chamberlain has helped document. Items include courtroom sketches by artists Jo Darbyshire and Veronica O'Leary, camping equipment, a piece of the dashboard from the Chamberlain family's car, outfits worn by Lindy Chamberlain, the number from her prison door, and the black dress worn by Azaria. The National Library of Australia has a small collection of items relating to Azaria, such as her birth records, as well as a manuscript collection which includes around 20,000 documents including some of the Chamberlain family's correspondence and a large number of letters from the general public. Later the actual car itself was sold to the museum by Dr Michael Chamberlain.
Media and cultural impact
Movies and TV
The death of Azaria Chamberlain has been the subject of several books, films and television shows, and other publications and accounts. The John Bryson book Evil Angels was published in 1985, and subsequently adapted by Australian film director Fred Schepisi into a 1988 feature film of the same name (released as A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand), starring Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain and Sam Neill as Michael. The film gave Streep her eighth Academy Award nomination and her first AFI Award.
In 2002, Lindy, an opera by Moya Henderson, was produced by Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House.
The story was dramatised as a television miniseries, Through My Eyes (2004), with Miranda Otto and Craig McLachlan as the Chamberlains. This miniseries was based on Lindy's book of the same name.
Podcast
The death of Azaria and the story of the search, inquests, trial and eventual exoneration of the Chamberlains was documented in a commercial podcast, A Perfect Storm: The True Story of the Chamberlains. The case was also covered by the Casefile podcast, episode 136, the debunking podcast You're Wrong About, the Killer Queens podcast, episode 180, and the crime podcast International Infamy with Ashley Flowers.
Popular culture references
The event was transmuted from tragedy to morbid comedy material for US television series such as Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Simpsons, and 'became deeply embedded in American pop culture' with phrases such as 'a dingo's got my baby!' serving as 'a punchline you probably remember hearing before you knew exactly what a dingo was'. Lindy Chamberlain's release from jail is a significant event in episode three of The Newsreader.
See also
Kelly Keen coyote attack
List of miscarriage of justice cases
List of solved missing person cases
References
Citations
Bibliography
(1998) 20 (3) Sydney Law Review 361.
(2004) 9(1) Deakin Law Review 279.
External links
Chamberlain collection at the National Museum of Australia
1980 births
1980 deaths
1980 in Australia
1980s in the Northern Territory
1980s missing person cases
Animal attacks in Australia
Articles containing video clips
August 1980 events in Australia
Australian folklore
Child deaths
Chamberlain convictions
Death of women
Deaths by person in Australia
Deaths due to dog attacks
History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Missing person cases in Australia
Murder convictions without a body |
1674224 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Brian%20Wells | Death of Brian Wells | Brian Douglas Wells (November 15, 1956 – August 28, 2003) was an American pizza delivery man who was murdered during a complex plot involving a bank robbery, scavenger hunt, and homemade explosive device near his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Following an attempt to rob a PNC Bank, and while surrounded by police, Wells was murdered when an explosive collar locked to his neck detonated. It is known as the "collar bomb" or "pizza bomber" case. The incident was shown live on television.
Wells' involvement in the plot is a matter of controversy. Investigators concluded and a federal prosecutor's indictment alleged Wells was a knowing participant in the bank robbery but was told the bomb was fake and did not know his co-conspirators intended for him to die. Wells' family said he was not a willing participant in the incident.
The multiple aspects of the crime meant the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) led an investigative task force in conjunction with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP). It is the only crime of its kind; CNN described it as "one of the most complicated and bizarre crimes in the annals of the FBI". The incident has gained extensive coverage in mass media, including the 2018 Netflix series Evil Genius.
A federal grand jury indicted Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes on charges of bank robbery, conspiracy, and weapons charges. Fellow co-conspirator William "Bill" Rothstein had died and his roommate Floyd Stockton was given immunity from prosecution so he could testify against Diehl-Armstrong. In 2008, U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin sentenced Barnes to 45 years in federal prison. Two years later, Diehl-Armstrong was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Biography
Brian Wells was born in Warren, Pennsylvania, to Rose and Harold Wells, the latter of whom was a Korean War veteran. In 1973, when Wells was a 16-year-old sophomore, he dropped out of Erie's East High School and went to work as a mechanic.
Conspirators
At Kenneth Barnes' home, he, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, and William Rothstein discussed ways they could make money. Diehl-Armstrong suggested Barnes kill her father, Harold Diehl, so she would receive an inheritance. Barnes told her he was willing to do this for . The collar bomb-bank robbery plot was hatched to obtain enough money to pay Barnes to kill Diehl-Armstrong's father. In return for a reduced sentence, Barnes later told investigators Diehl-Armstrong was the mastermind of the crime and that she wanted the money to pay Barnes to kill her father, who she believed was wasting her inheritance.
Diehl-Armstrong, Barnes, and Rothstein seem to have had issues with compulsive hoarding.
Marjorie Eleanor "Marge" Diehl-Armstrong (February 26, 1949 – April 4, 2017) had a history of suffering from multiple mental illnesses including bipolar disorder, since her early teens, and seems to have been a serial killer. Before her mental health deteriorated in her twenties, Diehl-Armstrong was an "exemplary student" in high school and earned a master's degree from Gannon College. In 1984, she shot her boyfriend Robert Thomas six times as he lay on the couch but was acquitted on claims of self-defense. Her husband and several other partners also died under suspicious circumstances. Diehl-Armstrong died from breast cancer in prison on April 4, 2017, at the age of 68.
Kenneth Barnes (1954 – June 20, 2019) was a retired television repairman, crack dealer, and Diehl-Armstrong's "fishing buddy". He suffered from diabetes and died in prison on June 20, 2019, at the age of 64–65.
William Ansel "Bill" Rothstein (January 17, 1944 – July 30, 2004) dated Diehl-Armstrong in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was implicated in a 1977 murder after he gave a handgun to a friend who used it to murder a romantic rival; he later attempted to destroy the weapon but was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Rothstein was a handyman and part-time shop teacher, and was part of a group called the "fractured intellectuals"; intelligent people who were not well-adjusted. Rothstein was admitted to the Millcreek Community Hospital on July 23, 2004, having previously been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma showing diffuse, large-cell type myeloproliferative lymphoma, and died on July 30 that year at the age of 60.
Floyd Arthur "Jay" Stockton Jr. (born 1947) is a convicted rapist of a disabled teenager. Stockton lived as a fugitive at Rothstein's house. He was granted immunity for his testimony against Diehl-Armstrong, but was never called to testify in court due to illness.
Conspirators' connection to Wells
Immediately after his death, investigators searched Wells' house and found a list of people he knew, including two prostitutes unknown to other members of his family. One of the prostitutes he frequented, Jessica Hoopsick, knew Kenneth Barnes, who dealt crack and whose house was used by sex workers.
Wells as conspirator
According to law enforcement reports, Wells participated in the planning of the bank robbery the day before and was aware of the complex plot, although he believed the bomb would be fake and would serve as an alibi if he was caught. According to an FBI affidavit, two witnesses confirmed that Wells talked about the robbery about a month before it occurred. Wells was seen leaving Rothstein's house the day before the incident, and investigators believe he participated in a rehearsal. It was believed Wells was killed to reduce the number of witnesses.
Family and friends of Wells dispute his involvement in the bank robbery and his own death; according to them, Wells was accosted at gunpoint and forced to wear the bomb.
The crime
Collar bomb
The bomb used in the killing consisted of a hinged collar that worked like a large handcuff to go around the neck, four keyholes that went under the chin, and a rectangular section that contained two pipe bombs and two kitchen timers. One electronic timer hung down over the chest. The device had several decoys, such as unconnected wires, a toy cell phone, and stickers bearing deceptive warnings.
Pizza delivery
Wells worked as a pizza delivery driver at the Mama Mia's Pizzeria in Erie for ten years before his death. Just after 1:30 p.m. on August 28, 2003, the pizzeria received a call from a payphone at a nearby gas station. The owner could not understand the customer and passed the phone to Wells, who received a call to deliver two pizzas to 8631 Peach Street, an address a few miles from the pizzeria. The address was the location of the transmitting tower of WSEE-TV at the end of a dirt road.
According to law enforcement, upon arriving at the television tower, Wells found the plot had changed and learned the bomb was real. Wells' family disputes this account of the events at the television tower; according to them, Wells was accosted at gunpoint by strangers and forced to participate. The details of events at the tower that led to the bomb being attached to Wells' neck have never been firmly established, but evidence suggests there was a struggle and that Barnes, Diehl-Armstrong, Rothstein, and Stockton were all present at that time.
In interviews by law enforcement, Stockton claimed to be the one to put the bomb around Wells' neck. When Wells discovered that the bomb was real, Barnes said a pistol was fired in order to force Wells' compliance, and witnesses confirmed hearing a gunshot. After the bomb was applied, Wells was given a sophisticated home-made shotgun, which had the appearance of an unusually shaped cane.
Wells was instructed to claim that three black men had forced the bomb on him and were holding him as a hostage.
Treasure hunt
Wells' corpse was found with nine pages of lengthy, hand-written instructions addressed to "Bomb Hostage" telling him to rob the bank. The instructions also included a treasure hunt, listing a series of strictly timed tasks of collecting keys that would delay detonation and eventually defuse the bomb. It also warned that Wells would be under constant surveillance and any attempts to contact authorities would result in the bomb's detonation. "ACT NOW, THINK LATER OR YOU WILL DIE!" was scrawled at the bottom of the instructions.
Robbery
Wells was instructed to "quietly" enter the PNC Bank at Summit Towne Center on Peach Street and give the teller an affixed note demanding $250,000, and to use his shotgun to threaten anyone who did not cooperate or attempted to flee. Upon entering the bank around 2:30 p.m., Wells slid the note to a teller. The note stated the bomb would explode in fifteen minutes and that the full amount must be handed over within that time. The teller was unable to access the vault that quickly and gave Wells a bag containing $8,702, with which he exited the bank.
At 2:38, a witness called 9-1-1 from the bank and reported a male leaving the bank with "a bomb or something wrapped around his neck". This is the first-known emergency call for the incident. According to witnesses at the bank and surveillance footage, after entering the bank, Wells waited in line. When he reached the counter, he began sucking a lollipop. He appeared confident as he left the bank, swinging his cane gun and the bag of money "like Charlie Chaplin" according to one witness.
Arrest and death
Around fifteen minutes after Wells left the bank, he had completed the first task of the treasure hunt. He was proceeding with the second task when police saw him standing outside his automobile and promptly arrested him, handcuffed him and left him sitting on the ground in the parking lot. Wells said three unnamed black people had placed a bomb around his neck, provided him with the shotgun, and told him they would kill him unless he committed the robbery and completed several other tasks.
The responding police officers did not attempt to disarm the device, instead focusing on clearing the immediate area of pedestrians and ensuring Wells could not detonate the device. The bomb squad was first called at 3:04 p.m., at least thirty minutes after the first 9-1-1 call from the bank and about ten minutes after Wells was arrested. At 3:18, three minutes before the bomb squad arrived, the bomb detonated and blasted a fist-sized hole in Wells's chest, killing him in seconds. Traffic congestion in the area delayed the bomb squad's arrival but personnel from the ATF still considered their response appropriately quick.
Aftermath
WJET-TV, an Erie ABC affiliate, broadcast the event live on the air, but did not show the moment of the detonation live due to a technical problem. The station provided the footage to FBI investigators, ABC's head office, and sister station in Buffalo, New York. The footage was subsequently leaked to a shock jock on DC101, a radio station in Washington, D.C. who posted it on his website in September 2003. Although he subsequently removed the video at WJET-TV's request, by then it had been posted to numerous video-sharing websites.
Though the note claimed Wells would gain extra time by each key found, police later traveled the note's route and could not complete it in the allotted time, implying Wells would not have had enough time to get the bomb defused. The collar of the bomb was still intact and Wells's body was decapitated so it could be retained.
Death of Robert Pinetti
The case also involved two further deaths linked to the conspirators. On August 31, 2003, Wells's coworker at the pizza store and its only other delivery driver, Robert Thomas Pinetti, was found dead in his home after suffering a drug overdose.
Murder of James Roden
On September 20, 2003, Rothstein, who lived near the television tower, called police to inform them the body of a man, James Roden, was hidden in a freezer in a garage at his house. After he telephoned police, Rothstein wrote a suicide note indicating his planned death had nothing to do with Wells. Investigators do not believe Rothstein ever attempted suicide.
Roden had been living with Diehl-Armstrong for 10 years. In custody, Rothstein claimed Diehl-Armstrong had murdered her then-boyfriend Roden with a 12-gauge shotgun during a dispute over money. Rothstein said she subsequently paid him $2,000 to help hide the body and clean the crime scene at her house.
In January 2005, Diehl-Armstrong pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the murder of Roden and was sentenced to between seven and twenty years in prison. She is believed to have killed Roden to prevent him from informing authorities about the robbery plot.
Diehl-Armstrong and Barnes charged
In April 2005, Diehl-Armstrong told a state trooper she had information about the Wells case and after meeting with FBI agents, said she would tell them everything she knew if she was transferred from the Muncy Correctional Institution to a minimum-security prison in Cambridge Springs. During a series of interviews, Diehl-Armstrong admitted to providing the kitchen timers used for the bomb, stated Rothstein masterminded the plot and that Wells had been directly involved in the plan.
In late 2005, Barnes, who was in jail on unrelated drug charges, was turned in by his brother-in-law after revealing details of the crime to him. On September 3, 2008, Barnes pleaded guilty to conspiring to rob a bank and to aiding and abetting. On December 3 that year, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison by a federal judge in Erie for his role in the crime.
In July 2006, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan announced Diehl-Armstrong and Barnes had been charged with the crime, with Diehl-Armstrong as the mastermind. The deceased Rothstein and Wells were named as un-indicted co-conspirators. Buchanan stated Wells had been involved in the plot from the beginning but that his co-conspirators fitted him with a real bomb that would have exploded even if it was removed.
Diehl-Armstrong trial
On July 29, 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Sean J. McLaughlin made an initial finding that Diehl-Armstrong was mentally incompetent to stand trial due to a number of mental disorders, indicating this ruling would be reviewed after she had received a period of treatment in a mental hospital. Diehl-Armstrong was then transferred for treatment to a federal mental-health facility in Texas.
On February 24, 2009, Judge McLaughlin scheduled a hearing for March 11, 2010, to determine whether Diehl-Armstrong was now competent to stand trial. On September 9, the judge determined she was now competent. In October 2010, Diehl-Armstrong took the stand to testify on her own behalf as part of her defense. She asked for a change of venue, arguing extensive media coverage of the case prevented her from receiving a fair trial in Erie. Judge McLaughlin denied this request, noting while the allegations were unusual, "the [news] coverage as a whole has been about as factual and objective as it could be under the circumstances".
On November 1, 2010, Diehl-Armstrong was convicted of armed bank robbery, conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery, and of using a destructive device in a crime. On February 28, 2011, she was sentenced to life in prison, to be served consecutively with the prison term imposed in 2005 for killing Roden. In November 2012, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed her conviction. In January 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court denied her petition for certiorari, declining to hear her case. In December 2015, Diehl-Armstrong lost a second appeal of her conviction.
Hoopsick confession
In 2018, Jessica Hoopsick admitted to her involvement in the plot. Melissa Chan of Time wrote; "Hoopsick says a conspirator approached her to find a 'gopher' who could be scared into robbing a bank". In the 2018 documentary Evil Genius, Hoopsick identifies the conspirator as Barnes and alleges she recommended Wells, whom she described as "a pushover". Admitting to setting up Wells in exchange for money and drugs, Hoopsick expressed regret for her role and said Wells had no advance knowledge of the robbery. ATF agent Jason Wick stated Hoopsick was uncooperative in 2003 and that authorities "always believed that [she] knew more" about the case; however, Wick also expressed concern Hoopsick might not be a credible witness.
Media attention
As the case continued to develop, the investigation garnered national media coverage in America. Less than two years since the September 11 attacks, many at first believed the incident to be terrorism-related. Fox's America's Most Wanted featured the story three times and publicized newly released evidence in hopes officials could obtain new clues in the case.
Due to its novelty and complexity, the story retains a fascination for many people. The January 2011 issue of Wired magazine covered the story. In 2012, investigator Jerry Clark and journalist Ed Palattella published Pizza Bomber: The Untold Story of America's Most Shocking Bank Robbery (), a true-crime book detailing the events. In May 2018, Netflix released Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist, a documentary series about the case.
A collection of news articles that reported developments in the Wells story was analyzed in a scientific study of information novelty.
In fiction
The 2011 American comedy film 30 Minutes or Less depicts a pizza delivery man being forced to wear a bomb vest and rob a bank, in order to obtain money to pay a hitman to assassinate one of the perpetrators' fathers. The film's similarity to the Wells case was criticized by Wells' family, but Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group said the filmmakers were not aware of the Wells case.
See also
List of unusual deaths
1973 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce bank robbery, in which a bank robber was killed due to an explosive device
Mosman bomb hoax, a 2011 extortion attempt using a fake collar bomb
Notes
References
External links
The 30 Strangest Deaths in History
(Newspaper articles, audio clips)
Website created by Brian's brother; contains reproductions of the nine page letter, along with photos of the cane gun and collar bomb.
Collarbomber FBI Profile August 27, 2004 press release from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania FBI website.
2003 in Pennsylvania
August 2003 events in the United States
bank robberies
deaths by improvised explosive device in the United States
deaths by person in the United States
filmed improvised explosive device bombings
robberies in the United States |
1988525 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20Red%20Heroine | Death of a Red Heroine | Death of a Red Heroine is a mystery novel written by Qiu Xiaolong and was published in English in 2000. It won the 2001 Anthony Award for best first novel.
Plot Summary
This story is set in Shanghai in the early 1990s. One day, Guan Hongying is found dead. Chief inspector Chen Cao, along with his subordinate, Yu, start to investigate this murder case and find that this young woman lived a double life. On one side, Guan Hongying was a member of Communist Party and a popular public figure. On the other, she lived a “degenerate” lifestyle, away from the eyes of the public. This secret lifestyle brings the case into the public's attention, once this young woman dies. During the investigation, Chen and Yu discover that the number one suspect, Wu Xiaoming, is the son of Wu Bing, a high-ranking Party cadre. Wu and his father put the detectives under a huge pressure to avoid investigating, but with the help of Ling's father, Chen succeeds to save himself from the pressure and sends Wu to the court. Chen and Yu struggle to discover his motive to kill Guan. Eventually, Chen discovers his motive: Guan had been blackmailing Wu to make him leave his wife. Wu did not want Guan to jeopardize his political career. As a result, he murdered her. Chen brings these facts to the attention of his superiors.
Characters
Chief Inspector Chen Cao
The lead investigator of the murder case. Although Chen was originally on a career track to be a diplomat, his uncle is discovered to be a counter-revolutionary, which leads to him being assigned to the Shanghai Police Bureau.
Guan Hongying
The victim of the homicide. Hongying, literally meaning red heroine, is the inspiration for the book's title. Since her death is introduced in the beginning of the story, Guan can only be observed through the accounts of others.
Wu Xiaoming
Wu Xiaoming is the murderer of Guan Hongying. He seduces women and takes obscene photos to be used as blackmail. A son of a powerful Communist Party official, Wu consistently attempts to derail the investigation with his influence.
Detective Yu Guangming
A career police officer who partners with Chen in the investigation. Yu initially believes that Chief Inspector Chen Cao is unworthy of his high position. Despite this view, his relationship with Chen strengthens as the case progresses.
Ling
Chen's former girlfriend in university. A daughter of an even higher Communist Party official. Her influences save Chen and send Wu to trial.
Theme
Politics
In the novel, Qiu portrays the complex politics and economy of the People's Republic of China. The political tension during the early 1990s is represented through the novel's principle characters. Chen, a rising young cadre, symbolizes the new-capitalist force of Deng Xiaoping. Guan Hongying represents the old-socialist force. Wu Xiaoming, the murderer and son of a high cadre, represents the powerful old-guard cadres. Detective Yu, Chen's assistant, represents the ordinary citizens who welcome reform, yet have doubts.
Style
Qiu adapts the Classical Chinese storytelling style. In Classical Chinese novels, the insertion of poetry serves as a brief introduction and conclusion to a chapter. In addition to poetry, Qiu inserts popular Chinese idioms, historical allusions, philosophical aphorism and Maoist speeches. It has been criticized that these inclusions slow down the pace and intrude the suspense that is crucial for a detective story.
Background
In an interview, Qiu explains that he had not intended to write Death of a Red Heroine as a “detective story”. However, the genre provides him with a structure that meets his intention. His intention is to examine the old-socialist and new-capitalist tensions that occur during the early 1990s.
Reception
In 2001, Death of a Red Heroine received the Anthony Award for "Best First Novel" and has been nominated for the Edgar Awards for "Best First Novel."
The differences of Qiu's style from traditional Western detective story have won him acclaim for “[a]n impressive and welcome respite from the typical crime novel.”
Reviews
Scholar Liu Bai reviews the book from the perspective of trauma theory, which puts individuals' trauma on a social level to reveal the structure of power in society. In his opinion, there is a close relationship between the psychological trauma of main characters and their social power. This also reflects Qiu Xiaolong's expectation towards the society he lives in.
For example, Chen Cao is suffering from his breakup with Ling due to their differing social status. Guan Hongying's death, a form of physical trauma, is a representation of her political failure. This is an example of the many implicit power relationships found in this book.
Liu also found that the book reveals Qiu Xiaolong's awareness of fighting for his own freedom of speech. In the book, Liu found the characters face a lot of anxiety in regards to their self-identification. He argues that those anxieties reflect Qiu Xiaolong's expectation to obtain acknowledgment of his own social identity as a member of ethnic minority in America.
Chinese translation
The book was translated into Chinese by Yu Lei () under the title Hóng yīng zhī sǐ (). While sections of the text critical of the Cultural Revolution, the high cadre's children (), and the Party were faithfully translated, some sexual scenes and descriptions were removed.
References
2000 American novels
Novels by Qiu Xiaolong
American mystery novels
Novels set in Shanghai
Anthony Award-winning works
2000 debut novels |
2381384 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Maria%20Korp | Death of Maria Korp | Maria Korp (born Maria Matilde; 14 January 1955 – 5 August 2005) was a Portuguese-born Australian woman reported missing for four days and later found, barely alive, in the boot of her car on 13 February 2005. She spent a short time in a coma before emerging into a state of post-coma unresponsiveness. She became the centre of a controversy in Australia during 2005. Depending upon their viewpoint, people have characterised the controversy as being about euthanasia or about human rights and protecting people with disabilities.
On 26 July 2005 Victoria's Public Advocate, Julian Gardner, announced that the feeding tube to Korp would cease to be used for providing artificial nutrition and hydration, that palliative care would be implemented and that she was expected to die within 7 to 14 days. Korp died on 5 August 2005. Her husband's mistress, Tania Herman, pleaded guilty on 8 June 2005 to attempted murder, and was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment; husband Joe Korp, also charged with her attempted murder, committed suicide on the day of her funeral.
Investigation
The brother of Korp's husband, Gust Korp, had earlier reported his concerns about Korp's safety to police on 9 February 2005. Joe Korp stated he last saw his wife at their suburban Mickleham home at approximately 6:30 a.m. that day. Korp was later found unconscious, locked in the boot of her car near the Shrine of Remembrance in Dallas Brooks Drive, in Kings Domain, Melbourne on 13 February 2005. She was taken to nearby Alfred Hospital, and was found to have suffered oxygen starvation to the brain, head injuries and severe dehydration. She went into a medically induced coma, and was placed on life support.
On 16 February 2005, police charged Joe Korp, 47, and his mistress Tania Herman, 38, with the attempted murder of Korp, conspiracy to murder, and intentionally causing serious injury. Both appeared the following day in Melbourne Magistrates' Court and were remanded in custody. On 28 April 2005, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal appointed Victoria's Public Advocate, Julian Gardner as Korp's legal guardian.
Herman pleaded guilty on 8 June to the attempted murder of Korp (this charge was never upgraded to murder when Korp subsequently died) and was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine years. Joe Korp pleaded not guilty on all charges and was later released on bail on 9 June, and committed to stand trial. A further charge of murder had been expected to be laid against him, and he had applied for bail modification so that he could visit his dying wife in hospital. Gardner, who had authority to determine access to Korp approved a visit supervised by his staff and police.
Euthanasia controversy
On 26 July, Gardner announced that medical treatment for Korp in the form of artificial nutrition and hydration would cease, that palliative care treatment would be provided and that she was expected to die within one to two weeks. Her condition had been declining, and medical staff could no longer stabilise her condition. "The treating team at the Alfred Hospital has advised me that her condition is now terminal", Gardner said.
Anti-euthanasia campaigners threatened legal action in an attempt to save Korp in August, 2005. They held peaceful protests outside Melbourne's Alfred Hospital to demonstrate against the "inhumane" decision by Gardner, to stop artificially feeding her. Korp's artificial nutrition and hydration was ceased on 27 July on the decision of Gardner, who stated that all of the doctors who had examined her (including a specialist independent of the hospital arranged by Gardner) had advised that further treatment other than palliative care was futile and that she had no prospects of recovery. He concluded on the basis of the medical evidence and on the basis of evidence of her beliefs and values that continued treatment was not in her best interests.
An appeal against Gardner's appointment—as a legal means of challenging his decision—as Korp's guardian was reportedly considered by opponents of his decision but no appeal was made. The protest group's spokesperson reported to the media that they would be willing to give anything a try in order to stop her from dying from starvation. Korp's husband had publicly stated through his lawyers that he would fight in the courts any attempt to withdraw medical treatment. It was for that reason that the hospital sought the appointment of a guardian. It was only after Gardner approved his visit to Korp that he changed his mind. Her daughter, Laura De Gois, indicated that she did not oppose Gardner's decision.
According to an ABC radio report, Gardner explained that they talked over a period of months to people who knew her well, including her priest, to find out what she believed, and took advice from "an expert Catholic ethicist". He was provided with details of the medical evidence and asked to consider whether, given that evidence of her medical condition, withdrawal of treatment other than palliative care would be in accordance with the statement on this issue by the former Pope in April 2004. He concluded that it would be. Many of her family members were against the cessation of life support. Their reasons were not publicly stated other than to claim that the doctors were wrong and that Korp was not dying. This was the basis of the comments by a family member in Portugal. It is only possible to speculate whether family members' opposition was to avoid Joe Korp being charged with murder or whether they saw withdrawal of life support as euthanasia which is considered a sin in the Roman Catholic Church.
The controversy was heightened by the fact that it occurred at the end of the internationally publicised controversy about Terri Schiavo, an American woman in a vegetative state (for a decade or more longer than Korp) whose artificial treatment and hydration was ceased following a decision by her husband that was made after numerous court cases which ultimately confirmed his authority to do so. Although Gardner was at pains to state that the actions did not amount to euthanasia (he noted that medical treatment decisions such as this had been authorised by the Supreme Court, and that euthanasia was unlawful) the raw nerve that the case touched among many people did not stop some of those who either supported or opposed euthanasia characterising it as such.
Aftermath
Korp died at 2 a.m. on Friday, 5 August 2005, and her funeral mass was held one week later and almost six months to the day after she was found. Forbidden by family to attend the service, Joe Korp invited the media to a private funeral ceremony at his home where he sang "Unchained Melody" and "The Lady in Red". That night he contacted his first wife and then a newspaper journalist, telling both that he intended to hang himself in his garage. Both contacted police who rushed to the house to find him standing on a ladder with a noose around his neck while talking on a mobile phone. According to the police report, he was looking at them through the garage window when the ladder tipped over. Police believe he may have been trying to regain his footing when the ladder fell. Surrounding his body were photographs of Korp, football memorabilia, and notes professing his innocence. The media reported that he was on the phone to his solicitor at the time he died and that the coroner's toxicology report indicated an alcohol reading of 0.15.
In January 2013, Herman applied for permission to marry fellow inmate Nicole Muscat. On 14 February 2014, Herman was released on parole after serving a little over eight years in the Dame Phyllis Frost maximum-security prison.
In popular culture
The story was portrayed in the 2006 book The Maria Korp Case: The Woman In The Boot Story by Sunday Herald Sun journalist Carly Crawford. The book was later adapted into a 2010 television movie called Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story, starring Rebecca Gibney as Maria Korp, Vince Colosimo as Joe Korp, and Maya Stange as Herman. It is narrated by Korp herself, from her point of view, as if from beyond the grave, detailing the events from the Korps' wedding to the beginning of Joe Korp's affair, and its consequences, while postulating the theory that her husband was involved in her death.
The story of her death inspired the opera Midnight Son by Gordon Kerry and Louis Nowra, first performed by Victorian Opera in Melbourne in 2012. In April 2018, the story was also covered by Casefile True Crime Podcast.
See also
List of solved missing person cases
References
External links
Korp's family to decide her fate
Korp car pulled by eBay
1955 births
2000s missing person cases
2005 deaths
Australian people of Portuguese descent
Australian Roman Catholics
Australian victims of crime
Crime in Melbourne
Crime victims from Melbourne
Deaths by person in Australia
Euthanasia in Australia
Formerly missing people
Missing person cases in Australia |
3049956 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Joe%20Cinque | Death of Joe Cinque | The death of Joe Cinque occurred in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory on 26 October 1997. Cinque's coffee was laced with rohypnol, a sedative, at a dinner party, after which he was injected with a lethal dose of heroin by his girlfriend Anu Singh, who was a law student at the Australian National University at the time. Singh was convicted in 1999 of manslaughter. She was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but was released early in 2001. Since her release, she has undertaken criminology research. The crime was portrayed in Helen Garner's non-fiction book Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004), which was later adapted into a film of the same name.
Singh-Cinque relationship
Joe Cinque and Anu Singh met in Newcastle, New South Wales in 1995. The following year, the couple were living together in Canberra while she was a law student at the Australian National University. During the 1998 trial, one of Singh's friends testified that she had been highly obsessed with her self-image, particularly her body, since 1991 and had briefly taken ipecac after Cinque mentioned it, something she was later angry with him for. Singh was also reportedly obsessed with fad diets and would spend hours working out at the gym—she had told friends "she'd rather be dead than fat". In May 1997, Singh told a friend that she wanted to kill several people, including Cinque, her ex-boyfriend Simon Walsh and her doctors.
Death
Singh's close friend Madhavi Rao invited acquaintances to two dinner parties in October 1997 and told them that a crime would be committed. Witness Sanjeeva Tennekoon reported that the first dinner party on 24 October was normal and that Singh and Cinque appeared loving. However, another witness told the court that Rao had told her afterwards that Singh had tried to kill Cinque that evening but did not deliver a sufficient dose, and that the witness had threatened to go to the police. The day after the first dinner party, Singh and Rao went to a friend, Len Mancini, and told him they had given Cinque drugs the previous evening.
Cinque died on 26 October 1997, the morning after the second dinner party. Toxicology reports showed high levels of heroin and rohypnol in his body.
Witness Ross Manley claimed that Singh bought more heroin from Manley's friend on the morning of 26 October. Singh called an ambulance for Cinque at 12:10pm on 26 October, and the ambulance officers found that he had had a cardiac arrest. Singh made it difficult for the ambulance to respond quickly, giving a false address. Singh told police at the scene that she had administered drugs to Cinque. Police reported that when they arrived at the scene, Singh was hysterical and struggled with police and ambulance officers when they took her away from Cinque's body.
Trial
Singh first appeared in court on 28 October 1997, charged with murder. She had told police that she had injected Cinque with heroin so that he would not interfere with a suicide attempt. Rao was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and released on bail on 5 November. The prosecutor noted that both Singh and Rao had been indiscreet about their actions. Singh applied for bail in December, and a psychiatrist presented evidence of a personality disorder. The prosecution pinpointed Singh as someone who embodied strong narcissistic traits.
Singh and Rao were tried jointly in October and November 1998, but this trial was aborted on 11 November, with Justice Ken Crispin saying that one of the pieces of evidence was problematic as it was unclear as to which of Singh or Rao it was admissible against. For the second trial, Singh elected to stand trial by judge alone, forgoing a jury. Justice Crispin ruled that Singh and Rao should be tried separately in the interest of fairness.
In her 1999 trial, Singh's defence presented evidence that she was mentally ill and had diminished responsibility, proposing an insanity defense. The court was told that Singh believed she was dying from a muscle wasting disease, complained of "not being able to feel her head on her body" and was bulimic. The prosecutors called an expert witness to testify that Singh had appeared rational and assertive on the night she was arrested. On 23 April Justice Crispin found Singh guilty of manslaughter and the following day sentenced her to ten years' imprisonment with a minimum four years non-parole period. Cinque's mother was deeply unhappy with the short sentence. In Rao's second trial, she was charged with murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, and administering a stupefying drug and was acquitted of all charges.
Singh was released on parole in October 2001 after four years imprisonment, including time she had served on remand since 1997. She was returned to jail in April 2004 after breaching her parole conditions by smoking marijuana and re-released on 5 August 2004 after challenging her re-imprisonment on a technicality.
Anu Singh
Early life
Anu Singh was born in India on 3 September 1972 to Indian Australian parents, Pradyumn "Paddy" and Surinder Singh, both doctors. The family emigrated from India to Sydney in 1973, when Singh was a baby. They settled in the suburb of Strathfield. Singh attended a Catholic high school in Newcastle, where she was the dux of year 10 in 1988. She graduated high school in 1990 and moved to Canberra the following year to begin studying a double degree in Economics/Law at the Australian National University. Singh missed her life in Sydney, engaged in recreational drug use while living in Canberra, and frequently called home to her parents. As a result, she deferred her studies for one year to return to her family in Sydney.
Singh's early life was relatively unremarkable, and her father remarked on her as a "happy-go-lucky child" albeit one with some attachment issues, who gradually descended into mental illness in her twenties. According to Paddy Singh, Anu's problems escalated in 1995. It was around this time she had an affair with Joe Cinque. After Singh's break-up with an ex-boyfriend, Simon Walsh, as a result of her brief affair with Cinque, she began to use recreational drugs daily, developed insomnia and would pace the house at night. Singh's break-up with Walsh was referred to as a "significant life event" in the court transcripts of her trial.
During her relationship with Cinque, she was dieting excessively and would obsess about her weight. Singh's problems appeared to stabilise briefly during the early days of her relationship with Cinque, but soon returned after they moved in together. Her university attendance became sporadic, and on the rare occasion when she was seen by her peers, she appeared to be "dishevelled" and "poorly dressed"—in contrast to her earlier generally immaculate and prideful dress sense. Singh's father took her to various psychologists and psychiatrists for help, who opined Singh's problem was "psychological", not physical.
After release
Singh has completed a masters in criminology at Sydney University, having attended classes on day release from Emu Plains Correctional Centre.
In June 2005, concern was expressed in the New South Wales Parliament about Singh's employment with the Cabramatta Community Centre. The public was reassured that Singh was not employed to distribute clean injecting equipment and that her employment was on a time-limited project.
In 2010, Singh began research at the University of Sydney Faculty of Law, and in 2012 was awarded a doctorate for her thesis Offending Women: Toward a Greater Understanding of Women's Pathways Into and Out of Crime in Australia. It outlines "five major pathways that led [female prisoners] to crime: unstable upbringings, sexual and physical abuse, drug use, economic marginality and mental illness". An edited version was released as a self-published e-book in 2016.
In literature and other adaptations
The crime has been adapted into works by several authors and filmmakers. The best-known example is Helen Garner's 2004 book Joe Cinque's Consolation, published in the same month as Singh's re-release from prison, which was a widely publicised account of Singh's crime and trial, together with the Cinque family's response to it. Singh gave interviews shortly after the release of the book, recounting her own memories of the killing and expressing regret at rejecting Garner's request for an interview. She told interviewers that she wished to redress some of the book's imbalance towards her.
In 2012, it was announced that Garner's book would be turned into a film to be directed by Canberran Sotiris Dounoukos. Dounoukos was at ANU studying law at the same time as Singh; she was "a friend of friends". The film was partially funded by Screen Australia. The film, also called Joe Cinque's Consolation, was given a cinematic release on 13 October 2016 to generally positive critical attention. Singh was portrayed by actress Maggie Naouri.
Other works based on the death of Cinque include:
In 2005, a documentary was being made about Singh by James Ricketson which covered her employment in Cabramatta. The documentary was reportedly to be called Atonement.
Criminology, a play by Tom Wright and Lally Katz, performed at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre in August 2007.
The Dinner Party, a psychological thriller film starring Lara Cox, released in 2009 and produced by SilverSun Pictures, a video, TV and film production company in Canberra.
Deadly Women and Crimes That Shook Australia.
The case was covered by True Crime Island in July 2018.
The case was also covered in November 2019 by Casefile True Crime.
References
1997 crimes in Australia
1997 deaths
Deaths by person in Australia
Male murder victims
Manslaughter in Australia
Murdered students
People from the Australian Capital Territory
People murdered in the Australian Capital Territory
October 1997 events in Australia |
3112118 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Colin%20Roach | Death of Colin Roach | Colin Roach was a 21-year-old black British man who died from a gunshot wound inside the entrance of Stoke Newington police station, in the London Borough of Hackney, on 12 January 1983. Amid allegations of a police cover-up, the case became a cause célèbre for civil rights campaigners and black community groups in the United Kingdom. Prior to Roach's death, Hackney Black People's Association had been calling for a public inquiry into policing in the area, alleging that there existed a culture of police brutality, wrongful detention of black people, racial harassment, and racially motivated "stopping and searching." Ernie Roberts, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said that there had been "a complete breakdown of faith and credibility in the police" in the area and the Commission for Racial Equality called for a full inquiry into both the death of Roach and the policing in Hackney generally. In June 1983 a coroner's jury returned a majority verdict of suicide. INQUEST, the United Kingdom pressure group founded following the death of Blair Peach at the hands of a police officer in April 1979, was highly critical of the coroner's directions to the jury, and said that he had wrongly pointed them towards a verdict of suicide.
Discrepancies
The police surgeon who was called to Colin Roach's body in the foyer of the police station said that the body position was inconsistent with suicide. The shotgun with which he was killed could not be fitted into the sports bag Roach had with him, not even when broken down. No fibers from the bag were found on the gun and no oil from the gun was found in the bag. When a shotgun is used for suicide the recoil damages and sometimes breaks the trigger thumb. No injury was found to Roach's hand at all. The recoiling gun will normally hit a wall or floor very hard but no marks from this were found in the police station foyer or on the gun butt.
On the other side of the argument there were no marks on Roach's mouth consistent with a gun being forced into it. The man who drove Roach to the police station saw no gun or bulge. He said that Roach was very frightened and saw him walk into the police station. Two police officers who were believed to be present at the police station claimed not to have been there, there were irregularities in the records for who was present.
Roach's death spurred protests and demands for an independent public inquiry. Such an inquiry did not take place, although police did conduct an inquest into the incident. The verdict of the inquest was that he had committed suicide.
The Roach Family Support Committee commissioned its own Independent Committee of Inquiry, which published the book Policing In Hackney: 1945-1984 in 1989.
Pop culture
In August 1983 The Special AKA reached number 60 in the charts with "Racist Friend" / "Bright Lights". The latter song features lyrics that mention Roach:
"I got down to London and what did I see? One thousand policemen all over the street, The people were shouting and looking at me, They say 'the Colin Roach family demand an enquiry'".
The 1990 album by Sinéad O'Connor, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, featured a track called "Black Boys on Mopeds". Although the lyrics do not mention Colin Roach directly, the entire album is essentially dedicated to his family, and contains a photograph on the inner sleeve of his sad-faced parents standing in the rain in front of a poster of their son. Below the image is the inscription: "God's place is the world; but the world is not God's place." Alternative metal band Chevelle also covered O'Connor's song.
Benjamin Zephaniah composed a poem entitled "Who Killed Colin Roach?" Roach's death is also mentioned in a track by the Ragga Twins entitled "The Iron Lady". The lyrics to "License Fi Kill" by Linton Kwesi Johnson asks the question "You can't ask Colin Roach if he really shot himself".
The Colin Roach Centre, a community centre, was set up in Hackney to commemorate the death.
References
External links
Documentation of calls for a public inquiry into the death.
News coverage of the subsequent demonstration. Youtube
Year of birth missing
1983 deaths
Black British history
Deaths by firearm in England
Deaths by person in London
1983 in London
History of the London Borough of Hackney
Stoke Newington
History of the Metropolitan Police |
3357269 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Jill%20Phipps | Death of Jill Phipps | On 1 February 1995, English animal rights activist Jill Phipps was crushed to death under a lorry during a protest to stop the air export of live calves for veal near Coventry Airport.
Background of protests
In 1994, animal rights protesters in England had convinced the major ferries (P & O, Stena Sealink, and Brittany Ferries) to stop live animal exports. In January 1995, a group of thirty farmers established an organization (ITF) to acquire alternative transportation through sea and air ports. One such pathway was air exports via Coventry Airport. Protesters had successfully pressured Coventry, Plymouth and Dover officials to ban the exports, but all were ordered by the courts to permit them.
When exports resumed in early January 1995 via the port in Shoreham, Sussex, a crowd of 500–600 protesters "blocked the roads, damaged the lorries and were violent to the drivers and the police" which succeeded in stopping sea exports for a few days, until authorities added over 1,000 policemen to escort the convoys. Policing costs exceeded £6 million and 20,000 man-hours, and the Chief Constable of Sussex declared they would only support the ports two days a week and that they would prevent passage of lorries on the other days. These quantitative restrictions were challenged in court and it was "concluded that the unlawful activity of protesters and its effects on police resources provided no justification for totally prohibiting a lawful trade."
More court wranglings followed, but in the end the trade was ended in 1996 when most of the European Economic Community boycotted British beef due to an outbreak of mad cow disease. In 2006 this ban was lifted, but Coventry Airport's executive chairman pledged that he would refuse requests to fly live calves.
Jill Phipps
Jill Phipps (15 January 1964 – 1 February 1995) left school at the age of 16 and went to work for the Royal Mail. She had become interested in caring for animals when young, and joined her mother's campaigning against the fur trade from the age of 11. After herself becoming a vegetarian, Phipps persuaded the rest of her family to join her. Phipps joined the Eastern Animal Liberation League, and a local campaign Phipps and her mother took part in resulted in pressuring a local fur shop and fur farm to close down.
In 1986, together with her mother and sister, Phipps raided the Unilever laboratories in objection of their practice of vivisection, and "smashed computer equipment, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage". The group was caught and prosecuted: Phipps' mother was sentenced to six months imprisonment, her sister to eighteen months, but Phipps herself received a suspended sentence as she was pregnant.
After her son was born, Phipps spent less time protesting, attending occasional demonstrations and hunt sabotage meetings with her young son. The use of Coventry airport for export of veal calves horrified her, and in January 1995 she walked almost 100 miles from Coventry to Westminster to protest. On her 31st birthday she protested outside the home of the man who ran Phoenix Aviation, the firm that operated the exports from Coventry airport.
Fatal accident
On 1 February 1995, Phipps was one of 35 protesters at Coventry Airport in Baginton, protesting the export of live calves to Amsterdam for distribution across Europe. Ten protesters broke through police lines and were trying to bring the lorry to a halt by sitting in the road or chaining themselves to it when Phipps was crushed beneath the lorry's wheels; her fatal injuries included a broken spine.
The Crown Prosecution Service ruled there was no evidence to bring any charges against the driver. Phipps' family blamed the police for her death because the police were working to keep the convoy of lorries moving. The inquest heard that the driver may have been distracted by a protester running into the road ahead of him, who was being removed by a policeman. A verdict of accidental death was returned.
Aftermath
For many years, animal rights protests were held around the anniversary date of Phipps' death, and many have claimed Phipps was a martyr to the cause. Though Phipps had been quoted as saying "Yes, I think people could be hurt ... We are so determined to stop this trade, we will go that far," her father said "Jill was no martyr to the cause. She had a young son to live for. She did not want to die." Jill's Film, with footage of Phipps, the Coventry protests, the funeral, and interviews with Phipps' family was produced, and shown for the first time at the Jill's Day 2007 event in Coventry.
See also
Death of Regan Russell
List of animal rights advocates
Live export
Notes
References
1995 in England
February 1995 events in the United Kingdom
20th century in Warwickshire
Animal rights protests
Deaths by person in England
Protest-related deaths
Road incident deaths in England |
3616770 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Brian%20Deneke | Death of Brian Deneke | On December 12, 1997, 19-year-old American punk musician Brian Theodore Deneke (March 9, 1978 – December 12, 1997) was killed in a deliberate hit and run attack in Amarillo, Texas, by 17-year-old Dustin Camp.
Camp was later found guilty of voluntary vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to ten years' probation and a $10,000 fine, which was later dropped. In 2001, he was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for a variety of parole violations. He was paroled under supervision on July 31, 2006.
The homicide and the outcome of the trial against Camp galvanized the punk community and raised accusations about the social tolerance of the Texan city.
Brian Deneke
Brian Deneke was born in Wichita, Kansas, the younger of two sons to Michael Max "Mike" Deneke and Elizabeth Louise "Betty" Bieker. His father was a native of Beloit, Kansas, and was born to Sylvester and Darlene Deneke. Betty Deneke was a native of Concordia, Kansas, and was born to Omer and Marie Bieker. Mike Deneke and Betty Bieker married in 1974 in Concordia, and had two sons: Jason Michael and Brian Theodore. The family settled in southwest Amarillo, Texas from Wichita in winter 1981.
Deneke was a dancer in a Boy Scouts troupe during elementary school. He attended Belmar Elementary, Paramount Terrace Elementary, Crockett Middle School, and Amarillo High School in Amarillo. He dropped out of high school during his junior year, and earned his GED at age 17. Deneke was an artist for Stanley Marsh 3's art project, Dynamite Museum, which consisted of handmade mock road signs scattered across Amarillo city streets. Deneke was also the vocalist of punk rock group The White Slave Traders, and aspired to become a famous punk rock musician.
Deneke was remembered by his friends as being friendly, charismatic and seen as a leader in local punk circles, helping to organize many local musical events. Nicknamed "Sunshine", Deneke had a spiked mohawk hairstyle and often wore a black leather jacket with a studded leather collar and sported homemade tattoos. He was also an enthusiastic skateboarder, and it was this interest which drew him into the punk subculture.
Like other punks in Amarillo, Deneke had suffered frequent harassment and bullying, and acquired nicknames such as "Punch" and "Fist Magnet" by tormentors. His parents were against their son's lifestyle, and warned him of possible prejudice from people in Amarillo.
Death
The International House of Pancakes across the street from the Western Plaza Shopping Center was a popular hangout for youths in Amarillo, Texas. On Saturday, December 6, 1997, a confrontation occurred at the IHOP involving Dustin Camp, a student and football player for Tascosa High School in Amarillo, and John King, a member of the punk rock community. One witness, Kendra Petitt, claims that Camp hopped the median in his Cadillac as he tried to run the punks down in the parking lot, and that Camp missed and instead had his car window smashed by John King's police baton. Camp and friends denied this event ever happened. Tension and resentment from this confrontation lingered among the respective groups for the following week.
After a night of heavy drinking on Friday, December 12, 1997, Dustin Camp and his companions returned to the Western Plaza Shopping Center at 11:00 p.m., anticipating a fight with members of the punk community. Violence soon broke out between jocks and punks outside of the IHOP restaurant. During the fight Dustin Camp retreated into his Cadillac; at first Camp appeared to drive away but then he sharply turned back, targeting Deneke by running him over. Camp's attorney would later argue that Camp returned to defend a fellow jock; however, this claim was denied by Deneke's companions.
Trial of Dustin Camp
During Camp's murder trial, a passenger eyewitness testified that Camp exclaimed "I'm a Ninja in my Caddy!" as he targeted Deneke and then "I bet he liked that one!" after he ran over Deneke as he sped away from the scene.
Dustin Camp was charged with first-degree murder; during his trial his defense claimed that he had acted in defense of a friend whom Deneke was attacking. Camp's defense attorney, Warren L. Clark, defended by trying to shift the blame on Deneke and the punk community. Clark portrayed the punks as violent thugs and went as far as calling them "armed goons". Defense attorney Clark used incidents from Deneke's past that made him look violent, and claimed that he was the aggressor on the night of his death. The defense also claimed that witnesses for the prosecution were punks who lied under oath. In contrast to the punks, the defense characterized the alleged murderer as a wholesome and clean-cut youth. The defense emphasized Camp's normalcy, claiming Camp was a good Christian, a good Texan, and a football player.
The punks who testified consistently saw Deneke as the victim. One of Camp's companions, who was a passenger in his car, also incriminated him. She did not see him acting in defense of a third person and testified on the "Ninja in the Caddy" exclamations.
Although Camp had been charged with murder, the jury only found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to ten years' probation and a $10,000 fine. Both Camp's attorney and the district attorney found this sentence to be uncommonly mild. The jury refused to comment after the trial, citing the welfare of the families. Alternate juror Wade Colvin said he was "completely surprised" that the jury did not convict Camp of murder and opted for a manslaughter conviction instead. "What stuck with me more than anything—I felt like Brian was running away and Dustin had a chance [to stop his car]," Colvin said. He believed the jury gave Camp a second chance because of his youth. "I had those thoughts, too, about him being so young," Colvin said, "but he did wrong."
Camp's probation violations
In June 2001 Camp was apprehended for underage drinking and was arrested for being a minor in the possession of alcohol. Michael Camp, father of Dustin, attempted to cover for his son's probation violations. Michael Camp was formally charged with making false statements to the police. He was sentenced to 60 days' deferred adjudication (a type of probation) and a US$100 fine after a plea bargain. In September 2001, Dustin Camp received an eight-year prison sentence for violating his probation. Dustin's brother David was also arrested during the June events. He served one year of probation for providing alcohol to minors and hindering police efforts to arrest Dustin Camp.
In 2006 Dustin Camp was paroled under supervision until his sentence expired in 2009.
Media coverage and significance
Deneke's funeral service was held at St. Mary's Catholic Church on December 16, 1997, in Amarillo.
His death shook Amarillo and horrified the punk subculture. Punks in Amarillo reported that they had often been targets of abuse and harassment by jocks because of their differences, even before the incident; after the trial there was a general feeling that Camp walked free because he was seen as a "good kid", unlike the punks. The lenient sentence for Camp caused a public outcry in Amarillo and incited a debate on whether the city was a tolerant place. The mayor of Amarillo, Kel Seliger, attempted to distance the town from the verdict. "It was not a community verdict," he said, "it was 12 people." Nonetheless, the murder trial had prompted the mayor to emphasize tolerance for differences and mutual respect. Deneke's father was unsurprised by the lenient verdict: "Quite honestly," Deneke's father said, "we had been prepared for that. If you pay attention to what happens in the criminal justice system, it's not unusual".
National television and radio paid attention to the case in 1999 and 2000 being featured on Leeza, Dateline NBC, 20/20, NPR, and in an MTV documentary, Criminal "Punks vs Preps".
The widely syndicated City Confidential episode "Amarillo, TX: High School Hit & Run" in 2005 reinforced interest in the case. In 2000, musician Marilyn Manson discussed the Deneke case at the Disinfo conference while addressing the issue of the causes of youth violence.
The conflict between jocks and punks in Amarillo has been compared to the widespread social divisions in Columbine High School which have been said to contribute to the Columbine High School massacre. The Deneke case has also been referred to briefly in an academic article arguing the case for expanding the definitions of bias crime beyond the usual boundaries of religious, sexual and racial groups, to other social groupings.
Tributes to Brian Deneke
Concerts
Numerous tribute gigs and concerts have been made for Deneke since his death. In 2000, The Unity Through Diversity festival was held in Amarillo featuring The Undead and Mike Watt, amongst other bands. The tenth anniversary of his death demonstrated the ongoing significance of his death to the punk community with 25 concerts being held on December 8, 2007 across the United States and Canada, including concerts in New York City, Chicago, Seattle and five concerts across Texas including a two-day event in Amarillo. Half of the money raised by these events went to National Organization for Parents of Murdered Children, the other half to various anti prejudice causes. The memorial concerts stated aims were: "Brian was only 19 years old when he succumbed to violent death due to prejudice and ignorance. The Memorial events will donate our profits to charities that fight hate-crime. Brian's existence will continue to inspire others."
Songs
Deneke's death has been the subject of a number of songs, including:
"Brian's Song" by Fifteen
"Brian's Song" by The Code
"Tears On A Pillow (in Amarillo)" by The Undead
"Fortunes of War" by Dropkick Murphys
"Sunshine Fist Magnet" by Against All Authority
"A Punk Killed" and "Murdered" by Total Chaos
"American Justice Is All a Lie" by Career Soldiers
"Sunshine" by The Swellers
"Hail" by Hamell on Trial
"Brian Deneke" by Christopher Owens
"Punk Song" by LambBed
Drama
A play about the Deneke case, Manslaughtered, by David Bucci, was performed at the Annex Theatre, Seattle in 2000.
Film
A film about Brian Deneke's short life has been made called Bomb City, named after Amarillo's nickname as a nuclear weapons disassembly site.
See also
Murder of Sophie Lancaster
References
Bibliography
Mikita Brottman (ed), Car Crash Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 254-6
Jeff Ferrell, Tearing Down the Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy (Palgrave Macmillan 2001)
Texas Monthly on True Crime (University of Texas Press, 2007) p. 19-38
"Death In Texas(the story of Brian Deneke)" PUNK PLANET 36
Filmography
Bomb City Film 3rd Identity
Bomb City
MTV: Criminal: Punks vs. Preps (CBS News Productions, 2000)
City Confidential - Amarillo, TX: High School Hit & Run Episode Number: 128 Season Num: 11 First Aired: Saturday July 9, 2005
External links
ABC NEWSBomb City wraps up filming in Amarillo
Parents of Murdered Children, the charity officially supported by the Deneke family , founded by mother of punk rock star Sid Vicious's girlfriend Nancy Spungen; Deborah Spungen
Official Brian Deneke memorial on MySpace ran by a supporter for Mike and Betty Deneke and the rest of the family (additional )
brian denekes death and the defamation of punks in general chat group on Yahoo! Groups
Brian Deneke Memorial WebRing on WebRing.com, founded by Bri Cors of badgebrigade BRIAN DENEKE - 1978-1997BADGEBRIGADE - www.badgebrigade.com - Custom-Made 1" Buttons/Pins/BadgesBADGEBRIGADE - www.badgebrigade.com - Custom-Made 1" Buttons/Pins/Badges (now nerdtech.com)
by the Deneke family and Lesley and Lillian Pauline Hine, The Long Now Foundation 2008-07-14
memorial by friend Kaade Roberts (site set up before the official site)
by anokchan.com, The Long Now Foundation 2001-03-05
, Pamela Colloff for Texas Monthly, November 1999 (The author was awarded the Magazine and Specialty Publication Achievement Award in the Headliners Foundation Charles E. Green Journalism Contest for this story.) archive via the Internet Archive, The Long Now Foundation 2000-02-22
"Anarchy in Amarillo", Julie Lyons for Dallas Observer, 1999-10-21
"Punks, Jocks and Justice", Julie Lyons for the Houston Press, 1999-10-21
from Griefnet.org
Brian Theodore Deneke at Find a Grave
People from Amarillo, Texas
American skateboarders
Punk people
1997 in Texas
Deaths by person in the United States
1978 births
1997 deaths
December 1997 events in the United States
Pedestrian road incident deaths
Death in Texas |
4028567 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Ged%20Walker | Death of Ged Walker | PC Gerald Michael "Ged" Walker (15 January 1960 – 9 January 2003) was an English police dog handler with Nottinghamshire Police who was killed in the line of duty in Bulwell, Nottingham, in 2003.
On 7 January 2003, PC Walker was dragged 100 yards and fatally injured by a stolen taxi as he reached into the vehicle in an attempt to remove the keys from the ignition. He died in hospital two days later from serious head injuries. He was survived by his widow and two children.
In December 2003, 26-year-old drug addict David Parfitt was convicted of Walker's manslaughter and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He had been on licence at the time of the incident for a previous robbery offence.
In September 2005, a memorial stone for PC Walker was unveiled at the junction of St. Albans Road and Cantrell Road in Bulwell, close to the location of the fatal incident. Present at the unveiling was Michael Winner, the founder and chairman of the Police Memorial Trust, Walker's widow, and the chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police.
A dog show has been held annually in Long Eaton in memory of Walker since his death in 2003. The police station in Bulwell where he was stationed has been named the Ged Walker Building.
See also
List of British police officers killed in the line of duty
References
External links
BBC News article on memorial
Memorial vandalised and reward offered to catch vandals
Funeral of PC Ged Walker
1960 births
2000s in Nottingham
2003 deaths
2003 crimes in the United Kingdom
2003 in England
British manslaughter victims
British police officers killed in the line of duty
Crime in Nottinghamshire
Date of birth missing
Deaths by person in England
History of Nottingham |
4292152 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Marilyn%20Monroe | Death of Marilyn Monroe | Marilyn Monroe died at age 36 of a barbiturate overdose late in the evening of Saturday, August 4, 1962, at her 12305 Fifth Helena Drive home in Los Angeles, California. Her body was discovered before dawn on Sunday, August 5. She was one of the most popular Hollywood stars during the 1950s and early 1960s, was considered a major sex symbol at the time, and was a top-billed actress for a decade. Monroe's films had grossed $200 million by the time of her death.
Monroe had suffered from mental illness and substance abuse for several years prior to her death, and she had not completed a film since The Misfits, released on February 1, 1961; the movie was a box-office disappointment. Monroe had spent 1961 preoccupied with her various health problems, and in April 1962 had begun filming Something's Got to Give for 20th Century-Fox, but the studio fired her in early June. The studio publicly blamed her for the production's problems, and in the weeks preceding her death, Monroe attempted to repair her public image by giving several interviews to high-profile publications. She also began negotiations with Fox on being re-hired for Something's Got to Give and for starring roles in other productions.
Monroe spent the last day of her life, August 4, at her home in Brentwood. She was accompanied at various times by publicist Patricia Newcomb, housekeeper Eunice Murray, photographer Lawrence Schiller and psychiatrist Ralph Greenson. At Greenson's request, Murray stayed overnight to keep Monroe company. At approximately 3 a.m. on Sunday, August 5, she noticed that Monroe had locked herself in her bedroom and appeared unresponsive when she looked into the bedroom through a window. Murray alerted Greenson, who arrived soon after, entered the room by breaking a window, and found Monroe dead. Her death was officially ruled a probable suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner's office, based on precedents of her overdosing and being prone to mood swings and suicidal ideation. No evidence of foul play was found, and accidental overdose was ruled out because of the large amount of barbiturates she had ingested. On August 8 her funeral, arranged by Monroe's former husband Joe DiMaggio, took place at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, then she was interred in a crypt at the Corridor of Memories.
Despite the coroner's findings, several conspiracy theories suggesting murder or accidental overdose have been proposed since the mid-1960s. Many of these involve President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, as well as union leader Jimmy Hoffa and mob boss Sam Giancana. Because of the prevalence of these theories in the media, the office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney reviewed the case in 1982, but found no evidence to support them and did not disagree with the findings of the original investigation.
Background
For several years heading into the early 1960s, Monroe had been dependent on amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol, and she experienced various mental health problems that included depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and chronic insomnia. She had acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with, and she frequently delayed productions by being late to film sets in addition to having trouble remembering her lines.
By 1960, this behavior was adversely affecting her career. For example, although she was author Truman Capote's preferred choice to play Holly Golightly in the film adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Paramount Pictures declined to cast her due to fear that she would complicate the film's production. The two films Monroe completed in the 1960s, Let's Make Love (1960) and The Misfits (1961), were both critical and commercial failures. During the filming of the latter she had had to spend a week detoxing in a hospital. Her third marriage, to author Arthur Miller, also ended in divorce in January 1961.
Instead of working, Monroe spent a large part of 1961 preoccupied with health problems and did not work on any new film projects. She underwent surgery for her endometriosis and a cholecystectomy, and spent four weeks in hospital care—including a brief stint in a mental ward—for depression. Later in 1961, she moved back to Los Angeles after six years in Manhattan; she purchased a Spanish hacienda-style house at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood. In early 1962, she received a "World Film Favorite" Golden Globe award and began to shoot a new film for 20th Century Fox, Something's Got to Give, a remake of My Favorite Wife (1940).
Days before filming began, Monroe caught sinusitis; Fox was advised to postpone the production, but the advice was not heeded and filming began on schedule in late April. Monroe was too ill to work for the majority of the next six weeks, but despite confirmations by multiple doctors, the studio tried to pressure her by publicly alleging that she was faking it. On May 19, she took a break from filming to sing "Happy Birthday" on stage at President John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York ten days before his actual birthday.
Monroe and Kennedy had mutual friends and although they sometimes had casual sexual encounters, there is no evidence that their relationship was serious. After Monroe returned to LA from New York City, she resumed filming and celebrated her 36th birthday on the set on June 1. She was again absent for several days, which led 20th Century Fox to fire her on June 7 and sue her for breach of contract, demanding $750,000 in damages. She was replaced by Lee Remick, but after co-star Dean Martin refused to make the film with anyone other than Monroe, Fox sued him as well and shut down the production.
The studio publicly blamed Monroe's drug addiction and alleged lack of professionalism for the demise of the film, even claiming that she was mentally disturbed. To counter the negative publicity, Monroe gave interviews to several high-profile publications, such as Life, Cosmopolitan and Vogue, in her last weeks. After successfully renegotiating her contract with Fox, filming with Monroe was scheduled to resume in September on Something's Got to Give, and Monroe made plans for starring in What a Way to Go! (1964) as well as a biopic about Jean Harlow.
Timeline
Monroe spent the last day of her life, Saturday, August 4, at her Brentwood home. In the morning, she met with photographer Lawrence Schiller to discuss the possibility of Playboy publishing nude photos taken of her on the set of Something's Got to Give. She also received a massage from her personal massage therapist, talked with friends on the phone, and signed for deliveries. Present at the house in the morning were also her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, and her publicist Patricia Newcomb, who had stayed overnight. According to Newcomb, they had an argument because Monroe had not slept well the night before.
At 4:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday, August 4, Monroe's psychiatrist Ralph Greenson arrived at the house to conduct a therapy session and asked Newcomb to leave. Before Greenson left at around 7 p.m., he asked Murray to stay overnight and keep Monroe company. At approximately 7–7:15, Monroe received a call from Joe DiMaggio Jr., with whom she had stayed close since her divorce from his father. He told her that he had broken up with a girlfriend she did not like, and he detected nothing alarming in Monroe's behavior. At around 7:40–7:45, she telephoned Greenson to tell him the news about the breakup of DiMaggio and his girlfriend.
Monroe retired to her bedroom at approximately 8 p.m. She received a call from actor Peter Lawford, who was hoping to persuade her to attend his party that night. Lawford became alarmed because Monroe sounded like she was under the influence of drugs. She told him to "Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to the president (Lawford's brother-in-law), and say goodbye to yourself, because you're a nice guy", before drifting off. Unable to reach Monroe, Lawford called his agent Milton Ebbins, who unsuccessfully tried to reach Greenson, and later called Monroe's lawyer, Milton A. "Mickey" Rudin. Rudin called Monroe's house, and was assured by Eunice Murray that she was fine.
At approximately 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 5, Murray woke up "sensing that something was wrong" and saw light from under Monroe's bedroom door, but she was not able to get a response and found the door locked. Murray telephoned Greenson, on whose advice she looked in through a window, and saw Monroe lying facedown on her bed, covered by a sheet and clutching a telephone receiver. Greenson arrived shortly thereafter. He entered the room by breaking a window and found Monroe dead. He called her physician, Hyman Engelberg, who arrived at the house at around 3:50 a.m. and officially confirmed the death. At 4:25 a.m., they notified the Los Angeles Police Department.
Inquest and 1982 review
Deputy coroner Thomas Noguchi conducted Monroe's autopsy on the same day that she was found dead, Sunday, August 5. The Los Angeles County coroner's office was assisted in the inquest by psychiatrists Norman Farberow, Robert Litman, and Norman Tabachnik from the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, who interviewed Monroe's doctors and psychiatrists on her mental state. Based on the advanced state of rigor mortis at the time her body was discovered, it was estimated that she had died between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. on August 4.
The toxicological analysis concluded that the cause of death was acute barbiturate poisoning; she had 8 mg% (mg/dl) of chloral hydrate and 4.5 mg% of pentobarbital (Nembutal) in her blood and a further 13 mg% of pentobarbital in her liver. The police found empty bottles of these medicines next to her bed. There were no signs of external wounds or bruises on the body.
The findings of the inquest were published on August 17; Chief Coroner Theodore Curphey classified Monroe's death a "probable suicide". The possibility of an accidental overdose was ruled out because the dosages found in her body were several times over the lethal limit and had been taken "in one gulp or in a few gulps over a minute or so". At the time of her death, Monroe was reported to have been in a "depressed mood", and had been "unkempt" and uninterested in maintaining her appearance. No suicide note was found, but Litman stated that this was not unusual, because statistics show that less than 40 percent of suicide victims leave notes. In their final report, Farberow, Litman, and Tabachnik stated:
Miss Monroe had suffered from psychiatric disturbance for a long time. She experienced severe fears and frequent depressions. Mood changes were abrupt and unpredictable. Among symptoms of disorganization, sleep disturbance was prominent, for which she had been taking sedative drugs for many years. She was thus familiar with and experienced in the use of sedative drugs and well aware of their dangers ... In our investigation we have learned that Miss Monroe had often expressed wishes to give up, to withdraw, and even to die. On more than one occasion in the past, she had made a suicide attempt, using sedative drugs. On these occasions, she had called for help and had been rescued.
It is our opinion that the same pattern was repeated on the evening of Aug. 4 except for the rescue. It has been our practice with similar information collected in other cases in the past to recommend a certification for such deaths as probable suicide. Additional clues for suicide provided by the physical evidence are the high level of barbiturates and chloral hydrate in the blood which, with other evidence from the autopsy, indicates the probable ingestion of a large amount of drugs within a short period of time: the completely empty bottle of Nembutal, the prescription for which (25 capsules) was filled the day before the ingestion, and the locked door to the bedroom, which was unusual.
In the 1970s, claims surfaced that Monroe's death was a murder and not suicide. Due to these claims, Los Angeles County District Attorney John Van de Kamp assigned his colleague Ronald H. "Mike" Carroll to conduct a 1982 "threshold investigation" to see whether a criminal investigation should be opened. Carroll worked with Alan B. Tomich, an investigator for the district attorney's office, for over three months on an inquiry that resulted in a thirty-page report.
They did not find any credible evidence to support the theory that Monroe was murdered.
In 1983, Thomas Noguchi published his memoirs, in which he discussed Monroe's case and the allegations of discrepancies in the autopsy and the coroner's ruling of suicide. These included the claims that Monroe could not have ingested the pills because her stomach was empty; that Nembutal capsules should have left yellow residue; that she may have been administered an enema; and that the autopsy noted no needle marks despite the fact that she routinely received injections from her doctors.
Noguchi explained that hemorrhaging of the stomach lining indicated that the medication had been administered orally, and that because Monroe had been an addict for several years, the pills would have been absorbed more rapidly than in the case of non-addicts. He also denied that Nembutal leaves dye residue. He noted that only very recent needle marks are visible on a body, and that the only bruise he noted on Monroe's body, on her lower back, was superficial and its placement indicated that it was accidental, and not linked to foul play. Noguchi finally concluded that based on his observations, the most probable conclusion is that Monroe committed suicide.
Public reactions and funeral
Monroe's unexpected death was front-page news in the United States and Europe. According to biographer Lois Banner, "it's said that the suicide rate in Los Angeles doubled the month after she died; the circulation rate of most newspapers expanded that month", and the Chicago Tribune reported that they had received hundreds of phone calls from members of the public requesting information about her death. French artist Jean Cocteau commented that her death "should serve as a terrible lesson to all those, whose chief occupation consists of spying on and tormenting film stars", her former co-star Laurence Olivier deemed her "the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensation", and Bus Stop director Joshua Logan stated that she was "one of the most unappreciated people in the world".
Monroe's funeral was held on August 8 at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, where her foster parents Ana Lower and Grace McKee Goddard had also been buried. The service was arranged by her former husband Joe DiMaggio, her half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle and her business manager Inez Melson, who decided to invite only around thirty of her closest family members and friends, excluding most of Hollywood. Police were present to keep the press away and to control the several hundred spectators who crowded the streets around the cemetery.
The funeral service, presided over by a local minister, was conducted at the cemetery's chapel. Monroe was laid out in a green Emilio Pucci dress and held a bouquet of small pink roses. Her longtime make-up artist and friend, Whitey Snyder, had done her make-up. The eulogy was delivered by Lee Strasberg, and a selection from Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony as well as a record of Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow" were played. Monroe was interred at crypt No. 24 at the Corridor of Memories. DiMaggio arranged for red roses to be placed in a vase attached to the crypt three times a week for the next 20 years.
Administration of estate
In her will, Monroe left several thousand dollars to her half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle and her secretary May Reis, a share for the education of her friend Norman Rosten's daughter, and established a $100,000 trust fund to cover the costs of the care of her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, and the widow of her acting teacher Michael Chekhov. From the remaining estate she granted 25 percent to her former psychiatrist Marianne Kris "for the furtherance of the work of such psychiatric institutions or groups as she shall elect", and 75 percent, including her personal effects, film royalties and real estate, to Lee Strasberg, whom she instructed to distribute her effects "among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted". Due to legal complications, the beneficiaries were not paid until 1971.
When Strasberg died in 1982, his estate was willed to his widow Anna, who claimed Monroe's publicity rights and began to license her image to companies. In 1990, she unsuccessfully sued the Anna Freud Centre, to which Kris had bequeathed her Monroe rights, in an attempt to gain full rights to Monroe's estate. In 1996, Anna Strasberg hired CMG Worldwide, a celebrity-legacy licensing group, to manage the licensing rights.
She went on to prevent Odyssey Group, Inc. from auctioning effects that Monroe's business manager Inez Melson, who had also been named Monroe's special administrator of estate, handed down to her nephew, Millington Conroy. Between 1996 and 2001 CMG entered into 700 licensing agreements with merchandisers. Against Monroe's wishes, Lee Strasberg had never distributed her effects amongst her friends, and in 1999 Anna Strasberg commissioned Christie's to auction them, netting $13.4 million. In 2000, she founded Marilyn Monroe LLC.
Marilyn Monroe LLC's claim to exclusive ownership of Monroe's publicity rights became subject to a "landmark [legal] case" in 2006, when the heirs of three freelance photographers who had photographed her—Sam Shaw, Milton Greene, and Tom Kelley—successfully challenged the company in courts in California and New York. In May 2007, the courts determined that Monroe could not have passed her publicity rights to her estate, as the first law granting such right, the California Celebrities Rights Act, was not passed until 1985.
The estate terminated their business relationship with CMG Worldwide in 2010, and sold the licensing rights to Authentic Brands Group the following year. Also in 2010, the estate sold Monroe's Brentwood home for $3.8 million, and published a selection of her private notes, diaries and correspondence as a book called Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters.
Conspiracy theories
1960s: Frank A. Capell, Jack Clemmons
During the 1960s, there were no widespread conspiracy theories about Monroe's death. The first allegations that she had been murdered originated in anti-communist activist Frank A. Capell's self-published pamphlet The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe (1964), in which he claimed that her death was part of a communist conspiracy. He claimed that Monroe and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had an affair, which she took too seriously and was threatening to cause a scandal; Kennedy therefore ordered her to be assassinated to protect his career. In addition to accusing Kennedy of being a communist sympathizer, Capell also claimed that many other people close to Monroe, such as her doctors and ex-husband Arthur Miller, were communists.
Capell's credibility has been seriously questioned because his only source was columnist Walter Winchell, who in turn had received much of his information from him; Capell, therefore, was citing himself. His friend, LAPD Sergeant Jack Clemmons, aided him in developing his pamphlet; Clemmons became a central source for conspiracy theorists. He was the first police officer on the scene of Monroe's death and later made claims that he had not mentioned in the official 1962 investigation: he alleged that when he arrived at Monroe's house, Eunice Murray was washing her sheets in the laundry, and he had "a sixth sense" that something was wrong.
Capell and Clemmons' allegations have been linked to their political goals. Capell dedicated his life to revealing an "International Communist Conspiracy" and Clemmons was a member of The Police and Fire Research Organization (FiPo), which sought to expose "subversive activities which threaten our American way of life". FiPo and similar organizations were known for their stance against the Kennedys and for sending the Federal Bureau of Investigation letters incriminating them; a 1964 FBI file that speculated on an affair between Monroe and Robert F. Kennedy is likely to have come from them.
Furthermore, Capell, Clemmons, and a third person were indicted in 1965 by a California grand jury for "conspiracy to libel by obtaining and distributing a false affidavit" claiming that senator Thomas Kuchel had once been arrested for a homosexual act. They had done this because Kuchel had supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Capell pleaded guilty, and charges against Clemmons were dropped after he resigned from the LAPD.
In the 1960s, Monroe's death was also discussed in Charles Hamblett's Who Killed Marilyn Monroe? (1966) and in James A. Hudson's The Mysterious Death of Marilyn Monroe (1968). Neither Capell's, Hamblett's, or Hudson's accounts were widely disseminated.
1970s: Norman Mailer, Robert Slatzer, Anthony Scaduto
The allegations of murder first became part of mainstream discussion with the publication of Norman Mailer's Marilyn: A Biography in 1973. Despite not having any evidence, Mailer repeated the claim that Monroe and Robert F. Kennedy had an affair and speculated that she was killed by either the FBI or CIA, who wished to use the murder as a "point of pressure ... against the Kennedys". The book was heavily criticized in reviews, and later that year Mailer recanted his allegations in an interview with Mike Wallace for 60 Minutes, stating that he had made them to ensure commercial success for his book, and that he believes Monroe's death was "ten to one" an "accidental suicide".
Two years later, Robert F. Slatzer published The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe (1975), based on Capell's pamphlet. In addition to his assertion that Monroe was killed by Robert F. Kennedy, Slatzer also controversially claimed to have been married to Monroe in Mexico for three days in October 1952, and that they had remained close friends until her death. Although his account was not widely circulated at the time, it has remained central to conspiracy theories.
In October 1975, rock journalist Anthony Scaduto published an article about Monroe's death in soft porn magazine Oui, and the following year expanded his account into book form as Who Killed Marilyn Monroe? (1976), published under the pen name Tony Sciacca. His only sources were Slatzer and his private investigator, Milo Speriglio. In addition to repeating Slatzer's claims, Scaduto alleged that Monroe had kept a red diary in which she had written confidential political information she had heard from the Kennedys, and that her house had been wiretapped by surveillance expert Bernard Spindel on the orders of union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who was hoping to obtain incriminating evidence he could use against the Kennedys.
1980s: Milo Speriglio, Anthony Summers
In 1982, Slatzer's private detective Milo Speriglio published Marilyn Monroe: Murder Cover-Up, in which he claimed that Monroe had been murdered by Jimmy Hoffa and mob boss Sam Giancana. Basing his account on Slatzer and Scaduto's books, Speriglio added statements made by Lionel Grandison, who worked at the Los Angeles County coroner's office at the time of Monroe's death. Grandison claimed that Monroe's body had been extensively bruised but this had been omitted from the autopsy report, and that he had seen the "red diary", but it had mysteriously disappeared.
Speriglio and Slatzer demanded that the investigation into Monroe's death be re-opened by authorities, and the Los Angeles District Attorney agreed to review the case. The new investigation could not find any evidence to support the murder claims. Grandison was found not to be a reliable witness as he had been fired from the coroner's office for stealing from corpses. The allegations that Monroe's home was wiretapped by Bernard Spindel were also found to be false. Spindel's apartment had been raided by the Manhattan District Attorney's office in 1966, during which his tapes were seized. He later made a claim that he had wiretapped Monroe's house, but it was not supported by the contents of the tapes, to which the investigators had listened.
The most prominent Monroe conspiracy theorist in the 1980s was British journalist Anthony Summers, who claimed that Monroe's death was an accidental overdose enabled and covered up by Robert F. Kennedy. His book, Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe (1985), became one of the most commercially successful Monroe biographies. Prior to writing on Monroe, he had authored a book on a conspiracy theory of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His investigation on Monroe began as an assignment for the British tabloid the Sunday Express to cover the Los Angeles District Attorney's 1982 review.
According to Summers, Monroe had severe substance abuse problems and was psychotic in the last months of her life. He alleges that Monroe had affairs with both John F. and Robert F. Kennedy, and that when Robert F. Kennedy ended their affair, she threatened to reveal their association. Kennedy and Peter Lawford attempted to prevent this by enabling her addictions. According to Summers, Monroe became hysterical and accidentally overdosed, dying in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Kennedy wanted to leave Los Angeles before Monroe's death became public to avoid being associated with it, and therefore her body was returned to Helena Drive and the overdose staged as a suicide by Lawford, the Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover.
Summers based his account on interviews he had conducted with 650 people connected to Monroe, but his research has been criticized by biographers Donald Spoto and Sarah Churchwell. According to Spoto, Summers contradicts himself, presents false information as fact, and misrepresents what some of Monroe's friends said about her. Churchwell, meanwhile, has stated that while Summers accumulated a large collection of anecdotal material, most of his allegations are speculation; many of the people he interviewed could provide only second- or third-hand accounts, and they "relate what they believe, not what they demonstrably know". Summers was also the first major biographer to find Slatzer a credible witness, and relies heavily on testimonies by other controversial witnesses, including Jack Clemmons and Jeanne Carmen, a model-actress whose claim to have been Monroe's close friend has been disputed by Spoto and Lois Banner.
Summers' allegations formed the basis for the BBC documentary Marilyn: Say Goodbye to the President (1985), and for a 26-minute segment produced for ABC's 20/20. The 20/20 segment was never aired, as ABC President Roone Arledge decided that the claims made in it required more evidence to back them up. Summers claimed that Arledge's decision was influenced by pressure from the Kennedys.
1990s: Brown and Barham, Donald H. Wolfe, Donald Spoto
In the 1990s, two new books alleged that Monroe was murdered: Peter Brown and Patte Barham's Marilyn: The Last Take (1992) and Donald H. Wolfe's The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe (1998). Neither presented much new evidence but relied extensively on Capell and Summers as well as on discredited witnesses such as Grandison, Slatzer, Clemmons, and Carmen; Wolfe also did not provide any sources for many of his claims, and disregarded many of the findings of the autopsy without explanation.
In his 1993 biography of Monroe, Donald Spoto disputed the previous conspiracy theories but alleged that Monroe's death was an accidental overdose staged as a suicide. According to him, her doctors Greenson (psychiatrist) and Engelberg (personal physician) had been trying to stop her abuse of Nembutal. In order to monitor her drug use, they had agreed to never prescribe her anything without first consulting with each other. Monroe was able to persuade Engelberg to break his promise by lying to him that Greenson had agreed to it. She took several Nembutals on August 4, but did not tell this to Greenson, who prescribed her a chloral hydrate enema; the combination of these two drugs killed her. Afraid of the consequences, the doctors and Eunice Murray then staged the death as a suicide.
Spoto argued that Monroe could not have been suicidal because she had reached a new agreement with 20th Century Fox and because she was allegedly going to remarry Joe DiMaggio. He based his theory of her death on alleged discrepancies in the police statements given by Monroe's housekeeper and doctors, a claim made by Monroe's publicist Arthur P. Jacobs's wife that he had been alerted of the death already at 10:30 p.m., as well as on claims made by prosecutor John Miner, who was involved in the official investigation. Miner had alleged that her autopsy revealed signs more consistent with an enema than oral ingestion.
2000s: John Miner, Matthew Smith
John Miner's allegations that Monroe's death was not a suicide received more publicity in the 2000s, when he published transcripts that he claimed to have made from audiotapes that Monroe recorded shortly before her death. Miner claimed that Monroe gave the tapes to her psychiatrist Greenson, who invited him to listen to them after her death. On the tapes, Monroe spoke of her plans for the future, which Miner argues is proof that she could not have killed herself. She also discussed her sex life and use of enemas; Miner alleged that Monroe was killed by an enema that was administered by Eunice Murray.
Miner's allegations have received criticism. During the official review of the case by the district attorney in 1982, he told the investigators about the tapes, but did not mention that he had transcripts of them. Miner claimed that this was because Greenson had sworn him to silence. The tapes themselves have never been found, and Miner remains the only person to claim they existed. Greenson was already dead before Miner went public with them.
Biographer Lois Banner knew Miner personally because they both worked at the University of Southern California; she further challenged the authenticity of the transcripts. Miner had once lost his license to practice law for several years, lied to Banner about having worked for the Kinsey Institute, and had gone bankrupt shortly before selling the alleged transcripts. He had first attempted to sell the transcripts to Vanity Fair, but when the magazine had asked him to show them to Anthony Summers in order to validate them, it had become apparent that he did not have them.
The transcripts, which Miner sold to British author Matthew Smith, were therefore written several decades after he alleged to have listened to the tapes. Miner's claim that Monroe's housekeeper was in fact her nurse and administered her enemas on a regular basis is also not supported by evidence. Furthermore, Banner wrote that Miner had a personal obsession about enemas and practiced sadomasochism; she concluded that his theory about Monroe's death "represented his sexual interests" and was not based on evidence.
Matthew Smith published the transcripts as part of his book Victim: The Secret Tapes of Marilyn Monroe (2003). He asserted that Monroe was murdered by the CIA due to her association with Robert F. Kennedy, as the agency wanted revenge for the Kennedys' handling of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Smith had already written about the topic in his previous book, The Men Who Murdered Marilyn (1996). Noting that Smith included no footnotes in his 1996 book and only eight in Victim, Churchwell has called his account "a tissue of conjecture, speculation and pure fiction as documentary fact" and "arguably the least factual of all Marilyn lives". The Miner transcripts were also discussed in a 2005 Los Angeles Times article.
Notes
References
Footnotes
Sources
External links
"Marilyn Monroe Dead, Pills Near" Articles of Monroe's death in The New York Times
"From the Archives: Marilyn Monroe Dies; Pills Blamed" in Los Angeles Times
"Funeral for a Hollywood legend: The death of Marilyn Monroe in Los Angeles Times
"Marilyn Monroe Is Dead" in Chicago Tribune
"Marilyn is Dead Obituary in The Guardian
"Death of Marilyn Monroe" A British Pathé newsreel
Marilyn Monroe
1962 in California
1962 in Los Angeles
Monroe, Marilyn
Monroe, Marilyn
August 1962 events in the United States
Conspiracy theories in the United States |
4393124 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Martin%20Anderson | Death of Martin Anderson | Martin Lee Anderson (c. January 15, 1991 – January 6, 2006) was a 14-year-old from Florida who died while incarcerated at a boot camp-style youth detention center, the Bay County Boot Camp, located in Panama City, Florida, and operated by the Bay County Sheriff's Office. Upon arriving at the camp he was forced to run track, and within two hours he became fatigued and stopped. A gang of seven guards and one nurse coerced him to continue his run by beating him until he went limp; they then drugged him with ammonia tablets. He returned to the track, collapsed and died a short while later. A 30-minute portion of the surveillance video depicting the coercion was made public. The incident resulted in the Florida legislature voting to close the state's five juvenile boot camps.
Public outcry
The death became a cause célèbre and received national attention. The local medical examiner, Dr. Charles Siebert, performed an autopsy and ruled that the teen died of "complications from sickle cell trait". He said, "It was a natural death." This caused further public outcry because the public did not understand how forensic pathologist's determine manner of death. The public assumed that because the manner was "natural" that no charges could be brought to anyone for his death. The Governor ordered a second autopsy; the second pathologist, Dr. Vern Adams, ruled Martin Anderson's death was "caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp. The suffocation was caused by manual occlusion of the mouth, in concert with forced inhalation of ammonia fumes that caused spasm of the vocal cords resulting in internal blockage of the upper airway."
Public indignation resulted in the closing of the state's five juvenile boot camps, the firing of Siebert, and charges of manslaughter against the guards. Governor Charlie Crist directed the state of Florida to settle a family lawsuit for $5 million. Eventually, the guards were acquitted at trial. The controversy regarding Siebert's firing resulted in accusations by the National Association of Medical Examiners, independent groups of medical examiners throughout the nation, the State Attorney, and the Bay County Commissioners complaining that the Florida Medical Examiner system had been compromised by racial politics.
Guy Tunnell, the FDLE commissioner, resigned after making inappropriate remarks made about African-American civil rights leaders related to the case.
Circumstances
On January 5, 2006, within the first two hours of Anderson's first day at the camp (where he had been committed for stealing his grandmother's car, curfew violation during probation, and theft of candy), camp officials forced him to continue exercising after he stopped exercising. Drill instructors grabbed Anderson and applied numerous uses of force, including holding Anderson by the arms, take-downs, pressure point applications, and covering his mouth while forcing him to inhale ammonia. Anderson became unresponsive during this episode, and eventually died the next day in Pensacola, Florida after his parents elected to remove him from life support.
Investigation
An investigation into the teen's death began immediately, as a cooperative effort of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the state Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Bay County Sheriff's Department.
On February 18, 2006, State Attorney Steve Meadows, whose jurisdiction includes Bay County, appealed to Florida Governor Jeb Bush for the case to be reassigned from his office. In his letter, Meadows admitted "close ties" to FDLE chief Guy Tunnell, who had opened the boot camp where Anderson died while serving as Bay County sheriff.
Bush appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober to oversee the case, which remains open and under his supervision.
On November 28, 2006, authorities announced the arrest of 8 people in connection with Anderson's death. 7 guards and a nurse were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, a felony. They were all later acquitted of the charges.
On April 16, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that no federal criminal civil rights charges would be filed against the eight people who were originally charged in his death. The press release included the following:
"After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors and FBI agents determined that the evidence was insufficient to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges. Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed."
Two autopsies
As early as January 9, FDLE officials announced that Anderson's autopsy ruled out "trauma or injury" as the cause of his death.
The official cause of death was not reported for another five weeks. In mid-February, Bay County Medical Examiner Charles F. Siebert announced that his first autopsy of Anderson determined that the teen died of complications from sickle cell trait, a normally benign and relatively common condition among African Americans.
A Florida statute allows a medical examiner to return a body to the jurisdiction where the incident occurred. Ober cleared Dr. Siebert of any wrongdoing in bringing the body back to Bay County.
On March 12, Anderson's body was exhumed and a second autopsy was conducted by the coroner of Hillsborough County, Dr. Vernard Adams. This time, the autopsy was attended by several other forensic pathologists as consultants to Dr. Adams. Dr. Michael Baden, New York State Police coroner, attended at the request of Anderson's parents and the NAACP.
Dr. Adams' findings:
The results of the second autopsy were announced by the State Attorney, Marc Ober, on May 6. Dr. Adams said that Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards. A lack of oxygen was caused by holding his mouth closed while forcing him to inhale ammonia fumes. The video shows guards holding the capsules in Anderson's face repeatedly.
Controversy and criticism
Many of the major figures in the Anderson investigation have been criticized by Anderson's family, youth advocates, civil-rights and anti-detention groups, as well as state and national media outlets.
Immediately after observing Dr. Adams' 12-hour autopsy, Dr. Baden said, "Preliminary findings indicate the boy did not die from sickle cell trait, nor did he die from natural causes." Dr. Baden has said repeatedly that sickle trait by itself does not cause death. He explained a "sickle cell crisis" is a sickle cell disease—not the same as sickle cell trait. By itself, the sickle cell trait is not harmful. People with sickle cell trait can lead perfectly healthy lives. But beyond that, he said, hospital records indicate Anderson's blood was not sickled until the moment at which he started to die.
It has been established, however, that people with sickle cell trait have a four thousand percent increased incidence of sudden death when put in a boot camp environment. The risk of sudden death in boot camp environments for people with sickle trait has long been recognized in military services. Some military services, such as Great Britain, chose to limit activities of people with sickle trait. The US military, in contrast, changed its boot camp procedures to lessen the probability of exertional death (Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, Memorandum 2003-004 Screening for Sickle Cell Disease at Accession). Recent studies have shown that laboratory specimens falsely underestimate the degree of sickling in the blood Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner said, "Michael Baden saying it [sickle cell trait] does not harm you—considering the literature, he may as well have walked out and said the world is flat." In June 2007 the National Athletic Trainers' Association released a consensus statement noting that approximately 5 percent of exertional deaths in young healthy athletes were from exertional sickling in those with sickle cell trait.
According to Dr. Adams, "Martin Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp. The suffocation was caused by manual occlusion of the mouth, in concert with forced inhalation of ammonia fumes that caused spasm of the vocal cords resulting in internal blockage of the upper airway." Death due to laryngospasm, however, is not listed in standard lists of adverse effects. Dr. Randy Eichner noted in his testimony that such a death had never been recorded in 150 years of use of ammonia spirits. Dr. Adams did not dispute this:
Defense attorney Waylon Graham asked him why he thought the use of ammonia could have killed Anderson when nothing like that has ever been recorded "in the history of the world."
"This is the only place in the world to my knowledge where ammonia capsules were used this way," Adams said. "So no other deaths would have occurred."
This has led a number of forensic pathologists to support Dr. Siebert's diagnosis. Mr. Steve Meadows, the State Attorney who succeeded Mr. Ober, concluded that the criticism of Dr. Siebert was politically motivated. When the Medical Examiner Commission voted not to retain Dr. Siebert following the expiration of his contract, Mr. Meadows appointed Dr. Siebert back into the position as temporary Medical Examiner. Mr. Meadows stated: "I will not sacrifice Charles Siebert on the altar of political expediency or correctness. Despite what amounts to a reckless character assassination by some media outlets and, regrettably, even some members of our government, I believe Dr. Siebert to be a competent and thorough medical examiner–not beholden to anyone or any cause. Quite simply, Dr. Siebert is a well-qualified doctor doing his best to serve the people of this district. I am certain that Dr. Siebert looks forward to a hearing before an administrative judge and his first opportunity to respond to the allegations upon which the vote for his removal was based."
Medical examiner criticized
Charles F. Siebert, Jr., the Bay County medical examiner who performed Anderson's first autopsy (and ruled out foul play), faced charges of professional incompetence in the beginning but was eventually found not guilty of this. An example of a previous a clerical error, made popular by his critics and the media, was a 2004 autopsy performed by Siebert on 34-year-old Donna Reed, who died during Hurricane Ivan. In that autopsy report, Siebert noted that Reed's testicles and prostate were "unremarkable."
On August 9, 2006, the state Medical Examiners Commission recommended probation, which was not upheld. Originally, a panel from the Commission recommended that Siebert be suspended, after an inquiry discovered that he was negligent in at least 35 of 698 cases reviewed, none of which were on cause or manner of death. While the newspapers used the word "negligent," the Medical Examiners Commission did not in fact accuse him of negligence. The commission decided to retain Siebert until his contract expires June 27, 2007, with the provision that he pay for outside review of his future work (a QA program).
The National Association of Medical Examiners, concerned that Siebert was being subjected to a "witch hunt", took the unusual step of writing the Medical Examiner Commission to offer its services to remedy the situation. The Medical Examiner Commission did not respond to the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) letter. On January 15, 2007, NAME followed up with a second statement of its concerns. On January 18, 2007, the Medical Examiner Commission and Dr. Siebert reached a negotiated agreement in which the Medical Examiner Commission removed all references to "probation" or "discipline" and Dr. Siebert agreed to institute a quality assurance program to look for typographical errors in reports. Dr. Siebert was not required to accept the claims of error, and is free to pursue other remedies. In July 2007, Dr. Joseph Prahlow, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners noted that "consensus [among Medical Examiners] nationally, however, is that Siebert is being singled out for political purposes." He said that "the more vocal members of the national society of forensic pathologists support Siebert. He was careful to point out that the most vocal didn't necessarily represent the majority of members, and very few have examined both autopsy reports."
On August 3, 2007, Dr. Vincent DiMaio, retired Chief Medical Examiner for San Antonio and author of two best-selling textbooks of forensic pathology stated that Dr. Siebert's conclusions were scientifically valid and that Dr. Adams' was not. This was echoed some weeks later by Dr. John Hunsaker, former President of the National Association of Medical Examiners, in a radio interview. Dr. Randy Eichner, team doctor for the University of Oklahoma Sooners and expert on exertional deaths, called Dr. Adams' conclusions "fantasy."
In late 2007, the Medical Examiner Commission asked for a delay in Dr. Siebert's appeal in order to finish some depositions. This delayed the appeal until after January 1, 2008, and Dr. Siebert's contract ended December 28, 2007. The local search committee for a new ME requested a delay in Dr. Siebert's departure in order to allow his appeal to be heard, but the Medical Examiner Commission refused, thus making the appeal impossible; since Dr. Siebert was no longer a Medical Examiner, he no longer had standing for an appeal. Dr. Jon Thogmartin, Dr. Siebert's primary supporter in the Medical Examiner Commission, was replaced with Dr. Bruce Hyma, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner. Dr. Hyma in turn asked that Dr. Siebert be allowed his day in court, and was denied. Dr. Hyma was also a member of the local search committee for a new District 14 Medical Examiner. The local search committee put Dr. Siebert's name in as their recommendation for the position. The Medical Examiner Commission refused to honor that nomination and instead left the position open as of December 29, 2007. In response to this, the National Association of Medical Examiners wrote its third open letter, stating:
"As an organization, we believe that Dr. Siebert has met [the NAME] autopsy standards, and he continues to be a NAME member in good standing. By continuing to imply that Dr. Siebert does not meet the aforementioned nonexistent "NAME guidelines" or the NAME Autopsy Standards, the MEC is dishonestly misrepresenting the facts. Furthermore, as these errors have not been publicly acknowledged by the MEC, the MEC is discrediting not only Dr. Siebert but NAME itself. Since the MEC apparently believes that falsely invoking the imprimatur of the National Association of Medical Examiners in this fashion is acceptable, the Executive Committee of NAME demands that the MEC officially acknowledge and make public retraction of the inconsistencies noted above."...
In light of all that has happened, it appears inappropriate for the MEC to deny the request of the local 14th medical examiner district to defer any further action until Dr. Siebert has been afforded the opportunity through normal proceedings to both defend his findings and refute the allegations against him as due process requires. ... Imposing sanctions against a medical examiner without requiring these theories to be tested by an impartial jury jeopardizes the independent judgment of the medical examiner that our system of government has come to rely upon precisely because of its independent objective inquiry. It is ironic that in Dr. Siebert's case the medical examiner has been denied the very protection that his presence in such judicial proceedings is meant to provide.
Similarly, a group of 26 Medical Examiners from across the US and in Australia wrote an open letter to the MEC stating that the Medical Examiner system in Florida had been politically hijacked. They wrote:
Now the commission is attempting to remove Siebert and destroy his credibility. It delayed Siebert's administrative hearing until after the new year, but has refused a request from District 14 to delay the appointment of a medical examiner until after the hearing. It appears that technicalities are acceptable only when the commission uses them.
The commission has also informed the people of District 14 that it will ignore their opinion and choose someone else as chief medical examiner. The commissioners set the meeting to make this decision for Dec. 29, in the middle of the holidays. They have no shame.
This political hijacking of Florida's medical examiner system should be of concern to everyone. Without confidence in the independence of medical examiners, every decision can reasonably be questioned and unreasonably be scrutinized. Medical examiners from every corner of our country have added their names, alarmed about these events and their consequences.
In recommending Dr. Siebert for reappointment, the Bay County Board of County Commissioners wrote to the Medical Examiner Commission:
It unfortunately appears to us, and many residents of Bay County, that Dr. Siebert has become a scapegoat for those seeking a political solution to recent events, rather than a logical resolution based upon science and fact. The bottom line is that the good people of Bay County, including those serving on the local search committee, are apparently being ignored in their plea to keep Dr. Siebert as Medical Examiner.
Tunnell's resignation
FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell also came under fire for alleged conflicts of interest. Tunnell, the former Bay County sheriff, had originally opened the boot camp where Anderson died.
Tunnell also sent e-mails to current Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, detailing his agency's efforts to withhold the video tape of the incident at the boot camp that led to Anderson's death. Ober eventually removed the FDLE from the investigation.
Tunnell resigned from his post as FDLE chief in April 2006, after comments reportedly made by him about then Sen. Barack Obama and the Rev. Jesse Jackson were leaked to the press. In these comments he compared Jackson to Jesse James, and Obama to terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
State Attorney Steve Meadows, who recused himself from the Anderson investigation, later rehired Tunnell to work on "cold case" files.
Sit-in and "march for justice"
A group of mostly local college students staged a sit-in on April 19 and 20, 2006, taking over Governor Jeb Bush's public waiting room.
The students, most of them from Tallahassee schools Florida State University, Florida A&M University and Tallahassee Community College, were demanding that Bush, among other things, order the arrest of the guards who beat Anderson and issue a public apology for delays in the investigation. Many of these students were members of Coalition of Justice for Martin Lee Anderson who had protested throughout the trial. One recognizable student organizer of this group was past Nickelodeon star Vanessa Baden, who acted as secretary and spokesperson.
The two-day sit-in was the first at Bush's office since 2000.
On April 21, the day Tunnell resigned as FDLE chief, more than 3,000 protesters staged a rally outside the Florida State Capitol, joined by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, calling for the arrest of the guards and for changes in the state correctional system.
Bush returned from a trip to Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan late on April 19, and met with four students and several lawmakers that afternoon. The next day, Bush met with Anderson's parents; lawmakers claimed that Bush apologized at that meeting, although that report was never confirmed by Bush or his office.
On September 27, 2006, Anderson's parents returned to Tallahassee seeking a meeting with Bush, claiming he had promised them an "open dialogue" at their meeting in April. However, Bush refused them audience.
Actions taken against state/investigators
Civil-rights complaints
Anderson's parents and civil rights groups appealed several times to the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), a federal agency, asking it to assist in the state investigation of Anderson's death as a violation of Anderson's civil rights under federal criminal law.
The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida and the FBI joined state agencies in the investigation.
On October 12, 2007, Robert Miller, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Rena Comisac, announced that the USDOJ will make a "thorough and independent review" of the evidence concerning the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson. They were actively monitoring the state's prosecution of the boot camp personnel, and promised to take appropriate action if the evidence indicates a prosecutable criminal violation of federal civil rights statutes.
On April 16, 2010, the Department of Justice concluded that there was insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against the guards.
Tunnell was also the target of several civil rights complaints filed by citizens of Bay County and by federal lawmakers, including then U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, with the USDOJ. None of the complaints were investigated.
Lawsuit
On July 12, 2006, Robert Anderson and Gina Jones filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Bay County Sheriff's Office. Anderson's parents claimed civil-rights violations were committed by both agencies and that both had conspired to cover up significant facts in the investigation, in addition to charges of negligence.
Anderson and Jones offered to settle with the sheriff for $3 million, the maximum allowed under the agency's insurance, but McKeithen refused the offer, calling a settlement "premature" before an investigation was complete. The case is pending; under state sovereign immunity law, if Anderson and Jones win their case, the state's damages would be capped at $200,000.
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, commenting on the case the same day, said that a $3 million settlement "might not be enough."
On October 18, 2006, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle set a trial date of April 16, 2007. In the same ruling, the judge dismissed the civil-rights and conspiracy charges against the Department of Juvenile Justice and Bay County Sheriff's Office, and ruled that they would not be responsible for punitive damages.
On March 14, 2007, Florida Governor Charlie Crist recommended that the state agree to pay $5 million to Anderson's family, in a deal that would allow the Anderson Family to pursue another $5 million from Bay County, Florida. The recommendation still has to pass the Florida legislature. Also on March 14, a copy of the video, enhanced by NASA was made public.
On March 28, 2007, Bay County, Florida agreed to settle with Anderson's family for $2.4 million.
Arrests and trial
On November 28, 2006, seven guards (Henry Dickens, Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden Jr., and Joseph Walsh II)
and a nurse, Kristin Schmidt (who was present during the incident but took no action) were arrested on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child, a felony. When the eight defendants were arraigned on January 18, 2007, they entered "not guilty" pleas. Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet set a pre-trial hearing date for Feb. 22. Subsequently, they were freed on $25,000 bail.
The criminal trial was set for October 3, 2007, in the courtroom of Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet. The defendants each faced 30 years if convicted of the top charge, aggravated manslaughter of a person under 18. However, the jury could decide on a lesser offense. The primary dispute in the case was over the cause of Anderson's death.
"This was no accident that this child was killed," assistant state attorney Pam Bondi told jurors. "The evidence will show that by what these eight defendants did and by what they failed to do, that boy lost his life." Bondi said Anderson died of oxygen deprivation after guards manhandled him and used excessive amounts of ammonia capsules when he became unresponsive while the nurse stood by and watched. Defense attorneys said in opening statements that they would show Anderson's death could not have been prevented and was caused solely by sickle cell trait.
On the second day of the trial, Dr. Thomas Andrew, who is Chief Medical Examiner of New Hampshire, said Martin Lee Anderson died as a result of the boot camp guards' actions. He said that everything combined, including the stress of the encounter and the physical exertion of the run, aggravated Anderson's sickle-cell condition, hampering the flow of oxygen in his blood. "But for these defendants' actions, would Martin Anderson have died?" assistant state attorney Scott Harmon asked. "I would have to say no," Andrew said. He also said that, had the guards given Anderson the opportunity to recover from the run, his death might have been prevented
On the third day of the trial, Dr. Vernard Adams said that Anderson died from suffocation at the hands of eight boot camp employees. The doctor said the lack of oxygen prevented Anderson's blood from producing carbon dioxide, leading to a build-up of lactic acid in his blood that ultimately put him in an irreversible coma. The pathologist acknowledged that the teen's sickle-cell condition aggravated the circumstances by further impeding the flow of oxygen. He insisted, however, that the guards' actions alone would have been enough to kill even a teen who did not have sickle-cell trait. From a toxicologist, Cynthia Lewis-Younger, the jury learned the highly concentrated ammonia capsules the guards used on Anderson were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use on children. Acknowledging that no deaths have been reported from their use, she said that potential could not be ruled out.
The prosecution case was hampered by a shifting theory on the medical cause of death. The prosecution proposed that Mr. Anderson died of improper use of force, then of suffocation, then of failure to act. The fact that the two prosecution medical expert witnesses proposed different causes of death was also problematic.
In contrast, the opinions by the defense experts did not contradict. Dr. Siebert stood by his diagnosis. Dr. Randy Eichner, expert on exertional sickle cell trait deaths, testified that Dr. Siebert's conclusions were correct. He noted that exertional sickle crisis in sickle cell trait has a 70 percent mortality, and that the video described a classic example of an exertional sickle cell death. He called the claim of laryngospasm a red herring, and noted that no case of ammonia salt-related death has been described in 150 years of use. In the end, the prosecution encouraged the jury to ignore the medical evidence altogether.
On Monday defense attorney Walter Smith said "This is a death that would have resulted whether or not the defendants used ammonia or struck him. They did not cause the death of Martin Lee Anderson. The death of Martin Lee Anderson resulted from natural causes."
Smith said the guards were merely following the policies of the Department of Juvenile Justice, the state agency that ran the boot camp program, and acting in accordance with boot camp policy. He blamed Anderson's death on complications from sickle-cell trait. Earlier in the day, prosecutors had called the chief medical director of Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice, who testified there was no outlined procedure for the use of ammonia capsules in the boot camp's policy manual, and someone with sickle cell trait would not have been excluded from the program.
Nurse Kristin Schmidt said she did not find any signs of medical distress at any time; Anderson was breathing "fine" on his own but not complying with the guards' orders.
In closing arguments Thursday, Hillsborough County assistant state attorney Michael Sinacore told jurors a desire for "control and domination," without a concern for safety, drove the actions of eight former boot camp employees. "They needed to control him. They needed to dominate him and they crossed the line by a long shot." Their goal became to get Martin Anderson to do what they wanted him to do, and all their actions are consistent with that," he said.
Former drill instructors Henry Dickens, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden Jr., Charles Enfinger, Joseph Walsh and nurse Kristin Schmidt faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of aggravated manslaughter for the teen's death.
After deliberating for 90 minutes, the jury found all defendants not guilty in the death of Martin Lee Anderson. Soon after the verdict was read, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Gregory Robert Miller, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Rena Comisac, announced that the Department of Justice will make a "thorough and independent review" of the evidence concerning the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson. They have been actively monitoring the state's prosecution of the boot camp personnel, and promised to take appropriate action if the evidence indicates a prosecutable criminal violation of federal civil rights statutes.
Comments on the verdict
Dr. Siebert stated that he felt vindicated by the result.
"I think finally people were looking at the science, looking at the facts, and not just an emotional video," he said. "Because of all the political pressure, because of the racial undertones and because of the special-interest groups, a lot of the true facts hadn't come out yet."
Henry Dickens, one of the black guards, was particularly troubled by what he perceived as racial attacks by the NAACP. He noted that had he been aware of the risk of exertional sickle cell death, he would have acted differently. He stated
"All this black and white stuff should be over with by now," he said. "That was my time ... Today's NAACP, the only thing they care about is race. That's not what Dr. Martin Luther King talked about. He talked about a world without race."
Changes to juvenile justice system
When Martin Anderson died, about 130 youths in Florida were incarcerated in state-run boot camps. Before Anderson's death, the state had received more than 180 complaints about excessive force at the Panama City boot camp.
In mid-February, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen ended his office's contract with the state to operate the Panama City boot camp where Anderson was beaten. In a letter to Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) head Anthony J. Schembri, McKeithen wrote, "I believe the integrity of the boot camp in Bay County has been compromised, leaving the effectiveness of this program virtually paralyzed."
McKeithen also immediately banned the use of ammonia-inhalant capsules at the Panama City boot camp. McKeithen's announcement came about three weeks before Anderson's body was exhumed for his second autopsy, in which one pathologist concluded that the teen died from ammonia fumes.
At around the same time, DJJ ordered state sheriffs to do away with violent measures such as punching and kicking at the state's boot camps, and directed nurses to call 9-1-1 at the first sign of a problem.
In late April, the Florida Legislature voted to close the state's five juvenile boot camps. The camps were replaced by a less-militaristic program called STAR, which prohibited physical intervention against juvenile inmates. The STAR program had been almost 80 percent effective in test runs around the state at preventing recidivism among inmates.
The bill that enacted the STAR program was renamed the "Martin Lee Anderson Act" by the legislature. Governor Jeb Bush signed it into law on June 1, 2006.
There was no funding made available for the increased costs of the STAR program, forcing many juvenile detention facilities to close their doors.
See also
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States
Notes
References
Bay County Sheriff's Office report - 2006-066993.
Bay County Clerk of Court, case number 01003174.
Mitch Stacy, "Prosecutor: Blood Disorder Didn't Kill Boy", Forbes. March 14, 2006.
Melissa Nelson, "Boy Who Died After Boot Camp Beating Is Exhumed", The Ledger / Associated Press, March 11, 2006.
Marc Caputo, "BOOT CAMP DEATH: Experts exhume boot camp teen's body" , Miami Herald, March 11, 2006.
"Parents want charges in boot camp death", Associated Press, February 18, 2006. (includes video footage)
"County ends boot camp program", St. Petersburg Times / Associated Press, February 21, 2006.
Daniela Velázquez, "Boot camp case stirs students", Tallahassee Democrat, April 13, 2006.
Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, Memorandum 2003-004 Screening for Sickle Cell Disease at Accession.
David Angler. "Siebert Taking Case To Judge: Group Offers Help in Heading off 'Witch Hunt' ". News Herald, Panama City, September 13, 2006
External links
http://www.nospank.net/anderson.htm
Archived court records of trial (State v. Schmidt et al.)
Boot camp video of what happened to Martin Lee Anderson
1991 births
2006 deaths
Asphyxia-related deaths by law enforcement in the United States
Deaths in police custody in the United States
Filmed killings by law enforcement
People from Florida
Panama City, Florida |
4428841 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20Scoundrel | Death of a Scoundrel | Death of a Scoundrel is a 1956 film written, directed and produced by Charles Martin and starring George Sanders, Yvonne De Carlo, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Victor Jory and Coleen Gray. This film and The Falcon's Brother are the only two to feature real-life lookalike brothers George Sanders and Tom Conway, who portray brothers in both pictures. The movie's music is by Max Steiner and the cinematographer is James Wong Howe.
Death of a Scoundrel is a fictionalized adaptation of the life and mysterious death of Serge Rubinstein.
Plot
Clementi Sabourin (George Sanders), a wealthy and scandalous businessman, is found dead. Police come to investigate, and when they question Bridget Kelly (Yvonne De Carlo), who found the body, she tells them everything she knows about his past.
A Czech refugee, missing and believed dead, Sabourin one day turns up to find his love Zina (Lisa Ferraday) is now married to his brother, Gerry (Tom Conway). Out of spite, he betrays his brother to the police. Sabourin learns from the police prefect that Gerry was killed resisting arrest. The prefect gives Sabourin a passport and he sets sail for America.
At the port in New York he observes the shady Miss Kelly as she makes off with ship passenger Leonard Wilson's (Victor Jory) wallet. Sabourin makes a romantic play for Kelly, only to steal the wallet when her back is turned. Kelly's estranged husband Chuck (Bob Morgan) pursues and shoots Sabourin in the street, but Sabourin escapes by pushing Chuck into the path of an oncoming car.
On a tip from the doctor who removes the bullet, Sabourin invests in a company that manufactures the drug penicillin. He fraudulently uses a $20,000 cashier's check from inside the stolen wallet to purchase the stock. Encountering the wealthy Mrs. Ryan (Zsa Zsa Gabor), widow of a prominent businessman, Sabourin earns a considerable sum of money for her as well by tipping her to the stock. Mrs. Ryan writes Sabourin a $20,000 loan, which he uses to cover his forged check from Wilson. His stockbroker, O'Hara (John Hoyt), spots the fraud but helps Sabourin in exchange for a share in his profit.
Sabourin uses a financial statement he found in Wilson's wallet to blackmail Wilson into selling him his oil company. Sabourin orchestrates a fake oil strike to gain profit, but his investors get the last laugh when oil is really found on the property and the stock soars to $30 a share. Sabourin, O'Hara, Miss Kelly and Sabourin's lawyer Bauman (Werner Klemperer) become successful by buying struggling companies, manipulating the price of stock and throwing the companies into receivership.
As he becomes increasingly "successful", Sabourin begins courting a number of women romantically, including Mrs. Ryan's young secretary, Stephanie North (Nancy Gates). He invites North to a party and finances her ambition to become an actress. When she rejects his advances, he attempts to thwart her career, but is unsuccessful, as her producer recognizes that North does indeed have talent.
Sabourin then courts the affluent Edith van Renssalaer (Coleen Gray), married to a wealthy businessman. Sabourin attempts to interfere in her marriage to gain control of her stock and form a new uranium company, but Zina resurfaces one night and reveals that she learned he was responsible for his brother's death. He pledges his love to her and remorse for Gerry's death, lying through his teeth. Zina believes him, but when she sees him conspire with Edith, she kills herself and writes a note implicating Sabourin. The police arrest him, while Edith abandons him.
As Sabourin's embezzling is also uncovered, the court begins an attempt to deport him to Czechoslovakia. Knowing that the communists will confiscate his money there, Sabourin instructs Miss Kelly to contact his mother. The mother is initially happy to see her son, but refuses his plan to tell the court that Sabourin was born illegitimately in Switzerland and disowns him. Miss Kelly, who has long concealed her love and concern for Sabourin, implores him to return the stolen money and tells him that his way does not work out in the end.
Initially reluctant, Sabourin finally decides to return the money. No sooner does he endorse the stock certificates, O'Hara (who hitherto had qualms concerning their crooked dealings) arrives and confronts him at gunpoint. O'Hara announces that he and Bauman intend to let Sabourin be the fall guy and take all the money for themselves. A struggle ensues over O'Hara's gun in which Sabourin manages to kill O'Hara but is himself fatally wounded. As he returns home dejectedly, he sees all of his would-be victims emerging successful as well as a billboard with the verse Mark 8:36 written on it. He also meets Kelly, and tells her that he returned the money.
When Sabourin returns home, he pleads with his mother, but she refuses to see him. He then calls Kelly, leaving a message telling her that he really did love her in his own way and begging for forgiveness. Finally, he collapses on the bed and dies.
The story ends as Kelly finishes reporting the story to the police and Sabourin's mother, who laments that she did not forgive her son for his crimes before he died. Kelly then surmises that it is possible Sabourin found forgiveness and peace in death, taking one last look around his magnificent house as she leaves.
Cast
George Sanders as Sabourin
Yvonne De Carlo as Miss Kelly
Zsa Zsa Gabor as Mrs. Ryan
Victor Jory as Leonard Wilson
Nancy Gates as Stephanie North
Coleen Gray as Edith van Renssalaer
John Hoyt as O'Hara
Lisa Ferraday as Zina Monte
Tom Conway as Gerry Monte Sabourin
Celia Lovsky as Mrs. Sabourin
Werner Klemperer as Herbert Bauman
Justice Watson as Henry
Production
The film was based on an original script by Charles Martin which was inspired by the life and death of Serge Rubenstein. He formed his own company and announced this would be the first of five films.<ref>EXHIBITORS ROLE IN MOVIE SHAKY: Action by U. S. May Halt Theatre Owners' Group in Backing Productions
Special to The New York Times8 Oct 1955: 12.</ref>
In June 1955 it was announced Charles Martin had offered the female lead to Corinne Calvet. Martin also sent a copy of the script to Arlene Dahl, Joan Caulfield, Ida Lupino and Constance Bennett. He wanted Rossano Brazzi to play the male lead. Robert Mitchum and Alec Guinness were other possibilities."Drama: 'Saratoga Trunk' Stage Show to Star Grayson; Bid for Guinness Soars" Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times 15 Oct 1955: A7.
Eventually George Sanders agreed to star.
Reaction
"Mr. Sanders and company make Death of a Scoundrel'' a slick and sometimes fascinating fiction. It only casually tries to probe the hearts and minds of its principals."
References
External links
Murder of Serge Rubinstein|http://www.crimemagazine.com/murder-serge-rubinstein-1955
1956 films
1956 crime drama films
American crime drama films
American films
American black-and-white films
English-language films
Films scored by Max Steiner
RKO Pictures films |
4486767 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Oury%20Jalloh | Death of Oury Jalloh | Oury Jalloh (1968 in Kabala, Sierra Leone) – 7 January 2005, in Dessau, Germany) was an asylum seeker who died in a fire in a police cell in Dessau, Germany. The hands and feet of Jalloh, who was alone in the cell, were tied to a mattress. A fire alarm went off, but was initially turned off without further action by an officer. The case caused national and international outrage at the official narrative of suicide.
Life
Oury Jalloh was born in 1968 in Kabala, Sierra Leone. In 2000, he fled from the Sierra Leone Civil War to Guinea, where his parents were already living, and then further to Germany, where he applied for political asylum. Although his application was declined, he remained in the country. His child with a German citizen was put up for adoption by the mother shortly after birth.
Death
The official narrative, as presented by police officers in their subsequent trial, was reported by newspapers such as Der Tagesspiegel. In the morning of January 7, 2005, at about 8 am, some street cleaners called the police and reported that a female colleague felt threatened by a drunk man (who was Oury Jalloh). When two policemen (Hans-Ulrich M. and Udo S.) arrived, Jalloh declined to show his identification and then resisted arrest. The officers put him in a headlock and took him into custody, intending to book him for harassment although charges were never made. At the police station, the two policemen took Jalloh to the basement and held him down on a sofa whilst a doctor took his blood to test for alcohol and drugs, even though he didn't have a court order to do so. The test showed a BAC of about 0.3% and indicated usage of cocaine. The doctor assessed Jalloh as safe to be locked up, but Jalloh was never taken in front of judge as required by law in Germany. Instead the two officers dragged him to a cell and handcuffed him to a bed by his hands and feet.
Policewoman Beate H. was working in the second floor control room, together with Andreas S., her superior. On the intercom she heard Jalloh rattling his chains and swearing, so she attempted to calm him and she reports later she heard other officers in the cell. She went to check on him herself at about 11:30 am, noting nothing special. She returned to the control room, where Andreas S. turned down the intercom volume and she told him to turn it back up. At around noon she claimed she heard splashing sounds and told Andreas S. it was his turn to check. She originally said that after the fire alarm went off, Andreas S. turned it off twice. When another different alarm went off, he went to check what was going on. Gerhard M. followed Andreas S. downstairs to the cells, where they found Jalloh alive but burning to death. His final word was "Fire".
The police suggested that Jalloh had burnt himself to death, using a lighter to ignite the foam mattress he was lying on in the cell. There was no lighter in the cell. One appeared in an evidence bag several days after Jalloh's death.
Federal investigations
The official autopsy concluded that the immediate cause of death was likely heat shock to Jalloh's lungs by smoke inhalation. A later 2019 autopsy conducted by experts from Goethe University after being commissioned by Jalloh's family, found that he had a broken rib, a broken nose and a fracture at the base of his skull, indicating that Oury Jalloh may have been tortured before his death. The original autopsy had only listed a recent nose fracture. The doctors were convinced that the injuries had occurred before death.
In March 2007, a trial was opened at the state court of Dessau against police officers Hans-Ulrich M. and his superior, Andreas S. The two officers were charged for causing bodily harm with fatal consequences, and for involuntary manslaughter, respectively. On 8 December 2008 the court acquitted both defendants of all charges. According to Manfred Steinhoff, the presiding judge, contradictory testimony had prevented clarification of the circumstances and had obstructed due process. In his closing speech Steinhoff accused the police officers of lying in court and thus damaging the reputation of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The trial had thrown up inconsistencies and gaps in the narrative of the police officers and had lasted 60 days instead of the scheduled four. Fire experts had been unable to recreate the means of death. The issue of how the lighter that had allegedly been used to start the fire got into the cell was unexplained. Beate H. changed her initial report to say that Andreas S. had not turned down the fire alarm twice but rather got up and went downstairs, but she was unable to say exactly when because she worked with her back facing the door. The family and supporters of Jalloh were outraged by the verdict. The family had been offered 5,000 euros by the court since it could not establish the guilt of the officers, but Jalloh's father said he did not want the money.
On January 7, 2010, exactly five years after Jalloh died in his cell, the Bundesgerichtshof federal court in Karlsruhe overturned the earlier verdict. The case was relegated to the state court of Saxony-Anhalt at Magdeburg for retrial. During the investigations the deaths of Hans-Jürgen Rose (died from internal injuries hours after being released from the same police building in 1997) and Mario Bichtemann (died from an unsupervised skull fracture in the same cell in 2002) were re-examined. In 2012, Andreas S. was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and fined €10,800. A new trial then began in 2014 and ended without any convictions in 2017.
In August 2020 the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt published a report by special investigators Jerzy Montag and on the Jalloh case, calling the policemen's actions "flawed" and "contrary to the law" (). However, they concluded that the district attorney's final dismissal of the case in 2017 was "factually and legally correct in view of available evidence".
Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh
The Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh (Initiative in Gedenken an Oury Jalloh) was set up to pursue justice for Oury Jalloh and to campaign against police violence. In 2021, the initiative commissioned a report from a fire forensics expert to assess how Jalloh died. The expert found it unlikely that someone tied to a bed could have set themselves on fire. A dummy body made from a dead pig was then attached to the mattress and set on fire. It was only when using petrol that the dummy body burnt in a way commensurate to the way the body of Jalloh was burned. The expert concluded that it was most likely petrol had been used.
Based on this opinion, the initiative and the family of Jalloh called for the murder investigation to be reopened by the Federal Prosecutor. They also announced plans to sue the Attorney General's Office of Saxony-Anhalt for obstruction of justice, because it had ceased its investigation in 2018.
In popular culture
A television documentary entitled Tod in der Zelle – Warum starb Oury Jalloh? () was released in 2006. It went on to win the "Best professional production" award at the 2006 .
See also
Death of Christy Schwundeck
Deaths in custody
References
Sources
Further reading
English
List of articles published by Deutsche Welle about the case since 2006
Video detailing late 2013 evidence which caused the reopening of the case.
German
In-depth reporting on every day single day in court during the first trial (2007–2008)
Verdicts
First verdict by the state court of Dessau-Roßlau (2008)
Dessau-Roßlau state court's press release about the first verdict:
2010 verdict by the Federal Court of Justice, overturning the 2008 verdict and ordering a retrial
1968 births
2005 deaths
2005 in Germany
Crime in Saxony-Anhalt
Deaths by person in Germany
Deaths from fire
Deaths in police custody in Germany
Dessau
Drug traffickers
People from Koinadugu District
Prisoners who died in German detention
Racism in Germany
Sierra Leonean emigrants to Germany
Sierra Leonean people imprisoned abroad
Sierra Leonean people who died in prison custody
Trials in Germany
Sierra Leonean refugees |
4525393 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20Ghost | Death of a Ghost | Death of a Ghost is a crime novel by Margery Allingham, first published in February 1934, in the United Kingdom by Heinemann, London and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It is the sixth novel with the mysterious Albert Campion, aided by his policeman friend Stanislaus Oates.
Plot introduction
At the former home of John Lafcadio, the great painter dead some 18 years, the annual ceremony to unveil a painting he left behind to keep his memory alive is interrupted by a murder. Suspicion falls on a family member, but with no proof the police are baffled. When murder once again visits "Little Venice", Albert Campion must exercise all his powers to bring the killer to justice...
Plot summary
John Lafcadio, who modestly described himself as "probably the greatest painter since Rembrandt", has left a bizarre legacy – a collection of twelve sealed paintings, to be unveiled one at a time at an annual event commencing ten years after his death. While the first seven ceremonies went smoothly, the eighth starts with family ructions, when John's granddaughter Linda finds her boyfriend Tommy has returned from a painting trip to Rome with a model, whom he has married to get into the country. Albert Campion, a friend of Belle and the family, persuades her to attend the show, just in time to be there when Tommy is stabbed to death during a power cut.
Campion calls in his old friend Stanislaus Oates to help avoid scandal, but Oates is convinced Linda must be guilty, as she has the only obvious motive. Max Fustian, a hanger-on to Lafcadio's coat-tails and now a flourishing art dealer, confesses to the crime, but his confession is laughable and a clear attempt to clear Linda. No further proof can be found however, and thanks to pressure from some important dignitaries attending the show, the matter is hushed up.
The mystery continues, however, as Tommy's art and possessions slowly vanish, until no trace of him remains. Campion meets up with Max Fustian, and finds himself entertaining strange suspicions of the odd little man. Some weeks later, Belle visits Claire Potter in her studio in the garden and finds her dead, face down on the couch. Nicotine poisoning is diagnosed, and suspicion falls at first on her husband, who had skipped work that day and had returned home for a minute an hour before the body was discovered, only to leave again in a hurry.
Potter reveals his wife suffered from alcoholism, and frequently drank herself unconscious; he had assumed she had done this once more, washed her glass and left her there. Seeking the source of the poisoned booze, Campion and Oates discover that Claire took in wood-blocks for cleaning from Max Fustian, and had returned a parcel that very day. Questioning the delivery boy, they find that he once dropped a similar package, and was surprised to find the wrapping wet.
Convinced of Fustian's guilt but lacking proof, Campion seeks a motive. He learns from the model Rosa-Rosa that Tommy had a cottage in the country, and from the cook Lisa that Lafcadio, despite his determination to defeat his rival and keep his fame alive, had only managed to complete eight of the twelve paintings of his legacy, filling the remaining packages with junk as a joke. Campion visits Tommy's cottage and finds Max there, all traces of Tommy burnt. He returns to Little Venice later, and finds Max in a blazing row with Belle – he has insisted he must take the remaining Lafcadio works abroad and sell them, and she has refused to let him.
Sure now that Max had Tommy fake the last four paintings for him, Campion gets further proof in the form of a drawing uncovered in Paris by Linda. He meets Max and they go out to dinner, where Max has him sample a strange and rare wine from Romania. Too late, Campion recalls the wine has a terribly intoxicating effect if taken after spirits – and Max had made sure Campion drank much gin before dinner. After a drunken tour of town, Max leads Campion to the edge of a Tube platform, and pushes hard – only to be stopped by the plain-clothes men Oates has had on their tail, after a meeting with Campion that morning.
Visiting Fustian in prison, Campion finds him a gibbering lunatic, his mind pushed over the edge by the defeat of his schemes.
Characters in "Death of a Ghost"
John Sebastian Lafcadio, a famous artist, eighteen years dead and still a dominant personality in his home
Belle Lafcadio, widow of the artist, a much-loved and charming old lady
Linda Lafcadio, granddaughter of John and Belle
Thomas Dacre, Linda's fiancé, recently returned from a two-year spell in Italy
Rosa-Rosa Rosini, a striking-looking model, brought back from Italy by Tommy
Matt D'Urfey, Tommy's roommate and a friend of Linda, a solid and friendly chap
Donna Beatrice, real name Harriet Pickering, once Lafcadio's model, become a rather dotty old lady obsessed with the spirit world
W. Tennyson Potter, a failed and miserable artist taken in by Lafcadio
Claire Potter, his wife, also an artist and a former Lafcadio model, a despairing but useful woman
Lisa Capella, an Italian, once Lafcadio's model, become cook to the household in her old age
Fred Rennie, Lafcadio's old assistant, still making his secret paint recipes
Max Fustian, Lafcadio's biographer and art dealer, a foppish, self-important man
Albert Campion, an old friend of Belle, an adventurer, detective and universal uncle
Stanislaus Oates, a senior Scotland Yard man, Campion's friend
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
It was the basis for the second series of Campion in 1960, with Bernard Horsfall in the title role.
The story was again adapted for television by the BBC, the fourth of eight Campion stories starring Peter Davison as Campion and Andrew Burt as Oates. Originally broadcast as two separate hour-long episodes, the original UK air date was 5 March 1989. The series was shown in the United States by PBS.
References
External links
An Allingham bibliography, with dates and publishers, from the UK Margery Allingham Society.uk/bibliography
A series of Allingham plot summaries, including many Campion books, from the UK Margery Allingham Society
A page about the book from the Margery Allingham Archive
Fantastic Fiction's page, with details of published editions
1934 British novels
Doubleday, Doran books
Novels by Margery Allingham
Novels about artists |
4635073 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Caroline%20Byrne | Death of Caroline Byrne | Caroline Byrne (8 October 1970 – 7 June 1995), an Australian model, was found at the bottom of a cliff at The Gap in Sydney in the early hours of 8 June 1995. Her then boyfriend Gordon Eric Wood (b. 1962), who at the time of her death was chauffeur and personal assistant to businessman Rene Rivkin, was convicted of her murder on 21 November 2008 and spent three years in Goulburn jail. He was acquitted of the conviction in February 2012.
Events of 7 June 1995
Born on 8 October 1970, Byrne had been in a relationship with Wood since 1992. She was a model but principally worked as a modelling instructor for Sydney deportment and etiquette educator June Dally-Watkins. On 7 June 1995, she failed to turn up for work and for an appointment with a psychiatrist. There were three claimed sightings of her near The Gap at Watsons Bay that afternoon and evening, in the company of two men, one of whom matched Wood's description. Two of the sightings, at 1 pm and 3 pm, were by local cafe owners, Craig Martin and Lance Melbourne. In 1998 John Doherty, an Irish artist who had been out of the country in the intervening years, came forward to say that around 8.30 pm that evening he too had seen Byrne outside his studio window arguing with one man while another man stood nearby.
Wood denied being present at Watsons Bay that afternoon. Evidence was sworn at both inquests by Wood's friends Brett Cochrane and Nic Samartis that they lunched with him briefly around 1:15 pm in Potts Point before he was called away after a call from Rivkin. Wood claimed that he was asked by Rivkin to chauffeur prominent lobbyist and ex-federal minister Graham Richardson to an appointment and then spent the afternoon doing regular chores for Rivkin before going home around 7:00 pm. The Richardson alibi was compromised by Richardson when he was interviewed by police in 2001, when he advised that he had lunched that day with rugby league administrator Peter Moore.
Wood's movements in the afternoon have never been reported prior to the late evening, when Wood said he awoke on his couch having fallen asleep in front of the television and was immediately alarmed that Byrne was still not home. Wood has said he did not know Byrne's whereabouts but was led by what he termed "telepathic communication" to The Gap. He had first driven to the beachfront car-park at Bondi Beach where he and Byrne had spent much time and then to a favourite park at Camp Cove where they had often picnicked. Heading back from Camp Cove he spotted Byrne's white Suzuki Vitara parked in a lane at The Gap. It was when running about the cliff-top and shouting her name that Wood encountered two rock fishermen who verified his appearance around midnight.
Wood then rang Caroline's father, Tony Byrne, and brother Peter Byrne. He then drove back into Sydney and collected them and all three then went to the Gap and scoured the cliff-top. Peter Byrne later gave evidence that at about 1am Wood claimed to have spotted her body at the base of the cliff using torchlight. Byrne himself said he could see nothing and nor could the police who arrived soon after with police torches. The night was dark and the cliff misty. Peter Byrne claimed it was difficult to see the rocks below the cliff, let alone a body. The contention whether Wood had claimed he could see something in the darkness figured in much media speculation over the years and formed a key part of Crown evidence in the 2008 trial. In 2011, the Appeal Court felt that the Crown had presented speculation in this area posing as evidence. This was one of the grounds resulting in Wood's 2011 appeal being upheld.
The identity of the second man supposedly sighted by Melbourne and Martin with Wood in Watsons Bay earlier in the day has remained unclear. With evidence contradicting the likelihood that the man was either of those whom the police considered in investigation (Byrne's modelling agent Adam Leigh or Rivkin associate Gary Redding) the Crown chose to pose speculation without evidence on either during the trial and drew criticism from the trial judge and later the appellant judges.
Media interest
Byrne's death was accepted as a suicide by local Rose Bay Police and others. No photographs were taken of the location of her body's landing point.
In 1996, Byrne's father begin to agitate against the notion of suicide such that from 1997 onwards the case and circumstances of Byrne's death were regularly examined in Australia's national newspapers and reported as "one of Sydney's unsolved crimes". The death of a beautiful model at one of Sydney's notorious suicide spots, the connection to the flamboyant and newsworthy Rivkin, and a net of witnesses and commentators which included some prominent Sydney identities all added to the intrigue of the case.
Offset Alpine speculation
Attention was particularly heightened by the still unproven speculation of a connection with Rivkin's financial activities. The day before Byrne's death, Wood and Rivkin were interviewed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission about the Offset Alpine fire of 1993 and the true ownership of share parcels traded in Offset Alpine owned by nominees related to Swiss bank accounts. Tony Byrne claimed that Wood had indicated to his daughter that the fire was a set-up for insurance purposes.
Ultimately in 2001 Rivkin was charged with insider trading (of Qantas shares) and his eventual conviction in 2003 had a devastating effect on his mental stability, culminating in his 2005 suicide. However the ASIC investigation into share trading in Offset Alpine and the true beneficiaries proved an epic that outlived Rivkin, commencing in 1995 and continuing from 2005 with a focus shifted to Graham Richardson and Trevor Kennedy until eventually closed without outcome by ASIC in 2010.
Peripheral celebrities
Adding to this intrigue was a list of celebrities with a peripheral involvement in the case. Byrne's medical doctor who had referred her to the psychiatric appointment she did not keep on 7 June was television celebrity physician, Dr Cindy Pan. Graham Richardson's diarised luncheon appointment that day (which caused him to question whether he may have been chauffeured anywhere by Wood) was with rugby league identity Peter Bullfrog Moore at Sydney's Hilton Hotel and was set up to broker a peace deal in the Super League war which deeply divided Australian rugby league at that time. Wood always claimed that he had driven Moore from a noon meeting with Rivkin to what may well have been a lunch, though the press and (later) the Crown ignored this possibility. Moore died in July 2000 a year prior to the Strikeforce Irondale interview with Richardson, thus preventing corroboration of the luncheon timings and Rivkin too was dead before the trial.
Byrne's close friends included entertainer Tania Zaetta and actress Kylie Watson, a Home and Away cast member. It was the amateur sleuthing around Watsons Bay armed with photographs of Byrne in the weeks after her death which had Dally-Watkins and Watson uncover the Martin/Melbourne sighting lead. Other celebrity witnesses who figured in the case at some point included businessman John Singleton, journalist Paul Barry and paparazzo Jamie Fawcett.
Inquests, investigation and trials
Two inquests were held into Byrne's death by New South Wales State coroner John Abernethy, with Wood claiming it was suicide. The second inquest in 1998 delivered an open finding. That same year, Wood left Australia.
Police investigations continued from 2000 onwards as "Strikeforce Irondale" with hundreds of witnesses interviewed and resulting in a brief of evidence running to more than 350 pages. Tony Byrne continued to press for action from the investigation eventually enrolling the assistance of New South Wales politician Fred Nile who raised questions about the investigation in State Parliament up till 2004.
In 2004, scientific reports relating to the physics of a body falling/jumping/being projected from the cliff produced by Professor Rod Cross were the principal elements of new evidence which encouraged the Crown to push for a trial of Gordon Wood. In March 2006, the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery QC agreed with police that there was enough evidence to charge Wood with Byrne's murder. Wood was detained in London in April 2006, extradited to Australia and released on bail by a Sydney court on 4 May. On 6 July 2007, Wood was committed to stand trial for the murder of Byrne.
The first trial started on 21 July 2008 with Mark Tedeschi QC appearing for the Crown and Winston Terracini QC defending Wood. On 6 August 2008, Justice Graham Barr declared a mistrial because of the alleged contact that a member of the jury had with 2GB radio host Jason Morrison. The juror, who remained anonymous, claimed that some of the jurors were planning a secret night visit to the crime scene (the Gap) being organised by a particular juror who was a "bully" and who had "already decided that Wood was guilty." Barr ruled "I had to discharge the jury ... because some jurors disobeyed my instructions and misconducted themselves."
The second trial commenced on 25 August 2008 and for the first time in New South Wales court history a panel of 15 jurors was sworn in instead of the usual 12 to provide some contingency.
Trial evidence
Presentation of the Crown case
Following the aborted first trial, Tedeschi, as Crown Prosecutor, presented the Crown case over a nine-week period from 26 August until 24 October 2008. Over 70 witnesses were called and the jury heard hours of audio and video evidence including taped interviews with Rivkin and Wood.
Witnesses called by the prosecution included Pan, Richardson, Watson, Zaetta, Singleton, Fawcett, Bob Hagan and sports journalist Phil Rothfield. Tony Byrne, Peter Byrne, Dally-Watkins and her daughter Carol Clifford appeared. Doherty and Cochrane gave evidence via video link up from overseas. Police witnesses included Tracey Smit and Paul Griffiths (officers on scene), Sgt Mark Powderly, Sgt Neville Greatorex (who gave evidence on police procedures), Snr Const Lisa Camwell (who retrieved the body) and the first investigating officer of the case Sgt Craig Woods of Rose Bay who had first dismissed the death as suicide and who gave evidence that in the first weeks Tony Byrne too accepted the suicide verdict and was explicitly against the idea of an inquest. Another ex-policeman to appear was Byrne's former boyfriend Andrew Blanchette. At one stage Justice Barr counselled Blanchette that he ought consider taking legal advice before answering a particular question. Sensationally on his second day in the witness box, Blanchette admitted that early that morning he had phoned another witness – Melinda Medich, his girlfriend and a minor at the time of Byrne's death – before she was due to give evidence later that day. Blanchette was reported to police by Medich who had not heard from him for a number of years. Blanchette denied that he had been attempting to influence her evidence.
Location of the body
Retired University of Sydney physicist and associate professor Rod Cross spent two days in the witness box. Over a six-year period Cross had produced six reports on the case, with his initial findings being quite different to the later findings presented in the trial. Although formally qualified in the field of plasma physics, Cross had experience working with biomechanists regarding sports research and had published and refereed many papers on biomechanics; he was therefore proposed by police investigators as a forensic expert in fall dynamics. Between 1998 and 2004 Cross' reports all concluded that Byrne could have jumped to her death, as he was told that Byrne's body had been found at a distance of from the cliff. In 2005, when he was recontacted by the police that the position of the body was in fact farther away (), he conducted experiments which informed his speculation that Byrne could not have jumped that far and must have been thrown. The required launch speed, from the top of the high cliff, was 4.5 m/s (see range of a projectile), and the available runup distance was only ; although appeal submissions in 2011 called this into question. Cross tested eleven females from the New South Wales Police Academy and found that they could dive and land head first (in a swimming pool) at about 3.5 m/s after a runup. A strong male could throw a female at 4.8 m/s after a runup of only or .
During the trial, the Court was told of some uncertainty regarding the actual location where the body was found. Senior Constable Lisa Camwell, one of the officers who retrieved Byrne's body in 1995 gave evidence that she had in 1996 participated in a video re-enactment in which she indicated the body's location. She gave evidence that in 2004 she was contacted by an officer in charge of the murder investigation (Sergeant Powderly) and told that the position of Byrne's body had become a significant issue. She was told that the body position she had indicated on the video now appeared to be incorrect. Media reports during the second trial suggested the location of the body was an essential component to the Crown case that Byrne was not pushed nor jumped, but was forcefully thrown to her death.
Suicide history
The court heard that Byrne’s mother Andrea had committed suicide in March 1991 after she became depressed following a breast enlargement operation that went wrong. Terracini also read to the court a letter Tony Byrne had previously provided to police in which he claimed that Caroline had made an attempt on her own life via overdose in 1992. In court, Tony Byrne denied that his daughter had on that occasion intended to kill herself and instead was making "a cry for help". At another stage of the cross examination, he claimed to suppose that had Caroline wanted to kill herself she would have copied her mother Andrea's method rather than jumping from a cliff.
Byrne's doctor, author and television personality Cindy Pan, gave evidence that she had seen Byrne for two years before her death and had specifically discussed Byrne's depression with her in the weeks leading up to her death. Pan told the court Byrne said she had felt depressed for about a month and the condition had worsened in the week leading up to their appointment on 5 June 1995. Pan said the model told her she could not put a finger on what she was unhappy about.
"I was trying to explore with her what she might be depressed about, but she was not really able to identify any one specific thing," Pan told the court. She said Byrne told her she "had the same thing three years ago" and had been put on medication, which had helped. Pan said Byrne denied having thoughts of self-harm and she referred her to a psychiatrist, obtaining an appointment for 4 pm on 7 June.
Presentation of the defence
One defence witness, John Hilton, a forensic pathologist, was called during the Prosecution case, due to his later unavailability. Otherwise Terracini commenced the defence case on 27 October 2008 calling another physics expert Marcus Pandy, a biomechancial engineer who conducted experiments on running and jumping speeds of two females. Only a handful of defence witnesses were called: two forensic pathologists; one psychiatrist; Pandy; a stunt diver, and Wood's sister Jacqueline Schmidt. The defence case concluded within a week.
With the trial drawing to a close, the jury made a number of requests of Justice Barr that included a visit the Gap for a third time; for a transcript of Doherty's evidence; and for video footage of Pandy's running experiments.
Deliberation and verdict
For the first time in New South Wales court history, a ballot was used to select the three jurors who would stand down so that twelve of the sitting fifteen would deliberate to a verdict. After five full days of deliberation on 21 November 2008 they found Wood guilty. On 3 December 2008 Wood was sentenced to a custodial sentence of 17 years, with a minimum time in prison of 13 years. Wood lodged an appeal to the conviction.
Appeal
Wood's appeal hearing commenced on 22 August 2011 in the Criminal Court of Appeal before Chief Judge at Common Law Peter McClellan, Justice Megan Latham, and Justice Stephen Rothman. Wood's barrister Tim Game SC submitted that the jury's verdict was unreasonable and not supported by the evidence. His submission spoke of nine grounds for appeal. One was that the trial miscarried by reason of the prejudice occasioned by the Tedeschi's closing address. Others related to criticisms of Barr's directions to the jury.
Early media reporting of the appeal focused on Game's submission that the scientific evidence used to convict Wood and presented by Associate Professor Cross was flawed. A photograph was presented in the trial and purported to be taken in 1996 showing that scrub near the fenceline had limited Byrne's possible run-up to the jump, supporting an argument that she would have needed to have been thrown to achieve the horizontal distance from the cliff wall that her body travelled. The appeal judges heard and the Crown acknowledged that the photo was in fact taken in 2003 and that photo's quality meant that a shadow might have appeared to be scrub. The appeal judges heard that a 1996 colour photo which showed that there was no scrub limiting the run-up was available to the Crown during the trial but that the Crown had chosen to introduce the blurrier, non-contemporaneous, more ambiguous image.
Game's submission, consistent with so much of the trial evidence, concerned matters relating to the exact positioning of Byrne's body at the base of the rocks and the orientation of her legs and torso and leading to questions regarding the contended launch point and the assumptions and assertions made by Cross in his pre-trial studies and reports and his trial evidence. Day two of Game's submission focused on the police's changed view between 1996 and 2005 as to Byrne's landing spot and specifically trial evidence given by Sergeant Mark Powderly used to justify the reconstruction.
The Criminal Court of Appeal delivered their opinion on 24 February 2012 acquitting Wood of Byrne's murder and ordering his release from jail. The appellate judges delivered a unanimous decision that there was insufficient evidence beyond reasonable doubt that Wood murdered Byrne and that the jury's verdict was not supported. They dismissed the Crown evidence as being critically flawed and ruled that the possibility of her suicide ought not have been excluded.
Justice McClennan described Cross' experiments as "unsophisticated" and in the summation of his decision said that he was not satisfied by either of the two motives presented by the Crown. Regarding the motive submitted by Tedeschi that Byrne had information about Rivkin's business dealings that Wood was trying to hide, McClennan said "The exploitation of public rumour and the use of mere innuendo to compensate for inadequate evidence of motive is not consistent with the obligations of a prosecutor to press the Crown case "to its legitimate strength" by reliance upon credible evidence". McLennan was also troubled that the notion Byrne may have been unconscious when she left the cliff top was introduced by the Crown late in the case. He described Tedeschi's suggestion, first made in his closing address and mentioned at no other time in evidence, that a "shot-put" action was used to despatch Byrne as "an invention of the prosecutor...for which there was absolutely no support in evidence". McClennan also expressed some doubt as the reliability of evidence concerning the claimed sightings of Wood and Byrne at Watson's Bay on 7 June 1995 noting that some of these witnesses had come forward years after the event and the initial investigations; he raised concerns that the Melbourne/Martin first identification of Wood and Byrne was based on a specific photos shown to them by Dally-Watkins rather than from being picked from a selection. Tedeschi was criticised by McClellan for presenting reasoning that was "dangerous" and "entirely without foundation". Tedeschi contributed to the alleged miscarriage with his "50 killer questions" which took an "impermissible course" in asking the jury to consider rhetorical questions dealing with matters that had not been presented with in evidence. McClennan ruled that he was not persuaded that Sgt Powderly's evidence regarding the changed landing position of the body was entirely reliable.
Wood was freed from prison on 24 February 2012; having served three years two months in Goulburn Correctional Centre, following an initial month in Parklea prison. Three weeks later the new New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions, Lloyd Babb SC, issued a press release simply announcing that "the OPDD will not appeal the Court of Criminal Appeal's judgement in the matter of R v Gordon Wood . No further comment will be issued". This was 24 hours after meeting Tony Byrne and attending the Gap with him, a meeting which Byrne described as 'fruitful'.
Post-appeal
Wood left Australia after his release from prison and spent time in the United States and Britain. In 2014 he brought defamation actions against the Sydney radio stations 2GB and 2UE, Channel Seven Sydney, and The Daily Telegraph which were all settled out of court in his favour for undisclosed sums.
In 2016 Wood sued the state of New South Wales for millions of dollars plus costs for malicious prosecution and wrongful imprisonment, based on a number of grounds including a "hopelessly corrupted" and "ridiculous" police case against him. In a witness statement filed as part of his lawsuit against the state, Wood said that during his three years in Goulburn Jail he lived in constant fear of guards who dished out "therapy" and was king-hit, a term now known as Coward Punch (a term widely used in Australia, meaning a very hard punch, usually delivered to the back of the head, that is unexpected) and knocked unconscious in the prison yard by an infamous rapist and killer. The suit was dismissed on 10 August 2018, with Wood receiving no compensation.
See also
List of unsolved deaths
References
Citations
Sources
Court of Criminal Appeal full judgement
1995 in Australia
Deaths by person in Australia
Overturned convictions in Australia |
4687712 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Dianne%20Brimble | Death of Dianne Brimble | Dianne Elizabeth Brimble (10 April 1960 – 24 September 2002) died aboard a P&O Cruises cruise ship of a drug overdose. She is alleged to have been neglected and received callous treatment at the hands of passengers, and to have been given the drug without her knowledge or consent. The investigation into her death has resulted in widespread media coverage in Australia, and criticism of both party culture aboard cruise ships and of the investigation immediately following Brimble's death.
Brimble's death
Brimble, a 42-year-old mother of three from Brisbane, died within 24 hours of boarding the P&O Cruises cruise ship Pacific Sky on 23 September 2002, apparently due to ingesting a combination of alcohol and an overdose of the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, otherwise known as "GHB" or "fantasy". According to news reports, security staff on the cruise ship were initially told Brimble had died of a heart attack, but there were suspicious circumstances.
Toxicology reports later revealed that the amount of the sedative drug in her system was three times the amount that a recreational user would have used. Her body was found on the floor of cabin D182, which belonged to four of the men whom she had met at the ship's disco the previous night. Newspaper reports initially gave differing accounts as to whether Brimble was partially clothed or unclothed when she was found dead.
Inquest
Eight men from Adelaide, South Australia, who were travelling companions on the ship had been named by police investigators as "persons of interest" in the case. An inquest was ordered and the eight men, Dragan Losic, Mark Wilhelm, Petar Pantic, Letterio "Leo" Silvestri, Luigi Vitale, Matthew Slade, Ryan Kuchel and Sakelarios "Charlie" Kambouris were subpoenaed to appear.
The inquest began in March 2006. An attempt by Wilhelm's attorney to challenge the inquest was rejected, and Wilhelm was ordered by Deputy State Coroner Jacqueline Milledge to appear when called. Mark Brimble, the ex-husband of Dianne Brimble, represented the family at the inquest and asked questions of witnesses. Other Pacific Sky passengers and personnel had already made statements.
The memory stick from a camera owned by one of the men, "Charlie" Kambouris, which was handed in as lost property, had been stolen by a P&O employee who later turned it over to police once he realised that pictures of Brimble and the men of interest were on it. The camera's memory stick had been reformatted but computer forensic experts were able to retrieve more than 150 deleted pictures from it, and consequently found evidence important to the case. The photographs have not been released to the media because they depict sexual activity and are considered too graphic. Wilhelm claimed that the sex was consensual, and several photographs appear to support this. Other photographs allegedly showed Brimble later, lying naked on the floor of the cabin, having lost control of her bodily functions.
According to several witnesses' testimonies, the men had spent most of the time on the cruise allegedly propositioning a number of female passengers of varying ages. Among numerous acts of alleged sexual harassment were: asking a 15-year-old to do an erotic dance in their cabin for cash, entering the cabin of four girls uninvited, asking if they were going to the disco where they 'could go down on them' and in a later encounter, Silvestri asking one woman if he could perform oral sex on her, among others.
The inquest heard the initial interview that Silvestri had given police in New Caledonia. The interview was conducted two days after Brimble's death. At that time, Silvestri denied any involvement with Brimble. During the interview, however, Silvestri spoke of Brimble in disparaging terms, saying "she smelt, she was black and she was ugly." Silvestri also described her as "desperate", "a yuck-ugly dog" and a "fat thing." Silvestri told the police interviewers that he was angry because Brimble "fucked up his holiday" by dying in his cabin. According to police witness statements, Silvestri allegedly said to another cruise passenger, Allison McKain, that "The bitch is dead, the fucking bitch is dead. Some shit went down last night, some top secret shit," and that a woman had died, naked on the floor of their cabin. Several passengers related how Silvestri had told them that the group had considered throwing Brimble overboard. At least ten passengers saw Brimble, having lost control of her bodily functions, lying unconscious and naked on the cabin floor, including several women Wilhelm specifically invited into the cabin to see her in that state. When the group realised something was wrong they washed and dressed Brimble before calling for help. Later, when medical officers attempted to resuscitate Brimble, Silvestri told the ship's purser to "get the bitch out of my room."
Silvestri told the coronial court that Kuchel told him that Wilhelm had given Brimble the drug, and that she took it willingly with full informed consent. However, Wilhelm had written in a signed statement given to a P&O security chief that he had not given any drugs to anyone. In previous testimony given in March, Counsel assisting the coroner, Ron Hoenig, described Brimble as being "preyed upon" and asserted that she was impaired in such a way that she could not have given informed consent. At the first inquest in March, Hoenig read statements from family and friends of Brimble, citing that she was a "very moral woman" who did not approve of taking drugs or of casual sex. Both Mark Brimble and David Mitchell, her partner of 14 years, gave evidence to the court pertaining to Dianne Brimble's character. However, evidence was tendered by Brimble's doctor that she had recently been prescribed the morning-after pill and had previously had an HIV test following an indiscretion. In addition, the recovered photographs showed Brimble fully conscious having sex with Wilhelm.
Police tapped the telephones of the eight named "men of interest" for six months. Investigators heard nothing incriminating and came to the conclusion that the men did not have the "mongrel instinct" to stick to a fabricated story. However, the men frequently spoke of themselves being the victims, boasted about the media coverage and discussed how to make money from the case, ideas put forward included selling the story to the media, setting up a fee-for-access website and offering to tell police the truth in return for payment.
State Coroner Jacqueline Milledge handed down the findings of the inquest on 30 November 2010. She ruled that Dianne Brimble had been 'unknowingly drugged' for the sexual gratification of others. Milledge said there was evidence to suggest that the drug had been supplied to Wilhelm by Silvestri. She criticised Wilhelm for failing to tell medical staff that Brimble had consumed a drug, denying her the best possible chance of survival. She also said that New South Wales Police withheld material from the inquest, resulting in 'an impasse that was crippling to the inquest'.
Criminal charges
In September 2008, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions announced that Mark Wilhelm, Letterio Silvestri and Ryan Kuchel would face charges over the circumstances of Brimble's death. Wilhelm was to be charged with manslaughter and supplying a prohibited drug, and Silvestri and Kuchel with perverting the course of justice or, alternatively, to the lesser charge of hindering the investigation.
In October 2009 a Supreme Court trial of Wilhelm ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.
On 21 April 2010 as a second trial began, Wilhelm pleaded guilty to an alternative charge to manslaughter, saying that he had caused Brimble to take the drug. However, in an unusual move, Justice Howie refused to accept the plea saying, "I cannot allow him to plead guilty to a matter he did not commit, and he did not commit this." Shortly after, Crown Prosecutor Terry Thorpe withdrew the charge of manslaughter against Wilhelm.
Justice Howie said he wholly supported the decision to drop the charges because there was no evidence to support the charge. The judge said that the majority of the public believed that Wilhelm should be held responsible for Brimble's death, but that their view had been coloured by prejudice and hysteria. He said that the coronial inquest had been unfortunate because it allowed a great deal of irrelevant material to be exposed to the media. "Mr Wilhelm had no basis to believe that he was in any way putting Ms Brimble's life at risk," he said. "She was an adult who, on the evidence, voluntarily took the drug knowing what it was. She didn't think it would harm her, neither did Mr Wilhelm." Wilhelm pleaded guilty to the far lesser charge of supplying a prohibited drug.
The judge then recorded a "no conviction" and applied no penalty, for the charge of supplying, stating "It's a significant punishment he has already suffered. ... I am entitled to take into account not only the years of public humiliation of the offender but also the consequences of that on him and his mental health." For hindering the investigation, Kuchel was given an 18-month good behaviour bond while Silvestri was given a 15-month bond.
Aftermath
The Brimble family was able to reach a settlement with P&O for, "a reasonable amount of money".
Brimble's family revealed the anguish of Brimble's drug-induced death aboard the Pacific Sky in interviews aired on Australian Story on ABC TV.
The case has prompted stricter security measures for Australian cruises with the introduction of security sniffer dogs and closed-circuit surveillance cameras throughout ships in the fleet.
The case also allegedly inspired the 2008 play Cruising.
Wilhelm, Slade and Kuchel are believed to have distanced themselves from the other five men who have remained close friends. On 8 October 2010, Losic, Kambouris, Vitale, Pantic, and their partners and friends met for dinner at an Adelaide restaurant. The gathering was photographed by the media and a story ran the next day claiming that the dinner was being held to mark the eighth anniversary of Brimble's death (21 September 2002). The men were criticized by the media, who reported the event in a three-page editorial. A separate opinion piece condemned the men's insensitivity in holding a dinner on the anniversary and questioned their lack of shame over the events of 2002. Losic's wife insisted the dinner was for a friend's birthday but she declined to name the friend. Brimble's family declined to comment on the dinner, stating they would "leave it up to the public to make up their minds who and what they are."
Timeline
Monday, 23 September 2002 — at approximately 1700 in Sydney, Australia, Dianne Brimble boards the Pacific Sky cruise ship for a 10-day/9-night cruise to Nouméa, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu. She is accompanied by her sister, her daughter, and her niece. The eight "persons of interest" arrive and are photographed together before they board the ship. This photo was widely published by the media after Brimble was identified in the background boarding the ship. A total of 1500 passengers are on board.
Tuesday, 24 September 2002 — at about 0400, Brimble is seen leaving the ship's disco with four of the eight "men of interest." At approximately 0830, the ship's emergency paramedics are called to cabin D182 when attempts by two of the men to revive Brimble fail. At 0903 she is pronounced dead.
Thursday, 26 September 2002 — Detectives board the ship while in port in Nouméa and begin questioning various witnesses. While Brimble's cabin was sealed for further investigation. the cabin where she was found was not. The four occupants, Wilhelm, Slade, Kuchel and Silvestri, are moved to another cabin and are allowed to remove their belongings. The cabin is then cleaned. Brimble's body is removed from the ship and transported back to Australia. Her family members also disembark.
Friday, 4 October 2002 — Brimble's funeral is held in Brisbane. More than 250 people attend, including her former husband, Mark Brimble, and her partner, David Mitchell.
9 March 2006 — The inquest into her death opens at Glebe Coroners Court in Sydney. Statements are given by friends and family of Brimble, and by Pacific Sky passengers and crew.
16 June 2006 — Letterio "Leo" Silvestri is the first of the "persons of interest" to take the stand at Glebe Coroners Court.
25 June 2006 — Mark Brimble, Brimble's former husband, becomes the Australian representative for the US-based group International Cruise Victims Organization.
28 July 2006 — Ryan Kuchel, the second "person of interest", testifies before the coroner.
11 September 2006 — The inquest resumes. Betty Wood and Alma Wood, Brimble's mother and sister, fly in from Brisbane to attend the inquest. Ryan Kuchel continues to give evidence, as do several members of P&O's security staff. During the week, Petar Pantic and Dragan Losic also testify. Upon finishing his testimony, Pantic formally apologises to Brimble's family.
6 November 2006 — The inquest resumes. Evidence is given by Dragan Losic, crew members and other witnesses. Brimble's family accuse police of covering up evidence.
16 February 2007 — The counsel assisting the inquest, Ron Hoenig, suggests to the coroner that Leo Silvestri and Mark Wilhelm could be charged with murder over Brimble's death.
22 February 2007 — P&O's chief executive, Peter Ratcliffe, apologises to the Brimble family for the company's failure to handle the situation properly following the Brimble's death. P&O offers a substantial payment to the family.
9 July 2007 — The inquest resumes.
10 July 2007 — Testimony is given by Luigi Vitale. He says he had never met Brimble, and does not believe her death was suspicious. He says he has no memory of the events leading up to her death.
13 July 2007 — Testimony is given by Matthew Slade. He sets himself apart from the other seven persons of interest, referring to them as "wankers" and "idiots." He says he had received death threats regarding the case, as had another of the persons of interest, Mark Wilhelm.
26 July 2007 — The coroner ends the inquest, saying there is enough evidence capable of satisfying a jury that "known persons" had committed indictable offences. Counsel assisting the inquest, Ron Hoenig, said there was enough evidence to conclude that two unnamed people had committed an indictable offence. Hoenig said that possible charges could relate to supplying a person with a drug and to not rendering a person assistance. The case is referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. In previous days, the inquest heard secretly recorded telephone conversations in which several of the men of interest joke and make derogatory statements about Brimble, including claims that she "was no angel". Some discussed the possibility of selling their stories to the police and the media for millions of dollars. The last of the men of interest to take the stand, Mark Wilhelm, elects to exercise the right to remain silent during the inquest.
6 December 2007 — Petar Pantic, one of the persons of interest in Dianne Brimble's murder, flees Australia with a one-way ticket to Serbia. He was discovered to have fled when police tried to serve an arrest warrant on him in relation to the importation of prohibited zoophilia pornography. He returned to Australia in 2009 and was fined $5,000 for the offence.
11 September 2008 — The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions recommends that Mark Wilhelm be charged with manslaughter and supplying fantasy, and that Letterio "Leo" Silvestri and Ryan Kuchel be charged with perverting the course of justice.
19 February 2009 — A date is set for the trial of three of the persons of interest.
23 June 2009 — Ryan Kuchel pleads guilty in court to one count of concealing a serious offence. His lawyers ask for the matter to be dealt with immediately because Kuchel is now living in Dubai. Kuchel is sentenced to be of good behaviour for 18 months.
29 June 2009 — Letterio "Leo" Silvestri pleads guilty to concealing a serious indictable offence. He is later sentenced to 15 months in jail, with the sentence suspended due to his guilty plea and because he had agreed to give evidence at the trial of the man alleged to have given Brimble the drug.
21 April 2010 — The manslaughter charge against Mark Wilhelm is dropped and he pleads guilty to supplying Ms Brimble with the drug GHB. Supreme Court Justice Roderick Howie says that if Wilhelm was responsible for Mrs Brimble's death, it was only in a moral or "technical" way, and that there is doubt whether he is criminally responsible. The judge later recorded a conviction against Wilhelm, but did not impose any punishment on the basis that Wilhlem had suffered years of public humiliation and severe mental illness since Dianne Brimble's death, and that no punishment the judge could give would be anything like the punishment Wilhelm had suffered since the incident.
References
External links
Account of Dianne Brimble's death and the culture of cruise ships Cruising: Life and Death on the High Seas, published in The Monthly, September 2006, won a Walkley Award in 2007.
Transcript of Australian Story Monday, 8 May 2006, The Mourning After interviewing Dianne Brimble's family.
Dianne Brimble at International Cruise Victims Organization website.
College love
Dianne Brimble story from Cruise Bruise
Iconic photograph of the "eight men of interest" posing together before boarding the cruise ship. Dianne Brimble can be seen in the background.
2002 deaths
Deaths by person in Australia
Death of women |
4786934 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Diana%2C%20Princess%20of%20Wales | Death of Diana, Princess of Wales | In the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died from the injuries she sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed, the Egyptian film producer, and Henri Paul, the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140 S-Class, were pronounced dead at the scene. Their bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured, but survived the crash.
Some media claimed the erratic behaviour of paparazzi following the car, as reported by the BBC, had contributed to the crash. In 1999, a French investigation found that Paul, who lost control of the vehicle at high speed while intoxicated by alcohol and under the effects of prescription drugs, was solely responsible for the crash. He was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz and had earlier goaded paparazzi waiting for Diana and Fayed outside the hotel. Anti-depressants and traces of an anti-psychotic in his blood may have worsened Paul's inebriation. In 2008, the jury at a British inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving by Paul and the following paparazzi vehicles. Some media reports claimed Rees-Jones survived because he was wearing a seat belt, but other investigations revealed that none of the occupants of the car were wearing their seat belts.
Diana was 36 years old when she died. Her death caused an unprecedented outpouring of public grief in the United Kingdom and worldwide, and her funeral was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people. The Royal Family were criticised in the press for their reaction to Diana's death. Public interest in Diana has remained high and she has retained regular press coverage in the years after her death.
Circumstances
Events preceding the crash
On Saturday, 30 August 1997, Diana left Sardinia on a private jet and arrived in Paris with Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, the son of businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. They had stopped there en route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board Mohamed's yacht Jonikal on the French and Italian Riviera. They had intended to stay there for the night. Mohamed was and remains the owner of the Hôtel Ritz Paris and resided in an apartment on Rue Arsène Houssaye, a short distance from the hotel, just off the Avenue des Champs Elysées.
Henri Paul, the deputy head of security at the Ritz, had been instructed to drive the hired black 1996 Mercedes-Benz W140 S-Class in order to elude the paparazzi; a decoy vehicle left the Ritz first from the main entrance on Place Vendôme, attracting a throng of photographers. Diana and Fayed then departed from the hotel's rear entrance, Rue Cambon, at around 00:20 on 31 August CEST (22:20 on 30 August UTC), heading for the apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye. They did this to avoid the nearly thirty photographers waiting in front of the hotel. Diana and Fayed were the rear passengers; Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, was in the (right) front passenger seat. The occupants were not wearing seat belts. After leaving the Rue Cambon and crossing the Place de la Concorde, they drove along Cours la Reine and Cours Albert 1er – the embankment road along the right bank of the River Seine – into the Place de l'Alma underpass.
The crash
At 00:23, Paul lost control of the vehicle at the entrance to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. The car struck the right-hand wall and then swerved to the left of the two-lane carriageway before it collided head-on with the thirteenth pillar that supported the roof. The car was travelling at an estimated speed of over twice the tunnel's speed limit. It then spun and hit the stone wall of the tunnel backwards, finally coming to a stop. The impact caused substantial damage, particularly to the front half of the vehicle, as there was (and still is) no guard rail between the pillars to prevent this. Witnesses arriving shortly after the crash reported smoke. Witnesses also reported that photographers on motorcycles "swarmed the Mercedes sedan before it entered the tunnel."
Aftermath
With the four occupants still in the wrecked car, the photographers, who had been driving slower and were some distance behind the Mercedes, reached the scene. Some rushed to help, tried to open the doors and help the victims, while some of them took pictures. Police arrived on scene around ten minutes after the crash at 00:30 and an ambulance was on site five minutes later, according to witnesses. France Info radio reported that one photographer was beaten by witnesses who were horrified by the scene. Five of the photographers were arrested directly. Later, two others were detained and around twenty rolls of film were taken directly from the photographers. Police also impounded their vehicles afterwards. Firefighters also arrived at the scene to help remove the victims.
Still conscious, Rees-Jones had suffered multiple serious facial injuries and a head contusion. The front occupants' airbags had functioned normally. Diana, who had been sitting in the right rear passenger seat, was also still conscious. Critically injured, Diana was reported to murmur repeatedly, "Oh my God," and after the photographers and other helpers were pushed away by police, "Leave me alone." In June 2007, the Channel 4 documentary Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel claimed that the first person to touch Diana was off-duty physician Frederic Mailliez, who chanced upon the scene. Mailliez reported that Diana had no visible injuries but was in shock. After being removed from the car at 01:00, she went into cardiac arrest and, following external cardiopulmonary resuscitation, her heart started beating again. Diana was moved to the SAMU ambulance at 01:18, left the scene at 01:41 and arrived at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital at 02:06.
Fayed had been sitting in the left rear passenger seat and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. Paul was also pronounced dead on removal from the wreckage. Both were taken directly to the Institut Médico-Légal (IML), the Paris mortuary, not to a hospital. Paul was later found to have a blood alcohol level of 1.75 grams per litre of blood, which is about 3.5 times the legal limit in France (equivalent to about 2.2 times the legal limit in Canada, the UK, and the US).
Despite attempts to save her life, Diana's injuries were too extensive and resuscitation attempts, including internal cardiac massage, were unsuccessful: her heart had been displaced to the right side of the chest, which tore the pulmonary vein and the pericardium. Diana died at the hospital at approximately 04:00. Anaesthetist Bruno Riou announced her death at 06:00 at a news conference held at the hospital.
Later that morning, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement visited the hospital. At around 17:00, Diana's former husband, Charles, Prince of Wales, and her two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, arrived in Paris. The group visited the hospital along with French President Jacques Chirac and thanked the doctors for trying to save her life. Prince Charles accompanied Diana's body to the UK later the same day. They landed at RAF Northolt and a bearer party from the Queen's Colour Squadron transferred her coffin, which was draped with the royal standard with an ermine border, to a hearse. Her remains were finally taken to the Hammersmith and Fulham mortuary in London for a post-mortem examination later that day.
Initial media reports stated Diana's car had collided with the pillar at , and that the speedometer's needle had jammed at that position; it was later announced that the car's speed upon collision was , about twice as fast as the speed limit of . In 1999, a French investigation concluded the Mercedes had come into contact with another vehicle (a white Fiat Uno) in the tunnel. The driver of the Fiat was never conclusively traced, although many believed the driver was Le Van Thanh. The specific vehicle was not identified.
It was remarked by Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary, that if the crash had been caused in part by being hounded by paparazzi, it would be "doubly tragic". Diana's younger brother, the Earl Spencer, also blamed tabloid media for her death. An eighteen-month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the crash was caused by Paul, who lost control at high speed while intoxicated.
Mourning
Members of the public were invited to sign a book of condolence at St James's Palace. A book of condolence was also set up by the British embassy in the US. All 11,000 light bulbs at Harrods department store, owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, were turned off and not switched on again until after the funeral. Throughout the night, members of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service and the Salvation Army provided support for people queuing along the Mall. More than one million bouquets were left at her London residence, Kensington Palace, while at her family's estate of Althorp the public was asked to stop bringing flowers as the volume of both visitors and flowers in the surrounding roads was said to be causing a threat to public safety.
By 10 September, the pile of flowers outside Kensington Gardens was deep in places and the bottom layer had started to compost. The people were quiet, queuing patiently to sign the book and leave their gifts. Fresh flowers, teddy bears, and bottles of champagne were later donated and distributed among the sick, the elderly and children. Cards, personal messages and poems were collected and given to Diana's family.
Funeral and burial
Early on, it was uncertain if Diana would receive a ceremonial funeral, since she had lost the status of Her Royal Highness following her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996.
Diana's death was met with extraordinary public expressions of grief, and her funeral at Westminster Abbey on 6 September drew an estimated 3 million mourners and onlookers in London. Outside the Abbey and in Hyde Park crowds watched and listened to proceedings on large outdoor screens and speakers as guests filed in, including representatives of the many charities of which Diana was patron. Attendees included US First Lady Hillary Clinton and French First Lady Bernadette Chirac, as well as celebrities including Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti and two friends of Diana, George Michael and Elton John. John performed a rewritten version of his song "Candle in the Wind" that was dedicated to her, known as "Goodbye England's Rose" or "Candle in the Wind 1997"; the single became the best-selling single since UK and US singles charts began in the 1950s, with total sales exceeding 33 million units. Protocol was disregarded when the guests applauded the speech by Earl Spencer, who strongly criticised the press and indirectly criticised the Royal Family for their treatment of her. The funeral is estimated to have been watched by 31.5 million viewers in Britain. Precise calculation of the worldwide audience is not possible, but it was estimated to be around 2.5 billion. The ceremony was broadcast to 200 countries and in 44 languages.
After the end of the ceremony, Diana's coffin was driven to Althorp in a Daimler hearse. Mourners cast flowers at the funeral procession for almost the entire length of its journey and vehicles even stopped on the opposite carriageway of the M1 motorway as the cars passed.
In a private ceremony, Diana was buried on an island in the middle of a lake called The Oval, which is part of the Pleasure Garden at Althorp. In her coffin, she wears a black Catherine Walker dress and black tights, and is holding a rosary in her hands. The rosary had been a gift from Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a confidante of Diana, who had died the day before her funeral. A visitors' centre is open during summer months, with an exhibition about Diana and a walk around the lake. All profits are donated to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
Reactions
Royal family
Queen Elizabeth II expressed her dismay at Diana's death. Prince Charles woke his sons before dawn to share the news. Upon announcement of the death, the website of the Royal Family temporarily removed all its content and replaced it with a black background, displaying a picture of Diana accompanied by her name, dates of birth and death. An online book of condolence was also made available on the website for the public to post their personal tributes. On Sunday morning after Diana's death, the Queen, Princes Charles, William and Harry all wore black to church services at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral Castle. The royal family later issued a statement, saying Charles, William and Harry were "taking strength from" and "deeply touched" by and "enormously grateful" for the public support. Princes Andrew and Edward met the mourners outside Kensington Palace as a precautionary measure to test the public mood, and Edward visited St James's Palace to sign the book of condolences. On their way from Crathie Kirk to Balmoral, the Queen, Prince Philip, Charles, William and Harry viewed the floral tributes and messages left by the public.
Charles and his sons returned to London on Friday, 5 September. They made an unannounced visit to see the floral tributes left outside Kensington Palace. The Queen, who returned to London from Balmoral accompanied by Prince Philip, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret, agreed to a television broadcast to the nation. She viewed the floral tributes in front of Buckingham Palace and visited the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace, where Diana's body was remaining, and met crowds that were in line to sign the books of condolence. Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, and her former sister-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York also visited St James's Palace.
The Royal Family was criticised for a rigid adherence to protocol, and their efforts to protect the privacy of Diana's grieving sons was interpreted as a lack of compassion. In particular, the refusal of Buckingham Palace to fly the Royal Standard at half-mast provoked angry headlines in newspapers. The Palace's stance was one of royal protocol: no flag could fly over Buckingham Palace, as the Royal Standard is only flown when the Queen is in residence, and the Queen was then in Scotland. The Royal Standard never flies at half-mast as it is the Sovereign's flag and there is never an interregnum or vacancy in the monarchy, as the new monarch immediately succeeds his or her predecessor. Finally, as a compromise, the Union Flag was flown at half-mast as the Queen left for Westminster Abbey on the day of the funeral. This set a precedent, and Buckingham Palace has subsequently flown the Union Flag when the Queen is not in residence.
A rift between Prince Charles and the Queen's private secretary, Sir Robert Fellowes (Diana's brother-in-law), was reported in the media over the nature of the funeral, with Charles demanding a public funeral and Fellowes supporting the Queen's idea of a private one. The Palace later issued a statement denying such rumours. Discussions were also held with the Spencer family and the British royal family as to whether Diana's HRH style needed to be restored posthumously, but Diana's family decided that it would be against Diana's wishes and no formal offer was made. The funeral committee at Buckingham Palace wanted William and Harry to have a bigger role in their mother's funeral, but faced opposition from Prince Philip, who reportedly stated "They've just lost their mother. You're talking about them as if they are commodities." Prince Harry said in 2017 that the death of his mother caused severe depression and grief. William was 15 and Harry was 12 when Diana died.
Politicians
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that he was "utterly devastated by the death of the Princess". US President Bill Clinton said that he and his wife, Hillary Clinton, were "profoundly saddened" when they found out about her death. Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General said that her death "has robbed the world of a consistent and committed voice for the improvement of the lives of suffering children worldwide." In Australia, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer, condemned the paparazzi for their overzealous coverage of Diana. Russian President Boris Yeltsin praised Diana's charity work in a statement saying, "All know of Princess Diana's big contribution to charitable work, and not only in Great Britain". Among other politicians who sent messages of condolences were Australian Prime Minister John Howard, South African President Nelson Mandela, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Australian House of Representatives and the New Zealand House of Representatives also passed parliamentary motions of condolence. The Government of Canada, as well as individual provinces in the country, set up online and in-person books of condolences in their parliament buildings and memorial services were held across the country.
Following her death, delegates at an international conference in Oslo to ban landmines paid their tributes to Diana, who was an avid campaigner for banning the explosive devices. The Ottawa Treaty, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines, was adopted in Oslo, in September 1997 and signed by 122 States in Ottawa on 3 December 1997. Diana's work on the landmines issue has been described as influential in the signing of the treaty.
Public
In London, thousands of people carried bouquets and stood outside Buckingham Palace after the news of her death. People started bringing flowers within an hour after the news was shared. The BBC flew its flags at half-mast. Both radio and television aired the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen," in response to Diana's death, as is precedent for the death of a member of the Royal Family. An elegy was published by Ted Hughes to mark her death. Sporting events in the UK were rearranged, with demands for Scotland's Football Association chief executive to resign due to their delayed response to reschedule Scotland's World Cup qualifier.
People in the US were shocked at her death. In San Francisco, around 14,000 people marched through the city in a procession on 5 September to pay tribute to Diana, honouring her for her work on behalf of AIDS patients. In Los Angeles, more than 2,500 people transformed a baseball field into a candle-lit altar in a memorial service prepared by an AIDS organisation. In Paris, thousands of people visited the site of the crash and the hospital where Diana died, leaving bouquets, candles and messages. People brought flowers and also attempted to visit the Hotel Ritz, as well. On the eve of the funeral, 300 members of the British community in Paris took part in a service of commemoration. Landmine victims in Angola and Bosnia also honoured Diana with separate services, pointing out how her efforts had helped raise awareness about the damage caused by landmines. In Bosnia, a landmine survivor, Jasminko Bjelic, who had met Diana only three weeks earlier, said, "She was our friend." In Egypt, the homeland of Dodi Fayed, people visited the British embassy in Cairo to pay their tributes and sign a book of condolences. Following her death many celebrities including actors and singers blamed the paparazzi and condemned their reckless behavior.
Mother Teresa, who met Diana a few months before her death, expressed her sorrow and prayers were held at the Missionaries of Charity for Diana. The Bishop of Bradford David Smith and the Bradford Council of Mosques held prayers by the Christian and Muslim communities. Jonathan Sacks led prayers by the Jewish community at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, and Cardinal Basil Hume presided over the Roman Catholic requiem mass held at Westminster Cathedral.
Social and economical impact
During the four weeks following her funeral, the suicide rate in England and Wales rose by 17% and cases of deliberate self-harm by 44.3% compared with the average for that period in the four previous years. Researchers suggest that this was caused by the "identification" effect, as the greatest increase in suicides was by people most similar to Diana: women aged 25 to 44, whose suicide rate increased by over 45%. Another research showed that 50% of Britons and 27% of Americans were deeply affected by her death as if someone they knew had died. It also concluded that in general women were more affected than men in both of the countries. The same research showed that Diana's "charitable endeavors" and "ability to identify with ordinary people" were among the main factors that caused her to be admired and respected by the people. In the weeks after her death counselling services reported an increase in the number of phone calls by the people who were seeking help due to grief or distress.
Diana's death mostly affected people who were already vulnerable and could identify with her as "a public figure perceived as psychologically troubled but who seemed to have made a constructive adjustment". Another research described Diana's death and funeral as traumatic stressors with psychological impacts that could "be equated with traditional stressors identified in the trauma research literature". In the days after her funeral, an increase in the number of inappropriate hospital admissions was observed, whereas the number of admissions for traumatic injuries decreased for at least three months, showing a possible change in people's driving habits. Her death was also associated with "30% reduction in calls to the police and a 28% drop in public order offences", yet despite its effect on increasing depression and traumatic stress, no significant increase was observed in the number of psychiatric emergencies in Edinburgh.
The national grieving for Diana had economic effects. In the short term, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) estimated that retail sales dropped 1% that week. Traffic congestion in central London as crowds went to the palaces to pay homage likewise adversely affected productivity, and the CEBR estimated that would cost businesses £200 million, or a total loss of 0.1% of gross domestic product for the third quarter of 1997. However, in the long run the CEBR expected that to be offset by increased tourism and memorabilia sales.
Reception
Some criticised the reaction to Diana's death at the time as being "hysterical" and "irrational". As early as 1998, philosopher Anthony O'Hear identified the mourning as a defining point in the "sentimentalisation of Britain", a media-fuelled phenomenon where image and reality become blurred. Oasis bandleader Noel Gallagher responded to the reaction with, "The woman's dead. Shut up. Get over it". These criticisms were repeated on the tenth anniversary of the crash, when journalist Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian expressed the opinion that, "It has become an embarrassing memory, like a mawkish, self-pitying teenage entry in a diary ... we cringe to think about it." In 2010, Theodore Dalrymple suggested "sentimentality, both spontaneous and generated by the exaggerated attention of the media, that was necessary to turn the death of the princess into an event of such magnitude thus served a political purpose, one that was inherently dishonest in a way that parallels the dishonesty that lies behind much sentimentality itself".
The reactions following Diana's death were subject to criticism by Christopher Hitchens. His 1998 documentary Princess Diana: The Mourning After accused the British media of playing an essential role in creating a national, unchallengeable, and at times hysterical cult of personality surrounding Diana, whereas previously they had been extremely critical of her and the monarchy after she had separated and divorced from Charles, and was having an affair with Dodi Fayed. Hitchens claimed the public were behaving irrationally and that many appeared to not even know why they were mourning. He also scrutinised the level of censorship against criticism of Diana and the monarchy but was accused, in a review by The Independent, of exaggerating on this point. Private Eyes sales dropped by one third after it ran a cover titled "Media to Blame", which attempted to criticise the instant switch in the media and the public's opinion of Diana after her death from critical to complimentary.
Hitchens's views were later supported by Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian, who also questioned the reason behind the "outburst of mass hysteria" following Diana's death and described it as "an episode when the British public lost its characteristic cool and engaged in seven days of bogus sentimentality, whipped up by the media, and whose flimsiness was demonstrated when it vanished as quickly as it had appeared". Comparing Diana's funeral to that of Winston Churchill, Peter Hitchens observed the "difference in the self-discipline of the people and their attitudes" at the two historical events, with them being more restrained at Churchill's funeral but "un-English" at Diana's.
Some cultural analysts disagreed. Sociologist Deborah Steinberg pointed out that many Britons associated Diana not with the Royal Family but with social change and a more liberal society: "I don't think it was hysteria, the loss of a public figure can be a touchstone for other issues." Carol Wallace of People magazine said that the fascination with Diana's death had to do with "the fairy tale failing to end happily – twice, first when she got divorced and now that she died."
Reflecting back on the event in a 2021 docuseries, Diana's son Prince Harry said that he was surprised by the extent to which the public reacted to his mother's death. Referencing the day of her funeral, he said "I'm just walking along and doing what was expected of me, showing the one-tenth of the emotion that everybody else was showing. This was my mum, you never even met her."
Memorials
In the years after her death, many memorials were commissioned and dedicated to her. As a temporary memorial, the public co-opted the Flamme de la Liberté (Flame of Liberty), a monument near the Pont de l'Alma tunnel related to the French donation of the Statue of Liberty to the US. The messages of condolence have since been removed and its use as a Diana memorial has discontinued, though visitors still leave messages in her memory. A permanent memorial, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, was opened by the Queen in Hyde Park in London on 6 July 2004, followed by a statue in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace, which was unveiled by her sons on 1 July 2021.
Following her death, a member of the Millennium Dome's board suggested the project be refashioned and extended "to accommodate, for example, a hospital, businesses, charities, private residences, and the whole thing named 'the Princess Diana Centre'." The idea was later scrapped.
Inquests
Under English law, an inquest is required in cases of sudden or unexplained death. A French judicial investigation had already been carried out but the 6,000-page report was never published. On 6 January 2004, six years after Diana's death, an inquest into the crash opened in London held by Michael Burgess, the Coroner of the Queen's Household. The coroner asked the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, to make inquiries in response to speculation that the deaths were not an accident. The police investigation reported its findings in Operation Paget in December 2006.
In January 2006, Lord Stevens explained in an interview on GMTV that the case is substantially more complex than once thought. The Sunday Times wrote on 29 January 2006 that agents of the British secret service were cross-examined because they were in Paris at the time of the crash. It was suggested in many journals that these agents might have exchanged the blood test from Henri Paul with another blood sample (although no evidence for this has been forthcoming).
The inquests into the deaths of Diana and Fayed opened on 8 January 2007, with Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss acting as Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household for the Diana inquest and Assistant Deputy Coroner for Surrey in relation to the Fayed inquest. Butler-Sloss originally intended to sit without a jury; this decision was later overturned by the High Court of Justice, as well as the jurisdiction of the Coroner of the Queen's Household. On 24 April 2007, Butler-Sloss stepped down, saying she lacked the experience required to deal with an inquest with a jury. The role of Coroner for the inquests was transferred to Lord Justice Scott Baker, who formally took up the role on 13 June as Coroner for Inner West London.
On 27 July 2007, Baker, following representations for the lawyers of the interested parties, issued a list of issues likely to be raised at the inquest, many of which had been dealt with in great detail by Operation Paget:
The inquests officially began on 2 October 2007 with the swearing of a jury of six women and five men. Lord Justice Baker delivered a lengthy opening statement giving general instructions to the jury and introducing the evidence. The BBC reported that Mohamed Al-Fayed, having earlier reiterated his claim that his son and Diana were murdered by the Royal Family, immediately criticised the opening statement as biased.
The inquest heard evidence from people connected with Diana and the events leading to her death, including Rees-Jones, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Paul Burrell, Diana's stepmother, and the former head of MI6.
Lord Justice Baker began his summing up to the jury on 31 March 2008. He opened by telling the jury "no-one except you and I and, I think, the gentleman in the public gallery with Diana and Fayed painted on his forehead sat through every word of evidence" and concluded that there was "not a shred of evidence" that Diana's death had been ordered by Prince Philip or organised by the security services. He concluded his summing up on Wednesday, 2 April 2008. After summing up, the jury retired to consider five verdicts, namely unlawful killing by the negligence of either or both the following vehicles or Paul; accidental death or an open verdict. The jury decided on 7 April 2008 that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the "grossly negligent driving of the following vehicles [the paparazzi] and of the Mercedes driver Henri Paul." Princes William and Harry released a statement in which they said that they "agree with their verdicts and are both hugely grateful." Mohamed Al-Fayed also said that he would accept the verdict and "abandon his 10-year campaign to prove that Diana and Dodi were murdered in a conspiracy".
The cost of the inquiry exceeded £12.5 million, the coroner's inquest cost £4.5 million; a further £8 million was spent on the Metropolitan Police investigation. It lasted 6 months and heard 250 witnesses, with the cost heavily criticised in the media.
Related lawsuits
Nine photographers, who had been following Diana and Dodi in 1997, were charged with manslaughter in France. France's "highest court" dropped the charges in 2002.
Three photographers who took pictures of the aftermath of the crash on 31 August 1997 had their photographs confiscated and were tried for invasion of privacy for taking pictures through the open door of the crashed car. The photographers, who were part of the "paparazzi", were acquitted in 2003.
Conspiracy theories
Although the initial French investigation found that Diana had died as a result of an accident, several conspiracy theories have been raised. Since February 1998, Fayed's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, has claimed that the crash was a result of a conspiracy, and later contended that the crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of the Royal Family. His claims were dismissed by a French judicial investigation and by Operation Paget. On 7 April 2008, Lord Justice Baker's inquest into the deaths of Diana and Fayed ended with the jury concluding that they were the victims of an "unlawful killing" by Henri Paul and the drivers of the following vehicles. Additional factors were "the impairment of the judgment of the driver of the Mercedes through alcohol" and "the death of the deceased was caused or contributed to by the fact that the deceased was not wearing a seat belt, the fact that the Mercedes struck the pillar in the Alma Tunnel rather than colliding with something else".
On 17 August 2013, Scotland Yard revealed that they were examining the credibility of information from a source that alleged that Diana was murdered by a member of the British military.
In the media
Actor George Clooney publicly lambasted several tabloids and paparazzi agencies following Diana's death. A few of the tabloids boycotted Clooney following the outburst, stating that he "owed a fair portion of his celebrity" to the tabloids and photo agencies in question.
Diana was ranked third in the 2002 Great Britons poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the British public, after Sir Winston Churchill (1st) (a distant cousin), and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2nd), just above Charles Darwin (4th), William Shakespeare (5th), and Isaac Newton (6th). That same year, another British poll named Diana's death as the most important event in the country's last 100 years. Historian Nick Barrett criticised this outcome as being "a pretty shocking result".
Later in 2004, the CBS programme 48 Hours broadcast photos from the crash scene which were "part of a 4,000-page French government report." They showed an intact rear side and centre section of the Mercedes, including one of an unbloodied Diana with no outward injuries crouched on the rear floor with her back to the right passenger seatthe right rear door is fully open. The release of these pictures were poorly received in the UK, where it was felt that the privacy of Diana was being infringed. Buckingham Palace, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Diana's brother condemned the action, while CBS defended its decision saying that the pictures "are placed in journalistic context – an examination of the medical treatment given to Princess Diana just after the crash."
On 13 July 2006, Italian magazine Chi published photographs that showed Diana amid the wreckage of the car crash; the photos were released despite an unofficial blackout on such photographs being published. The editor of Chi defended his decision by saying he published the photographs simply because they had not been previously seen, and he felt the images were not disrespectful to the memory of Diana.
The British newspaper The Daily Express has been criticised for continued and sustained coverage of Diana following her death. A 2006 report in The Guardian showed that the newspaper had mentioned her in numerous recent news stories, with headlines including, "Perhaps Diana should have worn seatbelt", "Diana inquiry chief's laptop secrets stolen", "£250,000 a year bill to run Diana fountain" and "Diana seatbelt sabotage probe".
The events from Diana's death to her funeral became the subject of a 2006 film, The Queen, with Helen Mirren in the title role.
Internet coverage
Diana's death occurred at a time when Internet use in the developed world was booming, and several national newspapers and at least one British regional newspaper had already launched online news services. BBC News had set up online coverage of the general election earlier in 1997 and as a result of the widespread public and media attention that Diana's death resulted in, BBC News swiftly created a website featuring news coverage of Diana's death and the events that followed it. Diana's death helped BBC News officials realise how important online news services were becoming, and a full online news service was launched on 4 November that year, alongside the launch of the BBC's rolling news channel BBC News 24 on 9 November.
See also
Concert for Diana, a 2007 rock concert to commemorate Diana
Diana: Last Days of a Princess, a 2007 television docudrama
List of people who died in traffic collisions
The Little White Car, a 2004 novel based around the mystery Fiat Uno
The Murder of Princess Diana, a 2007 book disputing the official version of events
The Murder of Princess Diana, a 2007 Lifetime Movies film, a fictionalised adaption of the book of the same name
Princess Diana's Revenge, a 2006 novel that engages with conspiracy theories relating to Diana's death
The Queen, a 2006 film about the Royal Family's reaction to Diana's death
Unlawful Killing, a 2011 documentary film
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Duncan Fallowell, How To Disappear, ch.5, reportage account of Princess Diana's funeral (London, 2011)
External links
BBC's full coverage
The Washington Posts full coverage
Diana: One year on – BBC
Operation Paget full report
Official Website of the Inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed (Archived)
Princess Diana dies in Paris crash – BBC On This Day archive
Princess Diana driver was 'drunk and speeding' – BBC On This Day archive
The life and poignant death of Diana's driver The Times online article
Timeline: How Diana died – BBC
Death
1997 in international relations
1997 in Paris
1997 in the United Kingdom
1997 road incidents
1990s crimes in Paris
1990s road incidents in Europe
Articles containing video clips
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August 1997 events in Europe
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Diana
August 1997 events in the United Kingdom |
6119377 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20John%20Carthy | Death of John Carthy | John Carthy (9 October 1972 – 20 April 2000) was a 27-year-old Irish citizen with known psychiatric illnesses who was shot dead by the Garda Emergency Response Unit in controversial circumstances on 20 April 2000, after a twenty-five-hour siege at his home in Toneymore, Abbeylara, County Longford.
Background
John Carthy, born 9 October 1972, was the only son of John and Rose Carthy. He had one sister, Marie, who was two years his junior. He was an avid Handballer and member of Abbeylara Handball Club. His father, with whom he was very close, died on 12 April 1990. In 1992 John was diagnosed with clinical depression and, subsequently with bipolar affective disorder. John's general employment was in the construction industry. He resided with his mother in an old three-bedroom house in Toneymore, Abbeylara. She and John were due to move from this old house to a new home that had been built on their land by Longford County Council as part of a rural housing scheme. The old house was due to be demolished. On 19 April 2000, the day prior to his death, John stayed in the family home all day with his mother. His mother's testimony to the Barr Tribunal indicated that John was very hostile to the move and that this was the primary topic of their discussions that day.
Like many people in the countryside, John Carthy was the licensed owner of a double-barreled shotgun, in this case a Russian-made Baikal IJ-43M. His licence had been of limited duration prior to November 1998, when it was changed to an unlimited type, and this was subsequently renewed on 29 August 1999.
Siege
Day one: 19 April 2000
At approximately 3:40pm on Wednesday 19 April 2000 John Carthy went to the cabinet that held his shotgun. He brought it, a full box of cartridges and his gun belt back to the kitchen demonstrating, according to his mother, that "no one was going to put him out of his house". He loaded the gun with two cartridges, went outside the hall door, and discharged two shots.
It is not clear whether John then forced his mother out of the family home, or whether she left at her own volition. However, Rose Carthy left the family home and travelled to her sister's house, two doors away. Mrs Carthy informed the Barr Tribunal that her son did not order her out of the home, despite rumours to the contrary at the time. She was, however, very afraid for her son. Rose Carthy asked her sister, Nancy Walsh, to ring the Gardaí in Granard, three kilometres away, to come out and "take the gun from John".
At 5:20pm Ann Walsh, John's first cousin, telephoned the Gardaí in Granard. Two Gardaí, John Gibbons and Colin White, were dispatched to the scene. It appears that Garda Gibbons knew John Carthy, as before he left Granard Garda station he took with him an official issue .38 Smith & Wesson revolver and some ammunition. He also obtained a Garda flak jacket and put on a "civilian jacket" over the flak jacket. Garda White was unarmed, in uniform and was the driver of a marked Garda car.
At approximately 5:55pm on Wednesday 19 April 2000 the two Gardaí drove into the driveway of the Carthy home. Two shots were fired in rapid succession from an unknown place and in an unknown direction. They quickly reversed their car and observed the Carthy home from a safer distance. At this stage John Carthy's general practitioner, Dr. Patrick Cullen, was called to the scene. While waiting for Gardaí he said that approximately ten shots were fired "out the back of the house". Dr. Cullen was followed to the house by an armed detective, Garda James Campbell, in an unmarked Garda car. He warned the three Gardaí now present that John Carthy might be aggressive due to the "previous incident and alleged Garda assault". He also advised them that John Carthy may have consumed alcohol.
Nonetheless, Detective Garda Campbell and Garda Gibbons, both of whom were armed, decided to approach John Carthy's home. The Barr Tribunal remarked about this decision that "It may be of significance that the house was now being approached by two armed Gardaí in circumstances where there was information to the effect that John Carthy had been on anti-depressant tablets, was not holding any hostage, had discharged his weapon on a number of occasions, and that he might be aggressive to them because they were Gardaí".
Detective Garda Campbell attempted to talk with John Carthy but, in his evidence, said Carthy replied with an expletive and a threat to blow his head off. This exchange was followed by a shot at the Garda car, which was unoccupied. In total, John Carthy fired six shots by the time Detective Garda Campbell rang Granard Garda station with a request that they contact Superintendent Michael Byrne, who was in charge of the Granard Sub-District. Byrne instructed them to contact Superintendent Joseph Shelly in Mullingar. Shelly assumed command of the incident and ordered that a party of armed Gardaí be sent from Athlone station forthwith. En route to Granard Garda Station, Superintendent Shelly had another discussion with Superintendent Byrne and requested that armed Gardaí from Longford also be sent to Abbeylara. By 5:30pm, therefore, armed Gardaí and detectives from Athlone, Longford and Mullingar had been sent to John Carthy's home in Abbeylara.
At 6:45pm the divisional commander for Longford/Westmeath, Chief Superintendent Patrick Tansey, became aware of events. He contacted Superintendent Shelly by phone. These conversations led to the decision to deploy the elite Emergency Response Unit (ERU). Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey issued the request for their deployment. Six members of the ERU were subsequently sent to Abbeylara from the Special Detective section in Harcourt Street, Dublin, where they were based. Five ERU members were required to deal with practical matters while the sixth, Detective Sergeant Michael Jackson, was a trained negotiator. The ERU arrived at 9:50pm. Among their weapons were Uzi submachine guns, a Heckler & Koch assault rifle, a Benelli combat shotgun and SIG Sauer semi-automatic pistols.
While tactical control rests with ERU members on the scene, overall control rests with the divisional commander. During the Abbeylara siege, this was shared between Superintendent Shelly and Superintendent Byrne. The former was in command between 7:00am on 19 April and midnight. From midnight to 9:00am on 20 April, Superintendent Byrne was the Scene Commander and at 9:00am on the day of John Carthy's death, Superintendent Shelly resumed command.
Day two: 20 April 2000
Superintendent Shelly officially took over at 9am, but had been back on the scene at 8:20am. Throughout the morning, numerous tactics were employed by the Gardaí to end the siege. John's cousin and close friend, Thomas Walsh, was brought in to talk with him.
John Carthy made somewhat confusing and poorly worded demands for cigarettes and a solicitor. The Garda negotiator saw this as a way of opening a dialogue so he told Carthy all they needed to do was ensure a safe method of delivery. In this Sergeant Jackson was technically breaking the negotiators' rule of 'no concession without one in exchange' but felt it worth it as it might calm Carthy and build some trust.
He repeatedly told John that someone could approach to leave them nearby if he put the gun on the table (beside which he was looking out the window towards the negotiation post as he was talking to Jackson) if he placed the rifle on the table and kept his hands in view. John replied with various rebuffs including "don't bother, don't bother".
As to the solicitor Carthy was told they could not send one in while he still had the gun. However, Gardaí could get one on the phone to advise Carthy, if he could tell them which solicitor to get in touch with.
Jackson feared that having someone encroach on the home while Carthy was resting, to drop cigarettes covertly, might cause Carthy irritation at the invasion of his security.
Carthy was quite vague on the identity of the solicitor and the scene commander thought it a waste of time to get one from the locality.
At 12:24pm, John Carthy telephoned a friend, Kevin Ireland, and informed him he had no notion of hurting anyone, that he was simply keeping them at bay with the gun and that he wanted a solicitor, one by the name of "Mick Finucane". Carthy was confused about the identity of the solicitor he wanted. Carthy may have been alluding to Michael Finucane, the Belfast solicitor and son of the assassinated Pat Finucane.
At approximately 5:55pm on day two of the siege, Carthy exited the house. There were yells of "Armed Gardaí – drop your gun" and various words to that effect. Jackson asked Carthy in a more direct and pleading tone, noted in its distinct nature by witnesses, to drop the weapon. Jackson reluctantly drew his SIG Sauer pistol and attempted to bring Carthy down without killing him, with two shots to his legs. These shots did not bring Carthy down and he appeared not to notice them.
In these crucial seconds, which the Tribunal found to be around a minute's duration, the ERU team hesitated in opening fire, continuing to plead with Carthy to surrender. The hesitation was so complete that local armed officers in the outer perimeter began to think the ERU team would not fire and one remarked "we're gonna have to do it ourselves" and were within a second of opening fire when Garda McCabe took action.
Garda McCabe fired his Uzi at Carthy once, then again, both striking Carthy in the torso. Following the fourth shot, Carthy collapsed onto his side.
The ERU team moved in to disarm him and turning him onto his back saw he was critically injured. Medical help was summoned and they began immediate CPR. Despite various attempts to revive him, Carthy died quickly.
Calls for an inquiry
On 25 April 2000, John Carthy's 25-year-old sister, Marie Carthy, held a news conference. Describing her brother as "intelligent, popular, hardworking, witty, gentle and a man who never let anyone down", Marie Carthy called for a full independent and public inquiry into the death of John Carthy five days previously.
Garda inquiry
Marie Carthy's call came in response to two developments: first, the Garda investigation announced on the evening of the shooting on 20 April 2000 and, second, and more importantly, the Gardaí revelation that they would not make this report public. In a statement issued in response to public concern about the shooting, An Garda Síochána said that, under the Coroners Act of 1962, they were proceeding to hold an inquest into the death of the John Carthy.
FBI inquiry
Coming under pressure to make their internal investigation findings public, the Gardaí requested the FBI in the United States to investigate their handling of the shooting. On 29 June 2000, the FBI reported their findings to the Garda Commissioner, Pat Byrne. The five-member FBI investigation concluded that the main problem with the Gardaí's operations on the day was that they waited too long to fatally shoot Mr. Carthy, and that he should not have been allowed to cross into the inner perimeter, putting unarmed Garda in the outer perimeter at risk and that ultimately use of deadly force was appropriate to protect themselves and others. In the words of the FBI report, "Garda personnel repeatedly and emphatically ordered Mr. Carthy to halt and throw down his weapon. Despite these warnings, Mr. Carthy was allowed to continue undeterred beyond the wall which served as one side of the inner perimeter and walk toward the outer perimeter which was manned in part by unarmed Garda officers....to allow Mr. Carthy to cross the inner perimeter armed after he had repeatedly ignored warnings and had previously aimed and fired his shotgun at Garda officers was inconsistent with accepted law enforcement practices in the United States".
Oireachtas Subcommittee inquiry
On 8 March 2001 and responding to the growing disillusionment and distrust at the idea that the Garda were investigating themselves, the Irish government, still rejecting calls for a full public inquiry, instead established an Oireachtas subcommittee to investigate the shooting. The committee had seven members: Seán Ardagh, T.D. (FF) (Chair); Marian McGuinness, T.D. (FF); John McGuinness, T.D. (FF); Alan Shatter, T.D. (FG); Monica Barnes, T.D. (FG); Brendan Howlin, T.D. (Lab) and Senator Denis Donovan (FF).
However, on 23 November 2001, the High Court of Ireland deemed this subcommittee of both houses of the Irish parliament to be unconstitutional. The state's appeal, on 11 April 2002, of this decision to the Supreme Court of Ireland failed when the latter body found in favour of 36 Gardaí who challenged the right of this particular committee to call them. The ground upon which The Supreme Court had ruled this committee unconstitutional was that the Oireachtas has no explicit, implicit or inherent power to conduct an inquiry which could lead "to adverse findings of fact and conclusions (including a finding of unlawful killing) as to the personal culpability of an individual not a member of the Oireachtas so as to impugn their good name is ultra vires in that the holding of such an inquiry is not within the inherent powers of the Oireachtas". The Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2011 was intended to reverse this ruling.
The Barr Tribunal
Within a week of this judgment, by 17 April 2002, a motion was proposed and passed in Dáil Éireann and seconded in Seanad Éireann: "That Dáil Éireann [Seanad Éireann in its Resolution] resolves that it is expedient that a tribunal be established under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Acts, 1921 to 2002, to enquire into the following definite matter of urgent public importance: – the facts and circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of John Carthy at Abbeylara, Co Longford on 20 April 2000".
Out of this motion came the Carthy family's requested public investigation into John Carthy's death. Led by a former High Court judge, Robert Barr, it followed the pattern of other Irish Tribunals of Inquiry, becoming known as the Barr Tribunal in reference to the surname of its sole member. The Carthy family immediately welcomed the powers and scope of the tribunal.
On 20 July 2006 the report of Mr. Justice Robert Barr was released.
The report did not just examine the siege itself but all related factors in the light of international practice.
It was noted that Mr. Justice Barr went out of his way to investigate the siege with a view to complete thoroughness, in contrast to the quick and casual nature of previous investigations.
The tribunal found that several events had occurred in John's life to make him perceive that things were getting progressively worse for him. The report included minute details of the siege and Carthy's life, right down to a heartbreaking letter he wrote his girlfriend after their breakup, apologising to her for being hot-tempered with her, explaining that he often found it difficult to control his disorder. The breakup with his girlfriend, loss of employment, and most importantly, a false arrest combined with assault in custody, combined with his gun being taken as a result of Garda subterfuge, on foot of a report, not properly investigated at the time and subsequently proven false, that he had threatened to shoot children in the Handball Alley, which he had used, and which he had been central to restoring.
The Tribunal concluded that the conduct of local Garda towards him in these incidents was the central theme behind his distrust of the force throughout the siege.
On the actual siege itself the report had the following central conclusions:
It exonerated the ERU team of any legal culpability for John Carthy's death and concluded that they acted lawfully in genuine fear for safety of those in the area in the discharge of their firearms on the day. The tribunal concluded that as far as the negotiator and ERU team knew, Carthy was a clear and present danger to everyone around him. Indeed, the Tribunal noted that one of the two officers to fire on Carthy, Sergeant Jackson, broke with Garda rules of engagement and international practice by not shooting at Carthy's torso ('centre mass'), as police are trained to, in order to hit the central nervous system to incapacitate the threat quickly. In evidence Sergeant Jackson said he made this decision in a desperate attempt to neutralize John Carthy as a threat without killing him. However, two shots to the legs did not halt him, so a further shot to the torso was fired, which also did not stop him, and thus a final fourth shot was fired. The tribunal concluded there was no fifth shot as some had speculated.
Despite exonerating the ERU team itself the Tribunal found critical failures by the higher-ranking Garda in charge of the siege. The Tribunal found that due to Garda command incompetence, critical information about Carthy's call to his friend Kevin Ireland, which should have reached the Garda negotiator and might have allowed the siege to end peacefully, was not passed on. The tribunal further found that the scene commander failed to properly plan for an uncontrolled (armed) exit by John Carthy and that some of the instructions given to local and ERU officers were 'vague'. It found that the scene commander failed to properly consult with mental health professionals and that he assumed that when Carthy could not name a specific solicitor that getting one anyway would be a 'waste of time'. The tribunal was of the view this avenue should have been explored, via the family solicitor or other solicitor that John had used in the past. The Tribunal concluded that in future an ERU team leader of higher rank should be in charge in future such situations, regardless of the rank of others in the area, as they were the most experienced and skilled to make these decisions. Scene commanders' failure to properly consult psychological professionals was criticized.
The Tribunal concluded that while less-lethal (incorrectly called non-lethal) weaponry is available to police forces worldwide, there was an incorrect public perception of how easy it is to use this equipment to incapacitate someone. However, the Tribunal concluded that attack dogs would have been a viable response to the siege and could have dragged Carthy to the ground, even if he had shot one of them, for long enough to permit the ERU team to move in and disarm him. It was strongly recommended that an attack dog unit be attached to the ERU as soon as possible. No such unit was available in Ireland at the time.
The Tribunal concluded, in consultation with experts and mental health professionals, that Carthy's exit was not a 'suicide by cop' and that he likely was not trying to attack anyone on the road (as he had passed ERU team members without confronting them) but that he was possibly trying to get further down the road to surrender the weapon to a third party like a member of his family, that due to his animosity towards the police he would never have surrendered it to them.
However, it was conceded that the ERU team on the day had no way of guessing what Carthy's intentions were and could not have let him exit the outer perimeter with a loaded shotgun that he had been discharging frequently for two days.
In addition to the above findings, the Barr Tribunal was particularly critical of the Irish media. Judge Barr found the RTÉ's Five Seven Live radio show was particularly irresponsible in naming John Carthy and Barr adjudged that "the facts and circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of John Carthy as specified in the Tribunal’s Terms of Reference include matters which add[ed] to or could have potential for aggravating the deceased’s apparently serious mental distress which became progressively more severe as the episode at Abbeylara continued (vide the evidence of Dr. John Sheehan and other psychiatrists given at the Tribunal), and in consequence the potential for undermining the possibility of successful dialogue between the Garda negotiator and John Carthy which might have avoided the circumstances that gave rise to his death." In addition to RTÉ, the Sunday Independent was also strongly criticised, particularly an article entitled Dramatic New Evidence in Abbeylara Case with beneath it a subsidiary headline "Abbeylara family row over land may have affected siege victim Carthy’s state of mind prior to his death". That article was published on 31 October 2004 and Justice Barr found it to be slanderous to the Carthy family. The Barr Tribunal opined that the Sunday Independent journalist in question, Maeve Sheehan, was more concerned with defending the Garda position at any cost than being fair to the Carthy family. The report noted that her "article also contained other information apparently favourable to the Garda case that the connection between the deceased and his sister, Marie, was not the close caring relationship indicated in evidence by various witnesses". The Tribunal noted that the Carthy family had sued that particular newspaper for the article in question, and that the Sunday Independent had settled out of court before trial.
Reaction to Barr Tribunal
Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern made a public apology to the Carthy family on behalf of the Irish government. The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, admitted that the Carthy family was entitled to a profound expression of regret from the Irish State. Garda Ombudsman Commission member, Conor Brady, accepted that the Barr report outlined "an unspeakable catalogue of personal failure by individual Gardaí" and expressed his view that it was disturbing to see some Gardaí involved in a "culture of cover up and circling the wagons".
However, the Garda Representative Association remained unapologetic, noting that while Mr. Justice Barr had four years to compile his report, officers at the scene had only seconds to make up their minds. Symbolically, six weeks before the report was first due, the chief negotiator on the day, Detective Inspector Michael Jackson, was recommended by Garda management for promotion to the rank of superintendent. The Gardaí had been reluctant to give an apology, with the Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy omitting an apology from a statement issued on 21 July 2006: "The outcome of the siege at Abbeylara, which resulted in the death of John Carthy is very much regretted. As previously expressed at both the tribunal and the inquest, the sympathies of all members of An Garda Síochána are offered to Mrs Rose Carthy and the extended Carthy family". At a subsequent press conference, John Carthy's sister, Marie, lambasted the Garda refusal to give an apology, saying that it was regrettable that the Gardaí was still not accepting responsibility for her brother's death. Finally, on 10 August 2006, the Garda Síochána issued an apology to the Carthy family. They were, the statement said, "truly apologetic for the loss of John's life".
References
External links
Barr Tribunal Report online
Barr Tribunal website
2000 in the Republic of Ireland
Deaths by person in the Republic of Ireland
Killings by Garda Síochána members
History of County Longford
Public inquiries in Ireland
April 2000 events in Europe |
6589264 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Kevin%20Gately | Death of Kevin Gately | Kevin Gately (18 September 1953 – 15 June 1974) was a second-year student of mathematics at the University of Warwick who died as the result of a head injury received in the Red Lion Square disorders in London; it is not known if the injury was caused deliberately or was accidental. He was not a member of any political organisation, and the march at Red Lion Square was his first. He was the first person to die in a public demonstration in Great Britain for at least 55 years.
On 15 June 1974 the National Front, a far-right, fascist political party, held a march through central London in support of the repatriation of immigrants. The march was to end at Conway Hall in Red Lion Square. A counter-demonstration was planned by Liberation, an anti-colonial pressure group. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the London council of Liberation had been increasingly infiltrated by hard-left political activists, and they invited several hard-left organisations to join them in the march. When the Liberation march reached Red Lion Square, the International Marxist Group (IMG) twice charged the police cordon blocking access to Conway Hall. Police reinforcements, including mounted police and units of the Special Patrol Group forced the rioting demonstrators out of the square. As the ranks of people moved away from the square, Gately was found unconscious on the floor. He was taken to hospital and died later that day. Two further disturbances took place in the vicinity, both involving clashes between the police and the IMG contingent.
A public inquiry into the events was conducted by Lord Scarman. He found no evidence that Gately had been killed by the police, as had been alleged by some elements of the hard-left press, and concluded that "those who started the riot carry a measure of moral responsibility for his death; and the responsibility is a heavy one". He found fault with some actions of the police on the day. The events in the square made the National Front a household name in the UK, although it is debatable if this had any impact on their share of the vote in subsequent general elections. Although the IMG was heavily criticised by the press and public, there was a rise in localised support, and the willingness to demonstrate against the National Front and its policies. There was further violence associated with National Front marches and the counter-demonstrations they faced, including in Birmingham, Manchester, the East End of London (all 1977) and in 1979 in Southall, which led to the death of Blair Peach. After Peach's death, the Labour Party Member of Parliament Syd Bidwell, who had been about to give a speech in Red Lion Square when the violence started, described Peach and Gately as martyrs against fascism and racism.
Background
Liberation and the National Front
Liberation, was formed in 1954 as the Movement for Colonial Freedom, an advocacy group focused on influencing British policy in support of anti-colonial movements in the British Empire. The president of the organisation was Lord Brockwell, and two Labour Party MPs acted as officers. From the early-to-mid-1960s the organisation spent much of its energy in ensuring it was not taken over by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), a party also dedicated to promoting anti-colonialism. According to the historian Josiah Brownell, despite the organisation's efforts, the London Area Council was dominated by CPGB members by 1967, including Kay Beauchamp, Tony Gilbert, Dorothy Kuya and Sam Kahn.
The National Front was founded in 1967 as a far-right, fascist political party. From its inception the organisation had four main issues on which they campaigned: opposition to Britain's membership of the European Economic Community; Ulster; the trade unions and what the journalist Martin Walker calls "the post-immigration attack on black people born in Britain". The National Front had grown rapidly in the early 1970s and by 1974 the membership was about 10–12,000.
Planning
In mid-April 1974 the National Front booked the large theatre room at Conway Hall, a meeting house owned by the Conway Hall Ethical Society on Red Lion Square in central London. The meeting was on the subject "Stop immigration—start repatriation", and was in response to plans by the Labour government to repeal parts of the Immigration Act 1971. The repeal would have given illegal immigrants leave to remain in the UK. The National Front had booked the room for meetings in the previous four years; the meeting in October 1973 had been picketed by demonstrators, leading to scuffles, injuries and arrests. In early May the National Front sent their plans for their march and meeting to the Metropolitan Police. They allowed for 1,500 members on 15 June from Westminster Hall to 10 Downing Street to deliver a petition to Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, and then continue to Conway Hall for the meeting.
The London Area Council of Liberation was contacted by a journalist on 4 June and informed about the National Front's plans. Two days later Liberation called a meeting to arrange a counter-demonstration; among those invited were several hard-left organisations, including the CPGB, International Socialists (IS; later known as the Socialist Workers Party), the Workers Revolutionary Party, Militant Tendency and the International Marxist Group (IMG). As with the National Front, these groups were prepared to use violence against their political opponents to gain an advantage; Sir Robert Mark, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1974, described the coalition of groups as "not a whit less odious than the National Front". Liberation also booked the smaller assembly room at Conway Hall for 15 June, to coincide with the National Front meeting. The booking caused consternation among some members of Liberation, and with the National Union of Students (NUS), who asked Liberation to cancel the meeting.
Liberation also planned a demonstration for 15 June, leaving the Embankment and marching to Red Lion Square to enter Conway Hall. After discussions with the police, it was decided that entry to the hall for the Liberation meeting was to be by the back door on Theobalds Road. The police also agreed the organisation could hold a small open-air meeting in Red Lion Square, which they needed to access from Old North Road, which linked the square and Theobalds Road. Syd Bidwell, a Labour Party Member of Parliament was scheduled to address the meeting. Liberation had not been involved in political violence, and police did not fear any violence. What Liberation did not know, was that the IMG were determined to picket the front entrance of Conway Hall to deny the National Front access.
Kevin Gately
Kevin Gately was born on 18 September 1953 and was 20 at the time of the disorders at Red Lion Square. Originally from Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, he was a mathematics student at the University of Warwick and had never been part of a political demonstration before joining a group of students from Warwick who travelled to London for the day. Gately was or tall with red hair; he is identifiable in several photographs from the day, his head and shoulders clearly above those of his fellow demonstrators.
15 June 1974
On 15 June 1974 the police on duty at Red Lion Square were under the control of deputy assistant commissioner John Gerrard. He had allocated four foot police serials—100 officers—to the National Front march and four to Liberation march. There were seven foot police serials in Red Lion Square, plus ten in reserve—two in Dane Street and eight in Bloomsbury Square. Also in reserve were four Special Patrol Group (SPG) units, comprising 112 officers, held near Holborn police station. Two mounted units were also on duty, both in Red Lion Square. In total during the day were 711 foot police and 25 mounted police; with additional support, traffic and CID officers, there were 923 police deployed to marshal the two marches.
Marches to Red Lion Square; first disturbance
The National Front marchers—about 900 strong—moved off from their assembly point in Tothill Street at 14:59, making their way through Parliament Square and on through the West End of London, arriving at the junction of Vernon Place and Southampton Row at 15:53. They were held there until about 16:00, when they turned right, moved down Southampton Row, turned left into Fisher Street, and then along the south and east sides of Red Lion Square, arriving at the front entrance to Conway Hall at about 16:20. Through the course of their march, they used two groups as "defence parties" ready to defend the column from attack from demonstrators coming from side streets; the march was unmolested throughout the route. The Liberation march comprised between 1,000 and 1,500 people; most were in their late teens and early twenties, many of whom were students. They left their assembly point on the Embankment at 14:48, making their way via the Strand and High Holborn to arrive at the rear entrance of Conway Hall at 15:33. Thirty people left the march at this point and entered the building to take part in the Liberation meeting. The remainder of the marchers continued to the junction with Old North Street, where they turned left and made their way to Red Lion Square, arriving there at 15:36.
When the Liberation march arrived in the square, they found a police cordon blocking the way to the left—stopping them accessing the front entrance to Conway Hall. A section of mounted police was lined up behind the cordon. The leading 500 marchers turned to the right, heading towards where the open-air meeting was supposed to take place; as they did so, the IMG, who headed the remainder of the march, slowed their pace, allowing a gap to open with the lead marchers. The marchers at front of the IMG section linked arms and charged round the corner into the police cordon in what the subsequent inquiry called "a deliberate, determined and sustained attack". Several missiles and two smoke bombs were thrown at the police, and some of the demonstrators used the staves of their placards or poles of the banners as weapons against the police. The cordon was bent out of shape, but remained intact. Gerrard called in the two squads of SPG who were on stand-by. Before they arrived, a second surge from the IMG briefly broke through the cordon, bringing marchers into contact with the mounted police. When the SPG arrived, they formed a V-shaped wedge and drove the crowd backwards so the cordon could be re-imposed. The wedge split the demonstrators in two, pushing some back up Old North Street, and some along the north side of the square. The square was cleared of rioters by 15:50—approximately 15 minutes after the first IMG charge on the police cordon—and the SPG continued to press demonstrators from Old North Street back to Theobalds Road.
During the surge by the SPG, they came into contact with the peaceful demonstrators in the march, driving them apart, as had happened with the IMG contingent. During this action several demonstrators were left on the ground; one of those was Kevin Gately. Because of his height, his was caught on press photographs with fellow students from Warwick; they had been marching behind the IMG group. The last photograph of him alive shows him unscathed, facing up Old North Street and retreating with other students; the photograph was taken before the IMG's second surge towards the police cordon. He was next seen separately by Gerrard and the journalist Peter Chippindale, lying unconscious on the floor as the retreating ranks of people stepped over him. There were no witnesses or other evidence to suggest what happened to Gately between the final photograph and him being on the floor. Gately was picked up by the police and taken to a nearby St John Ambulance post, where he was treated before being taken to University College Hospital; he died four hours later. Gately was the first death during a demonstration in Britain for 55 years.
Second disturbance; Southampton Row
Having been moved out of Old North Street, the IMG contingent made their way along Theobalds Road to the junction with Southampton Road. They were held at the crossroads as the National Front march had also arrived at the junction. A cordon of 120–140 police officers stood between the two groups. Twelve mounted police arrived at the spot just before 16:00 and, fearing a clash between the two sides, they were ordered to drive the Liberation march back down Theobalds Road; the demonstrators were given no prior warning or opportunity to remove themselves before the police moved against them. The retreating demonstrators could not freely make their way back down the road as the police who had driven demonstrators out from Old North Street were blocking the path; blocked in, more violence ensued, with missiles thrown at the police, who used their truncheons freely. According to Richard Clutterbuck, in his examination of political violence in Britain, "newspaper reporters were more critical of the way the police behaved here than in the earlier incident in Red Lion Square itself".
Third disturbance; Boswell Street
A small group of IMG members, around 70 in total, formed in Boswell Street, just off Theobalds Road. They were seen by Chief Superintendent Adams who considered them militant and hostile because their arms were linked and appeared to be carrying stakes or batons. He instructed an SPG unit to clear them from the street. His opinion was challenged by several other observers, including two nearby journalists and one of the police sergeants in the SPG unit. The unit advanced into Boswell Street and there was a clash with the IMG members about halfway down the road. Eyewitnesses differ in their accounts as to who was the first of the two groups to offer violence. There were some arrests, which, according to Lord Scarman in his review of the events, "involve[ed] a considerable degree of force".
At around this time of the Boswell Street clash—16:20—the National Front had been led around the south and east sides of Red Lion Square and into Conway Hall. There was no trouble or contact between the main Liberation march—still having their open-air meeting in the square—and the National Front march.
Police arrested 51 people during the disturbances, all from the hard-left contingents. Fifty four people reported injuries, 46 of whom were police officers. While the number of reported injuries was low, Scarman noted "many more must have suffered unpleasant injuries of greater or lesser severity which were never reported".
Aftermath
That evening and in the following weeks, the media reported and commented on the events in the square. Nearly all the mainstream media agreed that the initial clash between marchers and the police was a deliberate attack by the IMG, while many blamed the police for the clash at the junction of Theobalds Road and Southampton Road. One of those newspapers that followed that line was The Guardian, whose headline reported "Left wing deliberately started violence". The report, by the journalists Peter Chippindale and Martin Walker, said of the first surge by IMG marchers into the police cordon, "We are in no doubt at all that at this point the marchers around the banner deliberately charged the police cordon". The only journalistic sources that blamed the police for the violence were those from the hard-left newspapers; the Socialist Worker carried the headline "Murdered... By Police".
The post-mortem took place on 16 June 1974 and was conducted by Iain West. He noted some bruising on Gately's face, and one behind the ear: "There was a small roughly oval bruise on the left side of the scalp about inches behind and slightly below the middle of the back of the left ear, inch in diameter. The bruising extended through all the layers of the scalp." He concluded "Death has resulted from compression of the brain by a large subdural haemorrhage resulting from a head injury ... The bruise ... could have been caused by a blow by or against a hard object, resulting in the formation of a subdural haemorrhage." When later asked what could have caused the bruise, he said "It didn't look particularly like a truncheon injury—it looked more like an object with a rougher surface. That appeared to be the only significant injury on his body ... it seemed most likely to me that he'd been knocked over and struck his head on the curb or been hit by a piece of sawn timber".
On 17 June, Bidwell—who was also chairman of the London Council of Liberation—and John Randall, the president of the NUS, separately called for a public inquiry into the conduct of the police. The police welcomed any inquest into the events that took place. Gately was buried on 21 June 2021 at St Raphael's Church, Surbiton, the church in which he had been baptised. The same day, 500 students, all wearing black armbands, marched through Coventry, the home town of the University of Warwick. To support the call for an inquest, the NUS held a silent march in London on 22 June 1974. The family asked that the marchers did not carry banners, so only one was shown, at the front of the march, that read "Kevin Gately was killed opposing racism and fascism". About 8,000 people took part in the march, which was described by the journalist Jeremy Bugler as "a dramatic contrast to last week's battle. Almost completely silent, it was perfectly disciplined".
The inquest into Gately's death was opened on 19 June 1974 and adjourned until July. The full hearing took place on 11 and 12 July; because of the public interest in the matter, a jury was appointed. None of the witnesses saw Gately receive any blow to the head. One student told the inquest he saw Gately sink to the floor without being hit. "His eyes were closed. I assumed that he had fainted. He was totally unconscious before he hit the ground. He fell sideways as his knees buckled". He tried to reach Gately to help, but was pushed away with the movement of the crowd. The jury reached a verdict of death by misadventure.
Eighty-two charges were brought against the fifty-one people arrested on the day. Twenty-nine of the charges were dismissed, with fifty-three convictions. No-one was imprisoned, and the penalties were either conditional discharges, being bound over, a fine or a suspended sentence.
On 28 June 1974 Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary, appointed Scarman to conduct a public inquiry into the events in Red Lion Square "to consider whether any lessons may be learned for the better maintenance of public order when demonstrations take place". Jenkins determined that the inquiry would take place after the inquest had concluded.
Scarman's Inquiry
Scarman's inquiry into the events sat for 23 days between 2 September and 2 October; 57 witnesses gave evidence, comprising 19 police officers, 17 demonstrators, 12 journalists, 5 residents or by-standers and 4 others. The report was published in February 1975. Scarman interpreted the breaching of the police cordon in Red Lion Square as a riot, from the legal definition of the term, which allowed the police a wider scope of possible responses to take, including the use of reasonable force. In regards to Gately's death, he wrote:
There is no evidence that he was struck any blow by any policeman or injured in any way by a police horse: it is not even possible to say whether it was a blow, a fall, a kick or being trampled on which caused the superficially tiny injury that led to his brain haemorrhage.
As the blame could not be applied to a specific action by the police or a demonstrator, he concluded "That is why, in my judgement, those who started the riot carry a measure of moral responsibility for his death; and the responsibility is a heavy one".
Scarman criticised the police on some of the tactics used in the day's operation. The clearing of peaceful demonstrators at the junction of Theobalds Road and Southampton Road by mounted police was done without warning. He wrote "Public order is an exercise in public relations. ... It may have caused less ... alarm if a warning had been given to the effect that the police required to disperse." The situation was worsened by the presence of police behind those at the junction, which obstructed the avenue of retreat for those trying to avoid the police horses.
Scarman also criticised the police for allowing the two marches get too close to each other. Clutterbuck observes that the police were probably reliant on an out-dated view of Liberation, which had not taken into account their takeover by hard-left elements.
In October 1975, after Scarman had finished taking evidence but before his findings were published, the NUS published the booklet "The Myth of Red Lion Square". In it, they wrote Gately "died as a direct result of a police attack using batons and horses". Scarman thought the publication prior to his findings was "an affront to the inquiry"; he was troubled by the fact that William Wilson, the MP for Coventry South East had provided an introduction for the book.
Legacy
For the remainder of the 1970s, Liberation found its ability to lead demonstrations against the National Front was diminished, partly because of Red Lion Square, and partly because their agenda was focused on abolishing imperialism and neo-colonialism. The IMG was heavily criticised in the public domain for the violence in Red Lion Square. The organisation also received condemnation from the CPGB, as, they said, the violence made it difficult for the anti-fascist movement to broaden its appeal. The IMG no longer relied on mass demonstrations to get their message across, and subsequent opposition to National Front marches was led by the Socialist Workers Party.
The events helped make the National Front a household name in the UK. News reports showed the National Front standing waiting for police directions, while violence was taking place between the hard-left elements and the police. Walker, in his study of the organisation, states that "it was the NF which emerged as the innocent victims of political violence, the Left who emerged as the instigators, and it was a 21-year-old student who died." According to Clutterbuck, "the result was precisely what the NF would have wished—publicity for the purpose of their demonstration, discrediting of their detractors, increasing applications for their membership and a substantially increased vote both at the next General Election and at subsequent by-elections". The academic Stan Taylor disputes Clutterbuck's conclusion that the events helped the National Front at the October 1974 general election. As although they raised their vote in some seats, their share of the national vote remain consistent.
Despite the blame for Gately's death and the violence of the day being levelled at the hard-left protesters—both in Scarman's report and the media—the number of demonstrators against the National Front and racist policies rose at local levels in the UK through the 1970s. Local demonstrations disrupted election addresses by National Front candidates in the October 1974 election, there was an increase in the amount of literature against them and their policies, and National Front demonstrations through the rest of the 1970s attracted large counter-demonstrations. The increasingly provocative actions by the National Front continued through the 1970s led to what Waddington describes as "a predictably violent response" from the militant left. Violence from both sides in Birmingham, Manchester, the East End of London (all 1977) and in 1979 in Southall, which led to the death of Blair Peach. Following the death of Peach, Bidwell said in Parliament "Blair Peach, together with young Kevin Gately, who died in 1974 in the Red Lion Square events, will be regarded by history as a martyr and a young courageous campaigner against fascism and racism".
The University of Warwick has a collection of documents relating to the aftermath of Gately's death. In 2019 the university's student union named one of its meeting rooms after Gately. The union have a mural commemorating him in their main building.
See also
Death of Ian Tomlinson
Shooting of Harry Stanley
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
Books
Journals and magazines
News
Websites
Other
1953 births
1974 deaths
1974 in London
Alumni of the University of Warwick
Protest-related deaths
Metropolitan Police operations |
6758288 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Anthony%20Baez | Death of Anthony Baez | Anthony Ramon Baez (September 20, 1965 – December 22, 1994) was a security guard who died immediately following an altercation with police on December 22, 1994, at the age of 29. His death occurred early in the morning on Cameron Place in the Mount Hope section of the Bronx, New York. The fatal encounter began when Anthony Baez and his brothers accidentally hit a police car with their football, at approximately 1:30 am. The Baez brothers continued their game, playing in the opposite direction. Officer Francis Livoti arrested David Baez first for disorderly conduct. He then attempted to arrest Anthony Baez, who had protested his brother's arrest by crossing his arms in front of his chest. A scuffle ensued, while other officers arrived on scene. Baez was subdued, lost consciousness, and was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead of asphyxiation. Controversy centered over the extent to which officers contributed to his death, specifically whether he was subjected to an illegal choke hold used by Officer Francis Livoti.
Personal details
Anthony Baez was 5 feet 6 inches tall, 270 pounds, and asthmatic. Mr. Baez had allegedly resisted arrest and police claimed it took four officers to handcuff him and bring him to the ground. Baez was taken to the hospital by the police when a dispatched ambulance by Sgt. William Monahan, failed to arrive. The New York City Medical Examiner ruled that Anthony Baez' death was caused by asphyxiation due to "compression of his neck and chest", as well as acute asthma. Dr. Hirsch said that the classification of homicide indicated the death was caused "either entirely or partially" by "the actions of another person".
Phil Caruso, the president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said that Anthony Baez “resisted violently when they attempted to put handcuffs on him, that's when he had the asthmatic attack." Sgt. William Monahan later testified that after the struggle, he saw Mr. Baez, handcuffed, stand up and walk briefly, with assistance from Officer Francis Livoti, contradicting claims by Baez's family that he was already limp when cuffed.
Livoti was the subject of several civilian complaints for excessive force, though none had been substantiated by the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
Criminal trials and investigations
In March 1995, a Bronx grand jury indicted Livoti on charges of manslaughter in the second degree. Homicide charges were initially thrown out after an indictment with an incorrect charge was noted.
In December 1995, Livoti was reindicted for criminally negligent homicide. Livoti's trial began in September 1996. He had waived his right to a jury trial and instead opted to have the case heard solely by a judge. In October 1996, Officer Francis Livoti was acquitted by former New York Supreme Court justice Judge Jerry Sheindlin. The acquittal was greeted with widespread public outcry and unrest, including the shooting of a police captain (who survived) in an act of "revenge".
Federal prosecutors charged Livoti with civil rights violations, similar to cases brought against Los Angeles police officers Stacey C. Koon and Laurence Powell for the beating of Rodney King. Officer Daisy Boria was considered a distant relative of the Baezes and was present at his arrest in 1994. She contradicted three of her fellow police officers, including her partner. Boria had testified that she saw no confrontation between Livoti and Baez. However, in 1987, she had been indicted on perjury charges by the Manhattan District Attorney for lying about an insurance case. She was later acquitted. In 2003, disciplinary charges were brought against two other officers, Mario Erotokritou and Anthony Farnan, involved in the death of Anthony Baez. Both officers were summarily dismissed.
In his defense, Livoti denied that he had used a choke hold, asserting that any choking was unintentional and that he had not caused Baez's injuries or death. Three officers at the scene testified that they did not see anyone put Baez in a choke hold, that Baez was resisting arrest when Livoti handcuffed him, and that Baez was conscious after being restrained. Baez' father and brothers testified that Livoti did put Baez in a choke hold, and that Baez was limp when Livoti handcuffed him. Officer Francis Livoti also contended that the district court failed to consider that Baez at least contributed to the confrontation by resisting his (Livoti's) efforts to handcuff him (Baez) behind his back. Prosecutors countered that there was no probable cause for the arrest in the first place, it not being a crime to accidentally hit a police car with a football.
Conclusion
On June 26, 1998, Livoti was convicted in Manhattan's Federal Court of violating Anthony Baez's civil rights, and was sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison. Livoti was released in April 2005, after serving six and a half years.
The death of Anthony Baez created wide media attention. Baez's death was seized on by people who said that the police are too quick to use deadly force. This was the third and most notable incident involving NYPD police brutality in 1994, and in some previous cases the officers were acquitted.
Baez's widow filed a $13 million wrongful death claim in 1995. She settled with the NYPD for $3 million in October 1998.
In 2000 the street where Baez died was renamed Anthony Baez Place.
Film
A documentary film, Every Mother's Son, profiling the mothers of three men killed by the NYPD and their legal and political efforts, was made in 2004, about the cases of Gidone Busch, Amadou Diallo and Baez.
See also
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States
References
1965 births
1994 deaths
20th century in the Bronx
Asphyxia-related deaths by law enforcement in the United States
Deaths in police custody in the United States
History of New York City
History of the Bronx
New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct
People from the Bronx
Victims of police brutality in the United States |
7699758 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Michael%20Stewart | Death of Michael Stewart | Michael Jerome Stewart (May 9, 1958, Brooklyn, New York – September 28, 1983, Manhattan, New York) was an African-American man who received recognition after his death following an arrest by New York City Transit Police for writing graffiti in soft-tip marker or using an aerosol can on a New York City Subway wall at the First Avenue station. His treatment while in police custody and the ensuing trials of the arresting officers (all of whom were acquitted) sparked debate concerning police brutality and the responsibilities of arresting officials in handling suspects. This was a widely publicized episode in New York City's history of police brutality cases.
Word of the arrest came out on September 15, 1983, as the Committee Against Racially Motivated Police Violence was holding a news conference to publicize a United States Congress hearing into complaints of police abuse. Stewart had been arrested earlier that day. He died at age 25, on September 28, after 13 days in a coma. The cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest.
Arrest and death
On September 15, 1983, aspiring artist and model Michael Stewart left the Pyramid Club in Manhattan's Lower East Side. He was arrested at 2:50 a.m. for spraying graffiti at the First Avenue station on the Brooklyn-bound platform. Transit Police Officer John Kostick found Stewart scrawling “RQS” on the wall and had him arrested. Stewart allegedly said, "Hey, man, you got me." Kostick cuffed Stewart and walked him to the turnstile to be identified. As Stewart was still living with his parents, he asked the police not to call his home to wake them up. Officer Kostick claimed Stewart was initially cordial, but suddenly ran off and had to be restrained while waiting for the arrest transport van. “At the top [of the stairs], Stewart fell face-forward on the ground,” said Kostick. The officer held Stewart to the ground until the van arrived, where several officers put him inside. Stewart was taken to the District 4 Transit Police station at 14th Street–Union Square, two stops away.
While being taken to the station, Kostick said, Stewart became “very violent” in the van. Stewart struggled with the officers and ran to the street. He was beaten unconscious. He was hogtied, bound at the ankles and tethered hands-to-feet by an elastic strap. During the struggle, Stewart's wails could be heard by 27 Parsons School of Design students from their dorm windows. A Parsons student, Rebecca Reiss, heard Stewart say "Oh my God, someone help me", and "What did I do? What did I do?". Rob Zombie, also a Parsons student at the time, recounted the incident in 2019 during an appearance on the September 16 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (#1353). He stated that he and the other witnesses that night were subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury prior to the trial. Stewart was booked at the Union Square District 4 transit police headquarters for resisting arrest and unlawful possession of marijuana. The transit police supervisors deemed Stewart emotionally disturbed. Stewart was placed back into the van and transported to Bellevue Hospital to undergo psychiatric observation. Stewart arrived at Bellevue at 3:22 a.m. He was handcuffed, his legs were bound, and he was comatose with a blood alcohol content of 0.22, more than double the 0.10 threshold needed to arrest someone for drunk driving. Stewart was dating Suzanne Mallouk at the time, and she went with his family to see him at the hospital. According to Mallouk's account, Stewart had bruises and cuts on his body. She said the doctors confirmed he was brain dead and had hemorrhaged in a way that suggested he had either been choked or strangled. Stewart died on September 28, 1983, thirteen days after his arrest.
Aftermath
Postmortem examination
In charge of determining Stewart's cause of death was the city's medical examiner, Dr. Elliot M. Gross. Gross had three separate findings. He first declared Stewart had died due to excessive drinking, alcohol poisoning, which led to the coma and subsequent heart attack; thus, the police were not at fault. Stewart's family and advocates were unconvinced and believed this was a “classic cover-up.” In a second autopsy conducted a month later, Gross declared that Stewart had died from a spinal cord injury in the upper neck. In his third assessment he said that Stewart died from blunt-force trauma. According to The New York Times, “Gross declined to specify what caused the injury, explaining only that 'there are a number of possibilities as to how an injury of these type can occur.' He refused to talk to press unless testifying before the grand jury.” Gross said Stewart's injuries, including the facial bruising and the abrasions on his wrists sustained during his arrest, were not said to contribute to his death. Nurses said his hands and face were blue when he arrived at the hospital, and that it took 3 minutes to remove the cuffs. They also said that he had been beaten brutally.
Stewart's family doctors contradict what was in the final autopsy report done by Gross. Doctors hired by Stewart's family to perform a secondary autopsy found his cause of death to be strangulation. Dr. Gross said there was no evidence of strangulation. Critical information such as Stewart's eyes were removed and held by Gross and were not allowed to be studied by the doctors hired by Stewart's family. His eyes were crucial because they would have shown evidence of hemorrhaging due to lack of oxygen from being strangled. Gross’ incompetence led the Stewart family to call for a petition to remove him as chief medical examiner claiming alleged wrongdoing and the medical examiners office cannot be trusted with the safekeeping of items. Following the trial, all six policemen were acquitted of criminal charges. Dr. Gross was later fired and Stewart's parents were compensated $1.7 million for their child's death. Stewart's death would be remembered as an egregious tragedy of police abuse.
Grand jury investigation and trials
A grand jury investigation was initiated in October 1983 to determine what happened to Stewart in the 32 minutes between being arrested and his delivery to the hospital. On October 19, about twenty black community leaders, including City Councilwoman Mary Pinkett, protested outside the Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau’s office at the Criminal Court Building. Morgenthau refused to see the group, stating that it would be inappropriate to comment before the case went to the grand jury in November 1983. The medical examiner’s final report, issued on November 2, differed from his preliminary report. Gross declined to state explicitly what caused the death, but reported that Stewart died of “physical injury to the spinal cord in the upper neck” and concluded that there were “a number of possibilities as to how an injury of this type can occur”.
During the five-month trial in the New York Supreme Court, some witnesses testified that Stewart was struck and kicked by officers, while other witnesses said they did not see officers beat Stewart. None were able to determine who was responsible for handling Stewart, and none were able to identify which officers took which actions at the arrest. Experts could not agree on what combination of injuries, intoxication, and cardiac health issues ended Stewart's life. Seven months into the grand jury investigation, the case was dismissed because a juror, Ronald P. Fields, initiated private investigations on the case.
In February 1984, a second grand jury introduced the case before Justice George F. Roberts which indicted three officers, John Kostick, Anthony Piscola and Henry Boerner, with criminally negligent homicide, assault and perjury. Three other officers, Sgt. Henry Hassler, Sgt. James Barry and Susan Techky, who denied that they saw officers kick Stewart, were charged with perjury. In June 1985, jury selection began in State Supreme Court in Manhattan for the trial.
Prosecutor Morgenthau went to the second trial with two theories, one of neck injury leading to the death and the other that beatings caused cardiac arrest. Prosecutors pushed for second degree manslaughter to be charged if it was determined the officers recklessly caused the death. The jury was instructed that to support a charge of criminally negligent homicide, they had to find that the officers failed to take reasonable steps to prevent death. The prosecution hoped to establish a law requiring officers to “have an affirmative duty to protect prisoners in their custody from abuse”.
William McKechnie, of the Transit Patrolman's Benevolent Association, denied the officers' role in the death stating, “If someone dies of a heart attack, we are not doctors”. The New York Civil Liberties Union believed the second set of indictments signaled a new direction in how prosecutors treat police abuse cases. Richard Emery, a lawyer for the New York City Liberties Union, stated, “The theory underlining this case is perhaps the most important development in stemming the tide of police abuse. It makes police officers strictly responsible for their prisoners. It holds them accountable.” On November 24, 1985, the six officers were acquitted by an all-white jury.
In 1987, the 11 officers and the MTA were charged with a $40-million civil suit filed by the Stewart family which prompted hundreds of off-duty transit police officers to march along Madison Avenue in front of the MTA's headquarters carrying signs reading “End the witch hunt” and “When are we finally innocent?” In August 1990, Stewart's parents and his siblings John and Lisha Cole Stewart settled the civil suit out of court for $1.7 million. As of 1990, the police and city officials stated they were not to blame for the death of Michael Stewart.
Reactions
Stewart's family called his death an act of racism and brutality. Attorneys representing the Stewart family described Michael as “a retiring and almost docile 135-pound young artist and a Pratt Institute student” who was on his way home to his Clinton Hill, Brooklyn neighborhood where he lived with his mother, Carrie, and father, Millard, who was a retired Metropolitan Transit Authority maintenance worker. They maintained that the white officers had beaten a black artist and model. It stirred public protests by black activists and others, believing that city officials were covering up for the transit police.
In 1984, Franck Lazare Goldberg directed a short documentary titled Who Killed Michael Stewart? about the killing.
In March 1987, the MTA determined that only one officer, John Kostick, was subject to suspension based on departmental charges of perjury. The MTA Board approved additional training for transit officers in the handling of emotionally disturbed people and changed its policies on how the department's internal affairs unit becomes involved with cases of possible misconduct.
Tributes
The death of Radio Raheem by a police choke-hold in Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing is inspired by Michael Stewart's arrest, as confirmed by Lee on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The film is dedicated to the families of Michael Stewart and other victims of police violence in New York.
In the song "Graffiti Limbo" penned by songwriter Michelle Shocked on her Short Sharp Shocked release, an extra verse she sings live is not on the album: "You see in order to determine that Michael Stewart was strangled to death / The coroner had to use Michael Stewart’s eyeballs, his eyes, as evidence, / So now when I tell you it was Michael Stewart’s eyes that the coroner lost / Do you know what I mean when I say that justice is blind."
"Hold On" from Lou Reed's album New York contains the following line: "The dopers sent a message to the cops last weekend they shot him in the car where he sat. And Eleanor Bumpurs and Michael Stewart must have appreciated that."
Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat created Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart) as a response to his death.
Stewart's girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk informed SoHo art galleries and the downtown New York City nightclubs such as the Berlin and the Pyramid Club where they both worked to help raise financial support and awareness of Stewart's death. Keith Haring donated money and Madonna performed at a benefit at Danceteria.
For his 1985 show at Tony Shafrazi gallery Keith Haring did a painting about the Stewart's death, titled Michael Stewart – USA for Africa. It depicts a black man being strangled while handcuffed to a skeleton holding a key. People from all nations drown in a river of blood below, while others shield their eyes from the scene, and the green hand of big money oversees the scene.
In his 1987 film Police State, Nick Zedd makes reference to Michael Stewart in a scene depicting a conversation between a cop and a young man, leading to an unlawful arrest. The film was a black comedy about police brutality, inspired in part by the Michael Stewart case and Operation Pressure Point, an operation designed to "clean up" and gentrify the Lower East Side of NYC.
In 2019, Chaédria LaBouvier curated a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim which included the painting by Basquiat. In addition to the painting, the history and story behind Stewart's death was examined.
Legacy
Spike Lee dedicated the film Do the Right Thing to Michael Stewart among other victims.
References
External links
Who Killed Michael Stewart? - Documentary on Vimeo
Death of Michael Stewart - Daily News Article
Who is Michael Stewart? - Basquiat Defacement
Jury Acquits Transit Officers in 1983 Death of Michael Stewart - NY Times Article
1958 births
1983 deaths
American graffiti artists
Criminal trials that ended in acquittal
New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct
Deaths in police custody in the United States
People from Brooklyn
Crimes in New York City
1983 in New York (state)
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Deaths by person in New York City
September 1983 events in the United States
20th-century African-American painters |
7893846 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Nura%20Luluyeva | Death of Nura Luluyeva | Nura Luluyeva (; 1960 – 2000) was a Chechen woman who was kidnapped and murdered by a Russian death squad in 2000.
Abduction
In the morning of 3 June 2000, Nura Luluyeva, an unemployed nurse and kindergarten teacher and the mother of four children (ages 6–21), was selling strawberries on Mozdokskaya Street of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, with her cousins Markha Gakayeva (b. 1962) and Raisa Gakayeva (b. 1964). A group of armed men in ski masks suddenly raided the marketplace on top of an armoured personnel carrier with a hull number 110; their leader told a witness that he was from the FSB and some of "their guys" have been killed there. The servicemen detained Luluyeva along with her two cousins, two other women, and at least one other person. A local policeman, trying to stop them, got into a heated argument and was fired on before the APC drove away with the detainees.
Luluyeva and her cousins "disappeared". A search by her husband Said-Alvi Luluyev, a former Soviet-era judge from Gudermes, did not bring any results, despite him contacting authorities from different ministries at various levels, petitioning, and even personally looking for her in detention centres and prisons in Chechnya and beyond in North Caucasus. There was also no official record of any operation conducted on Mozdokskaya Street on this day. Meanwhile, the whole market was looted and destroyed in a raid by armored vehicles in November 2000, after the total of 18 Russian servicemen were reportedly either killed or kidnapped there since March of the same year.
Discovery
In February 2001, eight months after the abduction and shortly after the official investigation was "suspended for lack of information", dead bodies of the missing women were discovered among some 60 mostly disfigured corpses uncovered from a dumping ground in an abandoned Zdorovye dacha summer house settlement located in the vicinity of Khankala, the main Russian military base in Chechnya outside Grozny. Many of the cadavers found there were blindfolded and had their arms bound behind their backs; some of the bodies were missing ears and showing signs of torture, and several were booby-trapped.
As the bodies of Nura Luluyeva and her cousins were in an advanced stage of decomposition, they could be identified only by their earrings and clothes. An autopsy of Luluyeva showed that she died from a multiple strong blows to the head with a solid blunt object at least three months before the discovery of the corpse-dumping site. Her body was then taken to be buried in her home village.
International hearing
On 10 November 2006, in the case of Luluyev and Others v. Russia, the European Court of Human Rights found that Russia had violated the European Convention on Human Rights on five separate counts: right to life, right to effective investigation, prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment (applicants), right to liberty and security, right to an effective remedy. In the judgement, the Court announced that it "could not but conclude that Nura Luluyeva was apprehended and detained by [unidentified] state servicemen. There existed a body of evidence that attained the standard of proof "beyond reasonable doubt", which made it possible to hold the state authorities responsible for Nura Luluyeva's death." However, "the description of the injuries found on her body by the forensic experts did not permit the Court to conclude beyond reasonable doubt that she had been tortured or otherwise ill-treated prior to her death. The Court ordered Moscow to pay nearly 70,000 euros in damages to members of her family.
See also
Mass graves in Chechnya
References
External links
CHECHNYA'S MISSING MOURNED, The Boston Globe, March 17, 2001
BACKGROUND ON THE IDENTIFIED BODIES: Nura Lulueva, Markha Gakaeva, Raisa Gakaeva, and Aset Elbuzdukueva, Human Rights Watch, May 2001
Court finds Russia responsible for Chechnya deaths, Reuters/AlertNet, 09 Nov 2006
Russian Federation: European Court ruling in two cases from the Chechen Republic, Amnesty International, 9 November 2006
European Court Rules Against Russia, The Washington Post, November 10, 2006
Kremlin 'was complicit in Chechen murders', The Independent, 10 November 2006
2000 deaths
Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Chechen murder victims
Chechen nurses
Chechen victims of human rights abuses
Deaths by person in Russia
Female murder victims
People murdered in Russia
Prisoners who died in Russian detention
Russian people of Chechen descent
Russian war crimes in Chechnya
Women in the Chechen wars |
8085222 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Stephen%20Hilder | Death of Stephen Hilder | The death of Stephen Hilder, aged 20, occurred on 4 July 2003 at Hibaldstow Airfield, England, in an incident in which Hilder fell to his death when, during a 3-person team skydive, both his main and reserve parachutes failed. The investigation into the death, "unique in British crime history", revealed expert-level tampering with both canopies, but failed to determine whether the incident was murder or suicide.
Background
Stephen Paul Hilder was born on 12 December 1982 in Hereford and attended the Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School. He was later an officer cadet at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in Shrivenham, Wiltshire, England. A keen parachutist, he died around 2:45 pm on Friday, 4 July 2003, at Hibaldstow Airfield, when both his main and reserve parachutes failed to operate correctly. He had been participating in a week-long British Collegiate Parachute Association championship skydiving competition with his "Black Rain" teammates and fellow officer cadets, Adrian Blair and David Mason (both aged 19), who had all made over 200 jumps each. The unusual death quickly generated massive nationwide media interest. The reports of sabotage also had noticeable effects on the subsequent behaviour of parachutists at championship events in the UK, and resulted in an increase in the sales of secure bags and lockers for the storage of equipment. His funeral was held at St Mary's Church in Burghill, Herefordshire, on Thursday, 31 July 2003.
Criminal investigation
Initially, due to cloudy conditions, the incident was not noticed as it happened, either by the team's videographer, his teammates, or observers on the ground. However, a disturbance in a nearby cornfield, where jumpers who missed the landing zone often ended up, was noticed, and the body was soon found. The Humberside Police were called and collected evidence from the body, alongside DNA samples from everyone present and visually inspecting all other parachutes on-site. They initially reported that his parachute had been sabotaged, with the risers (fabric connectors between the harness and lines) for his reserve parachute having been deliberately cut with a hook knife.
A 10-month search for a murderer with a motive ensued, including nationwide mail-outs to all BPA members, a Crimewatch programme, and a full-page advertisement in the BPA magazine, Skydive Blair and Mason were arrested in October 2003 and later released without charge, while a third man, who remained unnamed, was also arrested and subsequently released without charge.
Laboratory tests of the parachute straps revealed that fibres from the severed risers were present on Hilder's body, while DNA tests on the parachute straps revealed the presence of Hilder's DNA alone. The police concluded that Hilder had cut his own straps. This caused bafflement for both the police and Hilder's family and friends, who had seen no indication that Hilder was intending to commit suicide. One police officer stated that "Nothing we have discovered during the investigation and no one we have interviewed has said anything to suggest Stephen may have been contemplating killing himself."
Coroner's inquest
In March 2005, a coroner's inquest recorded an open verdict on the cause of Hilder's death. The inquest was also informed that at the time of his death, Hilder had money problems and was around £17,000 in debt (due to overspending related to skydiving), was close to the end of a casual relationship, and had wrongly assumed that he was failing his first-year academy exams. Other possibly related factors raised included his relatively recent conversion to Catholicism and his interest in a possible transfer to the navy.
On 25 March 2005, North Lincolnshire coroner Stewart Atkinson refused to accept that the death was a suicide after a forensic scientist testified that the lack of DNA could be attributable to a saboteur wearing gloves and that crucially, the presence of fibres from the severed risers on Hilder's body was of no evidential value, as transfer could have taken place in freefall or when the risers were subsequently removed in the field where Hilder landed. The forensic scientist was therefore unable to support any positive assertion that Hilder had been responsible for making the cuts. While a test on scissors found in the locked boot of Hilder's car demonstrated that they were the implement used to make the cuts, there was no further evidence of where the act had taken place or who may have used the scissors in question (given that the car keys had been left in the ignition). Atkinson also stated that there was no proof that someone else was responsible for cutting the risers.
Similar incidents
One of the few leads that the police had when searching for a saboteur was an old issue of an American skydiving magazine, found at the drop zone, that reported one of the four other recorded cases of sabotaged parachutes in the history of skydiving. One well-known case was that of Cary Hopwood, an American skydiver who had survived a parachute failure in 1996 after borrowing one from a friend, world champion skydiver, Kirk Verner. A similar tampering event happened to Charlie Mullins in 1997, but the interference was noticed in a pre-jump check.
In October 2010, a 26-year-old Belgian elementary school teacher, Els Clottemans, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years in jail for tampering with a love-triangle rival's parachute in exactly the same way as Hilder's. The victim, Els Van Doren, died in November 2006 in the town of Opglabbeek when both her parachutes failed.
In May 2015, at Netheravon Airfield, Hilder's regular dropzone, army Sgt. Emile Cilliers was arrested after being suspected of tampering with his wife Victoria's parachute. On 5 May, both his wife's parachutes had failed to operate correctly, but the reserve inflated enough to enable her to survive the 1,200-metre (4,000-foot) fall. In May 2018, he was found guilty of attempted murder in an attempt to receive a £120,000 life-insurance payment and to end his marriage to be with his lover.
Media
The incident was covered by the BBC's Crimewatch in an episode aired on 24 July 2003, and by ITV Studios in a 2011 documentary titled Real Crime: Sky Diver Murder or Suicide? It was also covered by a July 2018 episode of Casefile True Crime Podcast.
See also
Malfunction (parachuting)
Formation skydiving
References
External links
Skydive the mag - October 2003 (see page 23 for a letter from the Humberside Police)
– The Scotsman's index of its coverage of the aftermath of Hilder's death
1982 births
2003 deaths
Accidental deaths in England
Deaths by person in England
Parachuting deaths
People from Hereford
Death of Stephen Hilder
2003 in England |
8338412 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Tassos%20Isaac | Death of Tassos Isaac | Anastasios "Tassos" Isaac () (1972 – 11 August 1996), was a Greek Cypriot refugee who participated in a civilian demonstration against the Republic of Turkey's military occupation of the northern part of the Republic of Cyprus. The demonstrators' demand was for the complete withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island, and the return of Cypriot refugees to their homes. Isaac was beaten to death by a mob of Turkish far-right ultranationalists of the Grey Wolves in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
Events leading to the killing
In August 1996, in order to commemorate the 22nd year of Cyprus being a divided country, over 200 bikers from several European countries had organized a rally from Berlin (the last divided city in Europe other than Nicosia) to Kyrenia. They left Berlin on 2 August and were planning to arrive at their destination on the 11th where they would be joined by Greek Cypriot bikers. Simultaneously, around 2,500 members of the far-right Turkish organization Grey Wolves were being transported to the northern part of Cyprus by the Turkish Government in order to confront the European and Greek Cypriot bikers.
Due to heavy political pressure (even by the U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali) being applied to the Cypriot Motorcycle Federation to cancel the 11 August event, CMF finally succumbed. This was met with disapproval by a large portion of the bikers and other protesters, who decided to march on their own. Among them was Tassos Isaac, who together with other demonstrators, entered the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus near Deryneia, just south of the town of Famagusta.
During the confrontation in the UN buffer zone between the Cypriot bikers and the Turkish far-right group Grey Wolves, Isaac found himself trapped in barbed-wire without his co-protesters noticing he was left behind. Soon, a large group of Grey Wolves members ran towards him and began beating him with clubs and stones. They continued for several minutes, unchallenged by the nearby UN peacekeepers or a Turkish Cypriot police officer watching the beating. By the time Greek Cypriots managed to take him back from the mob, aided by the UN peacekeepers, Tassos Isaac was dead.
Funeral and reactions
Tassos Isaac's funeral was held on 14 August 1996 and was attended by thousands of people. Protests after the funeral led to the death of Isaac's cousin, Solomos Solomou.
On 22 November 1996, the Cypriot Police issued international arrest warrants for the death of Tassos Isaac against Hasim Yilmaz, a Turkish settler and former member of the Turkish Secret Service, Neyfel Mustafa Ergun, a Turkish settler, serving in the Turkish North Cypriot police, Polat Fikret Koreli, a Turkish Cypriot from Famagusta, Mehmet Mustafa Arslan, a Turkish settler, leader of the Grey Wolves in Northern Cyprus, and Erhan Arikli, a Turkish settler from the former Soviet Union.
Greek government as godparent
When Isaac was killed, he left behind his pregnant wife. As a token of gratitude for his services to Greece, the Greek government decided to be the godparent of the yet unborn baby. When the baby girl was born, she was baptised Anastasia (after her father) by the then Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Theodoros Pangalos. The Greek singer Haris Alexiou has dedicated to her the song "Tragoudi tou Helidhoniou" ("Swallow's Song").
References
1972 births
1996 deaths
Cyprus dispute
Cypriot activists
Cypriot murder victims
People murdered in Cyprus
Filmed killings by law enforcement
Deaths by beating
Victims of police brutality
1990s murders in Cyprus
1996 crimes in Cyprus
1996 murders in Asia
1996 murders in Europe
August 1996 events in Europe |
9002161 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Dale%20Earnhardt | Death of Dale Earnhardt | On the afternoon of February 18, 2001, American auto racing driver and team owner Dale Earnhardt was killed instantly in a final-lap collision in the Daytona 500, in which he crashed into a retaining wall after making contact with Sterling Marlin and Ken Schrader.
Earnhardt's death was officially pronounced at the nearby Halifax Medical Center at 5:16 p.m. EST (22:16 UTC). At the time of the crash, he was 49 years old. His funeral was held four days later at the Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Earnhardt was the fourth NASCAR driver killed by a basilar skull fracture during an eight-month span, following Adam Petty in May 2000, Kenny Irwin Jr. in July 2000, and Tony Roper in October 2000. Earnhardt's death, seen on a live television broadcast with more than 17 million viewers, was highly publicized and resulted in various safety improvements in NASCAR auto racing.
After Earnhardt's death, NASCAR began an intensive focus on safety—mandating the use of head-and-neck restraints, installing SAFER barriers at oval tracks, setting rigorous new inspection rules for seats and seat-belts, and developing a roof-hatch escape system and the Car of Tomorrow—which eventually led to the development of a next-generation race car built with extra driver safety in mind. Since Earnhardt's death, no driver has died during competition in a race of NASCAR's three major series.
Circumstances of Earnhardt's death
Rules of competition
Earnhardt died while competing in the 2001 Daytona 500, a NASCAR-sanctioned automobile race at Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR sanctions required the use of a carburetor restrictor plate for races held at that track as well as Talladega Superspeedway. In 2000, the year before Earnhardt died, NASCAR instituted additional restrictions to the springs and shocks used on the cars, causing Earnhardt to complain to the media, "[The rules] took Nascar Winston Cup racing and made it some of the sorriest racing. They took racing out of the hands of the drivers and the crews. We can't adjust and make our cars drive like we want. They just killed the racing at Daytona. This is a joke to have to race like this."
In response to criticism such as Earnhardt's, NASCAR developed a new aerodynamic package for the cars competing in Winston Cup Series races at Daytona and Talladega. In the initial running of this aerodynamic package at Talladega, Earnhardt passed 17 cars within four laps to win the fall 2000 Talladega race which proved to be his 76th and final career win. The 2001 Daytona 500 was the first race run at the track with this package, which was designed to keep cars bunched up close together and to allow more frequent passing at high speed.
Pre-race events
In the weeks before the Daytona 500, Earnhardt elected not to attend the annual fan and media preview event, drawing vocal criticism from fellow driver Jimmy Spencer. On February 3 and 4, 2001, the first time in his career, Earnhardt participated in the Rolex 24 endurance race at Daytona, the event which kicks off Speedweeks at the track. Earnhardt and his teammates, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Earnhardt's son), Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins, finished fourth overall and second in class.
Ultimately, however, 2001 Speedweeks would be the first in many years that Earnhardt failed to win one race. In the Budweiser Shootout, Earnhardt finished second to Tony Stewart. Earnhardt was also denied victory in the Gatorade Twin 125 qualifying race. Earnhardt had won every Twin 125 event he competed in during the 1990s, and was poised to win again in 2001 when Sterling Marlin pulled off a slingshot pass going down the backstretch, taking the victory away from Earnhardt.
Race events
The morning of the race, Earnhardt appeared confident and relaxed. He was a front-runner throughout the race, leading 17 laps. In the first three quarters of the race, there were only two caution flags: the first one on lap 49 when Jeff Purvis hit the wall exiting turn 4 and the other on lap 157 when rookie Kurt Busch hit the frontstretch wall while trying to pass Joe Nemechek and slid through the infield and onto pit road.
On lap 173, Earnhardt's car was in seventh place, with two of his team's cars, the blue No. 15 Chevrolet driven by Michael Waltrip and the red No. 8 Chevrolet driven by his son Dale Earnhardt Jr., running first and second in front of him. On that lap, a huge crash on the back straightaway eliminated 18 cars in a spectacular fashion. Those involved in the crash were Jason Leffler, Steve Park (another of Earnhardt's drivers), both Rusty (who would rally back to finish third) and Kenny Wallace, Jeff Gordon (the eventual Winston Cup champion for 2001) and Robby Gordon, both Bobby (the defending Winston Cup Champion) and Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Elliott Sadler, Jeff Burton and Ward Burton (who had led the most laps in the race so far with 53), Jerry Nadeau, John Andretti, Buckshot Jones, Dale Jarrett (the defending Daytona 500 winner), and Andy Houston. The crash began when Robby Gordon turned into Ward Burton at the exit of turn 2. Stewart got hit by Ward, turned backwards against the outside wall, and was pushed airborne over Gordon. Stewart then flipped over twice, hooking to Bobby Labonte's hood, and stood on his front wheels before coasting to a stop in the infield, while Burton's car turned sideways and collected most of the field behind him. Earnhardt, Ron Hornaday, Jr., Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, and Mike Wallace were five of the few drivers who escaped the crash scene. The race was red-flagged to allow for cleanup.
Between the time of the lap 173 crash and a lap 180 restart, Earnhardt conversed with his pit crew over the radio. The owner of Earnhardt's car, Richard Childress, describes one remark made by Earnhardt during that time. "Richard, if they don't do something to these cars, it's gonna end up killing somebody."
During the ensuing caution, Earnhardt had his last conversation with his crew, between him and his Rolex 24 teammate Andy Pilgrim:
Pilgrim related that there was no further crew conversation with Earnhardt, but that he did cheer on teammates Waltrip and Dale Jr. over the radio, up to the end of the race.
The race restarted on lap 180, with Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. still out in front. Sterling Marlin, who had beaten Earnhardt in the Gatorade Duel, led the next three laps before Waltrip took the lead again. The lead changed several times between Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. during the next few laps.
As the laps wound down, Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. were running in first and second place, with Earnhardt Sr. behind them, blocking Marlin's attempts to pass. With less than two laps remaining, Fox commentator Darrell Waltrip noted that "Sterling had beat the front end off of that ol' Dodge (Marlin's car) just trying to get around Dale Earnhardt, Sr."
As the cars entered turn 3 on the final lap, Earnhardt still held third, running in the middle lane of traffic with Marlin's No. 40 Dodge just behind him in the bottom lane. Meanwhile Rusty Wallace's navy blue No. 2 Ford was positioned directly behind Earnhardt, with Ken Schrader riding the high lane above Earnhardt in his yellow M&M's-sponsored No. 36 Pontiac.
Final lap crash
The accident occurred in turn final turn of the final Earnhardt made light contact with Marlin and slid off course. When Earnhardt attempted to regain control and turned back onto the track, he crossed in front of Schrader, colliding with Schrader and dragging his car up the track. Earnhardt collided head-on into the retaining wall at a critical angle, damaging the car at an estimated speed between , enough to break the right rear wheel assembly off the car. Upon impact, his hood pins severed, causing his hood to open and slam up against the windshield multiple times. As Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were about to complete the race, both of the wrecked cars went down the steep banking and slid into the infield grass near the exit of turn 4. No other drivers hit Earnhardt or Schrader after the crash, as they were able to make it past them without incident. After both cars came to a stop on the infield, Schrader climbed out of his car with minor injuries and went to check on Earnhardt. Earnhardt's window net was still up, and Schrader pulled it down himself, then frantically signaled for paramedics who were just arriving at the crash site. That day, and in retellings of the events, Schrader described what he saw in indirect terms: "We've got bigger problems. Look, I'm not a doctor, I'm telling you it don't look good." Only shortly after the 10-year anniversary when asked about it, did Schrader finally say, "Here's the deal. When I went up to the car ... I knew. I knew he was dead, yeah. ... I didn't want to be the one who said 'Dale is dead.'"
Race officials threw the checkered flag and the yellow simultaneously as the front-runners crossed the finish line, aware only that a crash had occurred behind the finishers. Waltrip won the race, with Earnhardt Jr. finishing second behind him. Rusty Wallace finished third (after taking damage in the lap 173 crash), Ricky Rudd finished fourth, polesitter Bill Elliott finished fifth, Wallace's brother Mike finished sixth, Marlin finished seventh, Bobby Hamilton finished eighth, Jeremy Mayfield finished ninth, and outside polesitter Stacy Compton finished 10th. Joe Nemechek finished 11th. Earnhardt and Schrader were credited finishing 12th and 13th despite not completing the final lap (only 11 cars – Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. included – finished on the lead lap as a result of the long green flag runs and the lap 173 crash). Afterwards, Earnhardt Jr. rushed to his father's location.
As per NASCAR rules, any driver involved in a crash and unable to drive back to the pits or who must be extricated from their car must report to the infield hospital. However, in severe cases, the driver may be sent directly to the emergency trauma room at the hospital near the circuit. Earnhardt was extricated from his car by Daytona's safety teams and was taken by ambulance to Halifax Medical Center which was two miles from the Speedway. Attempts to revive Earnhardt failed and his death was officially pronounced at 5:16 p.m. EST (22:16 UTC); he was 49 years old. The official cause of Earnhardt's death was given by the Volusia County medical examiner's office as blunt force trauma to his head among other injuries due to the incident. He also sustained a fatal basilar skull fracture on impact.
Less than two hours after the accident, NASCAR president Mike Helton announced Earnhardt's death. A later investigation revealed that Earnhardt's car struck the concrete retaining wall at a heading angle (angle of the vehicle measured from the wall face to the center-line of the car at point of impact) of between 55–59°, combined with a trajectory angle of 13.6° (path of vehicle approaching the wall) and an estimated speed between . Earnhardt experienced a crash impulse of approximately 80 milliseconds in duration. The result of the wall impact and the impact from Schrader's car combined to yield a change in velocity of approximately . The force exerted was equivalent to a vertical drop from a height of . Later sled testing of an exemplar vehicle yielded g-forces ranging from −68 to −48 g, variation dependent on method of measurement.
Aftermath
Earnhardt's death triggered widespread media attention. One newspaper called the day "Black Sunday". Devastated fans congregated at the headquarters of Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. the night of the crash and at Daytona International Speedway. Earnhardt was featured in the following week's Time magazine, and a video from the race was played on nearly every major television channel in the United States.
Earnhardt's public funeral service was held on February 22, 2001, at the Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. His death led both to a police investigation and NASCAR-sanctioned investigation. In a reversal of previous NASCAR policy, nearly every detail of the investigation was made public.
Days after the crash, Sterling Marlin received hate mail and death threats from fans who blamed him for Earnhardt's death. Dale Earnhardt Jr. absolved Marlin of responsibility and asked everyone who loved his father to stop assigning blame for his death. On February 20, Marlin announced to the world about his responsibility:
In the week following the accident, Bill Simpson, whose company Simpson Performance Products made the seatbelt Earnhardt wore during the race, reported that he had also received death threats from angry fans. When asked about this, Darrell Waltrip stated that "NASCAR is an emotion sport and that all the fans love their drivers, so when something like this happens, the connection to these racers makes you want to blame somebody and that somebody had to be involved and unfortunately, the blame was placed in the wrong place here".
Brad Keselowski later compared Earnhardt's death to that of Ayrton Senna. Keselowski, who was 10 years old when the Brazilian Formula 1 legend died in a crash on Lap 7 of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy, said, "For me personally it (Senna's death) reminded me a lot of when Dale Earnhardt died in the sense of the kind of general mood and atmosphere within my own family's household. My dad and brother used to wake up early and watch the Formula One races and I was only nine or 10 years old but I can remember my dad was a big Senna fan, and I can remember that he was never really a loud cheerleader type but I can remember him being more so of that than anything else I have ever seen, which was always unique to me. I just remember the somber tone in the household." The Winston Select 500 took place at Talladega on the same day of the Grand Prix, and when Earnhardt won, he had paid tribute to Senna from Victory Lane.
Replacing Earnhardt
Team owner Richard Childress made a public pledge that a black car with a GM Goodwrench sponsorship would no longer use the number 3, honoring the color scheme and sponsor that Earnhardt had driven with since 1988. Given the No. 3 team's 12th-place finish in the race, 2000 season status as second in owner points, and presence on the Winner's Circle bonus program, Childress requested (and NASCAR approved) the team to be renumbered to 29, which was the first number available in order without a 3 in it (13 and 23 were open at that time). The renumbered team retained the same sponsor, although the car was adorned with an inverted color scheme—a white body with black numerals and a black stripe on the bottom—for races at Rockingham and Las Vegas. The team kept all bonuses earned as the No. 3 team in 2000 and the Daytona 500. For the race at Atlanta, a new GM Goodwrench Service Plus paint-scheme was introduced, along with angled red stripes and a thin blue pinstripe resembling the AC Delco-sponsored Chevrolets driven in the Busch Series. From 2003 to 2006, when the GM Goodwrench Service Plus sponsorship came to an end, the No. 29 car was painted in black and silver, bearing a resemblance to the No. 3. From 2001 - 2013, a small No. 3 decal was placed alongside the No. 29 in Earnhardt's memory and the team's legacy. On December 11, 2013, RCR announced that the No. 3 car would return to the Cup Series for Childress' grandson, Austin Dillon.
Childress's second-year Busch Series driver Kevin Harvick was tapped to replace Earnhardt beginning with the first race after his death—the Dura Lube 400, held at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina. Hats bearing the No. 3 logo were distributed to everyone at the track in Earnhardt's memory. Initially, the Childress team wore blank uniforms out of respect but as Harvick's performance improved, the regular GM Goodwrench Service Plus uniforms returned with the team scoring a Top 10 finish by the next race in Las Vegas, and winning the next week in Atlanta. Jeff Gordon, the polesitter for Dura Lube 400, gave a missing man formation during the pace laps. This was a custom used in motorsports for mourning. Steve Park would win that race, but felt emotional in Victory Lane.
Harvick's win at Atlanta has since been memorable to many NASCAR fans. On the last lap of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500, he beat Gordon by 0.006 seconds, a similar margin to Earnhardt's win over Bobby Labonte during the same race a year before (.010 seconds), and the images of Earnhardt's longtime gas man, Danny "Chocolate" Myers, crying after the victory, Harvick's tire-smoking burnout on the frontstretch with three fingers held aloft outside the driver's window, and the Fox television call by Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds, and Darrell Waltrip, concluding with "Gordon got loose, but he [Harvick] is gonna get him though, it's Harvick! Harvick by inches!"
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Pepsi 400 on July 7, 2001 which was NASCAR's first return to Daytona since Earnhardt's death. This led to an emotional celebration on the infield with Michael Waltrip (who finished second), whose victory at the Daytona 500 had been rendered hollow by the senior Earnhardt's death. Earnhardt Jr. would win two more races that season (the fall races at Dover and Talladega), for an eighth-place finish in the points standings.
The team still scored a ninth-place finish in points for the 2001 season, led by Harvick's two wins and Top 10 finishes in the points. Harvick also captured Rookie of the Year honors as well.
Fans honored Earnhardt by holding three fingers aloft on the third lap of every NASCAR Winston Cup race. Meanwhile, NASCAR's television partners also went silent for the third lap, a practice that was repeated until the 2002 race at Rockingham, and returned in the 2011 Daytona 500 and 2021 Daytona 500, ten and twenty years after his death, respectively. After the September 11 attacks, the gestures were also done in remembrance of the victims of the attacks.
Earnhardt was credited finishing 57th in the final point standings for 2001, despite competing in only one race. He also won the 2001 Most Popular Driver Award at the end of year awards' ceremony. Perennial winner Bill Elliott bowed out of the running and encouraged his supporters to vote for Earnhardt instead.
Cause of death controversy
At a news conference five days after the crash, NASCAR officials announced that the left lap belt on Earnhardt's seat belt harness had broken. Dr. Steve Bohannon, NASCAR's medical expert, said he thought the faulty belt had allowed Earnhardt's chin to strike the steering wheel, causing the fatal basilar skull fracture. This led to speculation that Earnhardt would have survived if his seat belt had not broken.
The first paramedics to respond to the crash scene maintained that the seat belts had been loose, but the lap belt was not broken or cut when the belts were unbuckled to cut Earnhardt from the car. However, NASCAR's investigation concluded that each of the EMTs who attended to Earnhardt after the crash reported that the buckle position of Earnhardt's harness was off-center by , which would have been impossible had the lap belt not broken.
A subsequent medical investigation revealed that belt failure did not play a significant role in Earnhardt's death.
At the time of the accident, Simpson Performance Products manufactured the seat belts used in nearly every NASCAR competitor's machine. Bill Simpson, the company's founder, maintained that the belt had failed because it had been installed in an unapproved fashion in order to increase Earnhardt's comfort, an allegation that had been supported by some who were familiar with the situation.
Ed Hinton, a sportswriter for the Orlando Sentinel, attempted to acquire Earnhardt's autopsy records and photos for study, as autopsy records were normally public documents in Florida. However, Earnhardt's widow Teresa Earnhardt petitioned a judge to seal the records. After a short court battle, it was mutually agreed to appoint Dr. Barry Myers, an expert on crash injuries at Duke University, to independently study Earnhardt's death. On April 10, 2001, Myers published his report rejecting NASCAR's explanation, finding that Earnhardt's death was the result of his inadequately restrained head and neck snapping forward, independent of the broken seat belt (rendering the question of improper installation moot).
Philip Villanueva, a University of Miami neurosurgeon who had previously analyzed the crash for the Sentinel before the autopsy records were available, said he had reached the same conclusion but had wanted to examine the autopsy photos to be certain. Dr. Steve Olvey, who had been the medical director of CART for 22 years (and who, just over one year earlier, presided over a race where a driver was killed), and Wayne State University crash expert John Melvin also agreed with Myers' report. Bill Simpson said that the report was "The best news I've heard in seven weeks. I've been living in daily hell."
On the same day as Myers' report was made public, NASCAR announced its own investigation, after having remained silent for six weeks since the crash. The official NASCAR report, which had cost over a million dollars and was published on August 21, 2001, concluded that Earnhardt's death was the result of a combination of factors, which included the last-second collision with Schrader's car, the speed and angle of impact, and the separation of the seat belt as being contributing factors. It was also noted that investigators could not determine whether a head and neck support (HANS) device would have saved Earnhardt's life, and that airline-style black boxes would be mandated for all vehicles in order to better understand the forces at work in a crash such as Earnhardt's.
In July 2001, Bill Simpson left Simpson Performance Products, citing the stress as "too much". The Simpson company attorneys asked NASCAR to unequivocally assert the following in regards to the broken lap belt found in Earnhardt's car:
The belts were of high quality in workmanship and there were no design or manufacturing defects.
The belts met the NASCAR rule book requirements.
The belts, as installed, did not conform to manufacturer installation requirements.
The separation of the left lap belt was not a result of design or manufacturing defect, but caused by improper installation.
The belt separation was not the cause of Earnhardt's death.
NASCAR, however, did not respond.
A year after leaving his own company under controversy, Simpson returned to the motorsports safety industry after his one-year non-compete clause expired, starting IMPACT! Racing Products.
Safety improvements
After the accident, there were several safety improvements made in the sport of stock car racing.
In response to the speculation about the broken lap belt in Earnhardt's car, many teams migrated from traditional five to six-point safety harnesses.
Following the extensive investigation into Earnhardt's death, results from which were released on August 21, 2001, NASCAR did not make any immediate changes regarding use of the HANS device. NASCAR president Mike Helton stated, "We are still not going to react for the sake of reacting." However, NASCAR did wish to "encourage their use". Most drivers had already begun to act voluntarily to wear the devices. Two days before the report was released, 41 out of 43 drivers were wearing them at the Pepsi 400 by Meijer at Michigan International Speedway.
On October 4, 2001, in an ARCA race being held in conjunction with the fall NASCAR racing weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Blaise Alexander was killed in a two-car incident while battling for the lead in the final laps of the race. Ironically, the other driver racing with Alexander for the lead was Earnhardt's oldest son Kerry Earnhardt. Earnhardt's car flipped on its roof after Alexander went into the wall, but he was in the lead when the race was halted with four laps to go. Due to carnage of the accident, the race was never restarted, so Earnhardt, who was not injured, was declared the winner. NASCAR mandated use of the HANS or Hutchens device in its top three series on October 17, 2001, with the Hutchens device being phased out in 2005, leaving only the HANS device.
In addition to head and neck restraints, NASCAR began requiring the use of SAFER barriers at race tracks in which its top touring series compete. The soft walls feature foam and move slightly upon impact, dissipating energy and resulting in fewer forces being exerted on the driver during an impact.
Soon after Earnhardt's death, NASCAR began developing the Car of Tomorrow (CoT), which was used in competition in the NASCAR Cup Series until it was replaced by the so-called "Gen 6" car for the 2013 season. The design of the CoT incorporated the result of research conducted in the aftermath of Earnhardt's death. All of the safety improvements from the CoT remain in the Gen 6 design (which have been credited to have saved Ryan Newman after he suffered a last-lap crash at the 2020 running of the event), as well in its successor, the Next Gen car, which debuts in 2022.
Autopsy pictures
On February 19, 2001, the Volusia County Medical Examiner performed an autopsy for Earnhardt. The unusual act of notifying NASCAR and Teresa Earnhardt was made prior to releasing the records sought by members of the public and media. Three days later, Teresa Earnhardt filed a legal brief in the Circuit Court of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, in and for Volusia County, Florida (Case No. 2001-30373-CICI Div. 32). Once the complaint was filed, the medical examiner's office was barred from releasing the public records, including autopsy photographs, pertaining to Earnhardt, until a formal hearing on the merits of Teresa Earnhardt's case could be heard.
On February 28, March 13, and March 16, 2001, the Orlando Sentinel; Michael Uribe, founder of WebsiteCity.com; and Campus Communications, Inc., publisher of the University of Florida's student newspaper The Independent Florida Alligator filed motions to intervene into the Earnhardt v. Volusia litigation in order to uphold their rights to inspect and copy public records held by the Volusia County Medical Examiner to include the photographs and videotape of Dale Earnhardt's autopsy examination.
From June 12 to June 13, 2001, a trial was then conducted before Judge Joseph Will. Will eventually ruled against Uribe and CCI's original public records requests and constitutional arguments to inspect and copy the medical examiner files pertaining to Earnhardt, to include autopsy photographs. Judge Will's ruling set forth in motion an extensive legal battle later fought in the appellate courts by both Uribe and CCI seeking to deem the denial of their public records request unconstitutional under Florida State and Federal laws. Then on December 1, 2003, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear Uribe and CCI's appeal. Thus, the Florida Legislature's March 29, 2001 law preventing release of Earnhardt's public record autopsy photographs would remain in effect.
The Florida Legislature's March 29, 2001, law, also known as the Earnhardt Family Protection Act, was sponsored by Daytona Beach's Senator Jim King (R-Jacksonville) and changed Florida's previously long standing and historically open public records laws from that day onward. The Earnhardt law deemed Florida's medical examination autopsy photographs, video, and audio recordings exempt from public inspection without the express permission from applicable next of kin.
In April 2002, a year after Earnhardt's death, TLC singer Lisa Lopes was killed in a car accident in Honduras. A controversy similar to the release of Earnhardt's autopsy photos occurred, as within days of Lopes' crash, autopsy photos began to circulate on the Internet. All three of Earnhardt's drivers (Steve Park; Dale Earnhardt Jr.; and Michael Waltrip) responded in protest to the leak by painting a single black stripe next to their cars' left headlight decals for the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
See also
Blink of an Eye, a 2019 documentary film
List of NASCAR fatalities
List of racing drivers who died in racing crashes
References
External links
NASCAR's official report on the accident
2001 controversies
2001 in Florida
2001 in NASCAR
2000s controversies in the United States
Controversies in Florida
Death
Deaths by person in the United States
Filmed deaths in sports
Death
Photojournalism controversies
February 2001 sports events in the United States
Filmed deaths in the United States |
9930166 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Gertrude%20Hullett | Death of Gertrude Hullett | Gertrude "Bobby" Hullett (1906 – 23 July 1956), a resident of Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, was a patient of Dr John Bodkin Adams, who was indicted for her murder but not brought to trial for it. Adams was tried in 1957 for the murder of Edith Alice Morrell, and the prosecution intended to proceed with the Hullett indictment as a second prosecution that could follow the Morrell case in certain circumstances, although it did not bring the case to trial following the verdict in the Morrell trial.
The Morrell trial featured in headlines around the world and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of all time" and "murder trial of the century". However, the Hullett charge was dropped by the Attorney General after Adams was acquitted of murdering Mrs Morrell through a legal device that was later described by the trial judge as "an abuse of process", used to conceal the deficiencies of the prosecution case.
Husband's death
On 14 March 1956, Mrs Hullett's husband Alfred John (Jack) Hullett died at age 71 and left Adams, who had treated him for some years, £500 in his will out of an estate of £94,644. In November 1955, Jack Hullett had been diagnosed by Adams with a bowel obstruction that was probably cancerous, and likely to be fatal, as was later confirmed by a consultant surgeon who operated on Hullett. Something went wrong in the initial operation and Hullett was left in considerable pain, despite a second operation. Hullett's pain continued after his release from hospital, so Adams prescribed high doses of opiate painkillers and barbiturates. In March 1956, Hullett was examined by a heart specialist, who considered that Hullett had been suffering from a heart condition from childhood, and that it was getting worse. Considering his deteriorating heart condition and the likelihood that the cancer would return, this specialist expected that Hullett would die within the following few months, and that he might die at any time. On 13 March, he had severe chest pains consistent with a heart attack, a diagnosis supported by the nurse that was present, who also recalled that Adams had given him an injection she believed was a highly concentrated form of morphine at 10.30pm. Hullett died eight hours later.
Shortly after Hullett's death, Adams went to a chemist's shop to get a 10cc hypodermic morphine solution (which contained 5 grains of morphine) in the name of Mr Hullett, and asked for the prescription to be back-dated to the previous day. When the police investigated the case, they presumed that this was a ruse to cover up that Adams had given Mr Hullett morphine which was assumed to be from his own private supplies. However, the police suspicion that Adams had injected Hullett with a lethal dose of 5 grains of morphine at 10.30pm on 13 March was disproved at the committal proceedings when the prosecution's medical expert witness admitted in cross examination that, as Mr Hullett had received a morphine injection about eight hours before his death but had woken and talked to a nurse half an hour before his death, the injection could not have been as much as 5 grains and the death was probably from coronary thrombosis, as Adams had certified.
Her treatment
Gertrude Hullett, 50, became depressed after Jack's death, and Adams prescribed sodium barbitone and sodium phenobarbitone for her. Several of her friends and her household staff later told the police that she appeared to be drugged, and claimed that they had urged her to leave Eastbourne and Adams' care. Cullen reports that, over a period of 80 days, 1,512 grains of the former and 6¼ grains of the latter were prescribed, and she called this a large dose. However, Adams told the Coroner's inquest that it was his practice to give Mrs Hullett two 7½ grain sleeping tablets daily at first, which experts later confirmed was a normal dose, and that he later reduced this to two 6 grain, then to two 5 grain, tablets. In the months immediately after her husband's death in March 1956, Mrs Hullett had told Adams of her wish to commit suicide, and letters found after her death show that she had seriously contemplated suicide in April 1956. Her friends who saw her in the days before her death described her mental state then as being more cheerful and natural than before, one likening her to "a person who has come to a decision about something". Mrs Hullett's daughter, a close friend and two servants later stated to the police that they believed that Mrs Hullett had taken her own life, the friend that had found the letters in which she had contemplated suicide calling it a "planned suicide". Leslie Henson, who anonymously contacted the police about the death, was working in Dublin around the time of Mrs Hullett's death.
On 17 July 1956, Mrs Hullett wrote out a cheque for Adams in the amount of £1,000; to pay for an MG car which her husband had promised to buy him. Adams' treatment of this cheque has raised speculation: he paid the cheque into his account the next day, and on being told that it would clear by the 21st, asked for it to be specially cleared, so that it would arrive in his account the following day. His bank account at the time was not low on funds, it contained £12,069. Furthermore, special clearance was usually given in cases where a cheque might bounce, yet Mrs Hullett was one of the richest residents in Eastbourne. If she had died before the cheque cleared through, it could have been stopped by her executors, although they would have required due cause to do so.
On 19 July, Mrs Hullett is thought to have taken an overdose, and was found the next morning in a coma. Adams was unavailable and a colleague, Dr Harris, attended her until Adams arrived later in the day. Despite her possible suicidal tendencies, Dr Harris diagnosed a cerebral haemorrhage as most likely cause of her death on hearing that she had complained of a headache and giddiness the previous evening. As Dr Harris was also told that Mrs Hullett had been prescribed sleeping pills, he searched for an empty bottle, but found none. Adams arrived later and Harris asked about a possible barbiturate overdose, which Adams said was impossible, and he did not mention to his colleague during their discussion that Mrs Hullett had suffered from depression. The two doctors decided a cerebral hemorrhage was most likely, due partly to contracted pupils. This, however, is could also be a symptom of morphine or barbiturate poisoning. Moreover, her breathing was shallow; typical of an overdose-induced coma.
On 21 July, a pathologist by the name of Dr Shera was called in to take a spinal fluid sample, and immediately asked if her stomach contents should be examined in case of narcotic poisoning, but Adams and Harris both opposed this. After Shera left, Adams visited another colleague, Dr Cook, at the Princess Alice Hospital in Eastbourne and asked about the treatment for barbiturate poisoning. He was told to give doses of 10 cc of a relatively new antidote Megimide every five minutes, and was given 100 cc to use. The recommended dose in the instructions was 100 cc to 200 cc. Dr Cook also told him to put Hullett on an intravenous drip. Adams did not follow these suggestions.
The next morning, at 8:30 a.m., Adams called the coroner to make an appointment for a private post-mortem. The coroner asked when the patient had died and Adams said she had not yet. Dr Harris visited again that day and Adams still made no mention of potential barbiturate poisoning. When Harris left, Adams administered a single injection of 10 cc of the Megimide. Mrs Hullett developed broncho-pneumonia and on the 23rd at 6:00 a.m., Adams gave Mrs Hullett oxygen. She died at 7:23 a.m. on the 23rd. The results of a urine sample taken on the 21st were received after Mrs Hullett's death, on the 24th. It showed she had 115 grains of sodium barbitone in her body, twice the fatal dose. Hullett's friend, actor Leslie Henson, knew that Mrs Hullett's husband had died four months earlier and that the two both saw Adams as their doctor. He telephoned the Eastbourne police anonymously to warn them of the fears he and his wife had, which was one of the reasons that an investigation was started. Henson, who was in Dublin when Mrs Hullett died, claimed that she was turning into a drug addict, and that the pills she had been prescribed had changed her personality and caused her death. However, the coroner who had, in that official capacity, called the Eastbourne Chief Constable earlier was the more immediate cause of the police investigation.
Later, before Adams' trial in 1957, the Director of Public Prosecutions's office compiled a table of patients who had been treated with Megimide and Daptazole for barbiturate poisoning between May 1955 and July 1956 at Saint Mary's Hospital in Eastbourne, where Adams had worked one day a week as an anaesthetist. Six of those patients had been treated in the first half of 1956, before Hullett's death. All but one had been put on a drip, and several had taken a higher dose than Mrs Hullett. It was presumed by the DPP, therefore, that Adams would have heard of these cases and the use of Megimide.
Will
In a will dated 14 July, Mrs Hullett had left Adams her 1954 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn, worth at least £2,900. Adams changed the car's distinctive vanity registration (AJH532) on 8 December and then sold it on the 13th. He was arrested six days later on 19 December.
Inquest
As Mrs Hullett's death was unexpected, an inquest was opened on 23 July and adjourned pending a post-mortem: after the hearing was resumed, it ended on 21 August. The coroner asked Adams why there had been no intravenous drip, to which Adams answered, "She wasn't perspiring. She had lost no fluids." A nurse, however, described Mrs Hullett as "sweating a good deal" from the 20th till her death. When asked if he read the instructions for the Megimide, Adams answered, "No, I didn't." The coroner also described the use of oxygen as "a mere gesture". In his summing up, the coroner then said that it was "extraordinary that the doctor, knowing the past history of the patient" did not "at once suspect barbiturate poisoning". He described Adams's 10 cc dose of Megimide as another "mere gesture".
The inquest concluded that Mrs Hullett committed suicide: in Cullen's opinion, the inquest should have been adjourned until the police investigation had been concluded. However, the coroner had asked Superintendent Hannam in open court whether the police wished him to adjourn the inquest, to which Hannam replied that he had no application to make. In his summing up, the coroner offered the jury four possible verdicts: an accidental overdose, suicide either with or without Mrs Hullett having a disturbed mind or an open verdict. He advised them that there was no evidence that anyone administered the overdose to her and did not encourage a finding that it was accidental, pointing them toward a suicide verdict. Although Cullen claims that the jury were directed not to find that Mrs Hullett died as a result of Adams's criminal negligence, it is more correct to say that the coroner discouraged this finding without making any direction, saying that they could only be concerned with negligence so gross that it fell just short of murder, not an error of judgement or carelessness.
Trial
Adams was prosecuted for the murder of Edith Alice Morrell and found not guilty in 1957. Although the Attorney General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, had filed a second indictment in the case of Mrs Hullett, contrary to the normal rule in 1957 that only a single murder indictment should be filed,
Adams was never tried for this but, at the committal hearing, Melford Stevenson, who led the crown's case there, put the case that Adams either administered a fatal dose of barbiturates to Mrs Hullett or gave her a fatal dose to take herself, which was murder. He had made the explicit claim that Adam's instructions to specially clear Mrs Hullett's cheque two days before her death showed that he knew she would be die very soon; as Mrs Morrell was wealthy and Adams had ample cash in his bank accounts, there was no other reason for his wanting special clearing. However, Devlin questioned how this could transform a case that seemed obviously to be suicide into one of murder. Stevenson also made reference to the deaths of Mrs Hullett and her husband as evidence of critical similarities to the death of Mrs Morrell. Devlin considered the police case that there were similarities in deaths of Mrs Morrell and Mrs Hullett was not well founded, as the claimed similarities were not sufficiently distinctive. Had the police found two recent cases similar to Mrs Hullett's, where a patient had died of an overdose of sleeping pills prescribed by Adams, that might have shown system, but the police had found no such cases.
After Adams' acquittal in the Morrell case, the expectation was that the Attorney General would offer no evidence in the case and the judge would direct the jury to return a not guilty verdict. To general surprise, Manningham-Buller, entered a plea of nolle prosequi in the Hullett case. The presiding judge Patrick Devlin said that nolle prosequi had never before been used to prevent an accused person from being acquitted, and described it as "an abuse of process" which left Adams under the suspicion that there might have been something in the talk of mass murder.
References
Sources
Cullen, Pamela V., (2006) A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams. London, Elliott & Thompson.
Devlin, Patrick, (1985) Easing the passing: The trial of Doctor John Bodkin Adams. The Bodley Head.
Robins, Jane (2013). The Curious Habits of Dr Adams: A 1950s Murder Mystery. London, John Murray.
Barbiturates-related deaths
Deaths by person in England
1956 crimes in the United Kingdom
1956 deaths
1956 in England |
9930210 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Edith%20Alice%20Morrell | Death of Edith Alice Morrell | Edith Alice Morrell (20 June 1869 – 13 November 1950) was a resident of Eastbourne and patient of Dr John Bodkin Adams. Although Adams was acquitted in 1957 of her murder, the question of Adams' role in Mrs Morrell's death excited considerable interest at the time and continues to do so. This is partly because of negative pre-trial publicity which remains in the public record, partly because of the several dramatic incidents in the trial and partly as Adams declined to give evidence in his own defence. The trial featured in headlines around the world and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of all time" and "murder trial of the century". It was also described by the trial judge as unique because "the act of murder" had "to be proved by expert evidence." The trial also established the legal doctrine of double effect, where a doctor giving treatment with the aim of relieving pain may, as an unintentional result, shorten life.
Background
Origin of the enquiry
Edith Alice Morrell was a wealthy widow who suffered a brain thrombosis (a stroke) on 24 June 1948 while visiting her son in Cheshire. She was partially paralysed and was admitted to a hospital in Neston, Cheshire the following day. After returning to Eastbourne, she was under the care of Dr John Bodkin Adams for two years and four months from July 1948 until her death on 13 November 1950: as she had been attended by a doctor throughout her last illness and as the death was apparently not sudden, violent or unnatural, there was no requirement for an inquest and none was held. Adams, as her medical attendant, certified the cause of death as a "stroke" following a coma that had lasted two hours. Cullen records that, on the day of Mrs Morrell's death, Adams arranged for her cremation and that her ashes were scattered over the English Channel. However, Mrs Morrell had made various wills, and it was her son, Claude, as her sole executor who was obliged to carry out her wishes for her funeral arrangements, not Adams. Adams did complete the medical certificate required for the cremation form, answering "no" to the form's printed question "Have you, so far as you aware, any pecuniary interest in the death of the deceased?", which avoided the necessity of a post-mortem. As Adams was not a beneficiary of Mrs Morrell's final will, as amended by a codicil of 13 September 1950, this answer was in fact correct, although he may have believed he was a beneficiary, as he later told the police.
The Eastbourne police had received an anonymous call, later discovered to be from the music hall performer Leslie Henson who had been working in Dublin at the time, about the unexpected death of his friend Gertrude Hullett on 23 July 1956, while being treated by Adams. Mrs Hullet had been depressed since the death of her husband four months earlier and had been prescribed sodium barbitone and also sodium phenobarbitone to help her to sleep. In the months immediately after her husband's death in March 1956, Mrs Hullett had told Adams of her wish to commit suicide. Her daughter, a close friend (who was also her executor) and her two servants later told the police that they believed that she had taken her own life, and the friend added that he had found the letters in which she had contemplated suicide in April 1956, calling her death a "planned suicide".
No information about Mrs Hullett's possible suicidal intentions had reached Adams' colleague, Dr Harris, who was called after Mrs Hullett was found comatose. He diagnosed a cerebral haemorrhage as most likely cause of her death on hearing that she had complained of a headache and giddiness the previous evening. As the death was unexpected, an inquest was held into Mrs Hullett's death, which ended on 21 August. The inquest concluded that Mrs Hullett had committed suicide, but the coroner questioned Adams' treatment and said in his summing up that it was "extraordinary that the doctor, knowing the past history of the patient" did not "at once suspect barbiturate poisoning".
Police involvement
Two features of Adams' way of practicing medicine had attracted attention among doctors, nurses and others in Eastbourne: his lavish use of the opiate drugs, heroin and morphia, and his asking wealthy patients for legacies. It was rumoured that the two were not unconnected, and that someone whose duty it was to keep his patients alive should not have a pecuniary interest in their deaths. The circumstances surrounding Mrs Hullett's death, in particular his apparent attempt to disguise that its cause was barbiturate poisoning and his wish to clear a substantial cheque she had given him shortly before her death as rapidly as possible together with these rumours, prompted the Eastbourne police to involve the Metropolitan Police in the investigation.
Instead of having to find a suspect for a known crime, the senior Metropolitan Police officer, Detective Superintendent Herbert Hannam, had a known suspect in Adams but wished to link him to more serious crimes than forging prescriptions, making false statements and mishandling drugs. Devlin suggests that Hannam became fixated on the idea that Adams had murdered many elderly patients for legacies, regarding his receiving a legacy as grounds for suspicion, although Adams was generally only a minor beneficiary inpatients wills. Hannam's team investigated the wills of 132 of Adams' former patients dating between 1946 and 1956 where he had benefited from a legacy, and prepared a short list with around a dozen names for submission to the prosecuting authorities. The list included Mrs Morrell, Mrs Hullett and two other cases in which evidence had been taken on oath, these being among the cases where Hannam considered he had collected enough evidence for a prosecution. Devlin considered that Mrs Morrell's case, which was chosen by the Attorney-General for prosecution, looked the strongest of Hannam's preferred cases, despite it being six years old, although he noted that some others believed that the Hullet case was stronger.
The evidence
Context
Murder is a criminal offence under the common law of England and Wales, defined as "the unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being under the King or Queen's peace with malice aforethought express or implied", and matters outside this definition are not murder. Devlin told the jury that, even if they decided that Mrs Morrell did not die a natural death but was killed, there had also to be the intention of killing. He pointed out in his account of the Morrell trial that prosecution could only draw inferences about the intention of an accused person, whereas the defence had the advantage that only the accused could say what had really been in his mind.
The prosecution case, based on the police investigation and outlined in the opening speech of the Attorney-General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, was that Adams either administered or instructed others to administer drugs that killed Mrs Morrell with the intention of killing her, and that these drugs were unnecessary as she was not suffering pain and had been semi-comatose for some time before her death. The prosecution added that the likely motive for the killing was he had decided that it was time for Mrs Morrell to die, as he feared her altering her will to his disadvantage. In strict law, the prosecution did not need to show a motive but, if none were advanced, the offence had to be proved by demonstrating beyond doubt how the killing was carried out. Throughout the trial, the prosecution maintained that the motive was a mercenary one, and it did not rely on the possible alternative of euthanasia.
Not only did the alleged manner in which Mrs Morrell met her death have to be proved by expert evidence, the police evidence offered at the trial depended for its accuracy on two statements made by Adams while not under caution in apparently friendly conversation with Hannam. Adams' first statement, that he had administered almost all the dangerous opiate drugs he prescribed for Mrs Morrell himself and that virtually none were left unused at her death, was critical to the prosecution's case on method, but was later contradicted by other evidence. Devlin considers that this admission was made in response to Hannam searching the doctor's house and surgery on 24 November 1956 and at the same time presenting Adams with a list of drugs prescribed for Mrs Morrell between 8 and 12 November 1950, the latter being the day before she died. Had Adams not said that all the drugs had been used, he could have been accused of illicitly hoarding them. Adams' second statement that he had inherited certain items under Mrs Morrell's will, the basis for the case on motive, was also incorrect.
Medical evidence
After Mrs Morrell had suffered a stroke and was partly paralysed, she was admitted to a cottage hospital in Neston, Cheshire on 25 June 1948. Cullen, whose account is based on the Scotland Yard case files, stated that Adams was already her doctor, that he arrived in Cheshire on 26 June, and on the following day prescribed morphia for the pain. Adams, she claimed, also made special arrangements to take Mrs Morrell back to Eastbourne and gradually increased the dose of morphia and added heroin until she was addicted. However, it was established during the trial that the morphia injections Mrs Morrell received for the nine days she spent in hospital to ease pain and symptoms of "cerebral irritation" and to help her sleep were prescribed by a Doctor Turner of that hospital, not by Adams. On her return to Eastbourne, Mrs Morrell was first cared for at the Esperance Nursing Home before returning home. The Attorney-General's opening speech also stated that Mrs Morrell was transferred to Eastbourne on 5 July 1948, only then becoming one of Adams' patients, and that he first prescribed morphine on 9 July 1948, adding heroin on 21 July. Rather than a gradually increasing dose, between July 1949 and the end of October 1950, the regular dose given was a quarter grain of morphia and one-third grain of heroin.
Four of the nurses that had attended Mrs Morrell had given statements to the police in August and November 1956. Two of these, nurses Stronach and Randall, had suggested to the police that Adams had increased the frequency of injections and the amount of each injection throughout the period they had nursed Mrs Morrell, and that many of the injections Adams gave were of drugs that he took from his bag, which he prepared himself rather than asking the nurses to prepare them, and that they were unaware of their contents. These two nurses repeated these allegations when questioned near the start of the trial by Manningham-Buller, but they were forced to admit under cross examination that it was they and the other two nurses that usually made up the injections to be administered both by them and by Adams, that they had recorded that relatively few injections were brought in already made up by Adams, and also that they had recorded their nature on at least some occasions. Another nurse recalled that these were said to be vitamin injections, and it was also clear that the amounts of opiates injected were constant until September 1950, when another doctor first increased the dosage.
Although Dr Douthwaite, a medical expert witness for the prosecution, claimed that addiction from such doses must have been inevitable, there was no evidence that Mrs Morrell had developed a craving for or addiction to the drugs prescribed. Dr Douthwaite had been a member of the prosecution team since December 1957 when, together with the pathologist Dr Francis Camps, he had assured the Attorney General, Melford Stevenson and the Director of Public Prosecutions that the amounts of opiates prescribed for Mrs Morrell would have been fatal beyond doubt had they been injected, and he also gave evidence to this effect in the Committal hearing. Devlin commented that, having assured the prosecution of the soundness of his opinion, Douthwaite was determined to stand by it in the trial of Dr Adams.
At the time Mrs Morrell left hospital after her stroke, her prognosis was for a life expectation of six months, but she survived for 28 months and, under cross-examination, Dr Douthwaite accepted that it would have been impossible to restore a woman of around 80 years old to her pre-stroke condition, and that the best that could be done was to make her comfortable and help her to sleep. She remained in tolerable health until August 1950 when she began to decline. Dr Douthwaite also accepted that, by the start of November 1950, Mrs Morrell was dying and, had he seen her in October that year, he would only have expected her to survive for a few weeks.
The dosage of opiates was increased from the end of August 1950, but this was initially the action of Adams' partner, Dr Harris. On 9 October 1950 when, after receiving an injection, Mrs Morrell became drowsy and semi-comatose, the nurse that gave it considered that this and other symptoms might have indicated a stroke, and Adams diagnosed it as such. When she revived, she had difficulty speaking and was confused. Although Dr Douthwaite interpreted these symptoms as arising from excessive drug use, both he and Dr Ashby, the other medical expert for the prosecution, agreed that the symptoms were also compatible with this diagnosis of a further stroke. Dr Harman, the defence's medical expert witness, regarded it as a slight stroke as might be expected from her age, having previously had a major stroke and her arteriosclerosis. Cullen quotes a pathologist who reviewed the Morrells case in the 2000s as concluding that the incident of 9 October was not a stroke, partly on the basis of the lack of slurred speech, although the court heard that Mrs Morrell had difficulty speaking after the episode.
The prosecution's opening statement claimed that, at some time not more than two weeks before her death, the amount of opiates given to Mrs Morrell dramatically increased with the intent of ending her life. The Attorney General concentrated on the period from 8 and 12 November 1950 in which he said that Adams had issued prescriptions for 40½ grains of morphia (2624 mg) and 39 grains of heroin (2527 mg), 79½ grains of opiates in total (although Devlin quotes 41 grains of morphia, 37¾ grains of heroin and 78¾ grains in total). One grain under the apothecaries' system of weights is approximately 64.8 milligrams (mg) The respective single-dose lethal or LD-50 figures are in the wide ranges of between 375 and 3750 mg for morphine and 75–375 mg for heroin based on a person of 75 kg.)
Manningham-Buller initially argued that all 79½ grains of these drugs were injected into Mrs Morrell, an amount which was sufficient to kill her despite any tolerance she may have developed, and which could only have been intended to kill. Adams was accused of murdering Mrs Morell by one of two methods, singly or in combination. The first was that, as a result of the amounts of opiates given since January 1950, she was already dying by November that year. The second, the immediate cause of death, was said to be two large injections of an unknown, but presumed lethal, substance prepared by Adams and injected on his instructions into a supposedly unconscious Mrs Morrell on the night of 12 to 13 November 1950, the second an hour before her death. However, on the second day of the trial, the defence produced nurses' notebooks, which showed that smaller quantities of drugs were given to the patient than the prosecution, basing its calculations on Adams' prescriptions, had thought. These recorded that 10½ grains of morphia and 16 grains of heroin were injected in the period, although the prosecution claimed this was an incomplete record. The notebooks also stated that Mrs Morrell was conscious until shortly before her death, and the two injections made the night of 12 to 13 November 1950 were recorded as being of paraldehyde, described as a safe soporific.
The leading Defence counsel Sir Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence, QC asked for a list of all prescriptions for the whole period in which Adams had cared for Mrs Morrell, not just of the dangerous drugs for ten and a half months in 1950 presented by the prosecution. The earlier list showed Adams had prescribed a total of 1,629½ grains of barbiturates; 1,928 grains of Sedormid; 16411⁄12 grains of morphia and 139½ grains of heroin. Lawrence was able to use the complete list, together with the results of his cross examination of the nurses and the prosecution expert witnesses and examination-in-chief of the defence medical expert to describe the decline of an old lady during which Adams had made her comfortable to the best of his ability although using substantial (but not necessarily lethal) amounts of opiate drugs, until her decline accelerated towards a natural death from old age, possibly related to a second stroke. Lawrence also secured an admission from Dr Douthwaite that, in his examination-in-chief, his evidence on symptoms related to possible withdrawal symptoms was in response to instances selected by the Attorney-General that might not have been representative.
In response to the defence's production of the nurses' notebooks, Dr Douthwaite, who had initially suggested 8 November 1950 as the day on which an intent to kill could be first deduced, changed this to 1 November. This was because Adams had completely withdrawn morphia injections on 1 November, later reintroducing the drug on the evening of 5 November, which Dr Douthwaite interpreted as a plan to reduce Mrs Morrell's tolerance to morphia, before it was brought back in increasing doses. His new theory was that, rather than a single injection being lethal, all injections of morphia after its reintroduction on 5 November were potentially lethal, and could only have been intended to be lethal, through a process of accumulation. This was because a moribund patient such as Mrs Morrell could not excrete the build-up of opiates. Dr Douthwaite also claimed that the second, larger, paraldehyde injection on 13 November brought about Mrs Morrell's death more quickly than the opiates alone would have done. Dr Douthwaite had previously accepted the defence argument that the withdrawal of morphia was Adams experimenting with variations in drugging, and in cross-examination, Lawrence suggested that his new idea was not based on generally accepted ideas. When questioned by Devlin, Dr Douthwaite accepted that it would be essential to his accumulation theory that Adams knew that opiates would accumulate, but that a doctor with Adams' anaesthetist's qualifications should have known this. Dr Douthwaite also admitted in cross-examination that his evidence at the committal hearing was given without knowledge of her treatment in Neston, was based on the medication Mrs Morrell had received from January 1950 only, and on the incorrect assumption that she had been in a coma for the last three or four days of her life.
Dr Douthwaite's new theory was not accepted by his colleague, Dr Ashby, who did not consider then the withdrawal of morphia sinister and also accepted Mrs Morrell may have been in pain or considerable discomfort through arthritis exacerbated by being bedridden, rather than pain-free, as Manningham-Buller had claimed. Dr Ashby also said under cross-examination that he was not prepared to say whether Adams' instructions to the nurses were of a murderous nature. Dr Harman, for the defence, also disagreed with Dr Douthwaite's theories on accumulation, the withdrawal and reintroduction of morphia and the effects of paraldehyde. The Attorney-General continued to focus on 8 November 1950 as the critical date and on Adams' unguarded admissions that he had used almost all the drugs he had prescribed as showing the nurses' records were incomplete. Devlin commented that, by this point, a conviction seemed to him unlikely because the medical evidence had been inconclusive and the motive, the acceleration of a paltry legacy, ludicrous. A guilty verdict would have indicated that the jury had been unable to resist the prejudicial pre-trial publicity.
Possible motive
The prosecution claimed that Adams killed Mrs Morrell because he feared she would alter her will to his disadvantage, although the only firm, non-contingent legacy he was ever awarded was a chest of silver cutlery worth £276. This was found in Adam's house, still wrapped in tissue paper in 1956, some six years after Mrs Morrell's death. Adams believed that he had been promised Mrs Morrell's Rolls Royce and possibly other items, and the prosecution continued to claim that this belief, rather than the actual contents of the wills, was proof of his motive.
Mrs Morrell left a gross estate of £157,000 and made eight cash bequests of between £300 and £1,000 to her household, all greater in value than the silver cutlery that Adams eventually received, and six charitable donations of £100 to £1,000. Cullen claims that in some of the wills she made, Adams was bequeathed large sums of money and her Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. This was said to be worth £1,500, although it was 19 years old. Cullen's statements on legacies appear incorrect as, in Mrs Morrell's will of 5 August 1950, Adams was only awarded the silver cutlery outright, with a contingent right to the car and a Jacobean court cupboard in the unlikely event that Mrs Morrell's son predeceased her. A codicil of 13 September 1950 cut Adams out of her will completely. Despite the last codicil, Mrs Morrell's son gave Adams the aged Rolls-Royce and the chest of silver cutlery.
Summing up and verdict
Devlin's summing up involved one legal direction which established the double effect principle, that where restoring a patient to health is no longer possible, a doctor may lawfully give treatment with the aim of relieving pain and suffering which, as an unintentional result, shortens life. The second legal direction was that the jury should not conclude that any more drugs were administered to Mrs Morrell than shown in the nurses' notebooks. Devlin's reasoning was that Adams' admission to the police that he had administered all of his last prescription was part of a longer admission that they were administered because Mrs Morrell was in terrible agony: if she was in agony, or Adams thought she was, even mistakenly, there would be no guilty intent and no murder. The prosecution had to make use of the whole admission, including the pain that Adams had said Mrs Morrell was suffering, or none of it. Further, he advised the jury that, if their deliberations they considered the discrepancy between the amounts prescribed and the amounts administered as shown in the nurses' notebooks, and wondered if there were a channel by which they were improperly disappearing, they should recall that the drugs were not securely stored and that two of the nurses had lied in the witness box about whether they were securely locked up.
He advised the jury that in Mrs Morrell's case there were three essential points to decide:
Devlin also indicated the main defence argument was that the whole case against Dr. Adams was mere suspicion and that, "...the case for the defence seems to me to be a manifestly strong one". He noted that the majority of those that had followed the case in the Times Law Reports expected an acquittal. The jury returned a Not Guilty verdict after deliberating for only forty-six minutes.
Double effect
Lawrence and Dr Harman had stated that Mrs Morrell had died as natural a death as was possible, eased by necessary drugs, although Adams' instruction to the nurses to give sufficient medication to "keep her under" might suggest some hastening of that event. The court did not ignore the suggestion that Adams had hastened Mrs Morrell's death, and Devlin clarified for the jury and medical profession how far the law allowed the orthodox doctor to go in easing the passing of the dying. Mahar regards Adam's statements to Hannam on his treatment of Mrs Morrell as a reflection of his views on end-of-life care: Adams never denied giving his patients large doses of opiates, but denied murder. Although Adams' use of opiates was extreme, other doctors also used them to ease the passing of the dying, and Dr. Douthwaite for the prosecution accepted that a physician might knowingly give fatal doses of pain-relieving drugs to a terminally ill patient, adding it was not his business to say whether it was murder. Devlin's directions to the jury confirmed that whether or not Adam's treatment of Mrs Morrell was designed to give her comfort was a medical issue and not a legal one.
Between the 1930s and 1960s, the medical profession failed to prioritise treatments designed to relieve the suffering of dying patients. Doctors were aware that hastening a patient's death was illegal, and few were prepared to advocate the use of opiates in palliative care openly, but a 1948 article observed that 'purely medical treatment' for the dying could 'almost be written in one word: morphine' and a British Medical Association meeting heard about the use of heroin to induce euphoria and oblivion and relieve pain. Adams' successful and lucrative medical practice, despite his limited competence, may be explained by the care, including end-of-life care, he gave his patients. This included a lavish use of heroin and morphia that may have constituted mercy killing, but he probably cared for his patients in the way he thought best. An editorial in a medical journal following the case suggested that the publicity it caused might hamper medical discretion, claiming the use of opiates in terminal cases was essential.
Devlin's formulation of the double effect principle has been approved by the House of Lords and generally by many other legal and medical commentators, as it is in line with the legal doctrine of causation, that the disease which was beyond treatment was the true cause of death. After the Adams trial, the Director of Public Prosecutions stated that he agreed with Devlin's direction to the jury on this point. Devlin clarified the principle in a lecture in 1962, saying that a medical treatment designed to relieve the pains of death was undoubtedly a proper treatment. However, several professionals in biomedical law have suggested that Devlin's proposition that a doctor whose primary intention is to relieve pain, even if life is incidentally shortened, is not guilty of murder provides a special defence in law for doctors only, and may be an example of the reluctance of courts to convict doctors. In a contrary view, Devlin himself argued that this was not a special defence for doctors, because the underlying disease, and not medical treatment, was the true cause of death, although a minority of critics have argued that, if a treatment hastens death, that treatment is the immediate cause of death, while accepting the principle of double effect on the basis on the basis that a doctor might have no guilty intention.
More recently, the double effect principle figured in two British murder trials, both of were decided in line with Devlin's 1962 clarification of the principle. In 1990, Dr Cox, a rheumatologist was convicted of the murder of a terminally ill patient who had begged him to kill her. After pain killers had proved ineffective, he injected her with twice the lethal dose of potassium chloride and she died within minutes. Cox claimed that he had intended to relieve suffering, however, as potassium chloride had no analgesic properties, injecting it could not have been regarded as a treatment to alleviate pain. In the same year, Dr Lodwig gave a terminal cancer patient an injection of lignocaine and potassium chloride which proved rapidly fatal. However, as lignocaine is a pain-killer and as it was claimed that using potassium chloride with other pain killers could accelerate their analgesic effect, it could be argued that their combination could be considered as a medical treatment. Although Dr Lodwig was charged with murder, the prosecution offered no evidence at his trial.
Apportioning blame
No-one involved in the case had anything but praise for Lawrence's highly professional defence, and criticism of Devlin was limited to Manningham-Buller's claim in parliament that Devlin had misdirected the jury, by telling them to disregard any possible injections not recorded in the nurses' notebooks. However, various parties to the case blamed each other for the prosecution's failure to secure a conviction, on the assumption that Adams should have been convicted. The apparent fairness of the trial is often discussed in terms of this supposed failure, rather than in terms of the generally prejudicial pretrial press coverage and the prosecution introducing probably inadmissible evidence in the committal hearings. Although Devlin thought that Lawrence's concerns that Adams would not receive a fair trial were overstated, another legal writer has questioned whether the legal system of 1957 would have been capable of giving Adams a fair trial, if the lost nurses' notebooks had not come into the hands of the defence.
The responsibilities of those involved in the investigation and prosecution of the case need to be considered. At the time of the Adams case in 1957, the police's role was to investigate reports of crimes, determine if one had been committed and arrest a suspect. Police practice was to make a decision on whether there was a case to prosecute early in the inquiry, and then to find evidence to support a prosecution. It was then, as now, the job of the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the police dossier, to decide whether it was appropriate to prosecute and to appoint counsel to conduct the prosecution. It was also then normal for the Director to refer very serious cases to the Attorney-General or Solicitor-General, a practice that no longer exists. However, for most of the 20th century including 1957, the Director of Public Prosecutions by convention limited consideration of the guilt of the accused based on the evidence collected by the police to applying the so-called fifty percent rule, to confirm there was a reasonable chance of a conviction, and did not extend to questioning that evidence, as is the case in more recent times. It was not the function of prosecution counsel to decide on guilt or innocence but to plead their brief.
Police investigation
At an early stage in the investigation, Hannam believed he had found Adams' modus operandi: that he first made his victims drug addicts, then influenced them to change their wills in his favour and finally gave them a lethal dose of opiates. Hannam's report on his investigation of October 1956 includes his strong suspicion of narcotic poisoning in several cases and Hannam confided to a reporter at this time that he was convinced that Adams was a serial killer who had killed fourteen people.
Between August and October 1956, Hannam collected a significant number of witness statements, mainly from the nurses and relatives of Adams' deceased former patients who claimed that these had been heavily drugged by Adams, were injected with unknown substances and had become comatose or unresponsive. By mid October 1956, Hannam had drafted his initial report for his Chief Superintendent. The Chief Superintendent was initially dismissive of the case Hannam presented, considering it was speculative, based on rumour and could not be proved; the Commander of 'C' Division agreed and the Director of Public Prosecutions asked Hannam to obtain more evidence. In January 1957. Hannam obtained further statements from Nurse Stronach and Nurse Randal, nurses in the Morrell case which were more specific, and more damaging to Adams, claiming in particular that they were generally unaware of what he was injecting.
The statements gathered both before and after Hannam's initial report have often been quoted in support of Adams' guilt, but in the Morrell case the nurses' own notebooks showed that the testimony in their statements were at best misremembered, at worst untrue. In the course of cross-examination, one nurse was forced to confront the complete disparity between her witness statement describing a semi-conscious woman receiving unknown injections and an entirely different account of a fully awake woman with a healthy appetite receiving injections whose contents were recorded, as shown by her notebook. A second nurse was told that her claim not to remember a conversation of the previous day did not fit with her statement claiming to remember events six years before, and a third effectively repudiated her witness statement in favour of her notebooks. Devlin noted that the witness statements were taken by Hannam and his team and used to prepare the brief, and that doing so accurately may have been beyond Hannam's powers.
Adams told the police that, to use his own term, he was in the practice of "easing the passing", something probably fairly common in the medical practice, but not discussed outside it in 1957. Devlin considered that, if Adams genuinely held the honest belief that he was easing suffering, this would not constitute murder. However, Hannam had already made up his mind, preferring the more dramatic interpretation of drugging patients into submission for monetary gain. During Adams' trial, the theory behind the case prepared by the police was thrown into confusion by the nurse's notebooks, and it was beyond the capability of the prosecution counsel to make a calm reappraisal of the question of guilt while the trial continued, so they ignored euthanasia as an alternative. Matters were not improved when the evidence of the expert witnesses was conflicting and, in the case of Dr Douthwaite, self-contradictory. Once the police had presented their case dossier, no-one, whether Director of Public Prosecutions, counsel for the prosecution or expert witnesses, felt it their duty to decide on whether Adams committed the exact crime he was accused of or to reassess the evidence rationally. The Attorney-General can be criticised for the way he presented the case against Adams, but not for its evidential basis, a police matter.
After a later review of the completed case file by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Hannam and Hewett met the Director, the Attorney General, Melford Stevenson, the pathologist Dr Francis Camps and Dr Douthwaite on 18 December 1956. After Drs Camps and Douthwaite had assured the Attorney General and the two other lawyers present that the amounts of opiates prescribed for Mrs Morrell were fatal beyond doubt, Manningham-Buller instructed the police to arrest Adams. Dr Douthwaite apparently accepted Hannam's theory, as he stated in evidence-in-chief, that morphia and heroine would have turned Mrs Morrell into an addict and given Adams complete ascendancy over her, and any anger she had shown was a withdrawal symptom, not a sign of independence. Under cross examination he was confronted with evidence that two doctors besides Adams who had seen Mrs Morrell had also prescribed opiates, whereas Dr Douthwaite had never examined her.
Devlin criticises Hannam and his team for overlooking the nurses' notebooks and not establishing whether or not the opiate drugs were kept securely. As the question of how the notebooks came into the defence's hands is disputed, the first criticism may be misplaced, but he does suggest that the investigation was carried out hastily.
The Metropolitan Police conducted an internal investigation into Hannam's conduct during his investigation, and also studied the relationship between Hannam and the press in depth. The results were never made public, but a year later Hannam's police career ended, and he was later employed in a private security agency.
Prosecution
Rodney Hallworth records the criticism made in the 1980s by Charles Hewett, Hannam's Detective Sergeant in 1956, of the selection of the Morrell case to prosecute. Cullen describes it as the weakest of the four cases selected by Hannam, and implies the decision was solely Manningham-Buller's.
Robins, who consulted the same police files in the National Archives as Cullen did, as well as material not seen by Cullen, reports that the decision was made when all the prosecution team and police were present, and only after Dr Camps, a pathologist, and Dr Douthwaite, a recognised authority on opiates, had assured the Attorney General and two other lawyers present that the amounts of opiates prescribed for Mrs Morrell would undoubtedly have been fatal. Dr Douthwaite also initially endorsed Hannam's theory that morphia and heroin would have turned Mrs Morrell into an addict and given Adams complete ascendancy over her.
Hewett's quoted view that there was no evidence to present before a jury, as Mrs Morrell's body had been cremated shows a misunderstanding of the principle of corpus delicti, and his assertion that traces of drugs found in exhumed remains of two other patients of Adams made better cases against Adams lacks confirmation. The advanced state of decomposition of the first corpse prevented the establishment either a definite cause of death or the presence of drugs, and the examination of the second concluded the causes of death were coronary thrombosis and bronchopneumonia, and the small amounts of morphine and barbiturates found were insufficient to draw any firm conclusion. Devlin regarded none of the cases mentioned by Hallworth as equally strong as the Morrell case, despite it being six years old, that the exhumations and subsequent post-mortems yielded nothing of interest but provoked further press rumours and, in an investigation initially into Mrs Hullett's death covering a ten-year period, the police were unable to find a better case than the Morrell one.
An alternative, and more valid, criticism of the prosecution than Hewett's is that it prepared and presented its case badly. Its case relied heavily on police evidence and the testimony of expert witnesses, neither of which had been thoroughly tested in the pretrial period. This caused the prosecution embarrassment when the nurses' notebooks were produced, over the destruction of the case based on prescriptions and when Dr Douthwaite's change of opinion while in the witness box. Melford Stevenson's conduct at the committal proceedings, which led to the public airing of probably inadmissible evidence that was dropped before the trial and created much sensational press coverage and the Attorney-General's failure to adapt his case to the evidence presented by the defence but to continue to rely on Adams' admissions did not show them to be well prepared and thoroughly professional.
Interference
The only contemporaneously recorded instance of an intervention, rather than interference, concerned Lord Goddard, the Lord Chief Justice who had proposed to Devlin that, in the event that Adams was acquitted in the Morrell case, he should be granted bail before the second charge, that of Mrs Hullett's death, was heard. What was apparently a concession to the defence has been plausibly suggested as a warning to the prosecution of strong judicial displeasure over the Attorney-General's plan to proceed with the second indictment. Devlin discussed this with Manningham-Buller only after the jury retired and, although only Devlin, both counsel and the Clerk of Court were present, accounts of this meeting circulated at the time. Lord Goddard had earlier expressed his unhappiness over the second indictment, which was against precedent. Devlin, who spoke to the Director of Public Prosecutions about the trial, excludes him from the list of those who were active in the prosecution and who firmly believed in Adams' guilt, and refers to a post-trial House of Commons debate of 1 May 1957 in which the Attorney General denied "malicious rumours" that the Director had disapproved of prosecution. As with Lord Goddard's intervention, this was known of in 1957.
At the time of the trial, it was believed that the police had overlooked the nurses' notebooks, which were later found by the defence team in Adams's surgery. This differs from the police records: in the list of exhibits for the Committal Hearing given to the DPP's office, the notes are mentioned. Cullen suggests that the Attorney General must therefore have known of their existence and according to her, this shows "that there was a will at the highest of levels to undermine the case against Dr Adams".
There is no documentary evidence and no first-hand accounts in support of such interference. In roughly contemporaneous issues that government ministers would have wished to have hushed-up, firstly, the clandestine meetings of French and British officials with Israeli representatives during the Suez crisis that were not officially documented, but were disclosed by Anthony Nutting, who took part, and the existence of the secret Protocol of Sèvres was disclosed in a biography of Anthony Eden twenty years before the documents were officially declassified in 2006. Lady Dorothy Macmillan's affair from the 1930s onwards with Robert Boothby, who may have fathered her fourth child, was known in their circle, if not reported in the press or Macmillan's official biography.
Published accounts
A great many newspaper and journal articles and book sections or chapters, but fewer book length accounts, have been published about Adams and his trial. There have been three peaks of output, in 1956 and 1957, mainly before the trial, in the mid 1980s after Adams' death and before and after 2000, following the discovery of Harold Shipman's activities. The great majority represent Adams as a serial murderer, but few are based on their author investigating the evidence rather than recycling previous accounts. Of those more detailed accounts published before 2003, only one represents Adams as an undoubted serial killer.
Pre-2003
None of Adams, Manningham-Buller, Lawrence, Hannam or Melford Stevenson published detailed accounts of the investigation and trial. Manningham-Buller complained in a parliamentary debate soon after the verdict that Devlin had wrongly rejected his submission that Adams' admission that he had used virtually all the prescriptions supplied should have been accepted, believing that the acquittal was due to judicial misdirection. Melford Stevenson was reported by Hallworth to have criticised the right to silence in the 1980s as having enabled Adams to escape punishment, saying "I firmly believe justice is not served by the present law. It should be possible for the prosecution to directly examine an accused...." Melford Stevenson was previously criticised in the Court of Appeal for directing in 1964 that a jury might draw an inference of guilt from a defendant's silence in another case.
The only detailed account published before the deaths of all but Melford Stevenson by someone who had attended the Adams trial and witnessed the demeanor of the participants was by Sybille Bedford. Her narrative account of the trial includes a verbatim record of the important speeches and verbal exchanges. She treats the trial process as fallible, and although accepting the correctness of the verdict, expresses disappointment that Adams' silence left a gap in the narrative of the trial. This regret that Adams did not speak is echoed in Devlin's more legalistic comment that a "not guilty" verdict does not usually mean the accused has established their innocence, but that there is doubt about guilt. Adams had been accused of three murders, indicted on two counts and had a trial and been found not guilty of one of these, but by widely publicised innuendo, he had been implicated in many more. The only way that Adams could have challenged these suspicions would have been to give evidence to explain his actions, and to accept being cross-examined.
Two journalists also published accounts of the investigation and trial. Percy Hoskins of the Daily Express was one of the few journalists prepared to apply the presumption of innocence to Adams and to criticise the prejudicial gossip other newspapers published, amounting to trial by newspaper before the actual trial. Hoskins, who interviewed Adams before, and at length after, the trial, celebrates Lawrence's forensic skill and sincerity, and considered the verdict to be correct on the evidence presented. Rodney Hallworth's account is based mainly on police information, including conversations with Hannam before and at the time of the trial in 1956 and 1957, and repeats allegations published then, with additional reportage from the 1980s, mainly provided by Charles Hewett, Hannam's Detective Sergeant in 1956. Hewitt is quoted as blaming the Attorney General for prosecuting the Morrell indictment instead of other charges which Hewett claims were stronger, and for failing to secure Adams' conviction, while also condemning Adams for avoiding cross-examination. Hallworth himself was convinced that Adams was guilty of several murders and escaped justice because of the Attorney General's mishandling of the case.
Post-2003
In 2003, permission was given to access the files of the police investigation, and three authors have published accounts which used this material. The first, Cullen, makes no criticism of the police case and seeks to demonstrate that Adams was a murderer who probably had more victims than Dr Harold Shipman. The second, Robins, who consulted the same police files, but also Devlin's trial papers, records the internal criticisms of Hannam's methods, as does Mahar, the final author. The main use that Cullen and Robins make of the police files relates to the witness statements obtained in other cases that the police investigated. Neither comments on the wide discrepancies between such witness statements in the Morrell case and the nurses notebooks, except for Robin's comment that the Attorney General could have made more of the evidence of Dr Harris that some of his visits to her were not recorded. Mahar's main concern was to explore the disconnection between the ideas of doctors and lawyers on end-of-life palliative care before the Adams case.
Summary
Mrs Morrell's death may be plausibly linked to Nurse Randall's impromptu comment that Mrs Morrell had told her that Adams had promised her she would not suffer at the end and to Adams' admissions of 26 November and 19 December 1956 that Mrs Morrell was dying, that she was in terrible agony, that she wanted to die, and that easing the passing of a dying person was not wicked. The medical experts for both defence and prosecution acknowledged that Mrs Morrell was dying by November 1950 and that a second stroke was a possible cause, although the prosecution experts preferred the lengthy use of opiates as the most likely cause. From the date of the suspected second stroke, the daily injections of opiates increased, and on 9 November, the nurses were told to give Mrs Morrell heroin injections whenever necessary, hourly if need be, to keep her from becoming restless, but by the last 24 hours of her life, this was insufficient to give her comfort. By the time Nurse Randall gave the last two injections, she considered Mrs Morrell was on the verge of death. The content of those last injections of 12 to 13 November 1950 is disputed, but it seems probable that they were the immediate cause of her death.
In line with Devlin's legal direction on the double effect principle, as Mrs Morrell was dying, restoring her to health was no longer possible, so Adams could lawfully give her treatment to relieve pain and suffering even if that shortened her life. Although this might cover treatment from the start of November 1950 up to the last 24 hours of her life, it might have left the last two injections in doubt at the time of his trial. However, Devlin's 1962 clarification of the principle, that a medical treatment designed to relieve the pains of death was a proper treatment, would apply to these final injections also.
Notes and references
Sources
F. Beckett, (2006). "MacMillan". London, Haus Publishing.
S. Bedford, (1958). "The Best We Can Do". London, Penguin. .
The British Medical Journal (1957). "Trial of Dr. J. Bodkin Adams". No. 5021 (March. 30, 1957) pp. 771–773.
The British Medical Journal (1957). "Trial of Dr. J. Bodkin Adams: Expert Evidence". No. 5022 (6 Apr 1957) pp. 828–834.
The British Medical Journal (1957). "Trial of Dr. J. Bodkin Adams: Judges Summing-up". No. 5024 (20 Apr 1957) pp. 954–955.
L. Blom-Cooper Q.C., and T. Morris, (2004). "With Malice Aforethought": A Study of the Crime and Punishment for Homicide. Oxford, Hart Publishing. .
K. Dolin, (2002). "The Case of Dr. John Bodkin Adams: A 'Notable' Trial and its Narratives", in Real: Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature, Vol. 18.
P. Cullen, (2006). "A Stranger in Blood": The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams. London, Elliott & Thompson. .
P. Devlin, (1985). "Easing the passing": The trial of Doctor John Bodkin Adams. London, The Bodley Head..
R. Hallworth and M. Williams, (1983). "Where there's a will..." The sensational life of Dr John Bodkin Adams. Jersey, Capstan Press. .
P. Hoskins, (1984). "Two men were acquitted": The trial and acquittal of Doctor John Bodkin Adams. London, Secker & Warburg .
D. J. McBarnet, (1981). Conviction: Law, the State and the Construction of Justice. London, Palgrave..
C. Mahar, (2012). "Easing the Passing": R v Adams and Terminal Care in Post-war Britain. Social History of Medicine Vol. 28, No. 1.
A. Nutting, (1967). "No End of a Lesson": Story of Suez. London, Constable. .
M. Otlowski,(2004). "Voluntary Euthanasia and the Common Law". Oxford University Press. .
H. Prins, (2008). Coke v. Bumble – comments on some aspects of unlawful killing and its disposal. Medicine, Science and the Law, Vol 48. No, 1.
J. Robins, (2013). "The Curious Habits of Dr Adams": A 1950s Murder Mystery. London, John Murray..
R. Rhodes James, (1986). "Anthony Eden". London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. .
A. W. B. Simpson, (1986). "The Trial of Dr. John Bodkin Adams". Michigan Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 4/5.
G. Williams (2007). "Intention and Causation in Medical Non-Killing The impact of criminal law concepts on euthanasia and assisted suicide". London, Routledge-Cavendish.
1869 births
1950 deaths
Deaths by person in England
People from Eastbourne
Trials in England
1950 in England
20th century in East Sussex |
9952426 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Joy%20Gardner | Death of Joy Gardner | Joy Angelia Gardner (née Burke, 29 May 1953 – 1 August 1993) was a 40-year-old Jamaican mature student living in London, England, United Kingdom. Gardner died after being detained during a police immigration raid on her home in Crouch End, when she was restrained with handcuffs and leather straps and gagged with a 13-foot length of adhesive tape wrapped around her head. Unable to breathe, she collapsed and suffered brain damage due to asphyxia. She was placed on life support but died following a cardiac arrest four days later. In 1995, three of the police officers involved stood trial for Gardner's manslaughter, but were acquitted.
The case became a cause célèbre for civil rights and justice campaigners, and for the first time brought wide public attention to what the Modern Law Review called "the inhumanity of the methods used routinely in the execution of deportation orders". Despite continuing pressure by campaigners, no coroner's inquest or public inquiry into the circumstances of Gardner's death has been held.
Background
Joy Gardner
Joy Gardner was born Joy Burke in Long Bay Beach, Jamaica, in May 1953. Her mother, Myrna Simpson, emigrated to the United Kingdom from Jamaica – then still a British colony – in 1961, with the intention of sending for her child once she had achieved some financial stability, a common and accepted practice at the time. Simpson subsequently became a British citizen. Prior to 1981, Gardner would have had the right to British citizenship through her mother, but changes to immigration legislation in the British Nationality Act 1981 meant this was no longer possible. As well as her mother, Gardner's half-brother, three uncles and two aunts were also living in England at the time.
Gardner first travelled to England in 1987, leaving a daughter behind in Jamaica. She entered the country legally using a six-month visitor's visa, but overstayed when the visa elapsed. She was pregnant at the time of her arrival, and subsequently gave birth to a son. In September 1990 she married Briton John Gardner, who applied to the Home Office for his new wife to be granted permanent residence. Five weeks later they separated and he withdrew the request.
In October 1990, Gardner was advised by police and the Home Office that she should leave the country voluntarily or risk deportation. In December 1990 she applied for a judicial review of her case which was turned down in April 1991. A notice of intention to deport was served on her in October 1991, which she subsequently appealed. During the appeal process a restriction order was applied requiring her to report regularly to local police. The Immigration Appeals Tribunal denied the appeal and a deportation order was issued in April 1992. Gardner was interviewed by immigration officials again in early June 1992, and reported to Stoke Newington police station later that month. A flight to Jamaica was arranged for Gardner in the summer of 1992, but she failed to attend at the airport, stating later that she had not received notification to do so. Her solicitor Djemal Dervish lodged a further appeal, citing "compelling compassionate circumstances".
While living in the UK, Gardner moved home several times but remained in contact with the police, her mother's local MP Bernie Grant and immigration services. By the summer of 1993 she was studying Media Studies at London Guildhall University and living in a housing association home in Topsfield Close, Crouch End. On 28 July 1993, the day the police raided Gardner's home, Charles Wardle's immigration officer procrastinated to serve deportation order to Dervish her representative. Wardle, the immigration minister, later admitted that the letters were held back and timed to arrive after the raid to prevent any further judicial appeals being made and to avoid giving Gardner any notice of her deportation, which was to take place at 3.00pm the same day from Heathrow Airport.
Aliens Deportation Group
The Metropolitan Police Service's (MPS) Aliens Deportation Group (ADG) was a specialist squad of uniformed police officers belonging to Scotland Yard's SO1(3), part of the Specialist Operations branch. The squad was composed of a Detective Inspector, a Detective Sergeant, and seven Detective Constables. They were tasked with accompanying officials from the UK Immigration Service - who had no power of arrest - who were serving deportation orders where violent resistance by the deportee was considered probable. The squad operated in groups of three, with two officers then accompanying the deportee on their flights out of the country.
Police raid
At 7.40 am on 28 July 1993, three officers from the ADG, accompanied by two officers from Hornsey police station and an official from the UK Immigration Service, raided Gardner's home with orders to "detain and remove" her and her 5-year-old son for immediate deportation to Jamaica. She suffered respiratory failure almost immediately and was taken to the Whittington Hospital, North London. She died on 1 August 1993 due to cerebral hypoxia and cardiac arrest, without regaining consciousness.
Cause of death
Gardner was examined by four forensic pathologists who concluded that the cause of death was cerebral hypoxia. As she had suffered a multiple head injury during the struggle samples of brain tissue were subsequently examined by an independent neuropathologist to establish whether brain injury may have caused the hypoxia rather than asphyxiation as a direct result of the gag and tape. Two further tests were then conducted by independent neuropathologists who both dismissed the head injury as a factor.
Manslaughter trial
On 15 May 1995, three police officers from the ADG stood trial accused of Gardner's manslaughter. A key part of the defence case was that Gardner's death was caused by head trauma sustained as she violently resisted the officers and not as a direct result of the tape used to gag her. Paula Lannas, a forensic pathologist, testified: "There were bruises on the scalp that indicates the head had struck a hard surface. The lack of oxygen was secondary to the head injury. The brain was injured. That led to deprivation of oxygen and death. Such a swelling would lead to cardiac arrest and the deprivation of oxygen." Experts for the prosecution and other pathologists disputed Lannas' findings.
On 2 June 1995, Detective Constable John Burrell was acquitted on the directions of the judge, Mr Justice Mantell. Detective Sergeant Linda Evans and Detective Constable Colin Whitby were found not guilty by the jury on 14 June 1995. Following the trial, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) announced that there would be no internal disciplinary inquiry. The PCA said that "a disciplinary charge of authority would in substance be the same as the criminal charge of which the officers have been acquitted" and "an officer cannot be tried on both criminal and discipline charges for the same
offence".
Aftermath
As a result of Gardner's death, the use of mouth gags was suspended by the Commissioner of the MPS in August 1993 and banned by Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, in January 1994.
In 1996, questions were raised about the work of Paula Lannas, the defence pathologist. During a trial at the Old Bailey in June 1998, Lannas testified that bruising on the neck of a 16-month-old child "resulted from strangulation by the mother's boyfriend." The defendant was acquitted when forensic pathologist Iain West testified that the post mortem examination had been so "cack-handed" that the bruising may have been inflicted by Lannas, and the prosecution informed the jury that her conclusions were "suspect" and could not be relied on as evidence. In May 2000, two men had their convictions for manslaughter quashed when it was disclosed that Lannas had testified at their trial that the victim had been killed by a stab wound and had no other injuries. Subsequent examination found a potentially fatal skull fracture. A 2001 disciplinary tribunal alleged that Lannas's pathology work "consistently fell substantially short" of expected standards and there were "substantive deficiencies" in "her technical approach and medical knowledge."
In February 1999 Gardner's family brought a civil suit against the police for compensation.
In popular culture
The incident has been the subject of a number of poems including:
The Death of Joy Gardner by Benjamin Zephaniah
Teeth by Jackie Kay
See also
Death of Jimmy Mubenga
Death of Cynthia Jarrett
References
Notes
Bibliography
External media
1953 births
1993 deaths
Criminal trials that ended in acquittal
Deaths by person in London
Deaths in police custody in the United Kingdom
Law enforcement in England and Wales
Manslaughter trials
Metropolitan Police operations
Protests in the United Kingdom
Race-related controversies in the United Kingdom
History of the London Borough of Haringey |
18945445 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Otto%20Zehm | Death of Otto Zehm | Otto Zehm (October31, 1969March20, 2006) was a man with a developmental disability from Spokane, Washington who died on March 20, 2006 during an altercation with police officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. Zehm committed no crime, and on May 30, 2006, the Spokane County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide. In 2012, the first of several officers on the scene at Zehm's death was convicted of excessive use of force and lying to investigators, and was sentenced to 51 months imprisonment.
Incident and death
On March 18, 2006, Zehm, a white man—who worked as a janitor and did not own a car—had gone on foot to an ATM at his bank to withdraw money from his account. Two young women, who were in a car at the ATM when Zehm arrived, erroneously reported to police by phone that a man was attempting to steal money from the ATM. The women followed Zehm in their car while reporting additional information to the police dispatch by phone.
Zehm next entered the convenience store that he routinely visited to buy a soft drink and fast food. Video from the convenience store security cameras show that within sixteen seconds of the officer Thompson entering the store, the officer had run up to Zehm, whose back was initially turned to him, twice ordered him to "drop the pop", and batoned Zehm to the ground—the first of at least seven baton strikes used on Zehm, including strikes to the head. Within another sixteen seconds Zehm had also been tasered. In addition to the multiple beatings and taserings, Zehm was improperly hog-tied by police and placed on his abdomen for more than sixteen minutes. Furthermore, the police requested a non-rebreather mask from paramedics at the scene and strapped it to Zehm's face. The non-rebreather mask was not attached to oxygen. Zehm stopped breathing three minutes after the mask was placed on his face. When ruled a homicide by the county Medical Examiner on May 30, 2006, the cause of death was reported as "lack of oxygen to the brain due to heart failure while being restrained on his stomach." No illegal drugs or alcohol were found in Zehm's system.
Discrepancies resulting from video analysis
Police alleged that Zehm had "lunged" at the original officer with a plastic soft drink bottle. However, the silent surveillance video of the incident (the full version of which was withheld by the police for three months—they were initially altered by an unknown member of the Spokane Police Department to splice out scenes incriminating to Thomson) contradicted this police claim. Then-acting police chief Jim Nicks subsequently stated that he misspoke in alleging Zehm "lunged" at the officer. The video also did not provide support for the officer's claim that he paused and gave verbal orders to Zehm. Each frame showed the officer advancing at a brisk rate while Zehm, after seeing the officer advancing with his baton raised, only back-pedals slowly away.
Investigative reports
In July 2006, then-Spokane mayor Dennis Hession ordered an independent review of Zehm's death, and in August 2006, the report was commissioned. Known as the Worley Report, after law enforcement consultant Michael Worley, the report was commissioned, to look at the three matters—the Zehm homicide, a Spokane Fire Department sex scandal, and the Spokane City Citizens Review Commission. Worley's findings were made public in a report released on October 26, 2007, but covered only the Fire Department sex scandal and the Citizens Advisory Commission. Worley submitted the incomplete report, for which the City of Spokane paid $8,800, pending the completion of other then-pending investigations of the Zehm death, including investigations by the Spokane County Prosecutor's Office, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC), and the FBI. As of August 18, 2008, the FBI has not closed its investigation of the case and has made no public statements regarding the status of that investigation.
Controversy involving officers
Three of the seven officers involved in the attack on Zehm received one day of administrative leave (paid). Beyond that, no Spokane Police officer or administrator has been disciplined or suspended or fired as a result of the case. However, one officer involved in the case, Spokane Police officer Jason Uberuaga, was subsequently fired for "conduct unbecoming" after being involved in an October 11, 2007, incident involving alcohol and allegations of sexual misconduct. At the time of that incident, Uberuaga was a member of a federal law enforcement task force. Uberuaga was later reinstated with months back pay, following a union arbitrator's determination that firing was excessive punishment for the acts committed.
Officer Dan Torok
A second Spokane Police officer involved in the Zehm case is Dan Torok. In the Zehm case, Torok provided a written statement in which he stated, "When my knee struck him, I heard him exhale and I was able to force his arm behind his back." In addition to Torok's knee in his chest, Zehm was subjected to being hog-tied and placed on his chest for 16 minutes, as well as being subjected to a non-rebreather mask placed on his face without oxygen attached, thus limiting his ability to breathe. Zehm stopped breathing and was transported by para-medic to a Spokane area hospital where he was declared brain-dead and died two days later. Otto Zehm's last words were, "All I wanted was a Snickers Bar".
Almost exactly a year after his involvement in Zehm's death, Officer Torok shot and killed a homeless man, Jerome Alford, on March 24, 2007. Following a Spokane area practice in which the Spokane Police and Spokane County Sheriff's Office investigate one another in officer involved deaths, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office was assigned to investigate the shooting of Alford by Torok. Spokane Chief of Police Anne E. Kirkpatrick ordered Torok to provide a written statement, known as a Garrity letter, rather than submit to questioning by the Spokane County Sheriff's Office. Garrity letters are so infrequently used in the area that Spokane County Sheriff's personnel did not initially accept the letter from Torok. Final results of the Sheriff's investigation were never made public. Currently, Torok is a Spokane Police Department detective supervising assignments of child abuse cases, and also acting frequently as a spokesperson for the Spokane Police. He is also a controversial participant in on-line blogging at Spokane's only daily newspaper, the Spokesman-Review. In August 2007, he and a colleague, Sgt. Jim Faddis, were discovered blogging anonymously at a Spokesman-Review affiliated blog, Hard 7, until blog manager Frank Sennett discovered their identities and employment with the Spokane Police. Recently another Spokesman-Review blog, Community Comment, has given Torok and Faddis, a former internal affairs officer, semi-official status at Police Blotter, a periodic blog thread identified by a reproduction of the Spokane Police badge at the Spokesman-Review's online blog site.
Analysis and impact
The Zehm case provoked public outrage, including protests and public challenges to the Spokane Police by critics. On July 9, 2007, in the wake of another police scandal involving the arrest on July 4, 2007 of 17 people in Spokane's Riverfront Park, a group of some 200 people gathered a block from Spokane's Public Safety Building demanding independent oversight of the Spokane Police Department. At the end of the rally, a group of people entered the street and marched to City Hall where they presented their concerns to the Spokane City Council.
The case also prompted intense scrutiny by the local media and calls for independent oversight. A series of public meetings were held in the first half of 2007, including a three part series on Police Accountability at Gonzaga University. Participants in the series included Breean Beggs of Spokane's Center for Justice, independent journalist Tim Connor, Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, Spokane City Councilwoman Mary Verner, and others. The series, sponsored by the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, and the Peace and Justice Action League (PJALS), culminated in a growing consensus that an appropriate step to address the concerns about police misconduct would be an independent ombudsman styled after the Boise (Idaho) Office of the Community Ombudsman headed by Pierce Murphy. Murphy visited Spokane several times including to participate in one of the Police Accountability forums at Gonzaga. Murphy also spoke prior to a Whitworth University theater production on Police Accountability and the death of Zehm. The unique event—Crossing the Line: An Examination of Police, Power and People—was held on May 16, 2008 at Spokane's CenterStage.
Federal indictment and trial
On June 22, 2009, a federal Grand Jury handed down an indictment on Spokane Police Officer Karl Thompson. Thompson is a veteran of the force and was the first of seven officers that responded to the Zip Trip. The 2 counts are: unreasonable use of force and making a false entry into a record being investigated by a federal agency. Both counts are felonies and could hold a 20-year maximum sentence if Thompson is convicted on both charges. Standard sentencing ranges for these offenses would likely result in confinement in a federal institution for 2–4 years. The unreasonable use of force stems from the surveillance video that shows Thompson approaching Zehm from behind and striking him to the ground moments after Zehm turned and faced the officer without any indication of aggressiveness, followed by multiple vertical baton blows and an application of a drive-stun taser. Zehm was not acting combatively at the time of the initial blow and only started fighting back after Thompson engaged Zehm with force. Federal prosecutors confirmed that the unreasonable use of force charge against Thompson was due to the injuries Zehm suffered from the initial baton blows and not Zehm's death. It is unclear at this time if more indictments will be handed down for Zehm's death or for his improper restraint for being hog-tied on his stomach with a non-rebreather mask.
Thompson's federal trial began on October 12, 2011 with jury selection. The trial was moved from Spokane to Yakima, Washington after defense attorneys raised concerns about the extent of local media coverage of the controversy. Judge Fred Van Sickle of US District Court in Yakima ruled to exclude residents of Spokane County from the jury pool in the interest of fairness.
On November 2, 2011, the jury found Thompson guilty on both counts; excessive use of force and lying to investigators about the confrontation. Over 50 police officers were in attendance when the verdict was announced and saluted Thompson in a show of solidarity.
Thompson's defense attorneys argued for a sentence of zero to 16 months, while federal prosecutors recommended a sentence of between 9 and 11 years. On November 15, 2012, Judge Van Sickle sentenced Thompson to 51 months in federal prison. Judge Van Sickle also ordered that Thompson be taken into custody immediately over the objections of Thompson's defense attorney, who wanted him to remain free while the verdict is appealed.
Washington State paid $541,180 in legal fees to the law firm defending Karl Thompson. Thompson was declared indigent in July 2009 following an uncontested divorce initiated by his then-wife, Diana J. Thompson. The terms of the divorce decree transferred the bulk of the family assets to Diana, including their $675,000 home, alimony in the amount $1,500 per month, and 50% of Thompson's pension. In addition, all community debts were assigned to Karl Thompson. Thompson continued to live with his ex-wife following the divorce, and shared joint assets and bank accounts in contravention of the divorce decree, until his sentencing and incarceration. Prosecutors have alleged the divorce was fraudulent, undertaken for the dual purposes of shielding assets from the civil suit filed by the Zehm family and forcing the State of Washington to pay for Thompson's legal defense costs.
Until his release from prison in July of 2016, Thompson had been serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, a low-security prison in Arizona.
Settlement of civil case
On August 22, 2012, the civil case brought by the Estate of Otto Zehm was closed following mediation and settlement. The settlement included a $1.67 million payment to the family, and budgeting for specialized training for all Spokane Police Officers more than 1 year from retirement. The training will focus on police interaction with mentally ill detainees. The settlement also includes a budget for implementation of new rules regarding the use of force, and a permanent memorial to Otto Zehm. Attorneys for the Estate were Breean Beggs and Jeffry Finer; and for the City of Spokane, Nancy Isserlis.
See also
Positional asphyxia
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States
References
1970 births
2006 deaths
American people with disabilities
Deaths from hypoxia
Deaths in police custody in the United States
Death in Washington (state)
People from Spokane, Washington
People with intellectual disability
Police brutality in the United States
Victims of police brutality
2006 in Washington (state)
Crimes in Washington (state)
Deaths by person in the United States
Asphyxia-related deaths by law enforcement in the United States
Law enforcement in Washington (state) |
10643894 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20the%20Bytyqi%20brothers | Death of the Bytyqi brothers | The Bytyqi brothers were American-Kosovo Albanian members of the Kosovo Liberation Army who were killed by Serbian Police shortly after the end of the Kosovo War, while they were in custody in Petrovo Selo, Kladovo, Serbia. The bodies of the three brothers were discovered in July 2001 in a mass grave containing 70 Albanians, near Special Anti–Terrorist Unit (SAJ) training facility. The bodies were found with their hands bound and with gunshot wounds to their heads. The indictment against the alleged perpetrators says the brothers were brought to the edge of the pit and shot in the head, causing them to slump into a mass grave atop 70 corpses dumped there earlier.
Agron (23), Mehmet (21) and Ylli (25) were American citizens of Kosovo Albanian origin born near Chicago, Illinois and living in New York City. After the rebellion started in Kosovo they decided to go to Kosovo and fight in KLA's "Atlantic Brigade".
In July 1999, following the conclusion of NATO's military response to the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's ethnic cleansing of Albanians and the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement, they smuggled two families – а Roma family from Prizren (Kosovo) – to return to Kraljevo, from where they escaped during the war. Due to a violation of the "Law on Movement and Residence of Foreigners" of Republic of Serbia, they were arrested along the transit road between Kosovo and Serbia. They were sentenced to 15 days in prison. Twelve days later after appealing, they were released. Their Serbian neighbor Miroslav waited to collect them, but the brothers were instead collected by two men driving a white car with no license plates. They were taken to the Special Anti–Terrorist Unit training base. Two days later, they were killed with bullets fired to the back of their heads and buried in a mass grave which already contained the bodies of the killed Kosovo Albanians.
As of July 2019, there are no pending charges in the case and no high-ranking official has been investigated for his or her involvement. However, several United States Congress members asked the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić to extradite former police general Goran Radosavljević to the United States, which he refused, reportedly saying that "there is no evidence for his arrest".
The investigation
The Serbian authorities showed little interest to investigate cases where Serbian police has acted during the war in Kosovo, but since the brothers were American citizens and due to the pressure from US authorities, an investigation was launched. The United States saw the murder of the Bytyqi brothers as a premeditated crime committed against its citizens; the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) started an investigation while the US Embassy in Belgrade monitored the case carefully.
The main suspect was Vlastimir Đorđević, Chief of the Public Security Department of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia (MUP) and assistant minister for internal affairs during the Kosovo war. Đorđević was the commander of the MUP forces in Kosovo in the early 1980s, and one of the most trusted men of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević. In July 1999, Miloševic awarded Đorđević the "Medal of the Yugoslav Flag" of the First Degree. He was forced into retirement in May 2001, when the refrigerator truck containing the bodies of Kosovo Albanians was discovered in the Danube near Kladovo. Before the investigation started, Đorđević relocated to Moscow, but was in 2007 arrested in Budva, Montenegro. In 2011, he was found guilty of war crimes against Kosovo Albanian civilians during the Kosovo War before the ICTY. The Minister of Internal Affairs during the Kosovo War Vlajko Stojiljković, who allegedly originated the orders, committed suicide in 2002.
The killing of Bytyqi brothers is still being investigated by Serbia's War Crimes Court. Two low-ranking police figures who may have marginally abetted the crimes, Miloš Stojanović and Sreten Popović, were acquitted of all charges of aiding war crimes in March 2013 because of their marginal involvement in the Bytyqi murders.
In February 2007, the police issued the warrant for Goran "Guri" Radosavljević, after he failed to show up at a trial of Miloš Stojanović and Sreten Popović. Radosavljević was in charge of SAJ's training facility where the brothers were detained, executed, and dumped into a mass grave. Radosavljević testified in the trial, claiming that he was away on vacation at the time of the Bytyqi brothers' detainment and execution.
Four more officers were detained in late February 2007, as the investigation about who exactly ordered and carried out the executions continued, among whom were Milenko Arsenijević (Commander of SAJ at the time) and three other police officers. None were ever charged.
In March 2007, the US Embassy in Belgrade said the U.S. Department of Justice will continue to conduct its own investigation pursuant to U.S. law.
Trial of Sreten Popović and Miloš Stojanović
In 2012 trial in Serbia, two men were found not guilty in aiding in the death of the brothers, in part because of their marginal involvement in the crimes. In 2013, Prosecutor's appeal was denied verdict the acquittals were upheld.
See also
War crimes in the Kosovo War
References
External links
The Bytyqi Case - Crime and Secret
US Embassy in Belgrade
The Bytyqi Brothers
1999 in Serbia
1999 in Kosovo
1999 crimes in Serbia
1999 crimes in Kosovo
Serbian war crimes in the Kosovo War
Deaths by firearm in Serbia
Deaths by person in Europe
Albania–Serbia relations
Albania–Kosovo relations
Albania–United States relations
Serbia–United States relations
Kosovo–Serbia relations
Kosovo–United States relations |
10969418 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Jack%20Avery | Death of Jack Avery | Sgt. Jack William Avery (5 November 1911 – 6 July 1940) was a British War Reserve Constable who was murdered in Hyde Park, London, having served less than one year with the Metropolitan Police Service.
On 5 July, Sgt. Avery was advised by a member of the public that Frank Stephen Cobbett was acting suspiciously. Avery approached Cobbett, who was lying on the grass and writing on a piece of paper, and took the paper from him. Avery returned the paper to Cobbett, who stabbed the officer in the groin or upper thigh with a carving knife. Avery died the next day. Cobbett, a 42-year-old homeless labourer, was originally sentenced to death by Mr. Justice Atkinson, even though the jury strongly recommended mercy because of his "low mentality." After an appeal, Cobbett served 15 years' penal servitude for manslaughter instead.
In 2007, Ian Blair, then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, unveiled a memorial to Avery in Hyde Park, close to the place where he was attacked.
See also
List of British police officers killed in the line of duty
References
Deaths by person in London
Deaths by stabbing in London
1940 crimes in the United Kingdom
1940 in London
Murder in London
1940 murders in Europe
July 1940 events
1940s in the City of Westminster
1940s murders in the United Kingdom
1911 births
1940 deaths |
11040423 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Sohrabuddin%20Sheikh | Death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh | The Sohrab Uddin Sheikh encounter case was a criminal case in the Gujarat state after the death of Sohrabuddin Anwarhussain Sheikh on November 26, 2005. A special CBI court acquitted all the 22 accused in the case in the alleged encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife.
Apart from being involved in the criminal extortion racket in Gujarat, Sheikh was also involved in arms smuggling in Madhya Pradesh, and also had murder cases registered against him in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Sheikh was also claimed by the police to be associated with the banned global terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence, and was alleged to have planned to create communal chaos in the state by assassinating "an important political leader". Although the target of Sheikh's plans has never been officially revealed, the impression was given to political effect that it was to have been Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Sheikh's wife Kauser Bi also disappeared on the same day as his killing. A year later, on December 26, 2006, Sheikh's associate Tulsiram Prajapati, a witness to Sheikh's killing, was also killed in another police encounter shooting.
Sheikh was alleged by the police to be extorting protection money from local marble factories in Gujarat and Rajasthan. He was also claimed to have links to fellow underworld criminals Sharifkhan Pathan, Abdul Latif, Rasool Parti and Brajesh Singh, who were all members and associates of India's largest organized crime network and underworld mafia operated by Dawood Ibrahim. During investigations before he was arrested, the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Gujarat police claimed to have found 40 AK-47 assault rifles from his residence Village Jhirniya, District Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.
Facts of case
Involved persons
Accused non-governmental criminals and their associates include Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi, Tulsiram Prajapati, and Sylvester Daniel.
Accused police and officials include Vipul Aggarwal, Abhay Chudasma, Geetha Johri, Dinesh MN, Rajkumar Pandian, P.P. Pandey, Ashish Pandya, Amit Shah, Himanshu Singh Rajawat and D. G. Vanzara.
Judges, lawyers, and prosecutors involved in the case include JT Utpat, BH Loya, MB Gosavi, and Shrikant Khandalkar.
Witnesses for the prosecution include Rajnish Rai.
In addition to the various cases directly connected to the death of Sohrabuddin and his wife, other related cases include the Tulsiram Prajapati killing, the Ishrat Jahan case, the murder of Haren Pandya, and the Popular Builders firing case.
Timeline
On 23–24 November 2005 Gujarati police deputy inspector general D. G. Vanzara took custody of history-sheeter Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi, and Tulsiram Prajapati as they travelled by bus in Sangli, Maharashtra. Vanzara sent Tulsiram to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where the Rajastani police took custody of him and took him to Udaipur, Rajastan.
On 26 November police shot and killed Sohrabuddin in what they would describe as a police encounter. On 28–29 November in a village in Ilol someone murdered and cremated Kauser Bi. Some accounts say that someone raped her also. In December Sohrabuddin's brother wrote to the Chief Justice of India claiming murder with police involvement. In response, the Supreme Court of India directed the Criminal Investigation Department in Gujarat to take the case from police and themselves investigate it.
A year later on 26 December 2006 police reported that Tulsiram had escaped from police custody. On 28 December a police encounter led to the Tulsiram Prajapati killing between the town of Ambaji and the village of Sarhad Chapri near the border between Gujarat and Rajastan.
In February 2007 DIG Rajnish Rai submits a report to the CID. In April Rai arrests fellow IPS officers Dinesh MN, Rajkumar Pandian, and D. G. Vanzara. Weeks later Rai leaves the case investigation.
Early in 2010 the Supreme Court transfers the investigation of the case from the police in Gujarat to the CBI office in Mumbai. In April 2010 CBI arrests DIG Abhay Chudasma on charges of criminal collaboration with the deceased Sohrabuddin. Chudasma was the 14th police officer arrested in the case. In July 2010 CBI chargesheeted and arrested Amit Shah, who was then Minister of State for the Government of Gujarat.
In April 2011 CBI took control of the investigation into the Tulsiram Prajapati killing. In 2012 the SC transferred the trial from the Gujarat High Court to the Bombay High Court to promote a more fair trial. In 2013 the SC combined the cases of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauser Bi, and Tulsiram.
In May 2014 Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India, which was related to the case because defendant Amit Shah was his close advisor. The SC had stated that one judge should oversee the entire case. The first judge, J T Utpat, had ordered Amit Shah to appear in court. Judge Utpat left the case for unclear reasons in June 2014 and BH Loya replaced him. Judge Loya also insisted that Shah appear in court. In December 2014 Judge Loya died in strange circumstances claimed newspaper deccan herald Judge MB Gosavi replaced Loya. That month, the court discharged Shah from the case as court found no evidence against Amit Shah and it was simply plotted by then rulling party and misused their power.
In November 2015 Sohrabuddin's brother petitioned the Bombay High Court with a challenge Shah's discharge. Within days, he withdraws his petition. Activist Harsh Mander petitions the court with his own challenge against Shah's discharge first to the Bombay court then the SC, but by the end of 2016 both courts dismissed Mander for lack of standing.
In November 2017 CBI Judge SJ Sharma begins the trial. Of 210 witnesses, 92 withdraw or change their earlier testimony and become hostile. Also in that month The Caravan publishes a story from Judge Loya's family in which they describe strange and hidden circumstances of his death. In January 2018 Judge Dipak Misra declares that Loya's death was by natural causes.
In September 2018 the court discharges several of the accused including Dinesh, Pandian, and Vanzara. In November the witness examination ends without the defense producing any witnesses. In December the court heard final arguments, and on 21 December the court discharged all 22 accused due to lack of evidence.
Cases against Sohrabuddin Sheikh
Sohrabuddin Sheikh was accused of possessing 40 AK-47 assault rifles that were recovered from his house in Jharania village of Ujjain district in 1995. At the time of his killing, he also had more than 60 pending cases against him, ranging from extorting protection money from marble factories in Gujarat and Rajasthan, to arms smuggling in Madhya Pradesh, to murder cases both in Gujarat and Rajasthan. According to the police, Sheikh was an underworld criminal with links to the Sharifkhan Pathan alias Chhota Dawood and Abdul Latif gangs, and with Rasool Parti and Brajesh Singh, both known to be close to India's underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim. To escape the police, Sheikh fled with his family from Gujarat to the city of Hyderabad in the state of Telangana.
Encounter
On November 23, 2005, Sohrabuddin Sheikh was traveling on a public bus with his wife, Kauser Bi, from Hyderabad to Sangli, Maharashtra. At 01:30 am, the Gujarat police ATS stopped the bus and took them away. Kauser wanted to stay with her husband, but was taken to a Disha farmhouse outside Ahmedabad instead.
Three days later, Sheikh was killed in an encounter on a highway at Vishala Circle near Ahmedabad. The report filed in the Supreme Court by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) quotes a number of witnesses and builds up a narrative of the killing.
Exposure and state investigations
The encounter killing was not exposed until a media report made a year later. This report, together with a petition filed in the Supreme Court by Sheikh's brother, led to investigations into the incident. In April 2007, senior state police officers were arrested for their connection to the case.
Media report and Supreme Court petition
The encounter killing was exposed after a few police inspectors boasted about it over drinks with journalist Prashant Dayal. Dayal conducted his own investigations at the farmhouse, and then at Illol, and ascertained that a burqa-clad woman had been cremated there. He then broke the story in November 2006, in the leading Gujarati newspaper, Divya Bhaskar, and gave details of the encounter.
Meanwhile, Sheikh's brother Rubabuddin petitioned the Supreme Court claiming that the Gujarat police had orchestrated the encounter and demanded to be given information on the location of his sister-in-law Kauser. In March 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the state Criminal Investigation Department to conduct a time-bound investigation. Inspector-General Geetha Johri was given the task of conducting the investigation, and was to report directly to the court. She gathered evidence that implicated the role of several police officers in the encounter. However, it has been claimed that she may have "steered clear of linking them to a political conspiracy". Based on the evidence collected by Johri, DIG Police Rajnish Rai on April 24, 2007, arrested DIG (Border Range) D G Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, Superintendent of Police with the Intelligence Bureau, and M.N. Dinesh of Rajasthan police, who is alleged to have been working at the behest of the marble lobby.
The Supreme Court asked the Gujarat government to place before it the inquiry reports prepared by Johri, which had allegedly said that Sheikh was killed in an encounter killing. Johri was removed from the investigation after this report was published. On May 3, 2007, the court asked the government whether Johri had been dismissed from the investigation so that a further probe would not be carried out, and directed it to submit a final report on May 15, the day it will give the final order.
Inspector General's report
In Part B of the report, Johri recorded facts relating to repeated attempts by the accused police officers and Amit Shah to sabotage the Supreme Court mandated enquiry. The report states that Shah "brought to bear pressure" on the enquiry process, with the result that Ms. Johri was directed to suspend the enquiry and the enquiry papers were taken away from her "under the guise of scrutiny." Johri also records that Shah even "directed Shri G.C. Raigar, Additional Director General of Police, CID (Crime & Railways) to provide him with the list of witnesses, both police and private, who are yet to be contacted by CID (Crime) for recording their statement in the said enquiry."
The government was asked by the court to give the reason for Johri's removal from the case on May 15. Not finding the Gujarat government's explanations satisfactory, the bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and P.K. Balasubramanyam ruled that Johri would report directly to the Supreme Court. She was reinstated in the same position and also asked to head the case.
Allegations of involvement in Haren Pandya murder
The newspaper DNA, citing sources in the Gujarat State Police, reported in August 2011 that Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram may have been "used to kill Haren Pandya", the erstwhile BJP leader who was once close to Narendra Modi. The murder remains unsolved after 12 people arrested for
it were released in what the high court called a "botched up and blinkered" investigation. According to the DNA report, Sohrabuddin was initially given the task but he back-pedalled and the murder was
eventually executed by Tulsiram. The encounter killings of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram were a result of unease among the conspirators:
However, the alleged conspirators at whose behest Pandya was killed began to lose confidence in Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram and, eventually, their equations began to worsen, the source said.
A similar charge has been made by ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who discovered evidence for Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram's involvement and forwarded it to Amit Shah, who sounded "very disturbed over the telephone" and asked him "not to
speak about it to anyone". Bhatt followed this up with a letter to Shah detailing the "involvement of Sohrabuddin and some policemen in the murder".
Bhatt was subsequently suspended from the Gujarat police.
D.G. Vanzara, ex-IPS who had originally investigated the Pandya murder, and is currently out on bail after being jailed on charges of coordinating the Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram encounters, told the CBI in Sept 2013 that about the role of Sohrabuddin in Pandya's murder.
CBI enquiry
Despite the detailed nature of the Johri report, the Supreme Court felt impelled, given the allegations of involvement by senior politicians, that the case should be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation for investigation. Since 2007, the Gujarat government had strongly resisted these attempts. The CBI took help of T D Dogra of AIIMS New Delhi and Forensic experts of Central Forensic Science Laboratory New Delhi in Forensic investigations.
Media pressure began building up, with calls from organizations such as Amnesty International. Eventually, on 12 January 2010, the Supreme Court observed that "the facts surrounding Prajapati's death evokes strong suspicion that a deliberate attempt was made to destroy a human witness". The court then directed the CBI to take over the probe.
Subsequently, the CBI arrested senior Gujarat police officer Abhay Chudasama, who was charged with extortion in partnership with Sheikh. After Chudasama's arrest, the CBI also charged the now ex-home minister Shah with collusion.
Suspicion of political interference intensified after the evidence handed over to the CBI from the state investigations showed that 331 phone calls by Shah to the concerned police officers had been deleted from the records. After media reports revealed the original records of calls from Shah to Vanzara and other police officers executing the killings, the CBI acquired the original records, and ex-police chief O.P. Mathur, who was then Director of Raksha Shakti University, was indicted for deleting evidence. Shah was subsequently named as the "prime accused" in the case.
A CBI witness also claimed that they were paid Rs. 10 crores by R.K. Patni, the owner of RK marbles who was acquainted with Indian National Congress leaders, to eliminate Sheikh. But BJP MLAs Gulab Chand Kataria and Om Prakash Mathur from the neighbouring state of Rajasthan also got named in the case. Kataria, who visited Gujarat to lobby for the release of Rajasthan police officer Dinesh M.N. in 2007, denied all charges. On September 1, IPS Officer D G Vanzara resigned, blaming lack of interest shown by State Government in rescuing him and other police officers jailed in fake encounter cases. Dineshsh M. N. was granted bail in May 2014. He had served seven years in jail due to cases.
The Special Court had discharged Amit Shah from the case due to lack of evidence in December 2014.
D. G. Vanzara and Dinesh M. N. were acquitted in August 2017 due to lack of evidence.
Reactions
As the case included the high ranking BJP politician Amit Shah, the opposition party including Rahul Gandhi criticized the case throughout. When the court found no evidence of guilt at the end, Gandhi remarked that somehow various people died from strange circumstances.
In 2007 Amnesty International criticized the police investigation and the practice of encounter killings by police.
A publication advocating for rule of law in India criticized the circumstances of the case for the normalization of extraordinary and gruesome occurrences, and for out of process police investigation, and for unacceptably poor courtroom proceedings.
News sources including The Hindu, Deccan Herald, and The Indian Express described the case as a failure of the justice system.
National Herald claimed that the court inappropriately issued a gag order to prevent media coverage of the case.
Legal commentators Harsh Mander and Sarim Naved said that the case demonstrated the Indian justice system's lack of capacity to effectively manage large court cases involving high-profile people. Legal blog Bar and Bench used the case to talk about various challenges in the Indian legal system.
See also
Tulsiram Prajapati killing
Encounter killings by police
Ishrat Jahan
1982 Gonda Encounter
Ranbir Singh case
References
External links
Dead Man Talking Tehelka, 3 December 2011.
Indian extortionists
Politics of Gujarat
Extrajudicial killings
2005 in India
Human rights abuses in India
Deaths by person in India
Deaths in police custody in India |
11627918 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20David%20Oluwale | Death of David Oluwale | David Oluwale (1930–1969) was a British Nigerian who drowned in the River Aire in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1969. The events leading to his drowning have been described as "the physical and psychological destruction of a homeless, black man whose brutal, systematic harassment was orchestrated by the Leeds city police force." Oluwale's death resulted in the first successful prosecution of British police officers for involvement in the death of a black person. The precise sequence of events that led to Oluwale entering the river—whether he was deliberately thrown, chased or fell accidentally—have never been officially established, although two independent witnesses testified that they saw uniformed police officers chasing him alongside the river on the night he is believed to have drowned.
Oluwale's body was recovered from the section of the river between Knostrop Weir and Skelton Grange Power Station on 4 May 1969. The death was not treated as suspicious by the police or the coroner. In October 1970, a whistleblower within Leeds City Police revealed that Oluwale had been the victim of serious and sustained mistreatment by senior officers at Milgarth Police Station, Leeds, and an investigation, led by London's Scotland Yard, was opened. It was discovered that Oluwale had been subjected to "systemic, varied and brutal" violence by at least two officers, which "would often occur in the presence of other [officers], who made no effort to intervene."
In November 1971, former-Inspector Geoffrey Ellerker—by this time already serving a prison sentence for his involvement in covering up the circumstances of the death of a 69-year-old woman—and Sergeant Kenneth Kitching went on trial for the manslaughter of Oluwale. The trial received national media coverage, but justice and civil rights campaigners considered it to be a whitewash, presenting a deliberately negative portrait of Oluwale as "a wild animal" and "a menace to society", while failing to call any of the witnesses whose testimonies challenged this narrative. During the trial, the judge, Mr. Justice Hinchcliffe—who at one point described Oluwale as "a dirty, filthy, violent vagrant"—directed the jury to find the defendants not guilty of manslaughter, perjury and assaults occasioning grievous bodily harm. The jury returned unanimous verdicts of guilty relating to four assaults which took place between August 1968 and February 1969. Ellerker was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, and Kitching to 27 months.
Background
Oluwale was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1930. In August 1949, he hid on board SS Temple Bar, a cargo ship destined for Hull, England. When the ship docked in Hull on 3 September 1949, he was handed over to the authorities. Under the British Nationality Act 1948 Oluwale was considered a British subject and not an illegal immigrant, but he was charged as a stowaway under the Merchant Shipping Act. He was sentenced to 28 days' imprisonment, served in Armley Gaol, Leeds, and Northallerton Prison, Northallerton.
Following his release from prison on 3 October 1949, Oluwale—who had served an apprenticeship as a tailor in Nigeria—headed to Leeds where there was a large textile and clothing industry.
In 1953, Oluwale was charged with disorderly conduct and assault following a police raid on a nightclub. He subsequently served a 28-day sentence. In prison it was reported he suffered from hallucinations, possibly because of damage sustained from a truncheon blow during the arrest. He was transferred to Menston Asylum in Leeds (later called High Royds Hospital, now closed) where he spent the next eight years. He was treated with a variety of techniques, allegedly including electroconvulsive therapy and various drugs (hospital records have since been lost).
Upon release Oluwale was unable to hold down a job and a permanent residence, and quickly became homeless. Friends reported that he was a shadow of his former self, and had lost all confidence. As a black immigrant in 1960s Britain, his choices of lodging and employment were also limited in his lifetime (the Race Relations Act outlawing discrimination in both only received Royal Assent in October 1968).
During this time he regularly moved between London, Sheffield and Leeds. He found himself in trouble with the Leeds police again several times and accused the police of harassing him. In late 1965, he was returned to High Royds Hospital, where he spent another two years. Following release he was once again homeless and lived on the street.
Leeds City Police
Contemporary police records show that 1968 saw his first recorded contact with Sergeant Kenneth Kitching and Inspector Geoffrey Ellerker in Leeds. The actions of the two officers would allegedly lead to Oluwale's death, although several other police officers were also involved with harassing Oluwale during this time.
In the subsequent enquiry and manslaughter/assault trial against Kitching and Ellerker, it was stated they regularly beat up Oluwale, often kicking him in the groin and, on one occasion, urinating on him. Often they made him bow before them on his hands and knees, during which they would kick away his arms so his head hit the pavement. They referred to this as "penance". They also verbally abused him, referring to him as a "lame darkie". On several occasions they drove him out of Leeds in police vehicles, abandoning him on the outskirts in the early morning. Their intention was to force Oluwale to leave Leeds and not return. However, he viewed Leeds as his home and made his way back each time.
In the early hours of 17 April 1969, Kitching found Oluwale sleeping in a shop doorway, and summoned Ellerker. They both beat Oluwale with their truncheons and the last reported sighting of Oluwale was of him running away from the officers towards the River Aire. It was there that his body was found two weeks later. He was buried in a pauper's grave and no suspicious circumstances were attached to his death at the time.
Scotland Yard enquiry
In 1970, a young police recruit reported to a senior officer that he had heard gossip from colleagues about the severe way Kitching and Ellerker had treated Oluwale. This report might have been prompted by fraud charges that were on-going against Ellerker. An enquiry was launched, carried out by Scotland Yard, and sufficient evidence was gathered to prompt manslaughter, perjury and grievous bodily harm (GBH) charges being brought against Kitching and Ellerker in 1971.
Manslaughter trial
During the enquiry and trial, a catalogue of physical abuse came to light, mostly carried out by Kitching and Ellerker. It was revealed they had taken special interest in Oluwale and asked colleagues to let them personally handle incidents relating to him. They specifically targeted him in the early hours of the morning, when there was nobody about and he could usually be found sleeping in shop doorways. Additionally, it was found that racist terms were used on paperwork relating to Oluwale, such as scribbling "wog" in the space reserved for nationality. However, despite this, the trial made no mention of racism and was centred on police brutality. Several trial witnesses described Oluwale as a dangerous man, and the trial judge referred to him as a "dirty, filthy, violent vagrant". However, this is contrary to the statements of witnesses collected during the earlier enquiry, who described Oluwale as unassuming and even cheerful. One of these witnesses was Yorkshire Evening Post reporter Tony Harney. However, their statements were not featured in the trial.
On the directions of the judge, manslaughter charges were dropped during the trial. Ellerker was found guilty of three assaults against Oluwale and Kitching of two assaults. They were found not guilty of causing GBH. Ellerker was sentenced to three years in prison, and Kitching received 27 months.
Cultural legacy
Although Oluwale's story caused a national scandal at the time (thanks in part to the radio play Smiling David written by Jeremy Sandford), it had been all but forgotten until police paperwork detailing the case was declassified under the thirty-year rule. This was used by Kester Aspden to write the book Nationality: Wog, The Hounding of David Oluwale, published in 2007, which returned the story to the public eye. Attempts are being made to erect a memorial plaque in Leeds on the likely site of Olulwale's death.
Aspden's book has been adapted by Oladipo Agboluaje into a stage play, first performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in February 2009, which critics described as "a richly emotional play which proves its point without coming across like it has a point to prove".
Oluwale's story is also the subject of a film installation by Corinne Silva, entitled Wandering Abroad, which premiered at Leeds Art Gallery in 2009.
The Remembering Oluwale anthology was published in 2016 and its many varied entries cover "the issues that David endured: mental health distress, incarceration, police brutality, destitution and homelessness—all linked to his status as a migrant from Nigeria, a British citizen who happened to be black. The 26 long-listed entries are in the book, along with already published work by Caryl Phillips, Kester Aspden, Ian Duhig, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Zodwa Nyoni, Sai Murray and The Baggage Handlers".
In 2018, a production named Freeman by the Strictly Arts Theatre was put on at the Pleasance Theatre in London. It was a play about systematic racism within legal institutions, and how many people have suffered from police brutality, ignorance from the law, etc. David Oluwale was one of the characters.
In 2019, the David Oluwale Memorial Association led a series of events to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. Events included an exhibition at The Tetley, readings by Linton Kwesi Johnson and Jackie Kay and a vigil at his graveside in Killingbeck Cemetery.
In 2022 work started on a new bridge over the River Aire, crossing from Sovereign Street to Water Lane, to be known as the David Oluwale Bridge.
References
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
1930 births
1969 deaths
Victims of police brutality
Anti-black racism in England
Police misconduct in England
Deaths by person in England
1969 in England
May 1969 events in the United Kingdom
Black British history
Racially motivated violence against black people |
11768541 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Edith%20Rodriguez | Death of Edith Rodriguez | Edith Isabel Rodriguez (February 1, 1964 – May 9, 2007) was a woman who died of gastrointestinal perforation at the Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital (King-Harbor) in unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States, after being refused treatment by hospital staff. Staff believed that her pain was due to a gallstone attack and thus did not believe she required urgent medical care. Rodriguez's situation became a cause célèbre about the failures and bureaucratic indifference of both King-Harbor as well as political and health leaders in the Los Angeles area, creating or reinforcing fears that the health care system will not take care of people in a time of dire need. The Rodriguez case resulted in press coverage on national news networks such as CNN and CBS News.
Incident at the hospital
On May 9, 2007, Rodriguez is reported to have lain on the floor of the hospital's emergency department waiting room for 45 minutes while boyfriend Jose Prado made calls to 911 to report that Rodriguez was dying but hospital staff could not be convinced to treat her. According to waiting room video, and a June 15, 2007 report by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, for at least 30 minutes "staff members walked past the patient or worked to clean the floor next to her without interacting with her"; at one point a janitor cleaned the floor around Rodriguez as she vomited blood. A bystander made a similar call, telling the 911 dispatcher that a woman vomiting blood was being ignored by emergency-room staff.
The caller requested an ambulance to transport the woman to another hospital, but her request was refused; emergency dispatchers would not act on the situation, nor call paramedic services, citing that the victim was at a hospital. The nighttime triage nurse, Linda Ruttlen, after repeatedly refusing to intervene, complained to police officers of the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety that Rodriguez was causing a disturbance; a computer search on Rodriguez found that she had a parole violation for possession of a controlled substance. As county police were taking her into custody, Rodriguez became unresponsive and died on a stretcher. Results of toxicology testing by the coroner showed that Rodriguez tested positive for methamphetamine, but the level was not "life-threatening".
Aftermath
As a result of the incident, six staff members at King-Harbor, including a nurse and two nursing assistants, received "letters of expectation" (a letter outlining how they should behave in the future and carrying no additional penalty) from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS), taking into consideration previous performance history and their role in the event. In addition, the contract janitor was counseled verbally and the triage nurse (Linda Ruttlen) was placed on leave and later resigned. DHS placed most of the blame on Ruttlen, who pointedly refused requests to intervene, and she was referred to the state nursing board for investigation.
The incident, including the actions of 911 operators, was under review by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. In response to public outcry, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) asked federal regulators to address how they will protect patients at King-Harbor in light of "horrific" and "appalling" lapses in patient care.
The police, who had arrested Rodriguez in hopes of getting her better medical treatment in jail than she had received at the hospital, were absolved of wrongdoing.
See also
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act
References
1964 births
2007 deaths
2007 in California
Deaths by person in the United States |
11950997 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Chanel%20Petro-Nixon | Death of Chanel Petro-Nixon | Chanel Petro-Nixon was an American teenager who was strangled to death in Brooklyn, New York, United States in 2006. In 2016, Veron Primus was charged with the murder.
Life
Chanel Petro-Nixon was born in mid-1989 and lived in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, with her father Anthony Garvin, her mother Lucita Nixon, and her brothers Marcus and Giovanni. She was a member of the Mt. of Olives Seventh-day Adventist Church on Bushwick Avenue and was considered devout by her family based on her church and prayer attendance. She was also an 11th grader at Boys and Girls High School, and was known as a straight-A student who spent her after-school hours in the library. According to Nancy Grace of CNN, "She wanted to become a nurse to help other people".
Death
On Sunday, June 18, 2006, Petro-Nixon left her family's home, telling them she was walking to the Applebee's restaurant near New York Avenue and Fulton Street, to meet a friend. She never returned home.
Four days later, her body was discovered in a trash bag in front of 212 Kingston Avenue. It was determined that Petro-Nixon had been strangled. Petro-Nixon was buried at Rosedale and Rosehill Cemetery, located in Linden, New Jersey.
Reaction
Following his daughter's murder, Anthony Garvin was quoted as saying: "I don't trust anybody [...] That person shaking your hand, smiling in your face, could be the one who did this." Petro-Nixon's mother, Lucita, took a different viewpoint stating, "I won't let anger poison me". A teenage friend of Petro-Nixon's said: "She would never do anything wrong." The friend also said that two had read The Da Vinci Code together and that Petro-Nixon was a good student: "She had good grades. I would call her the 'little nerd.'"
Petro-Nixon's parents made a plea to the public requesting help finding her killer. They also visited the site where she was found.
On July 7, 2006, the Brooklyn Branch of the N.A.A.C.P. sent a letter to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly requesting a meeting. The letter mentioned "increasing rates of crime", "inadequate police response", and the murder of Petro-Nixon.
Investigation
Police quickly appealed to the public for information, offering an initial reward of $12,000 for useful information.
At a later date, the reward amount was increased, ultimately reaching $38,000. The fund represents contributions by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, The New York Daily News, The Reverend Al Sharpton, and the New York City Police Department. No one has claimed the reward.
The New York City Police Department interviewed all of Petro-Nixon's friends and collected hundreds of tips.
An article in the New York Daily News focused on Petro-Nixon's white sneakers, with the hope that someone would have recognized her shoes.
Cops hope a photo of 16-year-old Chanel Petro-Nixon's white and pink retro jordan sneakers will jog a witness' memory and help investigators track down the Brooklyn girl's killer.
David Stein, head of the detective squad working the case, was quoted as saying, "You see a case like this maybe once in a career."
Arrest
In June 2016, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced that former Crown Heights resident Veron Primus had been formally charged with Petro-Nixon's murder. Primus had been a school friend of Petro-Nixon's and it was later found that he was the friend she was meeting at Applebee's on the day she disappeared. It was reported that he was considered a suspect from day one, but there had not been enough evidence to lead to an arrest.
Some years after Petro-Nixon's murder, Primus had also served time in prison for violating a restraining order and was deported to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, following his release. In 2016, while in St. Vincent, he became a suspect in the abduction of one woman and the murder of another. While investigating these crimes, St. Vincent authorities found new evidence linking Primus to Petro-Nixon's murder. They contacted New York investigators, who traveled to the island and were then able to issue an indictment.
, Primus is being held in St. Vincent, awaiting trial for the unrelated murder of a 33-year-old estate agent named Sharleen Greaves. Thompson stated that he wished for Primus to be returned to the United States and stand trial for Petro-Nixon's murder.
Aftermath
Murder statistics conducted by the NYPD and obtained by the New York Daily News had mention Petro-Nixon. Another murder which occurred on the same day as Petro-Nixon's was mentioned, and there was speculation that both murders may be related. New York Daily News columnist Errol Louis, who tried to keep the story 'alive' in the press, reported that there was an upward spike in murder in Crown Heights by 122%, and that community meetings were being held by Assemblyman Karim Camara. Petro-Nixon's mother was quoted in a New York Times story, related to the case: "We try our best to keep it alive." And, "We really don't want her death to be in vain".
In January 2007, CNN aired a video featuring Nancy Grace discussing unsolved murders.
, the case had still not been solved. There were no witnesses known to have seen Petro-Nixon murdered, nor had any suspects been identified. The Reverend Al Sharpton joined with the television show, America's Most Wanted, in trying to solve the mystery of her murder and used strong language directed to the Black community in presenting the case of Petro-Nixon's murder.
Petro-Nixon's mother, Lucita, had been scheduled to receive a "survivor's" award during January, 2008. More than two years had passed and there had been no further revelations in Petro-Nixon's murder.
On June 19, 2010, a rally, march, and prayer vigil were held in honor of Petro-Nixon. The blog site mentioning this rally also stated that as of that late date no further evidence of her murder had been provided.
A website was created in memory of Petro-Nixon as well as to reach out to the public to obtain information or help in locating her murderer.
See also
List of solved missing person cases
List of unsolved murders
References
Further reading
External links
2000s missing person cases
2006 in New York (state)
Crimes in New York City
Formerly missing people
June 2006 events in the United States
Missing person cases in New York City
Unsolved murders in the United States
2006 murders in the United States
People murdered in New York City
burials in New Jersey |
12119085 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20Doxy | Death of a Doxy | Death of a Doxy is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by Viking Press in 1966.
Plot introduction
Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's operatives, has been secretly seeing a wealthy man's kept mistress at her secret lovenest. He is arrested when she turns up dead.
Orrie is the only one of Wolfe's operatives to have the plot of two Stout books turn on his actions: Death of a Doxy and Stout's final work, A Family Affair.
Plot summary
Orrie is finally going to tie the knot. He is engaged to marry Jill Hardy, a stewardess. But for months, Orrie's also been keeping company with Isabel Kerr, an ex-showgirl. Orrie has some time available, because Jill works international flights. Isabel also has time available, because she no longer performs: rather, she occupies a plush apartment that is paid for by another gentleman friend who visits her just two or three times a week.
Isabel objects to Orrie's marriage plans. She has taken some of his personal and professional belongings and stashed them in her apartment. Isabel threatens to show them to Jill and thus quash the marriage. So, Orrie asks Archie to get into Isabel's apartment, find his possessions, and get them back. When Archie does enter the apartment, he finds not Orrie's belongings but Isabel's body. Archie withdraws to meet with Orrie, but otherwise keeps the news to himself.
Isabel's sister Stella later discovers the body. The police find Orrie's possessions in the apartment and arrest him on suspicion of murder. In a meeting to consider whether Orrie is guilty, Wolfe, Archie, and Fred are all unsure, but Saul—via some convoluted reasoning—concludes that he is innocent, and Wolfe undertakes to demonstrate it.
Wolfe must determine who knew about Isabel's apartment. Orrie has given Archie some names—Avery Ballou, who pays the bills, Stella Fleming and her husband Barry, and a nightclub singer named Julie Jaquette. Archie visits Stella and Barry, and learns that Stella is frantic to keep a lid on the nature of her sister's living arrangements. Stella's concern for Isabel's reputation is such that she tries to claw Archie's face when he refers to Isabel as a "doxy" (prostitute).
Archie corrals a reluctant Ballou, and Wolfe coerces his cooperation by threatening disclosure of his relationship with Isabel. It turns out that Ballou has already been subjected to blackmail, by someone named Milton Thales. Ballou thinks that Thales is really Orrie, but Wolfe deduces Thales' true identity and assumes that he is Isabel's murderer.
Wolfe sends Saul to bring Julie Jaquette. When she dances into Wolfe's office, Miss Jaquette puts on a performance, first singing and then demanding to see Wolfe's orchids. She displays a cynicism regarding human behavior that Wolfe regards as similar to his own. Julie agrees to act as bait for the murderer and is nearly killed herself. For her protection, she is moved into the brownstone, where she helps Wolfe and Archie force Thales' hand after Wolfe offers $50,000 cash for her assistance.
The unfamiliar word
"Like all of us, Wolfe has his favorite words, phrases, and sayings," wrote William S. Baring-Gould. "Among the words, many are unusual and some are abstruse."
Nero Wolfe's erudite vocabulary is one of the hallmarks of the character. Examples of unfamiliar words—or unfamiliar uses of words that some would otherwise consider familiar—are found throughout the corpus. Death of a Doxy contains several examples, including the following:
"Incumbency". Chapter 7; perhaps unfamiliar in the sense that Wolfe uses it: "Mr. Cather has worked for me, on occasion, for years, and I am under an incumbency."
"Strephon". Chapter 7. "Strephon is the lover of Urania in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia," wrote Rev. Frederick G. Gotwald in The Nero Wolfe Companion. "It became the conventional name for a lover in literature." Dating to 1580, the character later appears in Jonathan Swift's "Strephon and Chloe" (1731); Happy Arcadia (1872), a one-act musical play with libretto by W. S. Gilbert; and Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe (1882).
"Juridically". Chapter 13. (This word also appears in adjectival form in The League of Frightened Men and Prisoner's Base.)
"Chaldean". Chapter 16.
Cast of characters
Nero Wolfe: The private investigator
Archie Goodwin: Wolfe's assistant (and the narrator of all Wolfe stories)
Orrie Cather: An operative frequently in Wolfe's employ, along with Saul Panzer and Fred Durkin. Orrie's activities in this book are very limited, but the plot centers on his dalliance with Isabel Kerr.
Jill Hardy: An airline attendant, then termed "stewardess", and Orrie's fiancée
Isabel Kerr: The murder victim, occupant of a plush apartment, of whom a newspaper wrote, "It does not appear that Miss Kerr was employed anywhere or engaged in any regular activity."
Stella Fleming: Isabel's sister, whose greatest fear is that Isabel's lifestyle will be publicized
Barry Fleming: Stella's husband, a mathematics professor
Avery Ballou: A CEO, a devotee of the works of Rudyard Kipling, and the source of Miss Kerr's rent and other living expenses
Julie Jaquette (stage name of Amy Jackson): A successful nightclub singer and Isabel Kerr's best friend
Inspector Cramer: Representing Manhattan Homicide
Reviews and commentary
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime—First-rate Stout done at the age of 80. The tightness of the plot, the wit, and the people are done with sureness and speed, so that the book, though short, gives one the sense of having lived through a long stretch of tense expectation. New roles, too, for Orrie Cather, Cramer, and Wolfe in relation to a murder which they are not asked to investigate. Wolfe gets his $50,000 fee, which one hopes he splits with the author.
Terry Teachout, About Last Night, "Forty years with Nero Wolfe" (January 12, 2009)—Rex Stout's witty, fast-moving prose hasn't dated a day, while Wolfe himself is one of the enduringly great eccentrics of popular fiction. I've spent the past four decades reading and re-reading Stout's novels for pleasure, and they have yet to lose their savor ... It is to revel in such writing that I return time and again to Stout's books, and in particular to The League of Frightened Men, Some Buried Caesar, The Silent Speaker, Too Many Women, Murder by the Book, Before Midnight, Plot It Yourself, Too Many Clients, The Doorbell Rang, and Death of a Doxy, which are for me the best of all the full-length Wolfe novels.
Adaptations
A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)
An adaptation of Death of a Doxy opened the second season of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002). Directed by Timothy Hutton from a teleplay by Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, "Death of a Doxy" aired April 14, 2002, on A&E.
Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) include Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), Bill Smitrovich (Inspector Cramer), Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), Trent McMullen (Orrie Cather), Fulvio Cecere (Fred Durkin), Kari Matchett (Julie Jaquette/Lily Rowan), James Tolkan (Avery Ballou), Christine Brubaker (Stella Fleming), Carlo Rota (Barry Fleming), Nicky Guadagni (Mrs. Ballou), Hayley Verlyn (Isabel Kerr), Janine Theriault (Jill Hardy), George Plimpton (Nathaniel Parker) and Julian Richings (Poet).
In addition to original music by Nero Wolfe composer Michael Small, the soundtrack includes music by Rick Cassman and Vyv Hope-Scott, Graham de Wilde, Antonín Dvořák, Ken Miller and David Steinberg.
In North America, A Nero Wolfe Mystery is available on Region 1 DVD from A&E Home Video (). The DVD release presents the 4:3 pan and scan version of "Death of a Doxy" rather than A&E's 16:9 letterboxed version.
"Death of a Doxy" is one of the Nero Wolfe episodes released on Region 2 DVD in the Netherlands by Just Entertainment, under license from FremantleMedia Enterprises. A Nero Wolfe Mystery—Serie 2 (2010) was the first DVD release of the international version of the episode, which includes a brief closing scene in which Orrie visits the brownstone. The Netherlands release has optional Dutch subtitles and, like the A&E DVD release, presents the episode in 4:3 pan and scan rather than its 16:9 aspect ratio for widescreen viewing.
Nero Wolfe (Paramount Television)
Death of a Doxy was adapted as "What Happened to April", the ninth episode of Nero Wolfe (1981), an NBC TV series starring William Conrad as Nero Wolfe and Lee Horsley as Archie Goodwin. Other members of the regular cast include George Voskovec (Fritz Brenner), Robert Coote (Theodore Horstmann), George Wyner (Saul Panzer) and Allan Miller (Inspector Cramer). Guest stars include Richard Anderson (Chester Winslow [Avery Ballou]), Deborah Fallender (Julie Keen [Jaquette]) and Laurie Heineman (Donna MacKenzie [Stella Fleming]). Directed by Edward M. Abroms from a teleplay by Stephen Downing, "What Happened to April" aired March 20, 1981.
Publication history
1966, New York: The Viking Press, August 19, 1966, hardcover
In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Death of a Doxy: "Yellow boards, gray cloth spine; front cover printed with a blue design; spine printed with blue lettering; rear cover blank. Issued in a red, black, and white dust photographic wrapper which has been die cut to reveal the blue printed design on the front cover. … The dust wrapper is noteworthy for its ugliness and the singularly misconceived design element of the pointess die cut."
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Death of a Doxy had a value of between $100 and $200. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
1966, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), October 1966, hardcover
The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts).
Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions.
Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine).
1966, Toronto Star Weekly, abridged, October 1966
1966, Toronto: Macmillan, 1966, hardcover
1967, London: Collins Crime Club, June 5, 1967, hardcover
1967, Argosy, June 1967 (abridged)
1967, New York: Bantam #F3476, August 1967, paperback
1969, London: Fontana, 1969, paperback
1995, New York: Bantam Crime Line October 1995, paperback, Rex Stout Library edition with introduction by Sandra West Prowell
2002, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters July 2002, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline July 21, 2010, e-book
References
External links
1966 American novels
American novels adapted into films
Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout
American novels adapted into television shows
Viking Press books
Novels about murder |
12404430 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Timothy%20Wiltsey | Death of Timothy Wiltsey | Timothy William "Timmy" Wiltsey (August 6, 1985 – remains recovered April 23, 1992) was a 5-year-old boy from South Amboy, New Jersey, United States, whose mother, Michelle Lodzinski, told police that he went missing from a carnival in nearby Sayreville on May 25, 1991. Police searches of the park where the carnival had been held failed to locate Wiltsey. Almost 11 months later, his remains were discovered across the Raritan River in the marshlands of nearby Edison, near an office park where Lodzinski had once worked.
Due to changes in her account of how her son disappeared within a month of his disappearance, and her unemotional demeanor on the few occasions she spoke publicly about the case, she began to be seen as a suspect. That perception intensified later in the decade when she was convicted of first staging her own kidnapping, and then again several years later of stealing a laptop from a former employer. Prosecutors did not bring charges against her until the 2010s, by which time she had remarried, had two more children, and moved to Florida, where she was arrested in 2014.
Wiltsey's remains were so decomposed when discovered that the cause of death could not be determined, and it was unclear when anyone besides Lodzinski had last seen him, making it difficult to connect her to any foul play or establish when and how it had taken place. Middlesex County prosecutors believed that a blanket found near the body was one that babysitters had seen in her house while the boy was alive. In 2016, after a trial that saw the jury foreman dismissed for doing independent research, she was convicted and sentenced to 30 years without parole. The conviction was sustained on appeal.
In 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court heard Lodzinski's case. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner recused himself, and the remaining judges deadlocked, leaving her most recent appeal, which had upheld her conviction, standing. The Court was persuaded to invoke a rarely-used rule allowing a rehearing with another judge temporarily designated a justice to hear the case so that a result is reached. At the end of the year, a narrow majority vacated her conviction because the evidence was insufficient for a reasonable jury to convict her.
Background
Wiltsey was born August 6, 1985, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to George Wiltsey of nearby Walker, and Michelle Lodzinski of Laurence Harbor, New Jersey. The two had met the year before when the 16-year-old Lodzsinki had come to visit her brother. They began dating, and Michelle became pregnant. Six months after giving birth, Lodzinski returned to her home with her infant son as his father had become abusive; she also disliked the isolation of Iowa. George had nothing to do with his son (at Lodzinski's request, he later testified; she returned any mail he sent his son) after Timothy went back to New Jersey with his mother, and did not pay any child support.
Lodzinski and her son lived with her sister and her husband in South Amboy for two years before she moved out to the first of three apartments in the same town she and Wiltsey lived in. She worked at a variety of low-paying jobs available to a single mother who had dropped out of high school in her late teens with minimal education and skills, primarily clerical and office work, plus retailing and as a bank teller. She declined to seek public assistance, instead accepting money from her father and at some points she working two jobs; she sometimes described herself to friends as a "weekend mom". Her landlady described her as "a hardworking single mother"
Lodzinski often relied on friends, family or paid sitters to watch Wiltsey while she was at work, but sometimes those arrangements fell through, and she took him to work with her. Employers and coworkers recalled that she frequently came in late. On other occasions, when she had to come home late, she forgot to call her sitters. In January 1990, Lodzinski's sister and brother-in-law, on whom she had relied extensively for child care, moved to Florida, greatly complicating her arrangements. At one point, when Wiltsey was four, a brother in Minnesota took him in for two months so she could save money for his school tuition.
Her friends and family recall that she was devoted to Wiltsey, taking him to the dentist regularly, taking him on camping trips and other vacations, and saving up enough money to send him to kindergarten at private St. Mary's School when he reached school age. Once he was in school she helped him with his homework and regularly bought him new clothes. Wiltsey had attendance problems: he was absent 25 days that year and came in late on another 63.
Wiltsey was an issue between Lodzinski and two men she became romantically involved with during this period, one of whom she became briefly engaged to. While both of them said later that they liked both her and her son, they felt they were both too young themselves to commit to being his stepfather. The former fiancé did not believe Lodzinski was a properly attentive mother to Wiltsey; she impressed him as relating to him more like an older sister and was not surprised when the boy required 72 stitches to his face after being bitten by a dog next door as he had warned her about letting Wiltsey play outside in the back yard alone while the dog was loose. He became engaged to another woman a month before Wiltsey's disappearance.
Lodzinski's brother's girlfriend was also critical of some aspects of her parenting. On one occasion while Lodzinski was out late and she was sitting Wiltsey, Lodzinski called and asked her to let the boy leave with a man the girlfriend did not know. After she refused, Lodzinski returned home and forced Wiltsey into a car driven by Lodzinski's boyfriend at the time, Fred Bruno. She believed Wiltsey was "terrified" of Bruno and told police she suspected him after Wiltsey's body was found (On the witness stand he denied any involvement in Wiltsey's death).
Disappearance
On May 24, 1991, the Friday before that year's Memorial Day weekend, Lodzinski was planning for the end of the school year and the summer ahead. She took Wiltsey out shopping for new clothes to complement the kindergarten graduation gown he had already gotten, and made plans to visit her sister in Florida with her son and make a visit to Disney World after the school year ended. That evening, she told a neighbor about her plans to take Wiltsey, along with her brother's infant niece, to the South Amboy Elks Club carnival in nearby Sayreville's Kennedy Park the next day. The neighbor, and the niece's mother, both recalled that the two were in a good mood and looking forward to the upcoming events.
The following day the two were seen by a neighbor leaving their house around 11 a.m. This was the last time Wiltsey was seen alive by anyone who knew him other than Lodzinksi. She told law enforcement later that she and he went to a park in nearby Holmdel during the afternoon, where they played kickball, walked around the lake and visited the petting zoo.
Without picking up her niece, or calling the girl's mother, Lodzinski went straight to the carnival, and arrived there shortly after 7 p.m. Some unspecified time later, she encountered another niece, Jennifer Blair, with a friend. When they saw her looking around urgently, she told them she had lost sight of Wiltsey when she left him waiting in a carnival ride line as she went to buy a soda. The three went to report the incident to a Sayreville auxiliary police officer.
Investigation
The carnival was immediately shut down. Police officers, firefighters, volunteers, and trained dogs immediately launched an exhaustive search of the carnival grounds and the surrounding area but found neither Wiltsey nor any evidence he had been in the area. A firefighter who drove Lodzinski back to her house to get an item the dogs could use to get Wiltsey's scent recalled that when she stopped at the bar her then-boyfriend worked at to tell him what had happened, she was crying and speaking incoherently. The Sayreville police detective who took her home for the night after the search was suspended at 2 a.m. wrote in his report that she was tearful; her sister, whom she informed of Wiltsey's disappearance on the phone in the next couple of hours, says she cried. The next morning, after the search resumed, another detective at the station when she brought clothes for her son to wear if he were found, recalled her demeanor as distraught.
Over the next few days, police interviewed carnival workers and visitors to see if they had seen Wiltsey at the carnival. One worker said that shortly after 7 p.m. that evening, she had seen a boy wearing a red tank top and red printed shorts, similar to the clothes Lodzinski said Wiltsey had been wearing, come up to her stand and get called away by a woman. Roughly 10 minutes later she saw the same woman walking around alone calling out "Timmy" or "Jimmy" and looking concerned; she identified Wiltsey in a group picture and, upon seeing Lodzinski in person, said she might have been the woman.
Another carnival worker recalled helping a boy with a tank top, shorts, and sneakers with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on them off his ride around 7:15. He later told police it was definitely the boy he saw on posters. Three teenagers recalled telling a boy, accompanied by two men and a woman, in Ninja Turtles sneakers to watch out for broken glass on a pathway as they were leaving the carnival.
The day following the disappearance, Sayreville police searched her car, still parked near the carnival, and found nothing that would help. Two days later, the county prosecutor's office searched her house and found nothing; a similar FBI analysis of her garbage, turned over by her landlord, was also fruitless. Police also arranged to have a pen register tap placed on her home telephone to record the numbers of any incoming calls.
Lodzinski, according to those regularly in contact with her during this time, was greatly affected by her son's unexplained absence from her life. She told her sister she could not sleep or eat. Bruno, her boyfriend, recalled her saying she could not "hold anything down." Within two weeks, she moved out of her house in South Amboy to avoid the media attention. "Everyone is waiting to see a grieving mother on TV break down, crying, hysterical because the public, they thrive on that stuff.", she explained. "But I'm not going to do it."
George Wiltsey, at home in Iowa and still uninvolved in his son's life, was soon eliminated as a suspect in any potential wrongdoing. The case was televised twice on America's Most Wanted, and Timmy's photograph was circulated on thousands of missing-child flyers and milk cartons. In what a local newspaper called a "bitter irony", May 25 was National Missing Children's Day, an annual observance held on the anniversary of the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz.
Inconsistent accounts by Lodzinksi
Lodzinski reported to investigators that she and her son had spent time at Holmdel Park during the afternoon before driving to the evening carnival. According to the park police, the Holmdel lot where she claimed to have parked was closed that day. Police said at the time they could find no one who had seen her son that night. One witness later testified: "I spoke with her and she did not have a child with her. I was very upset. There was a child missing and there was no child." The last confirmed sighting of Wiltsey by anyone other than Lodzinski was the neighbor who saw him that morning.
More than a week later, at a police interview in Sayreville, Lodzinski claimed two men with a knife had taken her son and intimidated her into silence; pressed for further details, she walked out and challenged police to charge her. Later that day, she returned to the police station, with her sister and a friend, and recanted the story, as the police began to consider her a leading suspect. She returned the following day and, during a long and confrontational interview gave a third story, that two men and a woman had taken her son after offering to watch him briefly while she got sodas, so he could keep his place in line for a ride. Lodzinski claimed to have known the woman as Ellen, a local go-go dancer and customer of the bank where Lodzinski had previously worked as a teller. The FBI was unable to locate the woman.
The police arranged with Bruno for him to call Lodzinski while they listened in to a call where he challenged her on her story. She said she would not talk with him about it over the phone and asked instead that they discuss it in person. The following day, they met in Bruno's car, where he had planted a microphone in for the police to listen in. She reiterated the last account she had given police, about Ellen and her companions abducting Wiltsey, adding that she had not told that story at first because she was afraid people would think her a bad mother for leaving her son with a woman she barely knew, even briefly.
The following day, Lodzinksi was interviewed again by the state police for five hours. She repeated the Ellen story, but this time amended it. In this version one of the men with Ellen had put the knife to her throat. Challenged on this version, she again ended the interview and told police to charge her if that was what they wanted to do. Taken back to the Sayreville police for further questioning, she told the same story, adding that she had been told her son would be returned to her unharmed in a month if she kept quiet. When the interview ended at 9 p.m., Lodzinski, who had not eaten in 12 hours, was taken to the hospital by friends as she appeared to be suffering a mental breakdown.
Another interview by an investigator with the county prosecutor's office at Lodzinski's home five days later had a similar outcome. The investigator recalled her as increasingly hostile, giving short answers while retelling the same story. Lodzinski then burst into tears and, saying that her son was "the most important thing in the world to me", told the investigator to leave. Before Wiltsey's birthday in early August led to renewed media interest, Lodzinski went to visit her sister in Florida for two weeks, where she sought counseling.
Physical evidence
On October 26, schoolteacher Dan O'Malley was birdwatching and exploring marshlands in the Raritan Center business park in Edison, across the Raritan River from Sayreville. He discovered a child's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sneaker. Recalling that Wiltsey had been described as wearing them when last seen, and thinking it unlikely that a child would have been walking or playing in an area so far from any houses, he took it to the Sayreville police. The sneaker was shown to Lodzinski, who told them it did not look like her son's. It was then stored as evidence. After weeks with no word from the police, O'Malley reported the sneaker to a local newspaper, The Home News of New Brunswick, resulting in a front-page story and FBI forensic testing.
The newspaper report of a possible break in the case led Lodzinski to call police again and say that the sneaker might indeed have been her son's. She had earlier provided the box the shoes had come in, and the sneaker matched the specifications on the box's label as to what shoes had come in it. A search of the area in November yielded no further evidence. Forensic testing of the shoe was inconclusive.
In March 1992, Ron Butkiewicz of the FBI, who had replaced the agent originally assigned to the case, interviewed Lodzinski, who this time had counsel present. She reiterated the Ellen story she had previously told; Butkiewicz recalled her as doing so without any outward emotion. The following month, he interviewed O'Malley, who showed him where the sneaker was found, and agreed it was unlikely to have come there from a local child.
The following month, Butkiewicz read the newspaper story, contacted O'Malley, and they toured the location together. Upon re-interviewing Lodzinski's friends and family, Butkiewicz learned that three years earlier, she had worked for six months at a fulfillment center in Raritan Center, and taken frequent walks at the Raritan Center complex, within a few blocks of where the sneaker was found, information Lodzinski had not included in an employment history she had given police earlier in the investigation. The next day, when Butkiewicz asked for her employment history, she included the employer the fulfillment company.
Over April 23–24, 1992, law enforcement teams conducted a full search of the mostly marshy area near Olympic Drive in Raritan Center. They quickly located a matching second sneaker in Timmy's size, roughly from where the first sneaker had been found, with a nearby pillowcase. Two hours later, further away, they found a skull and 10 other bones in and around a truck tire dredged from the bottom of Red Root Creek, near pieces of his clothing, a pillowcase, a Ninja Turtles balloon, and a blue and white blanket buried in the embankment above the creekbed where the bones were. When Butkiewicz pulled the blanket from the dirt, he had not photographed its appearance before doing so, and shook the dirt from it afterwards.
Wiltsey's identity was confirmed through dental records. The county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, although the time, location, and medical cause of death could not be determined due to advanced decomposition. Lodzinski was informed that night of the identification; Butkiewicz said she was again unemotional. Asked to explain why the remains were from a former workplace she had not initially told police about, she said her walks on break at the fulfillment company were limited to the immediate vicinity of the building and she was unaware Olympic Drive, the street nearest to the body, even existed.
Testing in the FBI lab did not reveal any trace evidence on the items found in the search. Neither Lodzinski nor her parents recognized the blanket as having come from her house. It is not known whether the pillowcase was shown to anyone who might recognize it.
A funeral Mass for Wiltsey was held in South Amboy in May 1992; Lodzinski appeared shaken and required at times during the service the physical support of her parents. He was buried in nearby Keyport. A week after the service, it became public knowledge that she had, almost a year earlier, changed her account of how her son disappeared three times, and failed two lie detector tests, as well as her unemotional demeanor under more recent questioning. One of the polygraph administrators described her results as "all over the charts" but found her defiant attitude even more disturbing. Her brother Edward said that she knew she had failed the test and was angry enough to throw things.
Later developments
One day in January 1994, Lodzinski's car was found idling, with its door open, at the Woodbridge home she shared with her brother. Her family reported her missing and feared she, too, might have been kidnapped The next day, she walked up to police on a street in Detroit, Michigan, claiming she had been released after being abducted by men who had posed as FBI agents "to teach her a lesson for talking about Timmy."
Two weeks after she returned home, Edward found an FBI business card on her door with the message "It's not over." Agent Butkiewicz resumed his investigation and found a local print shop that had recently printed FBI business cards for Lodzinski. She admitted faking her own kidnapping by taking a bus to Detroit, but refused to further discuss her contradictory accounts of Timmy's disappearnce and was sentenced in March 1995 to six months house arrest and three years probation for the FBI hoax. Police in Sayreville believed she had staged the kidnapping to avoid being subpoenaed in the investigation of her boyfriend, a police officer for neighboring Union County who had been accused of improperly checking the license plate numbers of vehicles Lodzinski claimed had been following her. In May the department decided not to take any action against him over the allegations.
In 1997, pregnant with her second child, Lodzinski pleaded guilty to stealing a computer from a former employer to give to her police officer boyfriend as a Christmas gift (he had realized as soon as he received it that it was stolen, and reported it). She was again sentenced to house arrest (four months this time) and three more years of probation after having to spend a day in jail. Immediately after that sentence was handed down in 1998 she moved to Florida, then in 1999 to Apple Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis where her where she was married in 2001 and started a new family.
That year, she told a Star-Ledger reporter who visited here there that she was getting on with her life, but continued to hold out hope that the case could be resolved "so everyone will know I was telling the truth." Pressed as to which story she told was the truth, she said that she had told the police "different things at different times based on things they said to me. I wasn't involved" and refused to go into more detail after briefly reiterating that it had started when she was "at a stand." The marriage did not last long and, pregnant with her third child, she returned to Florida in 2003, where she bought a small home in Port St. Lucie. She worked as a paralegal, and displayed a picture of Wiltsey prominently in the house and told her sons he was their brother.
Renewed investigation in early 2010s
For most of the 21st century the case files and evidence remained where they were stored, and the county prosecutor's office did little more than follow up on occasional tips. After one around the 20th anniversary of Wiltsey's disappearance proved to have no bearing on the case, Scott Crocco, an investigator with the office, decided it was time to review the investigation and see if anything had been overlooked that might resolve the case. He focused on the blanket, which had only been shown to Lodzinski and her parents at the time of the disappearance, and the pillowcase, both found near Wiltsey's remains. Investigators reasoned that the boy would not have been carrying a large blanket through a carnival on the humid day when he disappeared, and they concluded that the blanket was taken from Lodzinski's South Amboy home, for covering the boy after his death, despite her denial of ever having such a blanket.
Crocco interviewed Jennifer Blair-Dilcher, the niece who had encountered Lodzinski at the carnival shortly after she said she could not find her son, shortly after reopening the case. In the intervening years Blair-Dilcher, who had initially been supportive of her aunt, had married and had two children of her own, but also became addicted to heroin. She had gone down to Florida for rehabilitation, and let her children live with Lodzinski in the meantime. While Blair-Dilcher was in the program, Lodzinski and Blair-Dilcher's mother decided that Blair-Dilcher's condition was serious enough that they could not return her children after she completed the program, so they turned them over to Blair-Dilcher's mother-in-law, whom Blair-Dilcher greatly disliked. It took Blair-Dilcher some time to get custody of her children back, and she considered Lodzinski's decision to have been a "betrayal".
At Crocco's behest, Blair-Dilcher began communicating with her aunt on Facebook about the case in the hope that Lodzinski might confess or make some incriminating statements. After that failed, Crocco showed Blair-Dilcher the blanket, pillowcase and a red jacket. She immediately told him that the blanket had been in Lodzinski's apartment and Wiltsey had wrapped himself in it on the occasions when she had babysat him. Blair-Dilcher's mother, Edward Lodzinski, and another friend of Lodzinski's who had been in her apartment on numerous occasions in the early 1990s did not recognize the blanket. Hairs recovered from the blanket and pillowcase did not match Lodzinski's DNA.
Arrest, trial, and sentencing
On August 6, 2014, which would have been Timmy's 29th birthday, following a sealed indictment by a grand jury, Lodzinski was arrested in Florida and charged with her son's murder. After reviewing extensive legal arguments from the defense and prosecution, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves issued a key pretrial ruling that "Lodzinski's active omission and hindrances to the investigation through her statements may reasonably establish circumstantial evidence of her guilt." Other evidence was excluded: New Jersey does not allow failed polygraph tests as evidence in criminal trials, and Nieves also ruled that Lodzinski's self-kidnapping hoax could not be presented to the jury. He also disallowed the prosecution from presenting an expert witness on women who kill their children.
As the trial approached, Crocco continued to build the case. Lodzinski's brother Michael, her former fiancé from that time and her landlady did not recognize the blanket. Shortly before the trial, with coverage increasing in the media, a friend of Blair-Dilcher's who had "once in a while" babysat Wiltsey and had initially recalled a blanket with a different pattern identified the blanket from the Raritan Center site as one she had seen in the house in the early 1990s. The week afterwards, another woman who in her teens had occasionally babysat Wiltsey also told police the blanket was in the house at the time. Photographs of the interior of the house from when Lodzinski lived there showed different blankets.
The criminal trial began in March 2016. Prosecutors presented the case history from 1991, focusing jurors' attention on the changes in Lodzinski's story, her omission of Florida Fulfillment from her work history, and her unemotional demeanor later on the case, particularly when she was told that Wiltsey's body had been found. A woman who recalled waiting in line, and briefly chatting, with Lodzinski at the carnival testified that she did not see Wiltsey, nor did Lodzinski speak of him.
Prosecutors also presented Blair-Dilcher and the witnesses who put the blanket in Lodzinski's home at that time, and established that tides could not have washed the body up the creek from the river; the defense responded with a forensic expert who, based on his review of the documents and photographs of the blanket, doubted that any connection to the case could be made, or that it had been there as long as the remains had been; Butkiewicz concurred that he was never conclusively able to link the evidence to Lodzinski. Geetha Natarajan, the county's retired medical examiner, testified that while the cause of death could not be determined from the remains, based on other factors and the unlikeliness of any other cause she had ruled it a homicide. Her testimony was based on a review of the photographs of the remains and the report of the coroner who examined them, as he was now dead.
Lodzinski's defense also put on an Arizona man who claimed that a former cellmate, from Georgia, had confessed to him that he had raped and murdered a young boy somewhere up near "Atlanta City." It did not offer any proof that the man had been in the Sayreville area at the time of Wiltsey's disappearance, and the man himself denied it on the stand. Prosecutors also cast doubt on the Arizona man's testimony by noting that he had accused the other man of sexually assaulting him. Another witness testified for the defense about a possible third party, a resident of an apartment complex near the carnival who, the evening Wiltsey disappeared, saw several men throw something roughly long, wrapped in white cloth, into the trunk of a car and then drive away quickly without turning their headlights on.
After testimony from 68 witnesses, the jury began deliberations in May. Five hours after they began, one juror alerted Nieves that the foreman had been doing independent investigations. When the judge asked him, the foreman confirmed that he had been looking up FBI evidence collection protocols from the early 1990s on his laptop; he was dismissed and an alternate seated. A defense motion for a mistrial was denied.
The next day, a week before the 25th anniversary of Wiltsey's disappearance, the jury returned a guilty verdict on the charge of first-degree murder. Sentencing was scheduled for August 2016 and then postponed, as Lodzinski's attorney appealed the judge's earlier rulings on juror misconduct and insufficient evidence. The defense moved shortly afterwards for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), asking Nieves to set aside the conviction and enter an acquittal on the grounds that the evidence was insufficient for a reasonable jury to have convicted; He denied it, and then in January 2017, he sentenced Lodzinski to 30 years in state prison without possibility of parole.
Appeals
Lodzinski was committed to the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women near Clinton, New Jersey's only women's prison, to begin serving her sentence. She appealed both the judge's refusal to grant a mistrial after the jury foreman's dismissal and his denial of JNOV, and argued that the 23-year delay in bringing the case had been unduly prejudicial.
A three-judge panel of the state's Appellate Division ruled against her on all the issues in 2019. She appealed to the Supreme Court of New Jersey, where an unusually complicated process ensued after it heard arguments late in 2020. After the court's Chief Justice, Stuart Rabner, recused himself from hearing the case, the remaining six justices agreed in May 2021 that the appeals court had applied a standard of review to the evidence that was too narrow, but deadlocked on whether the evidence itself was sufficient to sustain the conviction. Lodzinski petitioned for a rehearing on the grounds that her conviction should not be allowed to stand on unconstitutional grounds, and that October the Court reheard it, with the state's chief appellate judge designated to stand in for Rabner. His vote broke the deadlock, and the Supreme Court reversed the appellate court and granted JNOV just before the end of the year.
Appellate Division
In April 2019, the Appellate Division of the state's Superior Court heard Lodzinski's appeal. Judges Carmen Messano, Douglas Fasciale and Lisa Rose were empaneled to decide it. Four months later, they unanimously upheld both trial court rulings, allowing the conviction to stand.
The panel first considered the sufficiency of the evidence, under the standard that it must be evaluated in the light most favorable to the state, with inferences conceivably made by the jury from the evidence deemed rational if they were more likely to be true than not, even if reasonable doubt still existed, conceding that defense evidence "was substantial and in many ways directly rebutted the State's proofs." Since Lodzinski had not challenged the admission of any evidence, they did not consider that issue.
Writing for the panel, Messano admitted it was a "close question" as to whether the state, as Lodzinski argued, had failed to prove she had caused Wiltsey's death purposely and knowingly, as state law required for a murder conviction. "The State's arguments in response largely miss the mark" he wrote, but after explaining why its precedents were inapposite he agreed that jurors could have reasonably inferred that the concealment of Wiltsey's body indicated his death had been deliberately caused and that Lodzinski, the last person seen with him, was responsible. Her inconsistent statements and omission of Florida Fulfillment from her work history could also have supported a jury's inference that she had killed Wiltsey, Messano added.
Lodzinski argued that the delay in bringing the case specifically injured her by allowing the state to find more witnesses for the blanket than it had in 1992. Also, one of her witnesses, who reported seeing Wiltsey at the carnival, was unable to testify in person due to her age and inability to travel, so she testified via Skype; another could not remember that evening and Lodzinski had to suffice with reading her contemporaneous account to the jury.
Messano found no harm to Lodzinski in the delay. There was no evidence the state had delayed the trial to its advantage, and "[a]t most, the State's failure to show the blanket to more people in 1992, when investigators showed it only to defendant and her parents, evidences negligence." The shortcomings of the two witnesses did not prevent Lodzinski from presenting other witnesses who had seen Wiltsey or a boy matching his description at the carnival. Messano also noted that the delay helped her defense in that she was able to locate the Arizona man who claimed his cellmate had confessed the killing to him.
After recounting the circumstances of the foreman's removal, Messano held that that was the appropriate remedy as Nieves had found that deliberations had not gone on long enough for the jurors to have formed opinions or the dismissed foreman's to have had a significant impact on other jurors. He also noted that Lodzinski had not established a basis for mistrial on her other theory, that the juror had been seen as leaning towards a not guilty verdict, beyond a newspaper report that the remaining jurors told the newly seated alternate such.
State Supreme Court
In October 2020, the New Jersey Supreme Court heard the case, with oral argument held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To the issues she had appealed from the trial court, Lodzinski added one from the Appellate Division's opinion: that it had improperly limited its review of the evidence to the prosecution case when considering the reasonableness of the conviction. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner recused himself as he had worked in the office of the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey at the time Wiltsey disappeared and the FBI was assisting in the investigation. In May 2021 the justices deadlocked, leaving the conviction standing.
Deadlocked first decision
The Court issued a short per curiam opinion stating the outcome. While the Court had deadlocked on the JNOV motion, its other two rulings were unanimous. All the justices upheld the lower court on the mistrial issue, while agreeing with Lodzinski that it should have considered all the evidence in the trial record rather than just that introduced by the prosecution.
Concurrence
Justice Anne M. Patterson wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina and Lee Solomon, explaining both why the wrong standard had been used and why they believed Lodzinski to have been properly convicted. On the first question, Patterson wrote that the Appellate Division had relied on a precedent that could be distinguished as arising from a motion for a directed verdict, usually made after the state has rested and the defense has yet to present its case. The Appellate Division should have relied on a more recent case, she wrote. The court's clear holding here brought New Jersey's standard in line with the federal standard for post-conviction appellate review. as held by the U.S. Supreme Court in Jackson v. Virginia over four decades earlier.
Patterson found nothing to add to the Appellate Division's rejection of the argument about the jury foreman. She considered it reasonable for a jury to have inferred that Wiltsey was killed around the time he disappeared and his body was dumped where it was found later. Patterson acknowledged that the defense had cast considerable doubt on Blair-Dilcher's blanket testimony, but the jury could reasonably have found the other two babysitters' accounts to have supported that claim. Lodzinski's changing accounts of the last time she saw Wiltsey and her omission of Florida Fulfillment from the work history she gave police until after the first sneaker was found nearby could also reinforce a theory of her guilt, Patterson said. If Wiltsey had indeed been kidnapped, she found it unlikely that Lodzinski would have left to her visiting neighbor to check her answering machine for messages despite a visible indicator that a message had been received, nor would she have gone on two vacations in the months afterwards.
The defense's evidence that Lodzinski had been an attentive and caring mother did not by itself cast doubt on the state's theory that Wiltsey was an economic and social burden to his mother and thus she had a motive to kill him, Patterson continued, as she reviewed the defense case in the light most favorable to the state. Since none of the witnesses who testified as to having seen a boy matching Wiltsey's description at the carnival were consistently positive it had been him, the jury was also free to give greater weight to the testimony of a single witness who saw a boy playing with a basketball alone at the Holmdel Park that afternoon to infer that Wiltsey had in fact never been at the carnival.
Dissent
Justice Barry Albin wrote a lengthy dissent for himself, Jaynee LaVecchia and Fabiana Pierre-Louis. "The direct and inferential evidence—viewed in the light most favorable to the State—cannot rationally justify the murder conviction of Michelle Lodzinski", he wrote. "In the modern annals of New Jersey legal history ... to my knowledge, no murder conviction has ever been upheld on such a dearth of evidence."
Albin expressed serious doubts about the blanket testimony given its improper handling when found, the failure of those it was shown to after being found to recognize it, and the biases, conscious or not, of the three witnesses who did over two decades later. Even if the jury had, as Patterson said they could have, credited those latter witnesses, he also said that while they may have considered Natarajan's testimony to have rationally established homicide as the cause of death through process of elimination, any inference that Lodzinski had purposely and knowingly murdered Wiltsey from that testimony was purely speculative and thus not reasonable, especially since Natarajan had testified that she could not identify a cause of death from the photographs and remains alone.
As for the prosecution's motive evidence, Albin not only found it not credible but based on "a gender stereotype about single working mothers." The notion that she wanted Wiltsey out of her life intensely enough to kill him was not only speculative but contradicted the considerable evidence adduced that she was, if imperfectly, a caring and attentive mother who wanted the best for her son. In addition, Albin pointed to state precedent that the prosecution cannot use the fact of a defendant's poverty as proof of a motive for robbery; he believed the same logic applied here: "The 'burdens' that the State says motivated Lodzinski to kill are the same financial and social challenges facing many single working parents—the struggle to stay in a job, to find daycare, and to maintain a relationship."
Petition for rehearing
Shortly after the decision, Lodzinksi's lawyers asked the court to invoke a rarely-used rule allowing them to appoint a substitute justice and rehear the case. They argued that the deadlocked Court had violated her due process rights by allowing her conviction to stand under an improper standard of review, and that she was thus entitled to a review by a full Court. Since Rabner had recused himself from anything to do with her case, the chief judge of the Appellate Division, Jose Fuentes, was designated to sit on the Court to hear the motion and the rehearing if necessary.
Again the Court spoke through a per curiam opinion. "Defendant has brought to this Court's attention a failing in its prior handling of this matter, which requires correction. She rightfully claims that the unique procedural posture of this Court's decision left her appeal unconsidered under the proper legal standard, which, left uncorrected, works a violation of her due process rights", it read. "Defendant must be provided her right to be heard on appeal by an appellate body using the correct standard of review." The justices elaborated on their decision in concurring and dissenting opinions, as they had before.
Albin wrote for the same two justices, now a majority as Fuentes had joined them. He primarily responded to arguments made by the same dissenting justices: They had relied on incorrect precedents to argue the rehearing was unnecessary, precedents in which an evenly divided Supreme Court had let an appellate court ruling stand but, while disagreeing as to its correctness, agreed that it was constitutional. Only three of them had upheld the conviction while applying the correct standard, allowing the unconstitutional appellate decision to stand, and since all six justices hearing the case had agreed that the wrong standard of review had been used, any of them could vote on a motion to reconsider the case. Nor was the incorrect ruling the fault of Lodzinski's attorneys citing the wrong precedent in their brief to the Appellate Division; in that circumstance, Albin wrote, the appellate court has a "non-delegable obligation" to maintain constitutional safeguards.
The dissenting justices wrote at length, finding it "astonishing" that Lodzinski had secured a rehearing when the only error they saw in her case had been adequately addressed in the earlier decision, as they had used the proper standard of review and still found the evidence sufficient. "[D]efendant's constitutional rights were fully protected in her appeal, just as they were at her trial", they argued. They insisted that as the only judges who had concurred in actually sustaining her conviction, at least one of them had to have been among the judges granted rehearing. Since none of them were, the order was against the Court's own rules.
Albin had ended his dissent by suggesting the even split in the Court meant its decision might not be final. The dissenters considered that an invitation to petition for rehearing, and with an appellate judge temporarily designated in Rabner's place, "[d]efendant thus achieved a remedy that appears to be unprecedented: the addition of an Appellate Division judge, at the behest of an unsatisfied litigant, for a new hearing before a recomposed Court."
Second decision vacating conviction
The case was reargued before the Court in October 2021. The decision was handed down just before the end of the year. As with the rehearing, Judge Fuentes' vote proved decisive, providing a majority to reverse the appellate court and grant the JNOV on the grounds that the evidence was not sufficient for a reasonable jury to have convicted. Since the JNOV entered an acquittal verdict, Lodzinski's murder conviction was vacated and she cannot be retried for the crime, even if new evidence emerges in the future.
Again writing what was now the majority opinion, Albin reiterated that while he could grant the jury crediting the state's witnesses on the blanket and Wiltsey's possible absence from the carnival over Lodzinski's, and Natarajan's conclusion of homicide, the state still had not proved Lodzinski's state of mind, essential if the conviction was for the most severe charge of murder, as opposed to the lesser included charges of reckless or negligent homicide which it could have convicted on. "Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, we conclude that no rational jury—without engaging in speculation or conjecture—could conclude that Lodzinski purposely or knowingly caused Timothy's death", Albin wrote.
"The majority does the opposite of what our law requires", complained the dissent. "[It] scours the record for evidence favorable to defendant and draws inferences from that evidence that favor defendant. The majority thus substitutes its own interpretation of the evidence for the conclusion reached by the jury." Specifically, the justices said the majority had failed to credit the jury's possible inference from Wiltsey's body being found near Florida Fulfillment and Lodzinki's initial omission of it from her work history that she had some role in his death as rational. So, too, they argued that in giving credit to Butkiewicz's handling of the blanket having possibly destroyed trace evidence and discounting the blanket testimony by the two former babysitters who identified it as having been in the Lodzinski home prior to trial as tainted by media coverage, the majority had relied on information favorable to the defense rather than deferring to the jury's authority to resolve those issues in favor of the prosecution. It likewise defended other inferences the jury might have drawn as rational ones the justices should not have disturbed.
Lodzinski was released from prison that evening. "When I first broke the news to her this morning, she just said, 'oh my God' and started crying", her attorney, Gerald Krovatin, said. "This was a great day for the rule of law and the principles that matter to us—that convictions have to be based on evidence, and not based on speculation or emotion." Michael Lodzinski, her younger brother, who had come to believe she was guilty, criticized the Court majority: "Justice Albin and his group believe they have righted some great wrong today but all they did was rob justice from a little boy, shame on them." The Middlesex County prosecutor's office declined to comment out of respect for the Court.
See also
Deaths in 1991
List of solved missing person cases
List of unsolved deaths
Notes
References
1990s missing person cases
1991 deaths
1991 in New Jersey
Formerly missing people
Missing person cases in New Jersey
Incidents of violence against boys
Unsolved deaths |
12490806 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Nizah%20Morris | Death of Nizah Morris | Nizah Morris (1955 – December 24, 2002) was an American transgender entertainer. On December 22, 2002 Morris suffered a severe head injury from which she did not recover. Morris died on December 24, 2002, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, when she was removed from life support. The Philadelphia Police Department's handling of Morris' death sparked protests in the LGBT community and led to several investigations into the police coverup of her death.
Background
Nizah Morris began living as a woman in her early 20s. By December 2002 she had built a life for herself working at her mother's daycare center, performing in the weekly drag show at Bob and Barbara's—a bar in Philadelphia's Center City neighborhood—and practicing Buddhism.
Injury and death
On December 22, Morris attended a party at the Key West Bar at the intersection of Juniper and Chancellor streets in Philadelphia. Morris left the bar at 2:00 a.m., and collapsed outside of the bar due to intoxication. Onlookers formed a group around Morris—who could not stand without assistance and had to be supported, according to witnesses—and waited for paramedics for approximately 20 minutes.
A 6th District police officer arrived, canceled the prior call for paramedics when Morris declined to go to a hospital, and offered her a courtesy ride to a hospital. Morris declined a ride to the hospital and asked to be taken home. Witnesses at the scene reportedly helped her into the police cruiser.
Though Morris lived in the 5000 block of Walnut Street, police officers reported that she asked to be let out at 15th and Walnut streets, left the patrol car, and began walking toward 16th Street.
Minutes later, a passing motorist discovered Morris lying on the sidewalk, bleeding from the right side of her forehead. A call was placed to 911, and a 9th District officer arrived at the scene, but did not call a supervisor or treat the event as a crime.
Morris was transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition. On December 23, 2002, she was removed from life support, and at 8:30 p.m. on December 24, 2002, Nizah Morris was pronounced dead.
Aftermath and funeral
On December 25, 2002, the Medical Examiner's office classified Morris' death as a homicide. However, the Police Department's homicide unit refused to accept this ruling, classified Morris' death as accidental, and requested a second opinion from a brain-injury specialist.
The following day, Morris' mother—Roslyn Wilkins—was notified of her daughter's death by a detective who informed her, "He's dead." The detective was removed from the case after Wilkins complained about his alleged insensitivity.
On December 27, 2002, family members viewed photographs of Morris' body at the Medical Examiner's office, and expressed concern upon noticing slight indentation marks on her wrists. Morris' mother and sister said medical examiners showed them pictures indicating defensive wounds on her hands.
On December 31, 2002, The Philadelphia Inquirer published the first media account of Morris' death, which referred to her as a "prostitute" in the headline and a "male prostitute" in the body of the story.
Nizah Morris was cremated on January 1, 2003, after a funeral service attended by more than 300 people.
Questions and controversy
In the days after Morris' funeral, questions concerning her death arose among her family members and in the LGBT community. During a meeting on January 7, 2003 with Homicide Captain Charles Bloom, Wilkins learned that her daughter received a courtesy ride from police 20 minutes before she was discovered lying on the sidewalk with a head injury.
Details supplied by police about the moments prior to and following Morris' injury and discovery by a passing motorist conflicted with family members' recollections of Morris, and with witnesses' accounts prior to Morris entering the police car outside of the Key West Bar.
Morris' family doubted she would have accepted a ride from the police, given her fear of them, and questioned why she would ask to be dropped off miles from where she lived. A key witness to the event stated that when she asked Nizah where she lived that it sounded like 15th and Walnut. The message could have been misconstrued because Ms. Morris was incoherent.
A key missing fact is that when after being helped the first time (before the police arrived) was that after the initial help, Nizah was found in the street after a taxi refused her service. The taxi took off with the door open and with such force that this initial fall could have caused damage.
Witnesses who were outside of the Key West Bar said Morris was incapable of standing on her own, and had to be helped into the police car. They doubted that she would have been capable, just minutes later, of getting out of the police car on her own and walking away as police officers reported.
Second opinion
On January 30, 2003, more than a month after Morris' death and the Medical Examiner's assessment that it was a homicide, the homicide division of the police department officially declared Morris' death a homicide. Tests performed by a brain-injury specialist, on samples taken during an initial autopsy, resulted in a finding that her death was due to cerebral injury.
Police initially suggested Morris' death had been accidental, and a police spokesman declined to comment on what led the Medical Examiner to conclude Morris' death was a homicide.
Contradictions and more questions
Contradictions between police accounts and witness accounts, and incomplete compliance with police procedures also aroused concerns that Morris case had been mishandled and the cause of her injury and subsequent death covered up because of her status as an African American transgender woman.
Many of these contradictions and questions were reported by Timothy Cwiek, a reporter for Philadelphia Gay News, who has followed the story of Morris' story since the first reports of her death. For his investigative reporting on Morris' death, Cwiek was awarded the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award.
Relying on Cwiek's investigative work, author Kenneth Lipp of The Daily Beast, summarizes the aftermath of Morris' death in saying: "police and prosecutors hid critical information about what happened. Cops misreported Morris's ride with Skala in official logs; the homicide squad did not accept the medical examiner's determination that she had been killed; and the police department 'lost' her homicide report for eight years. Meanwhile, the district attorney's office refused to give police files to the civilian oversight board reviewing Morris's case. When the DA finally turned over the files, it forced the board to sign a nondisclosure agreement that would keep what they found hidden forever."
Cwiek reported the following contradictions and procedural lapses in the Morris case:
2:45 a.m. Police accounts say 6th District officer Elizabeth Skala stopped outside of the Key West Bar and offered Morris a courtesy ride. Witness accounts say that Officer Skala stopped to ask if Morris needed to be taken to a hospital, but Morris "waved off" Officer Skala's offer. Officer Skala denied this first encounter.
3:07 a.m. - The first 911 call is placed and an ambulance dispatched to the intersection of Juniper and Chancellor Streets, outside of the Key West Bar. Ninth District Officer Kenneth Novak was also dispatched, with Officer Skala as his back-up. Novak and Skala accepted the assignment to investigate the situation outside of the Key West Bar. Dispatch records show Officer Novak arrived first, but Officer Skala says she arrived first.
Skala then indicated to Novak that she did not require his assistance with Morris—who, aside from being intoxicated, was over six feet tall and a foot taller than officer Skala. Novack did not place himself back in service for new assignments, but instead tried to catch up with Skala on the courtesy ride, but did not use his police radio to coordinate movements with Skala, and arrived at the scene too late.
Officer Skala then says she gave Morris a ride home, but thought Morris said she lived at 15th and Walnut streets, where police report Morris asked to get out of the vehicle. According to Officer Skala, the ride lasted four minutes. Her log indicated that it lasted 16 minutes.
3:25 a.m. Ninth District Officer Thomas Berry said he offered to help Morris out of the car at 15th and Walnut Streets, but that she did not need his help. Witnesses at the Key West Bar said that Morris was unable to stand on her own and had to be helped into the police car.
The officers' logs at this point record the incident as a successful hospital run, and do not record Morris leaving the police car at 15th and Walnut streets.
3:35 a.m. - A second series of 911 calls takes place when Morris is found at 16th and Walnut streets, injured and unconscious, but breathing. Officer Berry takes control of the scene, and reports the incident as a "DK," police department code for a drunken fall. Officer Berry did not interview the citizen who discovered Morris and stopped to help her. No photographs were taken of the scene, nor was evidence such as Morris' purse and hair brush preserved.
Berry's incident report said he left the injury scene at 3:35 a.m., but a 911 tape indicates Berry did not leave the scene until 4:05 a.m., as paramedics were placing Morris in the ambulance.
Officer Novak was assigned to investigate the scene, and accepted the assignment, but no report was filed.
Citizen witnesses said that no first aid appeared to be offered to Morris, nor were any apparent efforts made to stabilize her head before moving her or placing her in the ambulance. Witnesses also said that before Morris was placed in the ambulance, Officer Berry used Morris' jacket to cover her face, as if to indicate that she was already dead.
4:15 a.m. - Hospital records indicate Morris' admission to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Records also indicate that the hospital summoned police officers to help identify Morris, whom they suspected was a crime victim, which suggests Morris was delivered to the hospital without being identified.
Officer Novak was dispatched to the hospital to investigate. Novak calls Officers Berry and Skala to the hospital, where the three again assess the cause of Morris' injury as a drunken fall. No reports are filed concerning the investigation at the hospital.
Morris remained in the hospital for 64 hours, unidentified. Officer Novak, however, was familiar with Morris due to her previous arrests for offenses related to prostitution. At no point did he identify her to hospital staff. Hospital records show staff efforts to identify Morris, whose fingerprints would have been on file due to her previous arrests.
Witnesses at the injury scene also identified Morris to Officer Berry by name and her employment at Bob and Barbaras. There is no indication that Officer Berry passed this information to the hospital.
Morris was removed from life support after 64 hours in the hospital, and her family was informed of her death the following day.
Questions and concerns led to the first of several LGBT community meetings, protests and vigils in response to Morris' death and the police department's handling of the investigation.
In April 2003 the Philadelphia Police Department released an edited version of the 911 recording, which included 3 transmissions between officers Skala, Novak, and Berry. The edited recording started at 3:07 a.m. and ended six minutes later.
The same month, in response to community concern, District Attorney Lynne Abraham launched an investigation of Morris' case, and promised to seek physical evidence, including the related 911 recording. However, the investigation ended in December 2003, without finding Morris' killer. Abraham asked for the public's help to investigate the case further, stated that the three officers in the case acted properly, and cited the courtesy ride given to Morris as a "humanitarian gesture."
In May 2003, Morris' mother, Roselyn Wilkins, filed a complaint with the independent oversight Police Advisory Commission against the Philadelphia Police Department for the "lack of information provided to the family by the Police Department." It would not hold hearings on Wilkins' complaint for three and a half more years (December 2006).
In September 2003 the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights launched a civil suit against the Key West Bar where Morris became intoxicated, the police officers involved, the emergency technicians and the city of Philadelphia itself. The suit was settled for $250,000 in May 2004.
In December 2003, in response to community pressure, the Police Advisory Commission released dispatch records suggesting that the transmissions on the tape lasted for 49 minutes.
In December 2006 the Police Advisory Commission held hearings on the complaint against the Philadelphia Police Department and their investigation continued slowly over the next year.
In January 2007 the Philadelphia Police Department refused to release an unedited version of the 911 recording. In March 2007 the department agreed to play a complete version of the 911 tape for the Police Advisory Commission.
In November 2007, the Police Advisory Commission completed its investigation. They found that with the exception of Officer Skala, the officers involved had acted properly. Within days, the Philadelphia Police Department advised the Police Advisory Commission that their decision was based on incomplete documents, unbeknownst to the advisory group at the time. The information was uncovered in 2007 when a detective, under oath, was forced to admit that Morris' homicide report had been missing since 2003. Apparently, "the report was not 'found' again until 2011, in the City Hall archives."
In March 2008, the Police Advisory Commission voted to reopen the investigation into Morris' death. The group subpoenaed the records and "fought with District Attorney Lynne Abraham until November for access to evidence" who only agreed to do under the condition that the members of the group sign non-disclosure agreements regarding the contents of the file. The introduction of the nondisclosure agreement ensured that they would be able to release any public report or take any remedial action based on the findings of their investigation, rendering the investigation worthless.
In 2011, under new leadership, the Police Advisory Commission voted yet again to reopen the investigation. The new Executive Director, Kelvyn Anderson, stated that the "nondisclosure agreement that the 2008 Police Advisory Commission entered into with the DA undermines our effectiveness and credibility as a civilian oversight board and compromises the openness and transparency that is our raison d'être." Calling "the magnitude of mismanagement of the Nizah Morris homicide [to be] staggering," Anderson sent a letter requesting a full investigation from U.S. Attorney Zane Memenger. The letter cites that the Philadelphia Police Department investigation was a "litany of errors" including procedural errors in policing, hospital errors, handling intoxicated persons, record keeping, logging information, document storage, hiding communications, "off-the-record" communiques, missing evidence, and testimony so inconsistent to rise to the level of perjury.
In 2015, The Daily Beast reported that the U.S. Attorney General's office did not respond to the Police Advisory Commission's request for an appropriate and full investigation. Similarly, the Pennsylvania Attorney General Office declined to investigate, "saying the case was not in their jurisdiction." Additionally, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office refuses an outside review of the evidence in Nizah Morris' homicide, telling The Daily Beast that "the district attorney feels that it is his responsibility to continue to be the sole investigating office in criminal cases."
In 2015, Officer Elizabeth Skala-DiDonato has only received a "verbal reprimand" despite the Police Advisory Commission's finding that she "blatantly and methodically" lied about her interactions with Morris on the night of her homicide. "She was transferred from street duty not long after Morris was killed, and reportedly works in the commissioner's office."
Morris Home
In 2011, Philadelphia opened an addiction treatment center for transgender Philadelphians, named The Morris Home for Trans and Gender-Variant People after her. The Morris Home for Trans and Gender-Variant People "is the only inpatient facility of its kind in the United States to [be] operated by the transgender people to specifically focus on transgender people."
See also
Violence against LGBT people
References
2002 murders in the United States
Violence against trans women
Deaths from head injury
Deaths by person in the United States
December 2002 events in the United States
History of Philadelphia
History of women in Pennsylvania |
13066743 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20Dude | Death of a Dude | Death of a Dude is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1969.
Plot introduction
Archie Goodwin is part of a house party at Lily Rowan's vacation home in Montana when a murder brings Nero Wolfe from New York to take a hand. Uniquely for a Nero Wolfe novel, it takes place entirely away from the brownstone on West 35th Street. (Some Buried Caesar came close, but returned to the brownstone for a brief coda; Too Many Cooks similarly came very close, but includes a brief description of the departure from the brownstone, including the good-byes from Fritz, Saul and Theodore.)
Summary
While on vacation at Lily Rowan's Montana beef ranch, Archie Goodwin becomes involved in a murder investigation. Harvey Greve, the ranch manager, has been accused of the murder of Philip Brodell, a wealthy "dude" on vacation at a neighbouring ranch. The previous year, Brodell had seduced and impregnated Greve's daughter, and Greve had sworn revenge; however both Archie and Lily are skeptical of his guilt. Brodell was shot twice, once in the back, by an inexpert marksman; as well as Greve being an excellent shot, Archie is convinced that he is too honorable to shoot an unarmed opponent in the back. However, the local sheriff, Morley Haight, has only lazily investigated the murder before settling on Greve's guilt in large part due to a bitter grudge between the two.
Archie himself suspects the Sheriff's son Gilbert, who had been wooing Greve's daughter and had himself threatened to murder Brodell, but as an outsider himself Archie is having difficulty in persuading the distrustful, hostile locals to open up to him. Despite the difficulties, Archie's honor will not allow him to abandon Greve to his plight, and he writes to Nero Wolfe informing him that he will be taking an extended leave while he tries to clear Greve's name. Irritated at the interruptions to his routine that this causes, Wolfe uses a high-ranking contact in the Montana state government to research the case before taking the almost unprecedented step of leaving his home and travelling to Montana to consult with Archie in person. Convinced by Archie's argument, Wolfe decides to solve the case to enable Archie and himself to return to New York. He stays at Lily's ranch along Archie and her other guests; Diana Kadany, an actress friend of Lily's, and Wade Worthy, an author writing a biography of Lily's father.
Wolfe contacts the local county attorney, Thomas Jessup, and convinces him to appoint himself and Archie as public investigators. Jessup, a rival to Sheriff Haight and himself skeptical of the investigation, agrees to do so, and having official status means that the locals are no longer able to ignore or dismiss their investigation. They subsequently learn that Gilbert Haight has a strong alibi proving he was unable to have committed the murder, but that there were numerous points of friction and tension between Brodell and the fellow guests and employees at the ranch he was staying at that a competent investigation should have uncovered. In particular, Wolfe and Archie agree that one cowhand, Sam Peacock, knows more than he is letting on about the crime. They attempt to meet and interview him at a local dance but are stymied by Sheriff Haight, resentful at Wolfe's undermining of his authority.
When leaving the dance, however, Wolfe and Archie discover Peacock's dead body hidden in their car. Haight takes the opportunity to arrest Archie and Wolfe, but with Jessup's intervention Wolfe is placed under house arrest. While Archie is imprisoned, Wolfe orders Saul Panzer to travel to St. Louis, Brodell's home town, to investigate any possible connections between Brodell and the other out-of-towners in the area. When Archie is released, Wolfe reveals to his fellow guests that he has learned from Saul Panzer that a photo of one of the out-of-towners was recognised as Carl Yaeger, a man suspected of strangling a young woman but who fled before he could be apprehended. He then suggests to Lily and Diana that they spend the afternoon fishing, implicitly identifying Wade Worthy as Yaeger; Brodell had recognised Worthy as Yaeger and Worthy/Yaeger had murdered him to keep his secret, but was forced to also murder Peacock when learning that Brodell had passed this information on to him.
When Wolfe reveals that a St. Louis detective is arriving in town to arrest him, Worthy/Yaeger flees -- just as Wolfe planned. When Sheriff Haight and the St. Louis detective arrive at Lily's ranch to arrest Worthy/Yaeger, Wolfe reveals that he has previously arranged with Jessup and the state police to have him apprehended away from Lily's ranch in order to spare his host the embarrassment and ignominy of having a murderer taken into custody from her home, to thank Jessup for his help and to humiliate Haight in retribution for his inept investigation and spiteful treatment of himself and Archie. Worthy/Yaeger is apprehended and Harvey Greve is released from custody, allowing Wolfe and Archie to return to New York.
Publication history
1969, New York: The Viking Press, August 20, 1969, hardcover
In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Death of a Dude: "Blue boards, dark blue cloth spine; front and rear covers blank; spine printed with green, blue, and white lettering. Issued in a mainly black pictorial dust wrapper."
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Death of a Dude had a value of between $100 and $200. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
1969, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), October 1969, hardcover
The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts).
Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions.
Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine).
1969, Canadian Magazine (abridged), November 1969
1970, London: Collins Crime Club, April 13, 1970, hardcover
1970, New York: Bantam #S-5487, August 1970, paperback
1972, London: Fontana #2673, 1972, paperback
1972, London: Book Club Associates, 1972
1995, New York: Bantam Books January 2, 1995, paperback
2000, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. April 19, 2000, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
2010, New York: Bantam May 12, 2010, e-book
The unfamiliar word
"Nero Wolfe talks in a way that no human being on the face of the earth has ever spoken, with the possible exception of Rex Stout after he had a gin and tonic," said Michael Jaffe, executive producer of the A&E TV series, A Nero Wolfe Mystery. "Readers of the Wolfe saga often have to turn to the dictionary because of the erudite vocabulary of Wolfe and sometimes of Archie," wrote Rev. Frederick G. Gotwald.
Nero Wolfe's vocabulary is one of the hallmarks of the character. Examples of unfamiliar words — or unfamiliar uses of words that some would otherwise consider familiar — are found throughout the corpus, often in the give-and-take between Wolfe and Archie.
Punctilio, chapter 5.
Plerophory, chapter 6. Plerophory also appears in the first chapter of Some Buried Caesar, published three decades earlier.
References
External links
1969 American novels
Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout
Viking Press books
Novels set in Montana |
13275326 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Eugene%20Ejike%20Obiora | Death of Eugene Ejike Obiora | Eugene Ejike Obiora (25 February 1958 – 7 September 2006) was a naturalized Norwegian citizen, originally from Nigeria. The first-born of 10 siblings, he had lived in Norway for more than 20 years. On 7 September 2006 he was choked to death by Trondheim police officer Trond Volden.
Obiora's name entered the public limelight in Norway after he died during a police arrest at a social services office, Østbyen Servicekontor, in Trondheim. He was there to complain against his being denied welfare (financial aid). According to early news reports Obiora threatened and photographed the staff, and police were subsequently called in. When Obiora refused to leave the premises and resisted arrest, a scuffle ensued where a strangle hold was employed by one of the arresting officers. Shortly thereafter Obiora lost consciousness and was subsequently transported to the local hospital by the police. He was pronounced dead despite resuscitation attempts. The nurses who received the police patrol car have stated in police interviews that he was positioned "completely limp on his stomach face down on the floor of the supervisor vehicle."
The case made headlines locally and nationally, with accusations of unnecessary use of force and racism leveled at the local police, as well as uproar in African societies in Norway.
Cause of death
According to an article in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten in June 2007, the autopsy report (Nordrum and Haugen) gives the following commentary on the cause of death: "The chain of events indicate that the deceased, who was most likely in a state of strong emotional upheaval, has found himself in a situation that was highly detrimental to his respiration by first having been subjected to a 'strangle hold' and then to have been placed on his stomach having first been handcuffed." The article went on citing additional statements from the forensic examiners which said that tests performed with healthy individuals show that a person's lung capacity is reduced by 40% when strapped down on the stomach for three minutes. The autopsy report also mentions English expert literature in which positioning-related suffocation is described in connection with police work, in psychiatric settings and during ambulance transport. In the report from the Norwegian Bureau for the Investigation of Police Affairs the cause of death is established to be strangulation. The report notes that point bleeding, internal bleeding of the neck muscles, as well as fracture of the thyroid cartilage all occurred as results of the chokehold, and then goes on to conclude that the injuries caused shortness of breath, but that they alone did not cause suffocation. The Special Unit in summary finds that there has not been consciously performed "any one act which stopped/hindered" Obiora from breathing. The report goes on stating that it cannot be ruled out that Obiora's death "could have been avoided if the officers had had knowledge about possible dangers of using the stomach position".
Renewed interest
The media scrutiny intensified when information was uncovered that the officer who held Obiora in a strangle hold had also been involved in an incident in 1999 with a Ghanaian woman, Sophia Baidoo that some felt were similar. The incident was filmed by a bank security camera, and the officer was later cleared of all charges.
The case took a new turn after the band Samvirkelaget produced a CD which included the song "Stopp Volden" (Stop the Violence/Stop Volden) in which one of the officers who took part in the incident was named. The Norwegian Police Federation sued the band to have the release stopped. The court did not find grounds for issuing an injunction. Nevertheless, it stated that the publicizing of the name of the policeman was libelous. The Norwegian Police Federation was considering suing Samvirkelaget for slander. The case was heard and settled in favour of Samvirkelaget.
Sør-Trøndelag police district filed a libel complaint on 2 May 2007 against a blog for having identified the previously mentioned officer by giving his name as well as picture in connection with the case.
Police investigation
The case was investigated by the Bureau for the Investigation of Police Affairs but was abandoned on 4 May 2007, concluding that in the case of three officers there was insufficient evidence to pursue an indictment, a fourth officer, identified as the chauffeur of the patrol car was cleared of any involvement. The Middle Norway Special Unit recommended however that the National Police Directorate be cited with corporate punishment for insufficient police education and training concerning the dangers of stomach positioning and leglock. However, the national chief of the Special Unit for Police Affairs did not follow up on this recommendation. All this caused 1100 people to protest in a rally in Trondheim on 8 May 2007, and in simultaneous protests in Trondheim and Oslo on May 19. An eyewitness, Ghulam Ali, spoke at the rally giving his version of what took place on the day of Obiora's death, when he saw the incident from a distance and heard the screams from Obiora who had been placed on the ground by the police.
Demand for prosecution of police officers
In May 2007 the next of kin of Eugene Obiora appealed the dismissal of the investigation against the arresting officers to the Norwegian Attorney General, and on June 28 the Attorney General ordered the Special Unit for Police Affairs to instigate a new and more thorough investigation of the case.
Lawyer Abid Q. Raja, representing Eugene Obiora's surviving family, has demanded that the three arresting officers be charged with willful homicide in the case. Raja has also asserted that one of the officers involved in the arrest teaches arrest techniques at the Norwegian Police University College, a position which should have made the officer especially aware of the consequences of abuse of force. Meanwhile, a lawyer representing the three police officers has stated that Raja is misrepresenting the facts of the case when he repeatedly asserts that Obiora was killed as a direct result of the police using a controversial grip around his throat. "Opinion has been comprehensively misinformed through sensational media coverage. Raja has from the very first said that a policeman has used a stranglehold and that this is the sole cause of death. This is fundamentally incorrect and has led to a public persecution of this officer," the lawyer says.
Consequences of the Obiora case
As a direct consequence of the case, training at the Norwegian Police Academy has undergone changes and national police director Ingelin Killengreen has instigated a thorough review of police methods generally. The policemen who are involved in the case told the Trondheim daily Adresseavisen in mid-September 2007 that they would urge the central police leadership to implement routines for temporary reassigning officers involved in cases such as the Obiora case, where three of the officers have remained in their positions during the investigations and the fourth was reassigned based on his own initiative. The officers state that they understand how the public would be upset when such reassignments are not implemented. They emphasize however that there would have to be a change of the rules for this to become routine as otherwise a reassignment would be perceived, both by the officers and by the public at large, as a censure. Sør-Trøndelag police chief Per Marum has on several occasions responded to claims that the officers be suspended that according to the Norwegian civil servant act this can only be effected when existing information exists that could lead to dismissal.
Also in mid-September 2007, the leader of the Special Unit for Police Affairs, Jan Egil Presthus, stated to the Oslo daily Dagsavisen that all investigations into police conduct of cases that have ended in deaths are going to be posted on the Internet. He states that a total openness in this way will strengthen the public confidence in the unit's integrity and ability to conduct its investigations impartially. This comes following Dagsavisen's listing in June of police cases with a deadly result. Since the Special Unit's establishment on 1 January 2005 the investigation into ten of the most serious cases were concluded, in all 10 cases leading to all charges against the police being dropped. A buzzing media discourse focusing on deaths incurred during police arrests and transports has been going on in Norway throughout 2007, and Presthus counts this as one factor triggering the initiative to publish ongoing investigations on the Internet. The cases will be presented on the web pages of the Special Unit for Police Affairs, and they will be presented in a way that preserves the anonymity of officers that are involved, and also other parties in cases where that is considered necessary with respects to protection of privacy.
See also
Asphyxia
Police misconduct in Norway
References
External links
Respekt! An ad hoc organization dedicated to the Obiora case and counteracting police violence and racism
Petition campaign Internet petition for an independent investigation into the Obiora case
http://leftpunch.blogspot.com, a blog which started the campaign over Obiora
Anti-black racism in Europe
Deaths by person in Norway
Police misconduct in Norway
Political scandals in Norway
2006 in Norway
21st century in Trondheim
Nigerian people murdered abroad
Racism in Norway |
16738220 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20Gossip | Death of a Gossip | Death of a Gossip is a mystery novel by M. C. Beaton (Marion Chesney), first published in 1985. It is set in the fictional town of Lochdubh, Scotland and is the first novel of a series featuring the local constable Hamish Macbeth.
Plot
Eight people of varied background meet in the fictional village of Lochdubh in Northern Scotland. They attend the Lochdubh School of Casting : Salmon and Trout Fishing, owned and operated by John Cartwright and his wife Heather. What should be a relaxing holiday amid glorious Highland lochs and mountains becomes a misery. One of the party, Lady Jane Withers, a society widow and notorious gossip columnist, upsets everyone with her snobbishness, sharp tongue and rudeness. Lady Jane soon learns that each of her fellow guests has a secret in their past that they would prefer to remain unknown. When her Ladyship is found dead in Keeper's Pool, no-one is surprised and everyone is relieved.
Hamish Macbeth, Lochdubh's local policeman, has to search for a murderer amongst the many suspects. No-one is willing to talk. With the assistance of Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, the love of his life, Hamish solves the mystery in his usual unorthodox style. Hamish's success does not endear him to Chief Inspector Blair, a senior detective from the nearby fictional town of Strathbane.
Characters
John Cartwright: Owner of the Lochdubh School of Casting: Salmon and Trout Fishing
Heather Cartwright: Wife of John, believed to be the better angler
Hamish Macbeth: Lochdubh's village constable
Mr. Marvin Roth: An American from New York who used to operate a sweatshop
Mrs. Amy Roth: An ex-stripper from New York
Lady Jane Winders: Widow of a Labour Peer; she is "The Gossip"; a gossip columnist for newspaper
Jeremy Blythe: A barrister from London
Alice Wilson: A secretary from London
Charlie Baxter: A twelve-year-old from London with divorced parents
Major Peter Frame: Former army officer, the only member of the class with prior fishing experience
Daphene Gore: from Oxford who used to be in an insane asylum
Priscilla Halburton-Smythe: The daughter of a wealthy local landowner
Genre
Death of a Gossip is a slightly modified version of an English Drawing Room Mystery. This type of mystery brings together a group of people, one of the group is murdered and the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth solves the crime by careful observation of the group. At the end of the novel they are all brought together in a drawing room where one by one each person is shown to be innocent and the guilty party is exposed.
Publication history
1985, USA, St. Martin's Press , Pub Date March 1985, Hardcover
1988, USA, Fawcett Publications publisher , Pub date 12 April 1988, Mass Market Paperback
1999, USA, Grand Central Publishing, , Pub Date 01 Feb 1999, Mass Market Paperback
1989, UK, Savannah Koch publisher, , Pub Date 5 August 1989, Hardcover
1994, UK, Bantam Books, London, , Pub Date 28 July 1994, Paperback
2008, UK, Robinson Publishing, , Pub Date 23 April 2008, Paperback
2013, UK, C & R Crime, , Pub Date 2013, Paperback
External links
Death of a Gossip web page on UK publisher Constable & Robinson's web site.
Footnotes
1985 British novels
British detective novels
British mystery novels
Hamish Macbeth series
Novels set in Highland (council area) |
18793578 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Caylee%20Anthony | Death of Caylee Anthony | Caylee Marie Anthony (August 9, 2005 – June-December 2008) was an American girl who lived in Orlando, Florida, with her mother, Casey Marie Anthony (born March 19, 1986), and her maternal grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony. On July 15, 2008, she was reported missing in a call made by Cindy, who said she had not seen Caylee for 31 days and that Casey's car smelled like a dead body had been inside it. Cindy said Casey had given varied explanations as to Caylee's whereabouts before finally telling her that she had not seen Caylee for weeks. Casey lied to detectives, telling them Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny on June 9, and that she had been trying to find her, too frightened to alert the authorities. She was charged with first-degree murder in October 2008 and pleaded not guilty.
On December 11, 2008, two-year-old Caylee's skeletal remains were found with a blanket inside a laundry bag in a wooded area near the Anthony family's house. Investigative reports and trial testimony varied between duct tape being found near the front of the skull and on the mouth of the skull. The medical examiner mentioned duct tape as one reason she determined the death was a homicide, while the cause of death was listed as "death by undetermined means".
The trial lasted six weeks, from May to July 2011. The prosecution sought the death penalty and alleged Casey wished to free herself from parental responsibilities and murdered her daughter by administering chloroform and applying duct tape. The defense team, led by Jose Baez, countered that the child had drowned accidentally in the family's swimming pool on June 16, 2008, and that George Anthony disposed of the body. The defense contended that Casey lied about this and other issues because of a dysfunctional upbringing, which they said included sexual abuse by her father. The defense did not present evidence as to how Caylee died, nor evidence that Casey was sexually abused as a child, but challenged every piece of the prosecution's evidence, calling much of it "fantasy forensics". Casey did not testify. On July 5, 2011, the jury found Casey not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child, but guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. With credit for time served, she was released on July 17, 2011. A Florida appeals court overturned two of the misdemeanor convictions on January 25, 2013.
The not-guilty murder verdict was met with public outrage and was both attacked and defended by media and legal commentators. Some complained that the jury misunderstood the meaning of reasonable doubt, while others said the prosecution relied too heavily on the defendant's allegedly poor moral character because they had been unable to show conclusively how the victim had died. Time magazine described the case as "the social media trial of the century".
Disappearance
According to Casey Anthony's father, George Anthony, Casey left the family's home on June 16, 2008, taking her daughter Caylee (who was almost three years old) with her, and did not return for 31 days. Casey's mother Cindy asked repeatedly during the month to see Caylee, but Casey claimed that she was too busy with a work assignment in Tampa, Florida. At other times, she said Caylee was with a nanny, who Casey identified by the name of Zenaida "Zanny" Fernandez-Gonzalez, or at theme parks or the beach. It was eventually determined that a woman named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez did in fact exist, but that she had never met Casey, Caylee, any other member of the Anthony family, nor any of Casey's friends.
Learning that Casey's car was in a tow yard, George Anthony went to recover it; he and the yard attendant noted a strong smell coming from the trunk. Both later stated that they believed the odor to be that of a decomposing body. When the trunk was opened, it contained only a bag of trash.
Cindy reported Caylee missing that day, July 15, to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. During the same telephone call, Casey confirmed to the 9-1-1 operator that Caylee had been missing for 31 days. Sounding distraught, Cindy said: "There is something wrong. I found my daughter's car today and it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car."
Case
Investigation
When Detective Yuri Melich of the Orange County Sheriff's Department began investigating Caylee's disappearance, he found discrepancies in Casey's signed statement. When questioned, Casey said Caylee had been kidnapped by Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, whom she also identified as "Zanny", Caylee's nanny. Although Casey had talked about her, Zanny had never been seen by Casey's family or friends, and in fact there was no nanny. Casey also told police that she was working at Universal Studios, a lie she had been telling her parents for years. Investigators took Casey to Universal Studios on July 16, 2008, the day after Caylee was reported missing, and asked her to show them her office. Casey led detectives around the building for around 25 minutes before she stopped, started smiling and jokingly admitted that she had no office there and that she had been fired years before.
Casey was first arrested on July 16, 2008, and was charged the following day with giving false statements to law enforcement, child neglect, and obstruction of a criminal investigation. The judge denied bail, saying Casey had shown "woeful disregard for the welfare of her child". On July 22, 2008, after a bond hearing, the judge set bail at $500,000. On August 21, 2008, after one month of incarceration, she was released from the Orange County jail after her $500,000 bond was posted by the nephew of California bail bondsman Leonard Padilla in hopes that she would cooperate and Caylee would be found.
On August 11, 12 and 13, 2008, meter reader Roy Kronk called police about a suspicious object found in a forested area near the Anthony residence. In the first instance, he was directed by the sheriff's office to call the tip line, which he did, receiving no return call. On the second instance, he again called the sheriff's office, and eventually was met by two police officers. He reported to them that he had seen what appeared to be a skull near a gray bag. On that occasion, the officer conducted a short search and stated he did not see anything. On December 11, 2008, Kronk again called the police. They searched and found the remains of a child in a trash bag. Investigative teams recovered duct tape which was hanging from hair attached to the skull and some tissue left on the skull. Over the next four days, more bones were found in the wooded area near the spot where the remains initially had been discovered. On December 19, 2008, medical examiner Jan Garavaglia confirmed that the remains found were those of Caylee Anthony. The death was ruled a homicide and the cause of death listed as undetermined.
Arrests and charges
Casey was offered a limited immunity deal on July 29, 2008, by prosecutors related to "the false statements given to law enforcement about locating her child", which was renewed on August 25, to expire August 28. She did not take it. On September 5, 2008, she was released again on bail for all pending charges after being fitted with an electronic tracking device. Her $500,000 bond was posted by her parents, Cindy and George Anthony, who signed a promissory note for the bond.
On October 14, 2008, Casey Anthony was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing false information to police. She was later arrested, and Judge John Jordan ordered that she be held without bond. On October 21, 2008, the charges of child neglect were dropped against Casey, according to the State Attorney's Office because "[as] the evidence proved that the child was deceased, the State sought an indictment on the legally appropriate charges." On October 28, Anthony was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On April 13, 2009, prosecutors announced that they planned to seek the death penalty in the case.
Trial
Evidence
Four hundred pieces of evidence were presented. A strand of hair was recovered from the trunk of Casey's car which was microscopically similar to hair taken from Caylee's hairbrush. The strand showed "root-banding," in which hair roots form a dark band after death, which was consistent with hair from a dead body.
Kronk, who discovered the remains, repeated the same basic story that he had told police. On Friday, October 24, 2008, a forensic report by Arpad Vass of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory judged that results from an air sampling procedure (called LIBS) performed in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car showed chemical compounds "consistent with a decompositional event" based on the presence of five key chemical compounds out of over 400 possible chemical compounds that Vass' research group considers typical of decomposition. Investigators stated that the trunk smelled strongly of human decomposition, but human decomposition was not specified on the laboratory scale. The process has not been affirmed by a Daubert Test in the courts. Vass' group also stated there was chloroform in the car trunk.
In October 2009, officials released 700 pages of documents related to the Anthony investigation, including records of Google searches of the terms "neck breaking" and "how to make chloroform" on a computer accessible to Casey, presented by the prosecutors as evidence of a crime.
According to detectives, crime-scene evidence included residue of a heart-shaped sticker found on duct tape over the mouth of Caylee's skull. However, the laboratory was not able to capture a heart-shape photographically after some duct tape was subjected to dye testing. A blanket found at the crime scene matched Caylee's bedding at her grandparents' home.
Among photos entered into evidence was one from the computer of Ricardo Morales, an ex-boyfriend of Casey Anthony, depicting a man leaning over a woman with a rag, captioned "Win her over with Chloroform".
Witness John Dennis Bradley's software, developed for computer investigations, was used by the prosecution to indicate that Casey had conducted extensive computer searches on the word "chloroform" 84 times, and to suggest that Anthony had planned to commit murder. He later discovered that a flaw in the software misread the forensic data and that the word "chloroform" had been searched for only one time and the website in question offered information on the use of chloroform in the 19th century (see ).
Attorneys and jury
The lead prosecutor in the case was Assistant State Attorney Linda Drane Burdick. Assistant State Attorneys Frank George and Jeff Ashton completed the prosecution team. Lead counsel for the defense was Jose Baez, a Florida criminal defense attorney. Attorneys J. Cheney Mason, Dorothy Clay Sims, and Ann Finnell served as co-counsel. During the trial, attorney Mark Lippman represented George and Cindy Anthony.
Jury selection began on May 9, 2011, at the Pinellas County Criminal Justice Center in Clearwater, Florida, because the case had been so widely reported in the Orlando area. Jurors were brought from Pinellas County to Orlando. Jury selection took longer than expected and ended on May 20, 2011, with twelve jurors and five alternates being sworn in. The panel consisted of nine women and eight men. The trial took six weeks, during which time the jury was sequestered to avoid influence from information available outside the courtroom.
Opening statements
The trial began on May 24, 2011, at the Orange County Courthouse, with Judge Belvin Perry presiding. In the opening statements, lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick described the story of the disappearance of Caylee Anthony day-by-day. The prosecution alleged an intentional murder and sought the death penalty against Casey Anthony. Prosecutors stated that Anthony used chloroform to render her daughter unconscious before putting duct tape over her nose and mouth to suffocate her, and left Caylee's body in the trunk of her car for a few days before disposing of it. They characterized Anthony as a party girl who killed her daughter to free herself from parental responsibility and enjoy her personal life.
The defense, led by Jose Baez, claimed in opening statements that Caylee drowned accidentally in the family's pool on June 16, 2008, and was found by George Anthony, who told Casey she would spend the rest of her life in jail for child neglect and then proceeded to cover up Caylee's death. Baez argued this is why Casey Anthony went on with her life and failed to report the incident for 31 days. He alleged that it was the habit of a lifetime for Casey to hide her pain and pretend nothing was wrong because she had been sexually abused by George Anthony since she was eight years old and her brother Lee also had made advances toward her. Baez also questioned whether Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found the bones, had actually removed them from another location, and further alleged that the police department's investigation was compromised by their desire to feed a media frenzy about a child's murder, rather than a more mundane drowning. He admitted that Casey had lied about there being a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzales.
Witness testimony
Prosecutors called George Anthony as their first witness and, in a response to their question, he denied having sexually abused his daughter Casey. Anthony testified he did not smell anything resembling human decomposition in Casey's car when she visited him on June 24, but he did smell something similar to human decomposition when he picked the car up on July 15. Cindy Anthony testified that her comment to that Casey's car smelled "like someone died" was just a "figure of speech".
Baez asked an FBI analyst about the paternity test the FBI conducted to see if Lee Anthony, Casey's brother, was Caylee's father. She told the jury the test had come back negative. Regarding a photo on the computer of Ricardo Morales, an ex-boyfriend of Casey Anthony, depicting a poster with the caption "Win her over with Chloroform," Morales said that the photo was on his Myspace page and that he had never discussed chloroform with Anthony or searched for chloroform on her computer.
The prosecution called John Dennis Bradley, a former Canadian law enforcement officer who develops software for computer investigations, to analyze a data file from a desktop taken from the Anthony home. Bradley said he was able to use a program to recover deleted searches from March 17 and March 21, 2008, and that someone searched the website Sci-spot.com for "chloroform" 84 times. Bradley expressed his belief that "some of these items might have been bookmarked". Under cross-examination by the defense, Bradley agreed there were two individual accounts on the desktop and that there was no way to know who actually performed the searches.
Police dog handler Jason Forgey testified that Gerus, a German Shepherd cadaver dog certified in 2005, indicated a high alert of human decomposition in the trunk of Casey's car, saying the police dog has had real-world searches numbering "over three thousand by now". During cross-examination, Baez argued that the dog's search records were "hearsay". Sgt. Kristin Brewer also testified that her police dog, Bones, signaled decomposition in the backyard during a search in July 2008. However, neither police dog was able to detect decomposition during a second visit to the Anthony home. Brewer explained that this was because whatever had been in the yard was either moved or the odor dissipated.
The prosecution called chief medical examiner Jan Garavaglia, who testified that she determined Caylee's manner of death to be homicide, but listed it as "death by undetermined means". Garavaglia took into account the physical evidence present on the remains she examined, as well as all the available information on the way they were found and what she had been told by the authorities, before arriving at her determination. "We know by our observations that it's a red flag when a child has not been reported to authorities with injury, there's foul play," Garavaglia said, and continued "There is no child that should have duct tape on its face when it dies." Additionally, Garavaglia addressed the chloroform evidence found by investigators inside the trunk of Casey's car, testifying that even a small amount of chloroform would be sufficient to cause the death of a child.
University of Florida professor and human identification laboratory director Michael Warren was brought on by the prosecution to present a computer animation of the way duct tape could have been used in the death of the child, which the defense objected to hearing. Judge Perry, after a short recess to review, ruled that the video could be shown to the jury. The animation featured a picture of Caylee taken alongside Casey, superimposed with an image of Caylee's decomposed skull, and another with a strip of duct tape that was recovered with her remains. The images were slowly brought together showing that the duct tape could have covered her nose and mouth. Baez stated, "This disgusting superimposition is nothing more than a fantasy ...They're throwing things against the wall and seeing if it sticks." Jurors were seen taking notes of the imagery, and Warren testified that it was his opinion that the duct tape found with Caylee's skull was placed there before her body began decomposing.
FBI latent-print examiner Elizabeth Fontaine testified that adhesive in the shape of a heart was found on a corner of a piece of duct tape that was covering the mouth portion of Caylee's remains during ultraviolet testing. Fontaine examined three pieces of duct tape found on Caylee's remains for fingerprints, and said she did not find fingerprints but did not expect to, given the months the tape and the remains had been outdoors and exposed to the elements, stressing that any oil or sweat from a person's fingertips would have long since deteriorated. Although Fontaine showed the findings to her supervisor, she did not initially try to photograph the heart-shaped adhesive, explaining, "When I observe something is unexpected, I note it and continue with my examination." During the defense's cross-examination, Fontaine explained that when she examined the sticker evidence a second time, after subjecting the tape to dye testing, "It was no longer visible." She said that other FBI agents had tested the duct tape in the interim.
The defense called two government witnesses who countered prosecution witness testimony about the duct tape. The chief investigator for the medical examiner stated that the original placement of the duct tape was unclear and it could have shifted positions as he collected the remains. Cindy Anthony testified that their family buried their pets in blankets and plastic bags, using duct tape to seal the opening. Additionally, an FBI forensic document examiner found no evidence of a sticker or sticker residue on the duct tape found near the child's remains.
The defense called forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz, who performed a second autopsy on Caylee after Garavaglia and challenged Garavaglia's autopsy report. He called her autopsy "shoddy," saying it was a failure that Caylee's skull was not opened during her examination. "You need to examine the whole body in an autopsy," he said. Spitz stated that he was not allowed to attend Garavaglia's initial autopsy on Caylee's remains, and that, from his own follow-up autopsy, he was not comfortable ruling the child's death a homicide. He said he could not determine what Caylee's manner of death was, but said that there was no indication to him that she was murdered. Additionally, Spitz testified that he believed the duct tape found on Caylee's skull was placed there after the body decomposed, opining that if tape was placed on the skin, there should have been DNA left on it, and suggested that someone may have staged some of the crime scene photos. "The person who took this picture, the person who prepared this, put the hair there," stated Spitz. When asked by Ashton during cross-examination, "So your testimony is the medical examiner's personnel took the hair that wasn't on the skull, placed it there?", Spitz answered, "It wouldn't be the first time, sir. I can tell you some horror stories about that."
On June 21, Bradley discovered that a flaw in his software misread the forensic data and that the word "chloroform" had been searched for only one time and the website in question offered information on the use of chloroform in the 19th century. On June 23, Baez called Cindy Anthony to the stand, who told jurors she had been the one who performed the "chloroform" search on the family computer in March 2008. The prosecution alleged that only Casey could have conducted this search and the others because she was the only one home at the time. When asked by prosecutors how she could have made the Internet searches when employment records show she was at work, Cindy Anthony said despite what her work time sheet indicates, she was at home during these time periods because she left from work early during the days in question. Bradley alerted prosecutor Linda Burdick and Sgt. Kevin Stenger of the Sheriff's Office the weekend of June 25 about the discrepancy in his software, and volunteered to fly to Orlando at his own expense to show them. On the same day, the judge temporarily halted proceedings when the defense filed a motion to determine if Anthony was competent to proceed with trial. The motion states the defense received a privileged communication from their client which caused them to believe that "Ms. Anthony is not competent to aid and assist in her own defense". The trial resumed on June 27 when the judge announced that the results of the psychological evaluations showed Anthony was competent to proceed. In later testimony about air samples, Dr. Ken Furton, a professor of chemistry at Florida International University, stated that there is no consensus in the field on what chemicals are typical of human decomposition. Judge Perry ruled that the jury would not get to smell air samples taken from the trunk.
The prosecution stated they discussed Bradley's software discrepancy with Baez on June 27, and he raised the issue in court testimony. Baez also asked Judge Perry to instruct the jury about this search information, but prosecutors disputed this and it was not done. Also on June 27, the defense called two private investigators who had searched the area in November 2008 where the body was later found. The search was videotaped, but nothing was found. On June 28, the defense called a Texas EquuSearch team leader who did two searches of the area and found no body. The defense then called Roy Kronk, who recounted the same basic story he told police about his discovery of Caylee Anthony's remains in December 2008. He acknowledged receiving $5,000 after the remains were identified, but denied that he told his son that finding the body would make him rich and famous. The next day, his son testified he had made such statements.
On June 30 the defense called Krystal Holloway, a volunteer in the search for Caylee, who stated that she had had an affair with George Anthony, that he had been to her home, and that he had texted her, "Just thinking about you. I need you in my life." She told the defense that George Anthony had told her that Caylee's death was "an accident that snowballed out of control." Under cross-examination by prosecutors, they pointed to her sworn police statement in which she had said that George Anthony believed it was an accident, rather than knowing that it was. In her initial report, Holloway reported George Anthony saying, "I really believe that it was an accident that just went wrong and (Casey Anthony) tried to cover it up." She said he had not told her he was present when the alleged accident occurred. During redirect examination, Baez asked Holloway if George Anthony had told her that Caylee was dead while stating publicly that she was missing, to which she replied yes.
In his earlier testimony George Anthony had denied the affair with Holloway, and said he visited her only because she was ill. He said he sent the text message because he needed everyone who had helped in his life. After Holloway's testimony, Judge Perry told jurors that it could be used to impeach George Anthony's credibility, but that it was not proof of how Caylee died, nor evidence of Casey Anthony's guilt or innocence.
The prosecution rested its case on June 15, after calling 59 witnesses for 70 different testimonies. The defense rested its case on June 30, after calling 47 witnesses for 63 different testimonies. Casey Anthony did not testify.
On June 30 and July 1, the prosecutor presented rebuttal arguments, beginning by showing the jury photographs of Caylee's clothes and George's suicide note. It called two representatives of Cindy Anthony's former employer who explained why their computer login system shows Cindy was at work the afternoon she said she went home early and searched her computer for information about chloroform. A police computer analyst testified someone had purposely searched online for "neck + breaking." Another analyst testified she did not find evidence that Cindy Anthony had searched certain terms she claimed to have searched. Anthropology professor Dr. Michael Warren from the University of Florida was recalled to rebut a defense witness on the need to open a skull during an autopsy. The lead detective stated that there were no phone calls between Cindy and George Anthony during the week of June 16, 2008; however, he told the defense he did not know that George had a second cell phone.
Closing arguments
Closing arguments were heard July 3 and July 4. Jeff Ashton, for the prosecution, told the jury, "When you have a child, that child becomes your life. This case is about the clash between that responsibility, and the expectations that go with it, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have." He outlined the state's case against Casey, touching on her many lies to her parents and others, the smell in her car's trunk—identified by several witnesses, including her own father, as the odor from human decomposition—and the items found with Caylee's skeletal remains in December 2008. He emphasized how Casey "maintains her lies until they absolutely cannot be maintained any more" and then replaces [them] with another lie, using "Zanny the Nanny" as an example. Anthony repeatedly told police that Caylee was with the nanny that she specifically identified as Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez. Police, however, were never able to find the nanny. Authorities did find a woman named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, but she denied ever meeting the Anthonys.
Ashton reintroduced the items found with Caylee's remains, including a Winnie the Pooh blanket that matched the bedding at her grandparents' home, one of a set of laundry bags with the twin bag found at the Anthony home, and duct tape he said was a relatively rare brand. "That bag is Caylee's coffin," Ashton said, holding up a photograph of the laundry bag, as Casey reacted with emotion. He further criticized the defense's theory that Caylee drowned in the Anthony pool and that Casey and George panicked upon finding the child's body and covered up her death. He advised jurors to use their common sense when deciding on a verdict. "No one makes an accident look like murder," he said.
Before closing arguments, Judge Perry ruled that the defense could argue that a drowning occurred due to reasonable conclusions aided by witness testimony, but that arguing sexual abuse was not allowed since there was nothing to support the claim that George sexually abused Casey. Baez began by contending that there were holes in the prosecution's forensic evidence, saying it was based on a "fantasy". He told the jury that the prosecution wanted them to see stains and insects that did not really exist, that they had not proven that the stains in Anthony's car trunk were caused by Caylee's decomposing body, rather than from a trash bag found there. He added that the prosecutors tried to make his client look like a promiscuous liar because their evidence was weak. He said the drowning is "the only explanation that makes sense" and showed jurors a photograph of Caylee opening the home's sliding glass door by herself. He stressed that there were no child safety locks in the home and that both of Casey's parents, George and Cindy, testified that Caylee could get out of the house easily. Although Cindy testified that Caylee could not put the ladder on the side of the pool and climb up, Baez alleged that Cindy may have left the ladder up the night before. "She didn't admit to doing so in testimony," he said, "but how much guilt would she have knowing it was her that left the ladder up that day?"
Defense attorney Jose Baez told jurors his biggest fear was that they would base their verdict on emotions, not evidence. "The strategy behind that is, if you hate her, if you think she's a lying, no-good slut, then you'll start to look at this evidence in a different light," he said. "I told you at the very beginning of this case that this was an accident that snowballed out of control... What made it unique is not what happened, but who it happened to." He explained Casey Anthony's behavior as being the result of her dysfunctional family situation. At one point as Baez spoke, Ashton could be seen smiling or chuckling behind his hand. This prompted Baez to refer to him as "this laughing guy right here". The judge called a sidebar conference, then a recess. When court resumed, he chastised both sides, saying both Ashton and Baez had violated his order that neither side should make disparaging remarks about opposing counsel. After both attorneys apologized, the judge accepted the apologies but warned that a recurrence would have the offending attorney excluded from the courtroom.
Defense attorney Cheney Mason then followed with an additional closing argument, addressing the jury to discuss the charges against Casey Anthony. "The burden rests on the shoulders of my colleagues at the state attorney's office," Mason said, referring to proving that Casey Anthony committed a crime. Mason said that the jurors are required, whether they like it or not, to find the defendant not guilty if the state did not adequately prove its case against Casey Anthony. Mason emphasized that the burden of proof is on the state, and that Casey Anthony's decision not to testify is not an implication of guilt.
Lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick in the prosecution rebuttal told the jurors that she and her colleagues backed up every claim they made in their opening statement six weeks ago, and implied that the defense never directly backed up their own opening-statement claims. "My biggest fear is that common sense will be lost in all the rhetoric of the case," she said, insisting that she would never ask the jury to make their decision based on emotion but rather the evidence. "Responses to guilt are oh, so predictable," she stated. "What do guilty people do? They lie, they avoid, they run, they mislead... they divert attention away from themselves and they act like nothing is wrong." She suggested that the garbage bag in the trunk of the car was a "decoy" put there to keep people from getting suspicious about the smell of the car when she left it abandoned in a parking stall directly beside a dumpster in an Amscot parking lot. "Whose life was better without Caylee?" she asked, stressing how George and Cindy Anthony were wondering where their daughter and granddaughter were in June and July 2008, the same time Casey was staying at her boyfriend's apartment while Caylee's body was decomposing in the woods. "That's the only question you need to answer in considering why Caylee Marie Anthony was left on the side of the road dead." Burdick then showed the jury a split-screen with a photo of Casey partying at a night club on one side and a close-up of the "" (meaning "Beautiful Life") tattoo that she got weeks after Caylee died on the other.
The jury began deliberations on July 4. On July 5, prosecutors stated that, during deliberations, they were about to give the jury the corrected information with regard to Bradley's software discrepancy; however, the jury reached a verdict before they could do so. One legal analyst stated that if the jury had found Casey guilty before receiving the exculpatory evidence, the prosecution's failure to fully disclose it could have been grounds for a mistrial.
Verdict and sentence
On July 5, 2011, the jury found Casey not guilty of counts one through three regarding first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse, while finding her guilty on counts four through seven for providing false information to law enforcement:
Count Four: Anthony said she was employed at Universal Studios during 2008, pursuant to the investigation of a missing persons report.
Count Five: Anthony said she had left Caylee at an apartment complex with a babysitter causing law enforcement to pursue the missing babysitter.
Count Six: Anthony said she informed two "employees" of Universal Studios, Jeff Hopkins and Juliet Lewis, at Universal, of the disappearance of Caylee.
Count Seven: Anthony said she had received a phone call and spoke to Caylee on July 15, 2008, causing law enforcement to expend further resources.
On July 7, 2011, sentencing arguments were heard. The defense asked for the sentencing to be based on one count of lying on the grounds that the offenses occurred as part of a single interview with police dealing with the same matter, the disappearance of her daughter, as one continuous lie. The defense also argued for concurrent sentences, that is for all four counts to become one count and the sentence to run together as one. The judge disagreed with defense arguments, finding that Anthony's statements consisted of "four distinct, separate lies" ordered the sentences be served consecutively, noting that "Law enforcement expended a great deal of time, energy and manpower looking for Caylee Marie Anthony. This search went on from July through December, over several months, trying to find Caylee Marie Anthony." Judge Perry sentenced Casey to one year in the county jail and $1,000 in fines for each of the four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer, the maximum penalty prescribed by law. She received 1,043 days credit for time served plus additional credit for good behavior, resulting in her release on July 17, 2011.
In September 2011, Perry, complying with a Florida statute requiring judges to assess investigative and prosecution costs if requested by a state agency, ruled that Casey Anthony must pay $217,000 to the state of Florida. He ruled she had to pay those costs directly related to lying to law enforcement about the death of Caylee, including search costs only up to September 30, 2008, when the Sheriff's Office stopped investigating a missing-child case. In earlier arguments, Mason had called the prosecutors' attempts to exact the larger sum "sour grapes" because the prosecution lost its case. He told reporters that Anthony is indigent.
In January 2013, a Florida appeals court reduced her convictions from four to two counts. Her attorney had argued that her false statements constituted a single offense; however, the appeals court noted she gave false information during two separate police interviews several hours apart.
Media coverage
Initial coverage
The case attracted a significant amount of national media attention, and was regularly the main topic of many TV talk shows; including those hosted by Greta Van Susteren, Nancy Grace and Geraldo Rivera. It has been featured on Fox's America's Most Wanted, NBC's Dateline, and ABC's 20/20. Nancy Grace referred to Casey Anthony as the "tot mom", and urged the public to let "the professionals, the psychics and police" do their jobs.
Casey Anthony's parents, Cindy and George, appeared on The Today Show on October 22, 2008. They maintained their belief that Caylee was alive and would be found. Larry Garrison, president of SilverCreek Entertainment, was their spokesman until November 2008, citing that he was resigning as spokesperson due to "the Anthony family's erratic behavior".
More than 6,000 pages of evidence released by the Orange County Sheriff's Department, including hundreds of instant messages between Casey and her ex-boyfriend Tony Rusciano, were the subject of increased scrutiny by the media for clues and possible motives in the homicide. Outside the Anthony home, WESH TV 2 reported that protesters repeatedly shouted "baby killer" and that George Anthony was physically attacked. George Anthony was reported missing on January 22, 2009, after he failed to show up for a meeting with his lawyer, Brad Conway. George was found in a Daytona Beach hotel the next day after sending messages to family members threatening suicide. He was taken to Halifax Hospital for psychiatric evaluation and later released.
Trial coverage
The trial was commonly compared to the O. J. Simpson murder case, both for its widespread media attention and initial shock at the not-guilty verdict. At the start of the trial, dozens of people raced to the Orange County Courthouse, hoping to secure one of 50 seats open to the public at the murder trial. Because the case received such thorough media attention in Orlando, jurors were brought in from Pinellas County, Florida, and sequestered for the entire trial. The trial became a "macabre tourist attraction", as people camped outside for seats in the courtroom, where scuffles also broke out among those wanting seats inside. The New York Post described the trial as going "from being a newsworthy case to one of the biggest ratings draws in recent memory", and Time magazine dubbed it "the social media trial of the century". Cable news channels and network news programs became intent upon covering the case as extensively as they could. Scot Safon, executive vice president of HLN, said it was "not about policy" but rather the "very, very strong human dimension" of the case that drove the network to cover it. The audience for HLN's Nancy Grace rose more than 150 percent, and other news channels deciding to focus on the trial saw their ratings double and triple. HLN achieved its most watched hour in network history (4.575 million) and peaked at 5.205 million when the verdict was read. According to The Christian Post, the O. J. Simpson case had a 91 percent television viewing audience, with 142 million people listening by radio and watching television as the verdict was delivered. "The Simpson case was the longest trial ever held in California, costing more than $20 million to fight and defend, running up 50,000 pages of trial transcript in the process." The Casey Anthony trial was expected to "far exceed" these numbers.
Opinions varied on what made the public thoroughly invested in the trial. Safon argued the Anthonys having been a regular and "unremarkable" family with complex relationships made them intriguing to watch. In a special piece for CNN, psychologist Frank Farley described the circumstantial evidence as "all over the map" and that combined with "the apparent lying, significant contradictions and flip-flops of testimony, and questionable or bizarre theories of human behavior, it is little wonder that this nation [was] glued to the tube". He said it was a trial that was both a psychologist's dream and nightmare, and believes that much of the public's fascination had to do with the uncertainty of a motive for the crime. Psychologist Karyl McBride discussed how some mothers stray away from "the saintly archetype" expected of mothers. "We want so badly to hang onto the belief system that mothers don't harm children," she stated. "It's fascinating that the defense in the Anthony case found a way to blame the father. While we don't know what is true and maybe never will, it is worth taking a look at the narcissistic family when maternal narcissism rules the roost. Casey Anthony is a beautiful white woman and the fact that the case includes such things as sex, lies, and videotapes makes it irresistible."
When the not-guilty verdict was rendered, there was significant outcry among the general public and media that the jury made the wrong decision. Outside the courthouse, many in the crowd of 500 reacted with anger, chanting their disapproval and waving protest signs. People took to Facebook and Twitter, as well as other social media outlets, to express their outrage. Traffic to news sites surged from about two million page views a minute to 3.3 million, with most of the visits coming from the United States. Mashable reported that between 2 pm and 3 pm, one million viewers were watching CNN.com/live, 30 times higher than the previous month's average. Twitter's trending topics in the United States were mostly about the subjects related to the case, and Newser reported that posts on Facebook were coming in "too fast for all Facebook to even count them, meaning at least 10 per second". Some people referred to the verdict as "O.J. Number 2", and various media personalities and celebrities expressed outrage via Twitter. News anchor Julie Chen became visibly upset while reading the not-guilty verdict on The Talk and had to be assisted by her fellow co-hosts, who also expressed their dismay.
Others, such as Sean Hannity of the Fox News Channel, felt the verdict was fair because the prosecution did not have enough evidence to establish guilt or meet its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Hannity said that the verdict was legally correct, and that all of the evidence that was presented by the prosecution was either impeached or contradicted by the defense. John Cloud of Time magazine echoed these sentiments, saying the jury made the right call: "Anthony got off because the prosecution couldn't answer [the questions]," Cloud stated. "Because the prosecutors had so little physical evidence, they built their case on Anthony's (nearly imperceptible) moral character. The prosecutors seemed to think that if jurors saw what a fantastic liar Anthony was, they would understand that she could also be a murderer."
Disagreement with the verdict was heavily debated by the media, lawyers and psychologists, who put forth several theories for public dissatisfaction with the decision, ranging from wanting justice for Caylee, to the circumstantial evidence having been strong enough, to some blaming the media. UCLA forensic psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, said, "The main reason that people are reacting so strongly is that the media convicted Casey before the jury decided on the verdict. The public has been whipped up into this frenzy wanting revenge for this poor little adorable child. And because of the desire for revenge, they've been whipped up into a lynch mob." She added, "Nobody likes a liar, and Anthony was a habitual liar. And nobody liked the fact that she was partying after Caylee's death. Casey obviously has a lot of psychological problems. Whether she murdered her daughter or not is another thing."
There was a gender gap in perceptions to the case. According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll of 1,010 respondents, about two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) believed Casey Anthony "definitely" or "probably" murdered her daughter; however, women were much more likely than men to believe the murder charges against Anthony and to be upset by the not-guilty verdict. The poll reported that women were more than twice as likely as men, 28 percent versus 11 percent, to think Anthony "definitely" committed murder. Twenty-seven percent of women said they were angry about the verdict, compared with nine percent of men. On the day Casey Anthony was sentenced for lying to investigators in the death of her daughter, supporters and protesters gathered outside the Orange County Courthouse, with one man who displayed a sign asking Anthony to marry him. Two men who drove overnight from West Virginia held signs that said, "We love and support you Casey Anthony," and "Nancy Grace, stop trying to ruin innocent lives. The jury has spoken. P.S. Our legal system still works!" The gender gap has partly been explained by "the maternal instinct"—the idea of a mother murdering her own child is a threat to the ideal of motherhood. For example, the trial was compared to the 1960s trial of Alice Crimmins, who was accused of murdering her two small children.
Explanations other than, or emphasizing, the prosecution's lack of forensic evidence were given for the jury's decision. A number of media commentators reasoned that the prosecution overcharged the case by tagging on the death penalty, concluding that people in good conscience could not sentence Anthony to death based on the circumstantial evidence presented. The CSI effect was also extensively argued—that society now lives "in a 'CSI age' where everyone expects fingerprints and DNA, and we are sending a message that old-fashioned circumstantial evidence is not sufficient". Likewise, commentators such as O. J. Simpson case prosecutor Marcia Clark believe that the jury interpreted "reasonable doubt" too narrowly. Clark said instruction on reasonable doubt is "the hardest, most elusive" instruction of all. "And I think it's where even the most fair-minded jurors can get derailed," she said, opining the confusion between reasonable doubt and a reason to doubt. "In Scotland, they have three verdicts: guilty, not guilty, and not proven. It's one way of showing that even if the jury didn't believe the evidence amounted to proof beyond a reasonable doubt, it didn't find the defendant innocent either. There's a difference."
Aftermath
Defense, prosecution, and jury
Following the criminal trial, Mason blamed the media for the passionate hatred directed toward Casey Anthony. He described it as a "media assassination" of her before and during the trial, saying, "I hope that this is a lesson to those of you who have indulged in media assassination for three years, bias, and prejudice, and incompetent talking heads saying what would be and how to be." Mason added: "I can tell you that my colleagues from coast to coast and border to border have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television and talking about cases that they don't know a damn thing about, and don't have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it. Now you have learned a lesson."
Mason's response was viewed as especially critical of Nancy Grace, whose news program is cited as having "almost single-handedly inflated the Anthony case from a routine local murder into a national obsession". Grace said that she did not understand why Mason would care what pundits are saying, and that she imagines she has tried and covered as many cases as Mason. She criticized the defense attorneys for delivering media criticism before mentioning Caylee's name in their post-verdict news conference, and said she disagrees with the verdict. At a meeting of local professionals, named the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa, Mason told the media and those in attendance that he was surprised by the not-guilty verdict.
State's Attorney Lawson Lamar said, "We're disappointed in the verdict today because we know the facts and we've put in absolutely every piece of evidence that existed. This is a dry-bones case. Very, very difficult to prove. The delay in recovering little Caylee's remains worked to our considerable disadvantage." Jose Baez said, "While we're happy for Casey, there are no winners in this case. Caylee has passed on far, far too soon, and what my driving force has been for the last three years has been always to make sure that there has been justice for Caylee and Casey because Casey did not murder Caylee. It's that simple." He added, "And today our system of justice has not dishonored her memory by a false conviction." Former Casey Anthony defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden shared Baez's sentiments. She believes the jury reached the right verdict. "We should embrace their verdict," she stated.
On July 6, 2011, Jeff Ashton gave his first interview about the case on The View. Ashton said of the verdict, "Obviously, it's not the outcome we wanted. But from the perspective of what we do, this was a fantastic case." He disagrees with those who state the prosecution overcharged the case, saying, "The facts that we had... this was first-degree murder. I think it all came down to the evidence. I think ultimately it came down to the cause of death." Ashton additionally explained that if the jury did not perceive first-degree murder when they saw the photograph of Caylee's skull with the duct tape, "then so be it". He said he accepts the jury's decision and that it has not taken away his faith in the justice system. "You can't believe in the rule of law and not accept that sometimes it doesn't go the way you think it should," stated Ashton, and explained that he understands why the case "struck such a nerve" with the public. He added that "I think when people see someone that they believe has so gone away from [a mother's love for her child], it just outrages them." Ashton also made appearances on several other talk shows in the days following, and complimented Jose Baez on his cross-examinations and as having "the potential to be a great attorney".
After the trial ended, the twelve jurors did not initially want to discuss the verdict with the media. 51-year-old Russell Huekler, an alternative juror who stepped forward the day of the verdict, said, "The prosecution didn't provide the evidence that was there for any of the charges from first-degree murder down to second-degree murder to the child abuse to even the manslaughter [charge]. It just wasn't there."
The next day, juror number three—Jennifer Ford, a 32-year-old nursing student—told ABC News, "I did not say she was innocent" and "I just said there was not enough evidence. If you cannot prove what the crime was, you cannot determine what the punishment should be." She added, "I'm not saying that I believe the defense," but that "it's easier for me logically to get from point A to point B" via the defense argument, as opposed to the prosecution argument. Ford believed George Anthony was "dishonest." She said the jury "was sick to [their] stomachs to get [the not-guilty] verdict" and that the decision process overwhelmed them to the point where they did not want to talk to reporters afterwards. Juror number two, a 46-year-old male who requested to stay unidentified, told the St. Petersburg Times that "everybody agreed if we were going fully on feelings and emotions, [Anthony] was done". He stated that a lack of evidence was the reason for the not-guilty verdict: "I just swear to God ... I wish we had more evidence to put her away. I truly do ... But it wasn't there." He also said that Anthony was "not a good person in my opinion".
In an anonymous interview, the jury foreman stated, "When I had to sign off on the verdict, the sheet that was given to me—there was just a feeling of disgust that came over me knowing that my signature and [Casey Anthony's] signature were going to be on the same sheet," but that "there was a suspicion of [George Anthony]" that played a part in the jury's deliberations. The foreman stated his work experience enabled him to read people and that George Anthony "had a very selective memory" which stayed with the jurors, emphasizing that the jury was frustrated by the motive, cause of death, and George Anthony. "That a mother would want to do something like that to her child just because she wanted to go out and party," he said. "We felt that the motive that the state provided was, in our eyes, was just kind of weak." Although the foreman objected to Casey Anthony's behavior in the wake of her daughter's death, he and the jury did not factor that behavior into their verdict because it was not illegal. They initially took a vote on the murder count, which was 10–2 (two voting guilty), but after more than ten hours of deliberation, they decided the only charges they felt were proven were the four counts of lying to law enforcement.
Perry announced at sentencing on July 7 that he would withhold the jurors' names for several months because of concern that "Some people would like to take something out on them." He released the jurors' names on October 25, 2011. On May 6, 2013, he stated that he believed there was sufficient evidence to convict Casey Anthony, even though most of the evidence was circumstantial, and that he was shocked by the not-guilty verdict.
Anthony family
Mark Lippman, the attorney for George and Cindy Anthony, told ABC News that the family received death threats after the not-guilty verdict was rendered. In response to the verdict, a statement was released by Lippman on behalf of the Anthony family (George, Cindy and Lee Anthony):
While the family may never know what has happened to Caylee Marie Anthony, they now have closure for this chapter of their life. They will now begin the long process of rebuilding their lives. Despite the baseless defense chosen by Casey Anthony, the family believes that the Jury made a fair decision based on the evidence presented, the testimony presented, the scientific information presented and the rules that were given to them by the Honorable Judge Perry to guide them. The family hopes that they will be given the time by the media to reflect on this verdict and decide the best way to move forward privately.
It was alleged in press reports that Cindy Anthony had perjured herself when telling jurors she—not Casey Anthony—was the one who used her family computer to search the Internet for "chloroform". The state attorney's office said she would not be charged.
On July 6, 2011, Anthony's jailhouse letters were released to the general public. They were originally released (though not to public) in April 2010 by prosecutors preparing for the Anthony trial. In more than 250 handwritten pages, Anthony discusses her life in jail, what she misses, and her plans for the future if freed. On July 8, 2011, Cindy Anthony had scheduled a visit to meet with Casey at 7:00 p.m., but Casey declined to meet with her mother. Mark Lippman told Reuters during the trial that Casey had cut off communication with her parents. It was later announced that George and Cindy Anthony would be appearing on Dr. Phil in September 2011 to tell their story.
Casey left for an undisclosed location not long after the verdict. However, on August 12, she was ordered to return to Florida to serve a year's supervised probation for an unrelated check-fraud conviction. When she pleaded guilty to that charge in January 2010, the judge in that case intended for Casey to serve her probation after proceedings in the murder case concluded, but an error in the sentencing documents allowed her to serve her probation while awaiting trial. Casey returned to Florida on August 25 and served out her probation in an undisclosed location. Due to numerous threats against her life, the Department of Corrections did not enter her information into the state parolee database. In August 2011, George and Cindy issued a statement that Casey would not be living at their home when she returned to Florida to serve her probation. According to Huffington Post, she was reportedly working with her probation officer to take online college classes in an unspecified field, while protected by her security, at an undisclosed educational institution.
In August 2011, the Florida Department of Children and Families released a report based on a three-year investigation into the disappearance and death of Caylee. An agency spokesperson stated, "It is the conclusion of the [DCF] that [Casey Anthony] failed to protect her child from harm either through her actions or lack of actions, which tragically resulted in the child's untimely death."
Casey filed for bankruptcy with the Middle District of Florida Bankruptcy Court on January 27, 2013. Her estimated liabilities were between $500,000 and $1 million.
Civil suits
In September 2008, a Zenaida Gonzalez sued Casey for defamation. During the investigation, Anthony told investigators that she left -year-old Caylee with a babysitter named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez—also known as "Zanny"—on June 16 at the stairs of a specific apartment in the Sawgrass apartment complex located in Orlando. Zenaida Gonzalez, who was listed on apartment records as having visited apartments on that date, was questioned by police, but stated she did not know Casey or Caylee. Her defamation suit sought compensatory and punitive damages, alleging that Casey willfully damaged her reputation. Gonzalez told reporters that she lost her job, was evicted from her house, and received death threats against herself and her children as a result of Anthony's lies. Gonzalez' lawyer, John Morgan, said he wanted to interrogate Anthony about Caylee's death because it was "the essence" of the defamation suit.
On October 8, 2011, Morgan deposed Casey via a video conference. She exercised her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and answered only a couple of factual questions. Morgan felt that was improper, but legal experts thought that Anthony was well within her rights to plead the Fifth until her appeals of the convictions for lying to officers had been exhausted. Gonzalez' attorneys sought and received permission to obtain Anthony's address (though it was kept sealed from the public) so they could subpoena her to testify, even if she only took the stand long enough to plead the Fifth. However, Gonzalez had been willing to drop the suit if Anthony were to apologize to her and compensate her for pain and suffering. In September 2015, a judge ruled in favor of Anthony, stating: "There is nothing in the statement…to support (Gonzalez') allegations that (Anthony) intended to portray (the nanny) as a child kidnapper and potentially a child killer."
In July 2011, Texas EquuSearch (TES), a non-profit group which assisted in the search for Caylee from July to December 2008 when she was believed to be missing, sued Anthony for fraud and unjust enrichment. TES estimates that it spent more than $100,000 searching for Caylee even though she was already dead. TES founder and director Tim Miller estimates that the abortive search for Caylee expended 40% of the group's yearly resources which could have been spent looking for other missing children. It only learned that Anthony knew all along that Caylee was dead when the trial began. TES and Anthony eventually settled out of court on October 18, 2013. TES was listed as a creditor to Anthony and was entitled to $75,000.
"Caylee's Law"
Since the end of the trial, various movements have arisen for the creation of a new law, called "Caylee's Law", that would impose stricter requirements on parents to notify law enforcement of the death or disappearance of a child. One such petition, circulated via Change.org, has gained nearly 1.3 million electronic signatures. In response to this and other petitions, lawmakers in four states—Florida, Oklahoma, New York, and West Virginia—have begun drafting versions of "Caylee's Law". The law in Oklahoma would require a child's parent or guardian to notify police of a missing child within 24 hours, and would also stipulate a time frame for notification of the disappearance of a young child under the age of 12. The Florida law would make it a felony if a parent or legal guardian fails to report a missing child in timely manner if they could have known the child would be in danger. The call for mandatory reporting laws has been criticized as being "reactive, overly indiscriminating and even counterproductive". One critic noted the law could lead to overcompliance and false reports by parents wary of becoming suspects, wasting police resources and leading to legitimate abductions going uninvestigated during the critical first few hours. Additionally, innocent people could get snared in the law for searching for a child instead of immediately calling police.
Memorials and tribute songs
Different artists have written songs in Caylee's memory. Jon Whynock performed his own version at her memorial service in February 2009, and Rascal Flatts' Gary LeVox collaborated with country comedian and radio host Cledus T. Judd and songwriter Jimmy Yeary to write a song titled "She's Going Places" in Caylee's memory.
Later information
In November 2012, WKMG-TV television in Orlando reported that police never investigated Firefox browser evidence on Casey's computer the day of Caylee's death; they only looked at Internet Explorer evidence. The browser history showed that someone at the Anthony household, using a password-protected account Casey used, used Firefox to do a Google search for "foolproof suffocation" at 2:51 p.m., and then clicked on an article criticizing pro-suicide websites promoting "foolproof" ways to die, including the idea of committing suicide by taking poison and putting a plastic bag over one's head. The browser then recorded activity on MySpace, a site used by Casey but not George. The station learned about this information from Casey's attorney Jose Baez who mentioned it in his book on the case, speculating that George had contemplated suicide after Caylee's death. He conceded to reporters that the records are open to interpretation; however, he speculated that the state may have chosen not to introduce the search at trial because, according to Baez, the computer records tend to refute the timeline stated by George, which was that Casey left at 12:50 p.m. An analysis by John Goetz, a retired engineer and computer expert in Connecticut, revealed that her password-protected computer account shows activity on the home computer at 1:39 p.m., with activity on her AIM account, as well as MySpace and Facebook.
In April 2016, transcripts of two 2015 affidavits of private investigator Dominic Casey were filed on the court docket in the matter of Kronk v. Anthony and picked up by news services in May 2016. In one affidavit, Dominic Casey stated that on July 26, 2008, Baez admitted to him that Casey Anthony murdered Caylee Anthony "and dumped the body somewhere and, he needed all the help he could get to find the body before anyone else did". He also claimed that Baez had a sexual relationship with Anthony, and that "Casey told me she had to do what Jose said because she had no money for her defense." Baez "vehemently" denied a sexual relationship.
In March 2017, Casey Anthony gave an interview with the Associated Press. In the interview, she admits to lying to police. When asked about the drowning defense, Anthony stated, "Everyone has their theories, I don't know. As I stand here today, I can't tell you one way or another. The last time I saw my daughter, I believed she was alive and was going to be OK, and that's what was told to me."
In January 2020, Kronk lost an appeal of his defamation case against Anthony and her attorneys. A US District Court judge upheld a lower court finding that there was not enough evidence to prove she willfully defamed Kronk.
See also
List of solved missing person cases
List of unsolved deaths
Media circus
Murder of Lorenzo González Cacho, unsolved murder of an 8-year-old Puerto Rican child, in which his mother figured as a suspect
Murder of Travis Alexander, a case compared to that of Anthony, with apparent similarities in coverage and the alleged perpetrators.
Trial by media
Unreported missing
References
External links
Central Florida News 13 resources:
Timeline of complete case
Link to daily news stories about the trial
List of all witnesses called
List of various legal documents, including documentary evidence released by the state from 2009
Miscellaneous documentary evidence released by the state from 2008, Discovery Channel
Casey Anthony news coverage, from WFTV-TV (ABC 9) in Orlando, FL
Casey Anthony news coverage, from WKMG-TV (CBS 6) in Orlando, FL
Casey Anthony news coverage, from WESH-TV (NBC 2) in Orlando, FL
Casey Anthony news coverage, from WOFL-TV (FOX 35) in Orlando, FL
JCS – Criminal Psychology – There's Something About Casey...
2000s missing person cases
2008 in Florida
2011 in Florida
21st century in Orlando, Florida
Child deaths
Criminal trials that ended in acquittal
Deaths by person in the United States
Formerly missing people
June 2008 events in the United States
Missing person cases in Florida
Trials in the United States
Unsolved deaths
Women in Florida |
19996365 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Brandon%20Crisp | Death of Brandon Crisp | Brandon Emmett Crisp (January 18, 1993 – c. October 13, 2008) was a Canadian teenage boy who disappeared on October 13, 2008, when he ran away from his home in Barrie, Ontario, Canada after his parents took away his Xbox 360 video game console due to failing grades and his excessive playing of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. He was last seen alive on a nearby trail.
His body was found at the base of a tree in an overgrown area on November 5, a few kilometres away, by a party of hunters. An autopsy determined that he likely died of injuries due to a fall from a tree.
Disappearance
On October 13, 2008, Crisp was involved in an argument with his parents over what they described as obsessively playing the video game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on his Xbox 360, after they took the system away. Brandon filled a yellow and grey backpack with clothes and left home riding his bicycle. His parents allowed him to leave and expected "he would be home later that day with his tail between his legs".
According to police, two witnesses claimed to have last seen him on a trail near Shanty Bay, Ontario. The first reported that he had seen him having mechanical trouble with his bicycle on the trail. The second witness reported seeing Crisp later walking along the trail further east, but due to communications mix-ups this information was not passed along to searchers until the end of October. Crisp's missing person file was flagged nationally by the Canadian Police Information Centre.
Crisp's parents reported him to Barrie Police Service as missing on the morning of October 14. Police began their search October 18, using heat-sensitive cameras and officers with the K-9 unit. On October 20, police located his mountain bike, which had been abandoned near where he was last witnessed.
Concerned members of the public organized their own search parties, at times consisting of more than 1,600 individuals, some from areas as far away as London, Ontario.
On October 27, Microsoft announced that they would be adding C$25,000 of matching funds to the reward already offered by a local newspaper and the Crisps' Internet service provider, bringing the total reward to $50,000. As the ground searches were progressing, there was also speculation that Crisp had been lured by a fellow Xbox Live player, despite there being no evidence for this; Microsoft offered assistance to the police effort by helping to identify players on Crisp's online friends list.
Death
Police ended the ground search for Crisp on October 30, 2008, but made clear that the investigation was on-going and continuing around-the-clock. One week later, on November 5, hunters discovered Crisp's body in an overgrown area near what had been the police search area. An autopsy confirmed the identity of the teen via dental records and determined the cause of death to be "injuries to the chest area that are consistent with a fall from a tree". Barrie Police noted that no foul play was suspected, and that the investigation was ongoing to determine an exact timeline. Although a police spokesman stated "We're doing the best to come up with the answers everybody wants", no further details or updates have been released to the public.
Media coverage and response
Within a week of Brandon Crisp's disappearance the case received significant media coverage throughout Ontario. Toronto-based outlets such as The Toronto Star, Citytv, CP24, and others covered the story, and national outlets such as the National Post, CTV and CBC soon picked it up as well. A Facebook page started by Brandon's classmates at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Barrie, titled "Where is Brandon Crisp", grew to almost 22,000 members by the time his body was found.
The news of the discovery of Brandon Crisp's body made national news throughout Canada, with coverage on all major TV networks and national newspapers. The Toronto Sun published it as the front-page headline and picture on November 6, 2008. Thousands of people also flooded the Facebook group and other internet forums with expressions of grief and sympathy for the family.
The story generated Internet coverage from bloggers and others trying to help find Crisp, such as the creation of the now-defunct website findbrandoncrisp.com, discussions of the video game related issues, and discussions of how the tragedy emotionally affected the community, police involved, and even strangers.
The report of Crisp's death generated an amount of anonymous internet trolling, with many messages and photos posted to the Facebook group that most group members and friends found to be upsetting and disturbing, resulting in the group being shut down; an example of what Mattathias Schwartz of The New York Times has called "Malwebolence".
Brandon Crisp was buried in Barrie on November 14, 2008, in a service attended by more than 1,700 fellow students, friends, family, and community members. National media covered the service, featured as the lead-item on most Ontario newscasts. The Crisp family has created the Brandon Crisp Endowment Fund, working with Canadian Tire's JumpStart charity program for assisting families in financial need to participate in minor sports and recreational activities. By October 2009 over $140,000 has been raised.
Crisp's story continues to be referenced in discussions about video game addiction and influence, with debate about whether his obsession with Call of Duty actually was a contributing factor to his death, or whether this case was just a tragedy that began with an ordinary teen-parent argument.
On March 6, 2009, the CBC's national news program The Fifth Estate aired an hour-long report on video game addiction and the Brandon Crisp story, titled "Top Gun: When a video gaming obsession turns to addiction and tragedy". The program had sent a team to Barrie to interview Crisp's parents and friends before his body had been found, and those segments were combined with interviews of gaming industry representatives and others. While the program did acknowledge that video gaming was not directly responsible for his death, many journalists and bloggers felt that the program was not balanced and fair, singling out the video game industry and focusing less on the need for parents to educate themselves about video games. Columnist Steve Tilley of newspaper the Toronto Sun called the report "Lazy, cheap and disappointingly one-sided", though he does admit that the report succeeds "in exploring why Brandon Crisp might have become so addicted to Call of Duty 4".
See also
List of solved missing person cases
References
External links
Brandon Crisp Endowment Fund website
Brandon's profile on America's Most Wanted
Steve Crisp speaks about his son's disappearance
2000s missing person cases
2008 in Ontario
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in Ontario
Deaths by person in Canada
Formerly missing people
Video game controversies |
20222554 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Baby%20P | Death of Baby P | Peter Connelly (also known as "Baby P", "Child A", and "Baby Peter", 1 March 2006 – 3 August 2007) was a 17-month-old British boy who died in London in 2007 after suffering more than fifty injuries over an eight-month period, during which he was repeatedly seen by the London Borough of Haringey Children's services and National Health Service (NHS) health professionals. Baby P's real first name was revealed as "Peter" on the conclusion of a subsequent trial of Peter's mother's boyfriend on a charge of raping a two-year-old. His full identity was revealed when his killers were named after the expiry of a court anonymity order on 10 August 2009.
The case caused shock and concern among the public and in Parliament, partly because of the magnitude of Peter's injuries, and partly because Peter had lived in the London Borough of Haringey, North London, under the same child welfare authorities that failed seven years earlier in the murder of Victoria Climbié, which had been investigated by a public inquiry resulting in measures being put in place in an effort to prevent similar cases.
Peter's mother Tracey Connelly, her partner Steven Barker, and Jason Owen (later revealed to be Barker's brother) were all convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child, the mother having pleaded guilty to the charge. A court order issued by the High Court in England had prevented the publication of the identity of Baby P; this was lifted on 1 May 2009 by Justice Coleridge. An order sought by Haringey Council to stop publication of the identities of his mother and her boyfriend was granted, but expired on 10 August 2009.
The child protection services of Haringey and other agencies were widely criticised. Following the conviction, three inquiries and a nationwide review of social service care were launched, and the Head of Children's Services at Haringey was removed at the direction of the government minister. Another nationwide review was conducted by Lord Laming into his own recommendations concerning the murder of Victoria Climbié in 2000. The death was also the subject of debate in the House of Commons.
Biography
Peter Connelly was born to Tracey Connelly on 1 March 2006. In November, Connelly's new boyfriend Steven Barker moved in with her. In December, a general practitioner noticed bruises on Peter's face and chest. His mother was arrested and Peter was put into the care of a family friend, but returned home to his mother's care in January 2007. Over the next few months, Peter was admitted to hospital on two occasions suffering from injuries including bruising, scratches and swelling on the side of the head. Connelly was arrested again in May 2007.
In June 2007, a social worker observed marks on Peter and informed the police. A medical examination concluded that the bruising was the result of child abuse. On 4 June, the baby was placed with a friend for safeguarding. On 25 July, Haringey Council's Children & Young People's Service obtained legal advice which indicated that the "threshold for initiating Care Proceedings...was not met".
On 1 August 2007, Peter was seen at St Ann's Hospital in North London by locum paediatrician Sabah Al-Zayyat. Serious injuries, including a broken back and broken ribs, very likely went undetected, as the post-mortem report believed these to have pre-dated Al-Zayyat's examination. A day later, Connelly was informed that she would not be prosecuted.
The next day, an ambulance was called and Peter was found in his cot, blue and clad only in a nappy. After attempts at resuscitation, he was taken to North Middlesex Hospital with his mother but was pronounced dead at 12:20 pm. A post-mortem revealed he had swallowed a tooth after being punched. Other injuries included a broken back, broken ribs, mutilated fingertips, and missing fingernails.
The police immediately began a murder investigation and Peter's mother was arrested.
Trials
On 11 November 2008, Owen, 36, and his brother Barker, 32, were found guilty of "causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable person". Connelly, 27, had already pleaded guilty to this charge. Earlier in the trial, Owen and Connelly had been cleared of murder because of insufficient evidence. Barker was found not guilty of murder by a jury.
A second trial took place in April 2009, when Connelly and Barker, under aliases, faced charges related to the rape of a two-year-old girl. The girl was also on Haringey's child protection register. Barker was found guilty of rape, while Connelly was found not guilty of child cruelty charges. Their defence lawyers argued that this second trial was nearly undermined by bloggers publishing information linking them to the death of Peter, which could have prejudiced the jury.
Sentencing for both trials together took place on 22 May 2009 at the Old Bailey. Connelly received a sentence of "imprisonment for public protection", and ordered to be indefinitely imprisoned until "deemed no longer to be a risk to the public and in particular to small children," with a minimum term of five years. Barker was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape, with a minimum sentence of ten years, and a 12-year sentence for his role in the death of Peter, to run concurrently. Owen was also jailed indefinitely, with a minimum term of three years. The sentences were criticised as too lenient by the NSPCC's chief executive, and the Attorney General considered referring them to the Court of Appeal for review, but concluded that there was "no realistic prospect" of the Court of Appeal increasing the sentences. The three appealed against their sentences, Barker against both convictions and sentences.
Owen's sentence was changed on appeal to a fixed six-year term. He was released in August 2011, but later recalled to prison. Connelly was released on licence in 2013, but returned to prison in 2015 for breaching her parole; she became ineligible for review for two years. Barker had an application for parole turned down in August 2017. Connelly was refused parole for a third time in December 2019.
Aftermath
Haringey Council initiated an internal audit serious case review (SCR) after Peter's death. After completion of the court case, only an executive summary was released to the public. The full report was kept confidential, with only some employees of Haringey Council and Haringey councillors allowed access. The two local MPs whose constituencies cover Haringey (Lynne Featherstone and David Lammy), leader of the opposition Robert Gorrie, and opposition spokesperson for Children's Services, were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements to view the document. Ed Balls condemned the serious case review and called for a second report with an independent adjudicator.
The Mail on Sunday on 15 March 2009 reported that details of the SCR had come into its possession. The article claimed that the executive summary of the SCR either conflicted with or omitted details about how the case had been handled and the extent of the injuries suffered by Peter. Furthermore, there were instances of mishandling by officials, missed and delayed meetings, miscommunication among officials, and a failure to follow through with decisions related to the child's safety. It also noted among other issues that officials had not followed through with obtaining an interim care order that would have removed Peter from his home when they had agreed that legal grounds had existed for doing so six months before he died; key officials also failed to attend a 25 July 2007 meeting intended to decide if it would be necessary to remove Peter from his mother's home at that time.
External reports and enquiries
Lynne Featherstone MP was critical of Haringey Council, writing, "I personally met with George Meehan and Ita O'Donovan – Haringey Council's leader and chief executive – to raise with them three different cases, where the pattern was in each case Haringey seeming to want to blame anyone who complained rather than to look at the complaint seriously. I was promised action – but despite repeated subsequent requests for news on progress – I was just stonewalled."
Three council workers, including one senior lawyer, were given written warnings about their actions.
The General Medical Council (GMC) separately examined the roles of two doctors: Dr Jerome Ikwueke, a GP, and Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat, a paediatrician who examined Peter two days before his death. Although Ikwueke had twice referred Peter to hospital specialists, the GMC's Interim Orders Panel suspended him for 18 months. Al-Zayyat, who has been accused of failing to spot his injuries, was suspended pending an inquiry. Her contract with Great Ormond Street Hospital, responsible for child services in Haringey, was also terminated.
Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, ordered an external inquiry into Haringey Council Social Services. The inquiry was not to examine the 'Baby P' case explicitly, but to look into whether Haringey Social Services were following correct procedures in general. This report was presented to ministers on 1 December 2008. During a press conference that day, the Minister announced that, in an unusual move, he had used special powers to remove Sharon Shoesmith from her post as head of children's services at Haringey Council. She rejected calls for her resignation, saying that she wanted to continue to support her staff during the investigations, but was dismissed on 8 December 2008 by Haringey Council, without any compensation package. Shoesmith later brought legal proceedings against Ed Balls, Ofsted, and Haringey Council, claiming that the decisions which led to her dismissal were unfair. The High Court dismissed this claim in April 2010, although Shoesmith was still entitled to pursue an action for unfair dismissal in an employment tribunal. In May 2011, Shoesmith's appeal against her dismissal succeeded in the Court of Appeal; the Department of Education and Haringey Council said they intended to appeal to the Supreme Court against this decision. Their applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court were refused on 1 August 2011. It was reported by BBC News on 29 October 2013 that Sharon Shoesmith agreed to a six-figure payout for unfair dismissal.
Also announced on 1 December 2008 were the resignations of Labour Council leader George Meehan and councillor Liz Santry, cabinet member for Children and Young People. These councillors had previously refused calls for their resignation during a 24 November council meeting. In April 2009, the council announced that its deputy director of children's services, two other managers, and a social worker, who had been suspended pending an enquiry, had also all been dismissed.
Three further inquires were also ordered:
The role of all agencies involved in Peter Connelly's case, including the health authority, police and Haringey Council, would be reviewed.
The General Social Care Council would look into potential breaches of its code of practice.
Lord Laming would conduct a nationwide review of his own recommendations after the Victoria Climbié inquiry.
Through a lawyer acting on her behalf, a former social worker for Haringey, Nevres Kemal, sent a letter to the secretary of the Department of Health, Patricia Hewitt, in February 2007, six months before Peter's death. The letter contained an allegation that child protection procedures were not being followed in Haringey. Hewitt took no action, except to forward the letter to the DES, now the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Haringey Council then took out an injunction against Kemal, banning her from speaking about child care in Haringey. Kemal's lawyer stated, "Hewitt bounced us onto the DES... the DES then advised us to write to the Commission for Social Care Inspection whom we had written to on the same day as we had written to Hewitt, copying in the letter to Hewitt and the relevant material. By that time of course they had an injunction against us so we couldn't go back to the inspectorate. The inspectorate had been properly advised at the time and had done nothing."
Kim Holt, a consultant paediatrician, who worked in a clinic run by Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital at St Ann's Hospital in Haringey, north London, said she and three colleagues wrote an open letter detailing problems at the clinic in 2006. She claimed Peter could have been saved if managers had listened to fears raised by senior doctors.
Report by Lord Laming
Lord Laming published his report, "The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report" on 12 March 2009. It stated that too many authorities had failed to adopt reforms introduced following his previous review into welfare following the murder of Victoria Climbié in 2000.
Libel action by biological father
On 5 March 2012, Peter's biological father was awarded £75,000 in damages after The People wrongly stated in its 19 September 2010 edition that he was a convicted sex offender. Lawyers for the man, known only as "KC", said that the publishers of The People were guilty of "one of the gravest libels imaginable". Publishers MGN had previously apologised and offered to pay damages.
Survey concerning recurrence
In September 2015, in a survey of 751 health visitors polled by the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association, 47% thought it was somewhat likely or very likely that a similar death would recur.
See also
Filicide
Similar cases
Murder of Nubia Barahona
Murder of Nixzmary Brown
Murder of Anjelica Castillo
Murder of Daniel Pelka
Murder of Bobby Äikiä
Death of Lisa Steinberg
References
External links
Timeline of Baby P case
BabyP The Real Untold Story
2007 crimes in the United Kingdom
2007 in London
2000s crimes in London
2000s trials
August 2007 crimes
August 2007 events in the United Kingdom
Child abuse resulting in death
P, Baby
History of the London Borough of Haringey
Incidents of violence against boys
Murder trials
Social care in England
Trials in London
Violence against children in London |
20468326 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Tina%20Watson | Death of Tina Watson | Tina Watson was a 26-year-old American woman from Helena, Alabama, who died while scuba diving in Queensland, Australia, on 22 October 2003. Tina had been on her honeymoon with her new husband, fellow American Gabe Watson, who was initially charged by Queensland authorities with his wife's murder. Watson pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
Evidence presented at the trial included Watson's differing accounts of what had happened on that day, of the couple's diving experience (or lack thereof), and of Tina's life insurance. While Watson was serving his term in Australia, authorities in Alabama flagged an intention to charge him with murder at a later date. After his release, he was deported to Alabama on the condition that he would not be sentenced to death if found guilty of murder. Watson was then put on trial, but on 23 February 2012, Judge Tommy Nail dismissed the murder case due to lack of evidence.
Background
Christina Mae "Tina" Watson (birth name unknown) was born in West Germany on 13 February 1977, before relocating to the U.S. while still a baby. On 24 January 1980, she was legally adopted by Tommy and Cindy Thomas. They lived in Walker County, Alabama, with her younger sister before moving to Louisiana then Birmingham. David Gabriel "Gabe" Watson met Tina while they were students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and they began dating in January 2001.
Despite an earlier diagnosis of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT), Tina began diving lessons in January 2003, and earned her certification just before her wedding to Gabe on 11 October 2003. Watson was purportedly a qualified certified rescue diver, with experience in the lake at Oak Mountain State Park. Watson had completed 55 dives by the time of their marriage, and Tina 5. The couple had planned a scuba trip in the Great Barrier Reef for their honeymoon, and flew to Sydney for a week before heading to Townsville. They chose to dive the popular yet difficult wreck of SS Yongala, a passenger ship that sank in 1911, even though Watson had limited open ocean experience and Tina had never dived in the ocean or below 9 metres. The dive company had also offered an orientation and guided dive with a dive master, which the couple had refused.
Incident
At around 10:30 am on 22 October, during an excursion from the dive boat Spoilsport to the site of Yongala, Tina lost consciousness and sank to the bottom, below the water's surface within two minutes of beginning the dive. Watson claimed the currents were stronger than they expected and that he responded to a signal from Tina to return to the dive rope, where he noted a look of worry on her face before she accidentally knocked his mask and air regulator loose. When Watson recovered his sight, Tina was sinking too quickly for him to retrieve her and he quickly surfaced to get help. He also stated that an ear problem prevented him from diving deeper to help her and that there was nothing in his training as a rescue diver "about how to get somebody" in trouble to the surface.
Other divers nearby at the time, including Dr. Stanley Stutz, saw Watson engaged in an underwater "bear hug" with his "flailing" wife, after which he headed for the surface while Tina fell to the ocean floor. One diver, Gary Stempler, photographed Tina by chance while taking a picture of his own wife that showed Tina in the background. The photo showed her lying face-up on the ocean floor, something that did not come to light until a couple of weeks later when the pictures were developed. Watson climbed aboard the Spoilsport and alerted dive instructor Wade Singleton, who brought Tina to the surface after ten minutes underwater. She was taken aboard the adjacent dive boat Jazz II, where a doctor tried to resuscitate her for 40 minutes while Watson remained on the Spoilsport, but she was unable to be revived.
Investigation
The day following the death, Tina's autopsy was performed by Professor David Williams, consultant forensic pathologist to the Queensland Coroner. Williams found florid evidence of air embolism, but no degenerative disease. He gave the cause of death as drowning. Due to the unexpected nature of Tina's death and the implausible and conflicting statements given by Watson, the death was investigated by the State Coroner's office. A coronial inquiry was held, as is the usual practice in Australia. Watson had already left Australia by this point and declined to return, so did not testify during the inquest but gave evidence through his lawyers to the inquest and to the Queensland Police. During the inquest, prosecutors submitted evidence that Watson's story contradicted the record of his actions stored by his dive computer. They suggested the possibility that he turned off Tina's regulator and held her until she was unconscious, then turned the air back on and let her sink before surfacing himself. As evidence, they described the many painstaking re-enactments of various scenarios conducted by police divers. Tina's father claimed that Watson had asked Tina, shortly before their wedding, to increase her life insurance and make him the sole beneficiary.
Civil action commenced in Alabama
In March 2005, Watson launched legal action in Alabama's Jefferson County Circuit Court to recoup the cost of the couple's trip after the travel insurance company refused a payout. He was seeking $45,000 for the accidental death plus compensation for trip interruption, medical expenses, phone calls, taxi fares, fees for extra credit card statements and unspecified punitive damages for mental and emotional anguish. The action was dismissed in May 2008 at Watson's request on the grounds the Australian investigation into his wife's death caused him "to reasonably apprehend that he risks self-incrimination in this case". His Australian legal team believed "it was not in his best interest" to pursue the damages claim and his U.S.-based lawyer, Bob Austin, added that his client would not be voluntarily "going back to Australia."
Indictment
On 19 June 2008, the Coroner laid the following charge:That on the 22nd day of October 2003 at the site of the historical shipwreck Yongala forty-eight nautical miles south east from the port of Townsville in the state of Queensland, David Gabriel Watson murdered Christina Mae Watson.
It was reported that the Coroner found "it was likely that Watson had killed his 26-year-old wife by turning off her air supply and holding her in an 'underwater bear hug' until she was dead"; however, the coroner had made no such finding.
Trial and sentence in Australia
After resisting extradition for six months, Watson travelled voluntarily from the U.S. to Australia in May 2009 to face trial. At the trial on 5 June 2009, he pleaded not guilty to murder and guilty to, and was convicted of, manslaughter. Crown prosecutor Brendan Campbell pointed out that over time Watson had given police sixteen different versions of what had happened to Tina and that none of those versions matched what the only eyewitness had seen. When Tina was brought to the surface, her regulator was still in her mouth, her tank still had air, and tests indicated no faults with her equipment. Campbell described Watson as an experienced diver trained in rescuing panicked divers, who had allowed his wife to sink to the ocean floor without making any serious attempt to retrieve her. Watson did not inflate Tina's buoyancy control device (BCD) or remove her weight belt, and had failed to fulfill his obligations as her "dive buddy" by not sharing his alternative air source. Watson was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, to be suspended after serving only twelve months.
Reaction to the sentence
Tina's family stated that Watson's twelve-month term was an embarrassment to Australia. The day following the trial, Alabama Attorney General Troy King lodged an appeal with the Queensland Supreme Court and also wrote to Queensland Attorney-General Cameron Dick. Fairfax Media reported that the letter was leaked to them and published part of it in their newspapers.
The Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions, Tony Moynihan SC, issued a statement, which said:
"The decision to accept Mr Watson's plea of guilty to manslaughter was made after a careful and thorough examination of the admissible evidence, and was not taken lightly. Given the complex circumstantial nature of the case, Mr Watson's admission that he breached his duty to render assistance to his wife ultimately meant there was no reasonable prospect of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he was guilty of murder." On 18 June 2009, Dick announced the state would appeal against the inadequacy of Watson's sentence.
Appeal
The appeal was heard by the Queensland Court of Appeals on 17 July 2009. The Crown asked the court to increase Watson's prison term to two and a half years. The defence argued that Watson had had a momentary lapse in judgment, had been accused of a crime he did not commit, and had voluntarily returned to Australia to co-operate with the court, and that the penalty imposed by the trial judge was fair and just. The findings on appeal were handed down on 18 September 2009. Two members allowed the prosecution's appeal, increasing Watson's period of incarceration by six months to a total of eighteen. One justice by minority opinion was in favour of dismissing the appeal.
Further incidents
Tina was buried in her native Pelham, Alabama. Her remains were exhumed in 2007 and moved to a different lot bought by Watson. After being informed by her family that flowers and gifts were repeatedly being vandalized or disappearing from the grave site, even when chained down, police surveillance videos showed Watson removing them with bolt cutters and throwing them in trash cans. Watson later said he removed them because they were "big, gaudy, plastic arrangements". Her grave was unmarked until 2009, when Watson provided a foot marker, prompting her father to request her body be returned for reburial. In 2011, the Probate Court removed Watson as administrator of Tina's estate and appointed her father, who also requested that her school and college pictures and yearbooks be returned. Watson appealed against the ruling and refused to provide the court with an inventory of Tina's possessions. Pending Watson's trial, the Alabama Circuit Court ordered him to stay away from the grave.
Trial in United States
Alabama investigation
In May 2010, King announced he had information not yet made public and wanted to try Watson for capital murder and kidnapping, asserting jurisdiction based on the theory that the alleged crime was planned in Alabama. King petitioned Australia for the evidence held by police, but was refused access until he gave an undertaking that the death penalty would not be imposed, as required under Australian law. This condition has been strongly criticised by King and Don Valeska, chief of the Attorney General's violent crime division, who stated: "If an Australian woman was killed here, we would immediately send the evidence there. We would not presume to tell the Australian authorities how to run their criminal justice system". In response to the announcement, Watson's parents came to the defence of their son, breaking their public silence on the case. Friends and family of Watson questioned whether he had any motive for the murder, noting that his affection for Tina had seemed genuine, there was no life insurance policy naming him as beneficiary, and he appeared to be emotionally devastated for an extended time following her death.
In June 2010, King assured the Queensland Attorney-General he would not seek the death penalty if Watson was tried in the U.S. for his wife's death. In August 2010 it was announced Watson would be released in November and was likely to be deported to the US, where he faced being charged with murder. Valeska stated he would pursue an additional charge of kidnapping by deception. The case was placed before a grand jury in Birmingham, Alabama in October 2010.
Watson was released from prison on 10 November 2010. He was transferred to an immigration detention centre while his deportation was delayed. During this time, Australian authorities sought further written assurances from the US Attorney General that he would not face the death penalty in Alabama if convicted of murder. Under international human rights law, Australia could not deport Watson if he faced execution in his home country. On 25 November 2010 he was deported to the United States and immediately arrested.
Arrest
Alabama prosecutors charged Watson with murder and kidnapping at the conclusion of his prison sentence in Australia after finding what they claimed was evidence he had plotted to kill his wife while still in the United States. A Birmingham grand jury indicted Watson on murder and kidnapping charges in October 2010. In July 2011, the Circuit Court set the trial date for 13 February 2012; Watson was released on a $100,000 bond.
New evidence
Colin McKenzie, a key diving expert in the original investigation who had maintained that "a diver with Watson's training should have been able to bring Tina up", subsequently retracted much of his testimony after being provided with Tina and Gabe's diver logs, certificates and medical histories, to which he had not previously had access. McKenzie claimed Gabe should not have been allowed in the water and never as a dive buddy for his wife, who had no open water scuba experience. Tina had heart surgery to correct an irregular heartbeat two years earlier but on her dive application had stated that she had never had heart problems or surgery. Professor Michael "Mike" Bennett, a leading expert in dive medicine, stated that Tina was unfit to dive without clearance from a cardiologist. Gabe had received his rescue certification, normally a four-day course, after completing a two-day course in an Alabama quarry. He had no rescue experience and little open water experience.
According to McKenzie, "He had no hope of being competent, he could barely save himself [that day] let alone his wife; I don't believe he intended to kill her." Revelations that Watson needed help to don his diving equipment that day underscored that he was a "dangerous amateur" who showed "a complete lack of courage" when he abandoned his wife. The dive company had offered an orientation and guided dive with a dive master, which both Tina and Gabe had refused. Company head Mike Ball said his people took Watson at his word, believing he was an experienced and certified rescue diver. The company later pleaded guilty to contravening safety standards (their code of conduct said both Gabe and Tina must be supervised by at least a divemaster on the dive in question) and was fined $6,500, plus costs of $1,500.
Dismissal of the case
Alabama judge Tommy Nail ruled that evidence of Watson's behaviour following Tina's death was inadmissible. Nail also blocked Tina's father from giving evidence regarding Watson's alleged attempts to increase Tina's life insurance. On 23 February 2012, Nail acquitted Gabe for lack of evidence without the defence needing to present its case. Nail said that the state's evidence was "sorely lacking" and that the prosecution could not prove that Watson had any financial motive. Prosecutor Don Valeska said that this was the first time he had a trial end in a judge's acquittal in the 41 years he had been trying cases. Regarding the judge's decision, Thomas said, "It should have gone to the jury for them to decide."
In media
A feature on the death of Tina Watson was broadcast in a 90-minute account that aired on Dateline NBC on 19 May 2008. An examination of Tina's death and Gabe's subsequent trial and appeal was published by The Age on 17 July 2010. The author was Walkley Award winning investigative journalist, Peter Patrick. A feature on the death of Watson and her husband's Alabama acquittal was broadcast on an episode of the Australian 60 Minutes on 25 March 2012. Lifetime produced a made-for-TV movie, Fatal Honeymoon, based on the death of Tina Watson, starring Harvey Keitel, Billy Miller and . It premiered on 25 August 2012. Tina Watson's death was explored on Casefile True Crime Podcast (Case 51) which was published on 22 April 2017.
References
Further reading
Tina Watson Death - Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site
External links
Inquest into the death of Christina Mae Watson known as Tina Watson
Mystery in the deep blue sea - NBC Dateline transcript
Tina Watson: the bride who drowned at the Barrier Reef - The Sunday Times
'Princess bride' feared being left on shelf - The Sydney Morning Herald
Death Down Under - The Sydney Morning Herald
Unfathomable - Australian Story
Obituary at Legacy.com
Tina's Story - a collection of news articles up to 2009
Casefile True Crime Podcast - Case 51: Tina Watson - 22 April 2017
2003 crimes in Australia
1977 births
2003 deaths
American manslaughter victims
Australia–United States relations
Crime in Queensland
Deaths by drowning
Deaths by person in Australia
Manslaughter in Australia
October 2003 events in Australia
People from Helena, Alabama
Underwater diving deaths |
22322623 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Echol%20Cole%20and%20Robert%20Walker | Death of Echol Cole and Robert Walker | Echol Cole and Robert Walker were sanitation workers who died accidentally in Memphis, Tennessee at the corner of Colonial Rd. and Verne Rd. on February 1, 1968. While working that day, the pair sought refuge from a rainstorm in the compactor area of the garbage truck. They were killed when the compactor accidentally activated. Their death was a precursor to the Memphis sanitation strike.
Accidental deaths
Cole (age 36) and Walker (age 30) were both sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Both reported for work on February 1, 1968, a day the rain would be later reported as torrential, overflowing the sewers and flooding the streets. While on shift, at around 4:20pm, the pair sought refuge in the back of their truck during a rainstorm. A malfunction followed, and both men were crushed to death by the truck's garbage compactor. Their coworker Elester Gregory, who had been riding in the cab of the truck, said "The motor started racing and the driver stopped and ran around and smashed that button to stop that thing ... I didn’t know what was happening. It looked to me like one of them almost got out, but he got caught and just fell back in there.”
Repercussions
Following their deaths, their widows received no insurance benefits; the city offered one month's pay for each man, and $500 for funeral expenses. Black Memphians donated 100,000 USD to the widows; the United Auto Workers donated an additional $25,000 USD.
The deaths of Cole and Walker proved to be the catalyst for the Memphis sanitation strike. On February 11, ten days after their deaths, union Local 1733 held a strike meeting where over 400 workers complained that the city refused to provide decent wages and working conditions. The workers wanted immediate action but the city refused.
On Monday February 12, 1968, 930 of 1100 sanitation workers did not show up for work, including 214 of 230 sewer drainage workers. Only 38 of the 108 garbage trucks continued to move.
Their deaths, together with many racial and working-class injustices prompted Martin Luther King Jr. to join a citywide march on March 18. The march ended with police action, but another was scheduled. King was assassinated the evening before the second march.
See also
I Am a Man!
References
1968 deaths
1968 in Tennessee
February 1968 events in the United States
History of Memphis, Tennessee |
22328666 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Ian%20Tomlinson | Death of Ian Tomlinson | Ian Tomlinson (7 February 1962 – 1 April 2009) was a newspaper vendor who collapsed and died in the City of London after being struck by a police officer during the 2009 G-20 summit protests. After an inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing, the officer, Simon Harwood, was prosecuted for manslaughter. He was found not guilty but was dismissed from the police service for gross misconduct. Following civil proceedings, the Metropolitan Police Service paid Tomlinson's family an undisclosed sum and acknowledged that Harwood's actions had caused Tomlinson's death.
The first post-mortem concluded that Tomlinson had suffered a heart attack, but a week later The Guardian published video of Harwood, a constable with London's Metropolitan Police, striking Tomlinson on the leg with a baton, then pushing him to the ground. Tomlinson was not a protester, and at the time he was struck was trying to make his way home through the police cordons. He walked away after the incident, but collapsed and died minutes later.
After the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began a criminal inquiry, further autopsies indicated that Tomlinson had died from internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma to the abdomen, in association with cirrhosis of the liver. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to charge Harwood, because the disagreement between the first and later pathologists meant they could not show a causal link between the death and alleged assault. That position changed in 2011; after the verdict of unlawful killing, the CPS charged Harwood with manslaughter. He was acquitted in 2012 and dismissed from the service a few months later.
Tomlinson's death sparked a debate in the UK about the relationship between the police, media and public, and the independence of the IPCC. In response to the concerns, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O'Connor, published a 150-page report in November 2009 that aimed to restore Britain's consent-based model of policing.
Background
Ian Tomlinson
Tomlinson was born to Jim and Ann Tomlinson in Matlock, Derbyshire. He moved to London when he was 17 to work as a scaffolder. At the time of his death, at the age of 47, he was working casually as a vendor for the Evening Standard, London's evening newspaper. Married twice with nine children, including stepchildren, Tomlinson had a history of alcoholism, as a result of which he had been living apart from his second wife, Julia, for 13 years, and had experienced long periods of homelessness. He had been staying since 2008 in the Lindsey Hotel, a shelter for the homeless on Lindsey Street, Smithfield, EC1. At the time of his death, he was walking across London's financial district in an effort to reach the Lindsey Hotel, his way hampered at several points by police lines. The route he took was his usual way home from a newspaper stand on Fish Street Hill outside Monument tube station, where he worked with a friend, Barry Smith.
London police, IPCC
With over 31,000 officers, the Metropolitan Police Service (the Met) is the largest police force in the United Kingdom, responsible for policing Greater London, except for the financial district, the City of London. The latter has its own force, the City of London Police. The Met's commissioner at the time was Sir Paul Stephenson; the City of London Police commissioner was Mike Bowron. Responsibility for supervising the Met falls to the Metropolitan Police Authority, chaired by the Mayor of London, at the time Boris Johnson.
The officer seen pushing Tomlinson was a constable with the Met's Territorial Support Group (TSG), identified by the "U" on their shoulder numbers. The TSG specializes in public-order policing, wearing military-style helmets, flame-retardant overalls, stab vests and balaclavas. Their operational commander at the time was Chief Superintendent Mick Johnson.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began to operate in 2004; its chair when Tomlinson died was Nick Hardwick. Created by the Police Reform Act 2002, the commission replaced the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) following public dissatisfaction with the latter's relationship with the police. Unlike the PCA, the IPCC operates independently of the Home Office, which is the Government department responsible for criminal justice and policing in England and Wales.
Operation Glencoe
The G20 security operation, codenamed "Operation Glencoe", was a "Benbow operation", which meant the Met, City of London Police and the British Transport Police worked under one Gold commander, in this case Bob Broadhurst of the Met.
There were six protests on 1 April 2009: a security operation at ExCeL London, a Stop the War march, a Free Tibet protest outside the Chinese Embassy, a People & Planet protest, a Climate Camp protest, and a protest outside the Bank of England. Over 4,000 protesters were at the Climate Camp and the same number at the Bank of England. On 1 April over 5,500 police officers were deployed and the following day 2,800, at a cost of £7.2 million. Officers worked 14-hour shifts. They ended at midnight, slept on the floor of police stations, were not given a chance to eat, and were back on duty at 7 am. This was viewed as having contributed to the difficulties they faced.
The Bank of England protesters were held in place from 12.30 pm until 7.00 pm using a process police called "containment" and the media called "kettling"—corralling protesters into small spaces until the police dispersed them. At 7 pm senior officers decided that "reasonable force" could be used to disperse the protesters around the bank. Between 7:10 and 7:40 pm the crowd surged toward the police, missiles were thrown, and the police pushed back with their shields. Scuffles broke out and arrests were made. This was the situation Tomlinson wandered into as he tried to make his way home.
Incident
Earlier encounter with police
Several newspapers published images of Tomlinson's first encounter with police that evening. According to Barry Smith, Tomlinson left the newspaper stand outside Monument Tube Station at around 7 pm. An eyewitness, IT worker Ross Hardy, said Tomlinson was on Lombard Street, drunk and refusing to move; a police van nudged him on the back of the legs, Hardy said, and when that didn't work he was moved by four police officers wearing personal protective equipment. On 16 April The Guardian published three images of Tomlinson on Lombard Street.
Tomlinson stayed on Lombard Street for another half-hour, then made his way to King William Street, toward two lines of police cordons, where police had "kettled" thousands of protesters near the Bank of England. At 7:10 pm he doubled back on himself, walking up and down Change Alley where he encountered more cordons. Five minutes later he was on Lombard Street again, crossed it, walked down Birchin Lane, and reached Cornhill at 7:10–7:15 pm.
A few minutes later he was at the northern end of a pedestrian precinct, Royal Exchange Passage (formally called Royal Exchange Buildings), near the junction with Threadneedle Street, where a further police cordon stopped him from proceeding. He turned to walk south along Royal Exchange Passage instead, where, minutes before he arrived, officers had clashed with up to 25 protesters. Riot police from the Met's TSG, accompanied by City of London police dog handlers, had arrived there from the cordon in Threadneedle Street to help their colleagues.
Encounter with officer
Police officers followed Tomlinson as he walked along the street. He headed towards Threadneedle Street, but again ran into police cordons and doubled back on himself towards Cornhill. According to a CPS report, he was bitten on the leg by a police dog at 7:15 pm, when a dog handler tried to move him out of the way, but he appeared not to react to it.
The same group of officers approached Tomlinson outside a Montblanc store at the southern end of Royal Exchange Passage, near the junction with Cornhill. He was walking slowly with his hands in his pockets; according to an eyewitness, he was saying that he was trying to get home.
The first Guardian video shows one officer lunge at Tomlinson from behind, strike him across the legs with a baton and push him back, causing him to fall. On 8 April Channel 4 News released their own footage, which showed the officer's arm swing back to head height before bringing it down to hit Tomlinson on the legs with the baton. Another video obtained by The Guardian on 21 April shows Tomlinson standing by a bicycle rack, hands in his pockets, when the police approach him. After he is hit, he can be seen scraping along the ground on the right side of his forehead; eyewitnesses spoke of hearing a noise as his head hit the ground.
Collapse
Tomlinson can be seen briefly remonstrating with police as he sits on the ground. None of the officers offered assistance. After being helped to his feet by a protester, Tomlinson walked along Cornhill, where he collapsed at around 7:22 pm outside 77 Cornhill. Witnesses say he appeared dazed, eyes rolling, skin grey. They also said he smelled of alcohol. An ITV News photographer tried to give medical aid, but was forced away by police, as was a medical student. Police medics attended to Tomlinson, who was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Simon Harwood
Background
Simon Harwood, the officer who unlawfully killed Tomlinson, was a police constable with the Territorial Support Group (TSG) at Larkhall Lane police station in Lambeth, South London. Harwood had faced 10 complaints in 12 years, nine of which had been dismissed or unproven. The complaint that was upheld involved unlawful access to the Police National Computer. The complaints included a road rage incident in or around 1998 while he was on sick leave, during which he reportedly tried to arrest the other driver, who alleged that Harwood had used unnecessary force. On Friday 14 September 2001, before the case was heard by a discipline board, Harwood retired on medical grounds. Three days later, on Monday 17 September, he rejoined the Met as a civilian computer worker.
In May 2003 Harwood joined the Surrey Police as a constable. Surrey Police said he was frank about his history. In January 2004 he was alleged to have assaulted a man during a raid on a home. In November 2004, on his request, Harwood was transferred back to the Met. There were three more complaints after that, before the incident with Tomlinson.
On the day
Harwood was involved in several confrontations on the day of Tomlinson's death. He had been on duty since 5 am, assigned as a driver, and had spent most of the day in his vehicle. While parked on Cornhill in the evening, he saw a man write "all cops are bastards" on the side of another police van, and left his vehicle to attempt to arrest the man. The suspect resisted arrest and his head collided with a van door, triggering a response from the crowd that made Harwood believe it was unsafe to return to his vehicle. He told the inquest that he had been hit on the head, had fallen over, lost his baton, had been attacked by the crowd and feared for his life, but later acknowledged this had not happened.
Shortly after his attempted arrest of the graffiti man, Harwood swung a coat at a protester, pulled a BBC cameraman to the ground, used a palm strike against one man, and at 7:19 pm pushed another man to the ground for allegedly threatening a police dog handler. It was seconds after this that he saw Tomlinson standing with his hands in his pockets beside a bicycle rack, being told by police to move away. Harwood told the inquest he made a "split-second decision" that there was justification for engagement, then struck Tomlinson on the thigh with his baton and pushed him to the ground. He said it was a "very poor push" and he had been shocked when Tomlinson fell. Harwood made no mention of the incident in his notebook; he told the inquest he had forgotten about it.
Identification
Newspapers did not release Harwood's name until July 2010. On the day of the incident, he appeared to have removed his shoulder number and covered the bottom of his face with his balaclava. Simon Israel of Channel 4 News reported a detailed description of the officer on 22 April 2009; the IPCC sought but failed to obtain an injunction to prevent Channel 4 broadcasting the description, alleging that it might prejudice their inquiry. Fifteen months later, when announcing in July 2010 that no charges would be brought against Harwood, the Crown Prosecution Service still referred to him as "PC A." It was only on that day that newspapers decided to name him.
Harwood said he first realized on 8 April, when he saw the Guardian video, that Tomlinson had died. He reportedly collapsed at home and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance. Harwood and three colleagues made themselves known to the IPCC that day.
Early accounts
First police statement
The Met issued its first statement on 1 April at 11:36 pm, four hours after Tomlinson died, a statement approved by the IPCC's regional director for London. The statement said that police had been alerted that a man had collapsed and were attacked by "a number of missiles" as they tried to save his life, an allegation that was inaccurate, according to later media reports.
According to Nick Davies in The Guardian, the statement was the result of an intense argument in the Met's press office, after an earlier draft had been rejected. He wrote that both the Met and IPCC said the statement represented the truth as they understood it at the time, and that there had been no allegation at that point that Tomlinson had come into contact with police. Davies asked why the IPCC were involved if they had not realized there had been police contact. He alleged that senior sources within the Met said privately that the assault on Tomlinson had been spotted by the police control room at Cobalt Street in south London, and that a chief inspector on the ground had also reported it. The Met issued a statement saying they had checked with every chief inspector who had been part of Operation Glencoe, and that none of them had called in such a report.
First eyewitness accounts
On 2 April the Met handed responsibility for the investigation to the City of London police; the officer in charge was Detective Superintendent Anthony Crampton. After police briefings, the Evening Standard reported on 2 April that "police were bombarded with bricks, bottles and planks of wood" as they tried to save Tomlinson, forced by a barrage of missiles to carry him to a safe location to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Eyewitnesses said the story was inaccurate. They said protesters had provided first aid and telephoned for medical help. Others said that one or two plastic bottles had been thrown by people unaware of Tomlinson's situation, but other protesters had told them to stop. According to The Times, an analysis of television footage and photographs showed just one bottle, probably plastic, being thrown. Video taken by eyewitness Nabeela Zahir, published by The Guardian on 9 April, shows one protester shouting, "There is someone hurt here. Back the fuck up." Another voice says, "There's someone hurt. Don't throw anything."
Officers report the incident
Three police constables from the Hammersmith and Fulham police station—Nicholas Jackson, Andrew Moore, and Kerry Smith—told their supervisor, Inspector Wynne Jones, on 3 April that they had witnessed the incident. They can be seen in The Guardian video standing next to Tomlinson. Jackson was the first to tell the inspector; officers then contacted Moore and Smith, who had been standing next to Jackson at the time.
Jackson, Moore and Smith did not recognize Simon Harwood, the officer who struck Tomlinson, and according to the newspaper assumed he was with the City of London police. This was four days before The Guardian published the video. The inspector passed this information at 4:15 pm on 3 April to Detective Inspector Eddie Hall, the Met's point of contact for Tomlinson's death. Hall said he passed it to the City of London police before the first autopsy was conducted that day by Freddy Patel, which according to The Guardian began at 5 pm.
Post-mortem examinations
An inquest was opened on 9 April 2009 by Paul Matthews, the City of London coroner. Three post-mortems were conducted: on 3 April by Mohmed Saeed Sulema "Freddy" Patel for Paul Matthews; on 9 April by Nathaniel Cary for the IPCC and Tomlinson's family; and on 22 April jointly by Kenneth Shorrock for the Metropolitan police and Ben Swift for Simon Harwood. The coroner was criticized for reportedly having failed to allow IPCC investigators to attend the first, and for failing to tell Tomlinson's family that they had a legal right to attend or send a representative. The family also said he had not told them where and when it was taking place.
First post-mortem
According to Detective Sergeant Chandler of the City of London police, he was not told until the first post-mortem was over, or at an advanced stage, that three police officers had seen another officer hit and push Tomlinson. Apparently, neither Patel nor the IPCC were told about the three witnesses. Patel said he was told only that the case was a "suspicious death"; the police had asked that he "rule out any assault or crush injuries associated with public order".
Patel concluded that Tomlinson had died of coronary artery disease. His report noted "intraabdominal fluid blood about 3l with small blood clot", which was interpreted by medical experts to mean that he had found three litres of blood in Tomlinson's abdomen. This would have been around 60 per cent of Tomlinson's total blood volume, a "highly significant indicator of the cause of death", according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). In a report for the CPS a year later, on 5 April 2010, Patel wrote that he had meant "intraabdominal fluid with blood". He did not retain samples of the fluid for testing. This issue became pivotal regarding the decision not to prosecute Harwood. The City of London police issued a statement on 4 April: "A post-mortem examination found he died of natural causes. [He] suffered a sudden heart attack while on his way home from work."
The IPCC told reporters that the post-mortem showed no bruising or scratches on Tomlinson's head and shoulders. When the family asked the City of London police, after the post-mortem, whether there had been marks on Tomlinson's body, they were told no; according to The Guardian, Detective Superintendent Anthony Crampton, who was leading the investigation, wrote in his log that he did not tell the family about a bruise and puncture marks on Tomlinson's leg to avoid causing "unnecessary stress or alarm". On 5 April The Observer published the first photograph of Tomlinson lying on the ground next to riot police. After it was published, Freddy Patel was asked to return to the mortuary, where he made a note of bruising on Tomlinson's head that he had not noticed when he first examined him. On 24 April Sky News obtained an image of Tomlinson after he collapsed, which showed bruising on the right side of his forehead.
Second and third post-mortem
The IPCC removed the Tomlinson inquiry from the City of London police on 8 April. A second post-mortem, ordered jointly by the IPCC and Tomlinson's family, was carried out that day by Nathaniel Cary, known for his work on high-profile cases. Cary found that Tomlinson had died because of internal bleeding from blunt force trauma to the abdomen, in association with cirrhosis of the liver. He concluded that Tomlinson had fallen on his elbow, which he said "impacted in the area of his liver causing an internal bleed which led to his death a few minutes later".
Because of the conflicting conclusions of the first two, a third post-mortem was conducted on 22 April by Kenneth Shorrock on behalf of the Metropolitan police, and Ben Swift on behalf of Simon Harwood. Shorrock and Swift agreed with the results of the second autopsy. The Met's point of contact for Tomlinson's death, Detective Inspector Eddie Hall, told the pathologists before the final post-mortem that Tomlinson had fallen to the ground in front of a police van earlier in the evening, although there was no evidence that this had happened. The IPCC ruled in May 2011 that Hall had been reckless in making this claim, but had not intended to mislead.
Freddy Patel
At the time of Tomlinson's death, Patel was on the Home Office's register of accredited forensic pathologists. He qualified as a doctor at the University of Zambia in 1974, and registered to practice in the UK in 1988. The Metropolitan Police had written to the Home Office in 2005 raising concerns about his work. At the time of Tomlinson's death he did not have a contract with the police to conduct post-mortems in cases of suspicious death.
In 1999 Patel was reprimanded by the General Medical Council (GMC) for having released medical details about Roger Sylvester, a man who had died in police custody. In 2002 the police dropped a criminal inquiry because Patel said the victim, Sally White, had died of a heart attack with no signs of violence, although she was reportedly found naked with bruising to her body, an injury to her head and a bite mark on her thigh. Anthony Hardy, a mentally ill alcoholic who lived in the flat in which her body was found locked in a bedroom, later murdered two women and placed their body parts in bin bags. The police investigated Patel in relation to that postmortem, but the investigation was dropped. In response to the criticism, Patel said the GMC reprimand was a long time ago, and that his findings in the Sally White case had not been contested.
Patel was suspended from the government's register of pathologists in July 2009, pending a GMC inquiry. The inquiry concerned 26 charges related to postmortems in four other cases. In one case Patel was accused of having failed to spot signs of abuse on the body of a five-year-old girl who had died after a fall at home, and of having failed to check with the hospital about its investigation into her injuries. The child's body was exhumed for a second postmortem, and her mother was convicted. The hearings concluded in August 2010; Patel was suspended for three months for "deficient professional performance". In May 2011 the GMC opened an investigation into his handling of the Tomlinson post-mortem. He was struck off the medical register in August 2012.
Images
Observer photograph
On 5 April The Observer (the Guardians sister paper) published the first photograph of Tomlinson lying on the ground next to riot police. Over the next few days the IPCC told reporters that Tomlinson's family were not surprised that he had had a heart attack. When journalists asked whether he had been in contact with police officers before his death, they were told the speculation would upset the family.
Guardian video
The first Guardian video was shot on a digital camera by an investment fund manager from New York who was in London on business, and who attended the protests out of curiosity. On his way to Heathrow airport, he realized that the man he had filmed being assaulted was the man who had reportedly died of a heart attack. At that point, 2 am on 7 April, he passed his footage to The Guardian, which published it on its website that afternoon. The newspaper passed a copy to the IPCC, which opened a criminal inquiry.
Channel 4 video
A video by Ken McCallum, a cameraman for Channel 4 News, was broadcast on 8 April. Shot from a different angle, the footage shows Harwood draw his arm back to head height before bringing the baton down on Tomlinson's legs. McCallum was filming another incident at the time; the Tomlinson incident was unfolding in the background, unseen by the journalists but recorded by the camera. Half an hour later Alex Thomson, chief correspondent of Channel 4 News, was doing a live broadcast when the camera was damaged. It took engineers days to recover the tape, which is when they saw that Tomlinson's assault was on it.
Nabeela Zahir video
On 9 April The Guardian published footage from Nabeela Zahir, a freelance journalist, showing Tomlinson after his collapse. The police can be seen moving away at least one woman who tried to help him, and a man, Daniel McPhee, who was on the phone to the ambulance services. The footage shows that the Met's initial claim that there had been a barrage of missiles from protesters while police tried to save Tomlinson was inaccurate. Protesters can be heard calling for calm; one shouts "Don't throw anything." According to The Guardian, 56 seconds into the video, three officers can be seen with their face masks pulled halfway up their faces.
Cornhill video
The Guardian obtained a four-minute video on 21 April from an anonymous bystander who had been filming on Cornhill between 7:10 and 7:30 pm. The footage shows Tomlinson standing behind a bicycle rack in Royal Exchange Passage with his hands in his pockets, and a group of advancing police officers. When a police dog approaches him, he turns his back. At that point, he is hit on the legs and pushed by the TSG constable, and can be seen scraping along the ground on the right side of his forehead. Eyewitnesses said they heard a noise as his head hit the ground. The IPCC sought an injunction against the broadcast of the video by Channel 4 News, but a judge rejected the application. An image obtained by Sky News on 24 April appears to show bruising on the right side of Tomlinson's forehead. A head injury was recorded by the second and third pathologists.Adam Fresco, Sean O'Neill, "Officer suspended in investigation into G20 death of Ian Tomlinson", The Times, 10 April 2009.
CCTV cameras
Nick Hardwick, chair of the IPCC, said on 9 April that there were no CCTV cameras in the area. On 14 April the Evening Standard wrote that it had found at least six CCTV cameras in the area around the assault. After photographs of the cameras were published, the IPCC reversed its position and said its investigators were looking at footage from cameras in Threadneedle Street near the corner of Royal Exchange Passage.<ref>Peter Dominiczak, Lucy Proctor, Kiran Randhawa, "We were wrong over CCTV, says police watchdog", Evening Standard, 14 April 2009.</ref>
Early reaction and analysis
British policing
Tomlinson's death sparked a discussion about the nature of Britain's policing and the relationship between the police, public, media and IPCC. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, dismissed the criticism of the police as "an orgy of cop bashing". The death was compared to others that had each acted as a watershed in the public's perception of policing, including that of Blair Peach (1979), Stephen Lawrence (1993) and Jean Charles de Menezes (2005).Alison Roberts, "I thought 'Oh my God, it's like Blair Peach over again'", Evening Standard, 15 April 2009. The IPCC was criticized for having taken seven days from Tomlinson's death, and five days after hearing evidence that police may have been involved, to remove the City of London police from the investigation.
David Gilbertson, a former assistant inspector who had worked for the Home Office formulating policing policy, told The New York Times that the British police used to act with the sanction of the public, but that tactics had changed after a series of violent assaults on officers in the 1990s. Now dressing in military-style uniforms and equipped with anti-stab vests, extendable metal batons and clubs that turn into handcuffs, an entire generation of officers has come to regard the public as the enemy, the newspaper said.
The Guardian, police and IPCC
Tomlinson's death was confirmed in a statement that accused protesters of having hampered police efforts to save his life. His family were not told he had died until nine hours after his death. The police and IPCC told journalists that his family were not surprised to hear he had had a heart attack. Journalists who asked whether police had had any contact with Tomlinson were asked not to speculate in case it upset the family. Direct contact with the family was refused. The police issued a statement on behalf of the family instead, which said the police were keeping them informed.The Observer (The Guardians sister paper) published an image of Tomlinson on the ground on Sunday, 5 April. That morning Tomlinson's family attended the scene of his death, where they met Paul Lewis, a Guardian reporter who had worked on The Observer story. Tomlinson's wife said this meeting was the first the family had heard of police contact with Tomlinson before his death. The family's police liaison officer later approached the newspaper to say he was "extremely unhappy" that Lewis had spoken to the family, and that the newspaper had to stay away from them for 48 hours. The IPCC accused the newspaper of "doorstepping the family at a time of grief". On the same day, the IPCC briefed other journalists that there was nothing in the story that Tomlinson might have been assaulted by police. During this period, according to Tomlinson's family, they were prevented from seeing his body; they were first allowed to see him six days after his death.
On 7 April The Guardian published the American banker's video, and later that evening handed it to an IPCC investigator and a City of London police officer who arrived at the newspaper's offices."Full statement from the IPCC on the investigation into the death of Ian Tomlinson", The Guardian, 8 April 2009. The officers asked that the video be removed from the website, arguing that it jeopardized their inquiry and was not helpful to the family. Nick Hardwick, chair of the IPCC, said the IPCC had asked The Guardian to remove the video only because it would have been better had witnesses not seen it before being questioned.
Metropolitan police response
The Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O'Connor, published a 150-page report in November 2009 that aimed to restore Britain's consent-based model of policing.
O'Connor wrote that there had been a hardening of police attitudes, with officers believing that proportionality meant reciprocity. The deployment of officers in riot gear had become a routine response to lawful protest, largely the result of an ignorance of the law and a lack of leadership from the Home Office and police chiefs. Officers were being trained to use their riot shields as weapons. Police forces across the country differed in their training, the equipment they had access to, and their understanding of the law. The failure to understand the relevant legislation was in part due to its complexity, the report said, with 90 amendments to the Public Order Act passed since 1986.Sean O'Neill, "Policing principles undermined by riot tactics, says Denis O'Connor", The Times, 26 November 2009.
The report made several recommendations, including the creation of a set of national principles emphasizing the minimum use of force at all times, and making the display of police ID a legal requirement. In February 2010 the Met announced that 8,000 of its officers had been issued with embroidered epaulettes, as several had complained that the numbers were falling off, rather than being removed deliberately.
Legal aftermath
Decision not to prosecute
In April 2010 The Guardian published an open letter from several public figures asking the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to proceed with a prosecution or explain its position. In July that year Keir Starmer, director of the CPS, announced that there would be no prosecution because of the medical disagreement between the three pathologists. Starmer said there was enough evidence for an assault charge, but the six-month deadline for that had expired.
The area of conflict concerned Patel's finding during the first autopsy of "intraabdominal fluid blood about 3l with small blood clot". This was interpreted by other medical experts to mean that Patel had found three litres of blood in Tomlinson's abdomen. Starmer said this would have been around 60 percent of Tomlinson's blood volume, a "highly significant indicator of the cause of death".
In April 2010 Patel introduced an ambiguity in a second report for the CPS, saying he had found "intraabdominal fluid blood about 3l with small blood clot" [emphasis added]. The ambiguity had to be clarified, because the second and third pathologists had relied in part on Patel's original notes to form their views. Patel was interviewed twice by the CPS. According to Starmer, Patel "maintained that the total fluid was somewhat in excess of three litres but that it was mainly ascites (a substance which forms in a damaged liver), which had been stained with blood. He had not retained the fluid nor had he sampled it in order to ascertain the proportion of blood because, he said, he had handled blood all his professional life and he knew that this was not blood but blood-stained ascites." Patel also said he had found no internal rupture that would have led to this degree of blood loss.
Several conclusions were drawn from discussions between Patel and the CPS, Starmer said: (a) because Patel had not retained or sampled the three litres of fluid, no firm conclusions could be drawn about the nature of it; (b) for Tomlinson's death to have resulted so quickly from blood loss, there would have to have been a significant internal rupture; (c) Patel found no such rupture; (d) the later postmortems also found no visible rupture; and (e) because Patel was the only person to have examined Tomlinson's intact body, he was in the best position to judge the nature of the fluid, and whether there was a rupture that could have caused it. This meant that Patel's evidence would significantly undermine the evidence of the second and third pathologists.
Nathaniel Cary, the second pathologist, objected to the CPS's decision. Cary told The Guardian that the push had caused a haemorrhage to Tomlinson's abdomen, and the haemorrhage caused him to collapse. Cary said Tomlinson was vulnerable to this because he had liver disease. The CPS had erred in dismissing a charge of actual bodily harm (ABH), in his view. In a letter to Tomlinson's family, the CPS described Tomlinson's injuries as "relatively minor" and therefore insufficient to support such a charge. But Cary told The Guardian: "The injuries were not relatively minor. He sustained quite a large area of bruising. Such injuries are consistent with a baton strike, which could amount to ABH. It's extraordinary. If that's not ABH I would like to know what is."
Inquest
The inquest was opened and adjourned in April 2009. The City of London coroner, Paul Matthews, expressed concern about whether he had appropriate expertise, and Peter Thornton QC, who specialises in protest law, was appointed in his place."Ian Tomlinson inquest", The Guardian, 29 March 2011. The inquest opened on 28 March 2011 before a jury. The court heard from Kevin Channer, a cardiologist at Royal Hallamshire Hospital, who analysed electrocardiogram (ECG) data from the defibrillator paramedics had used on Tomlinson. He said the readings were inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack, but consistent with death from internal bleeding. Pathologist Nat Carey concurred regarding the cause of death. Graeme Alexander, a hepatologist, said that in his opinion Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding as a result of trauma to the liver after the fall. He told the court that Tomlinson had been suffering from serious liver disease, which would have made him susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding.
Giving evidence over three days, Harwood said that Tomlinson "just looked as if he was going to stay where he was forever and was almost inviting physical confrontation in terms of being moved on". He said he had not warned Tomlinson and had acted because Tomlinson was encroaching a police line, which amounted to a breach of the peace. The court heard that Tomlinson's last words after collapsing were, "they got me, the fuckers got me"; he died moments later. On 3 May 2011 the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing, ruling that the officer—Harwood was not named for legal reasons—had used excessive and unreasonable force in hitting Tomlinson, and had acted "illegally, recklessly and dangerously"."Ian Tomlinson inquest verdict", The Guardian, 3 May 2011.
IPCC reports
In May 2011 the IPCC released three reports into Tomlinson's death, written between April 2010 and May 2011. The main report contained material revealed during the inquest. The third report detailed an allegation from Tomlinson's family that the police had offered misleading information to the pathologists before the third autopsy on 22 April 2009. The Met's point of contact for Tomlinson's death, Detective Inspector Eddie Hall, had told the pathologists that Tomlinson had fallen to the ground in front of a police van earlier in the evening, although there was no evidence to support this. The IPCC ruled that Hall had been reckless in making this claim, but had not intended to mislead the pathologists.
Trial of Simon Harwood
Keir Starmer, director of the CPS, announced on 24 May 2011 that a summons for manslaughter had been issued against Harwood. He said the CPS had reviewed its decision not to prosecute because new medical evidence had emerged during the inquest, and because the various medical accounts, including that of the first pathologist, had been tested during questioning. The trial opened on 18 June 2012. Harwood entered a plea of not guilty, and was acquitted on 19 July.
The court was shown extensive video footage of Tomlinson and Harwood on the day. Harwood was seen trying to arrest a man who had daubed graffiti on a police van, then joining a line of officers who were clearing Royal Exchange Passage. Harwood pushed a man who blew a vuvuzela at him, then appeared to push a BBC cameraman who was filming the arrest of another man. The footage showed Harwood push a third man out of the way, and shortly after this (the passageway now almost empty) the officers reached Tomlinson.Victoria Ward, "G20 protests: Tomlinson family weep at final footage", The Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2012.
Mark Dennis QC, for the prosecution, argued that Harwood's use of force against Tomlinson had been unnecessary and unreasonable, and had caused Tomlinson's death. He argued that a "clear temporal link" between the incident and Tomlinson's collapse had been provided by the Guardian video, that Tomlinson had posed no threat, and that the use of force had been a "gratuitous act of aggression". The defence argued that Tomlinson's health was relevant. The court heard that he had liver and brain disease caused by alcohol abuse, numbness in his legs and balance problems, and that he had been treated at least 20 times between 2007 and 2009, mostly at A&E departments, related to falling while drunk. On the day he died, The Times reported, he had drunk a bottle of red wine, a small bottle of vodka and several cans of 9-per-cent super-strength lager.
Harwood told the court that Tomlinson had ignored orders to move along. He acknowledged that he had pushed Tomlinson firmly, but said he had not expected him to fall. He also acknowledged that he had "got it wrong", and said he had not realized Tomlinson was in such poor health. The jury found him not guilty after deliberating for four days.
Dismissal, civil suit
Harwood was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police Service in September 2012 after a disciplinary hearing found that he had acted with "gross misconduct" in his actions towards Tomlinson. Tomlinson's family filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police, which paid the family an undisclosed sum in August 2013. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Maxine de Brunner issued a formal apology for "Simon Harwood's use of excessive and unlawful force, which caused Mr Tomlinson's death, and for the suffering and distress caused to his family as a result."
Notes
References
External links
"Ian Tomlinson family campaign", retrieved 11 February 2010.
"G20 death: Ian Tomlinson's last movements", interactive graphic, The Guardian.
Video of Tomlinson
Guardian/American investment banker footage, released 7 April 2009.
Channel 4/Ken McCallum footage, released 8 April 2009.
Nabeela Zahir video, released 9 April 2009.
Guardian Cornhill video, released 21 April 2009.
Video taken nearby
Anonymous city worker, 1 April 2009, 7:15 pm, Royal Exchange Passage, The Guardian, 15 April 2009.
Anonymous city bystander, Royal Exchange Passage, 1 April 2009, 7:10–7:15 pm.
Nadi Katz-Wise, Threadneedle Street, near Royal Exchange Passage, 1 April 2009, 7:16 pm, The Guardian, 15 April 2009.
G20 protest videos: Growing catalogue of evidence against police, part 1, part 2, The Guardian'', 15 April 2009.
Triston Woodwards, Alleged assault on Nicola Fisher, 2 April 2009, released 8 April 2009.
2009 deaths
2009 in London
2010s trials
April 2009 events in the United Kingdom
Criminal trials that ended in acquittal
Deaths by beating in the United Kingdom
Deaths by person in London
Deaths by violence in the United Kingdom
Filmed police brutality
G20
History of the City of London
Manslaughter trials
Police brutality in the United Kingdom
Police misconduct in England
Protest-related deaths
Protests in London
Trials in London
Victims of police brutality
Metropolitan Police operations |
22367585 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Roger%20Sylvester | Death of Roger Sylvester | Roger Stephen R. J. Sylvester (17 August 1968 – 19 January 1999) was a mentally ill man who died after being detained outside his home in Tottenham, London, by eight Metropolitan Police officers. It was reported that his neighbours had complained to police of a disturbance after Sylvester had started banging on his own front door, naked.
Police detained Sylvester under the Mental Health Act, then took him to St Ann's Hospital, Haringey, where he fell into a coma while being restrained on the floor of a padded room by six officers while being assessed by medical staff. He died at Whittington Hospital, Islington, 8 days later without regaining consciousness.
In 2003, an inquest heard that Sylvester, who suffered from bipolar disorder, had died of serious brain damage and cardiac arrest, caused by difficulty breathing because of the position he was held in. A jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in October 2003.
The eight officers who had taken Sylvester into custody appealed to the High Court against what they called an "irrational" ruling, and the verdict was overturned in November 2004.
In 1999, forensic pathologist Freddy Patel was reprimanded by the General Medical Council (GMC) for releasing medical details about Roger Sylvester to reporters outside an inquest hearing, Patel told reporters that Sylvester was a crack cocaine user, something his family denied. Patel later performed the controversial police postmortem following the death of Ian Tomlinson in April 2009. that favoured the disproven police account. In 2012 he was struck off by the General Medical Council who found that he was not only incompetent but also dishonest.
See also
UK deaths in custody
Death of Christopher Alder
Death of Colin Roach
Death of Olaseni Lewis
Death of Oluwashijibomi Lapite
Death of Sean Rigg
Death of Wayne Douglas
Notes
External links
Waldran, Justin. Roger Sylvester, National Civil Rights Movement
Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody.
1968 births
1999 deaths
Deaths by person in London
Deaths in police custody in the United Kingdom
People with bipolar disorder
Black British people |
22413826 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Oluwashijibomi%20Lapite | Death of Oluwashijibomi Lapite | Oluwashijibomi "Shiji" Lapite (died 16 December 1994) was a 34-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker who died in the back of a police van shortly after being detained by two officers from Stoke Newington police station in London.
The inquest verdict of unlawful killing was the second in three months on a man in police custody and it triggered fresh controversy about the use of neck holds by police when controlling suspects.
This led to a decision in the High Court when for the first time in England a Judicial Review required the Crown Prosecution Service to reassess their decision not to prosecute. It prompted an inspection and investigation by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, to the abolition of the Police Complaints Authority and to an inquiry by Judge Gerald Butler into the work of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Detention and death
Early in the morning of 16 December 1994, Lapite left a restaurant in Hackney, London, where he had stopped to buy some friends a few drinks. Two plainclothes police officers, PC Paul Wright (aged 28) and PC Andrew McCallum (aged 24), followed him and later claimed they saw him acting suspiciously, so they stopped him.
A struggle ensued that ended, according to the officers, when Lapite had "pretended to be unconscious". When the officers realised that Lapite's condition was not a pretence he was taken to nearby Homerton Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Officers Wright and McCallum claimed to have seen Lapite leave something by a tree when he realised he was being followed, and an undercover officer claimed he found crack cocaine valued at £4,000 in the vicinity.
One of the officers described the 5 ft 10 in Lapite as, "the biggest, strongest, most violent black man" he had ever seen. At the inquest at St Pancras Coroners Court in January 1996, the two officers described how officer Wright held Lapite in a headlock while officer McCallum admitted that he had stood up and twice kicked Lapite in the head, "as hard as I could", claiming he was using reasonable force to subdue a violent prisoner.
PC Wright told the court that Lapite had attempted to strangle him, although a Home Office pathologist said that "serious doubt must be thrown on the allegation" because of the lack of marks around the officer's neck. The coroner, Dr Stephen Chan, found more than 40 injuries on Lapite's body, including a crushed voice box and severe bruising across his back.
The cause of death was given to be asphyxia from compression of the neck, consistent with the application of a neck hold. The only injuries suffered by the police officers were a scratch on the tip of McCallum's finger and a bite mark on Wright's shoulder where he was applying the neck hold. Dr Chan noted that there was a "gross disparity" between the injuries sustained by Lapite and the two officers who had arrested him but neither officer could explain the disparity, and PC McCallum said he did not believe excessive force had been used.
The coroner told the jury they could deliver a verdict of unlawful killing only if they were satisfied that the criminal offence of manslaughter had been committed. The jury took just 20 minutes to come to a unanimous verdict that Lapite had died by unlawful killing. Following the inquest the Crown Prosecution Service said it would reconsider its earlier decision not to prosecute any of the officers involved in Lapite's death, and a spokesman for Scotland Yard said it would be sending a dossier to the Police Complaints Authority to see if any disciplinary action should follow and that the two officers remained suspended from duty.
European Torture Convention
Prompted by three cases, including that of Lapite, in which inquest juries had returned verdicts of unlawful killing but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had decided not to prosecute, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture visited Britain in September 1997. The committee is the European watchdog on torture and degrading treatment which highlights failures in prosecuting and disciplining police officers and others for death or mistreatment of persons across the European Union whose liberty is restrained.
On its visit the committee met with Dame Barbara Mills QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr John Cartwright, Deputy Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority, representatives of the Police Federation and the Association of Chief Police Officers. They also visited four police stations at Brixton, Notting Hill, Peckham and Streatham, and were granted unrestricted access to all of the files they requested from the Crown Prosecution Service, the Police Complaints Authority, the Metropolitan Police Solicitors Department and the Complaints and Investigation Branch of the Metropolitan Police.
The Strasbourg-based committee, operating under the European torture convention, prepared a report on their visit which was sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in March 1998. HM Government responded in April 1999 and the report was published in January 2000. In referring to complaints against police officers the report said, in part, "In reality, it is extremely rare for police officers to be convicted of a criminal offence as a result of an investigation arising out of a complaint. For example, during the year 1996-97, only 1 Metropolitan Police officer was convicted of a criminal offence as a result of an investigation arising out of a complaint. This should be viewed against an annual number of complaints against that force of between five and six thousand, of which, in recent years, over two thousand per year have involved allegations of assault."
On 23-24 July 1997, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) consented to the quashing of her decision not to prosecute in the Lapite and O'Brien cases. On 31 July 1997, the Divisional Court quashed her decision not to prosecute in the Derek Treadaway case. As a result of these decisions, "additional safeguards" were put in place by the Attorney General (the Minister who is accountable to Parliament for the work of the CPS).
Henceforth, no prosecuting decision will be taken by the CPS in cases involving deaths in police or prison custody or possible serious assault charges against the police without independent advice from Treasury Counsel (i.e. from independent barristers instructed by the CPS and acting on behalf of the Crown). If the DPP disagrees with the advice given by Treasury Counsel, she must inform and consult the Attorney General and his Deputy (the Solicitor General). These additional safeguards are to remain in place until consideration has been given to the findings of Judge Gerald Butler's review into CPS decision-making in such cases".
In reviewing the whole process of complaints made of the conduct of individual police officers, and in particular the fact that even after a successful civil claim for damages there remains little likelihood of the officer facing criminal or internal disciplinary proceedings, the Committee said, "the CPT has formed the view that, as matters stand, many victims of police misconduct may have little realistic prospect of other than pecuniary redress. From the standpoint of the prevention of ill-treatment of detained persons by police officers, such a situation cannot be considered satisfactory".
In its response, HM Government highlighted a major shortcoming of the current system:"The police are currently solely responsible for investigating criminal allegations against police officers, and the CPS is responsible for prosecutions. The CPS cannot direct the police investigation although close co-operation between the investigation and prosecution frequently cures deficiencies in cases where the CPS request the police to obtain further evidence. Once a case has been submitted to the CPS by the police, the Crown Prosecutor will decide whether or not to proceed by applying the criteria set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors. The review of a case is a dynamic process. Although it may not be possible to proceed on the available evidence, Crown Prosecutors will always consider, with the police, what other evidence might be obtained in order to produce the best possible case. As the CPS does not investigate, however, it relies on the police to obtain further evidence or initiate investigations."
Butler enquiry
The Butler enquiry was established in 1997 in response to concerns over the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute anyone for the death of Richard O'Brien, a father of seven, who suffocated shortly after his arrest for being drunk and disorderly in south-east London in April 1994. Relatives insisted that the police had used unnecessary force on him and the CPS pressed charges only after the family sought a Judicial Review (the first time a Judicial Review had been used for this purpose in England). Two other cases, those of Lapite and Derek Treadaway, were added to the enquiry's remit and in August 1999 Judge Gerald Butler QC published his findings.
He found that nobody at the CPS, including the former director of public prosecutions, Dame Barbara Mills QC, was prepared to take responsibility for deciding not to prosecute police officers, and that this meant that a middle-ranking CPS lawyer had made key assessments on the death of Shiji Lapite which should have been referred to more senior solicitors or outside counsel. The report also said that although the lawyer had acted "honestly and without unfair bias", he nevertheless made a basic error in the definition of manslaughter.
The judge recommended that controversial cases must be assigned to a senior lawyer in central casework, the CPS department that deals with difficult investigations, and that senior Treasury Counsel must review any decision not to press ahead with a prosecution.
References
1994 deaths
Deaths in police custody in the United Kingdom
Deaths by person in London |
23129363 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20Macho%20Man | Death of a Macho Man | Death of a Macho Man is a mystery novel by M. C. Beaton (Marion Chesney), first published in 1996. It is set in the fictional town of Lochdubh, Scotland featuring the local constable Hamish Macbeth.
Plot introduction
Randy Duggan is the macho man of the title of this work of fiction. He claims to be a professional wrestler and he becomes known in the small village of Lochdubh for his tall stories. When Randy is found murdered, Constable Hamish Macbeth hopes that the killer is not one of the villagers. However, there is enough local resentment against Randy, that someone in quiet, peaceful Lochdubh may have been driven to slaying this macho man.
Plot
Randy Duggan arrives in Lochdubh claiming to be an American professional wrestler. A huge, muscular man, he dominates the bar in Lochdubh's pub. At first the locals are enthralled by Randy's fascinating stories of his apparently exciting life and his generosity with paying for drinks. Their interest begins to pall when they realise that Randy's accent, when he is drunk, betrays his Scottish origins and that he is a braggart and a bully and openly insults the local men, including Geordie Mackenzie, a mild retired school teacher and local fisherman, Archie Maclean. Both the latter are heard to claim that they will kill Randy.
Constable Hamish Macbeth intervenes in a verbal argument between Randy Duggan and Geordie Mackenzie. Randy claims that Hamish is hiding behind his uniform and would not consider challenging Randy as a civilian. Hamish accepts the challenge and agrees to face Randy in a fight. Hamish bitterly regrets this challenge next day, but as the whole village of Lochdubh has turned out to witness the fight, Hamish decides he must go through with it. Randy does not meet the appointed time for the fight. Archie Maclean volunteers to go to Randy's cottage to insist he meet this commitment. Archie finds Randy's very dead body. And Hamish Macbeth is a suspect in the death of a macho man.
Hamish knows that the detective team from the fictional town of Strathbane, led by his archenemy, Chief Inspector Blair, will question his actions in arranging a fight with the deceased. He is in trouble, but pretends that he did not intend to engage in a fight, but rather have the whole village witness Hamish berate Randy Duggan for his loutish behaviour and his rudeness to the local people. To Blair's disgust, this explanation is accepted.
Hamish discovers that the macho man has been involved with many of the villagers. Several women in particular appear to have been smitten by Randy's macho charm. One of these women is Rosie Draly, a writer of romantic historical fiction. When Rosie is murdered, Hamish is baffled to find a connection between her death and the death of Randy Duggan. Blair is convinced that he has solved the case. Rosie's brother in law, passionately in love with her for many years, confesses to killing her and Randy Duggan. Rosie would not consent to marry her brother in law and he was jealous of Randy's attentions to Rosie.
Blair is happy to have the murders solved. Hamish is not convinced that Rosie's brother in law killed Duggan and makes this known. Hamish, with his usual reliance on his intuition and following up possible although apparently unlikely leads, unearths the truth. Rosie was murdered by her brother in law, but Randy Duggan was not. The murderer of the macho man was in Lochdubh all the time. Hamish saves Priscilla Halburton-Smythe from a murderous kidnapper and shoots this man. In doing so, Hamish has revealed the solution to a long unsolved crime in Scotland and proven the identity of the mysterious "Gentleman Jim", the brains behind this notorious crime.
Despite his success, Hamish is once again out of favour with his superiors in Strathbane. Hamish is deemed to be too unorthodox, too much a maverick to be allowed to remain in the police force. The villagers of Lochdubh march into Strathbane and demand that their village constable retains his position in Lochdubh. Given the media coverage of his success and the flashing cameras and television crews accompanying the villagers' march, his superiors agree that Constable Macbeth is best left alone to police his beloved village.
References
External links
Death of a Macho Man UK publisher Constable & Robinson's web site.
1996 British novels
British detective novels
British mystery novels
English-language novels
Hamish Macbeth series
Novels set in Highland (council area) |
23404081 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Michael%20Jackson | Death of Michael Jackson | On June 25, 2009, American singer Michael Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication at his home on North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Physician Conrad Murray said that he found Jackson in his room not breathing and with a weak pulse; he administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to no avail, and security called 9-1-1 at 12:21 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (UTC–7). Paramedics treated Jackson at the scene, but he was pronounced dead at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
On August 28, 2009, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner concluded that Jackson's death was a homicide. Jackson had been administered propofol and anti-anxiety benzodiazepines lorazepam and midazolam by his doctor. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November 2011, and was released in 2013 after serving two years of his four-year prison sentence with time off for good behavior.
Jackson's death triggered reactions around the world, creating unprecedented surges of Internet traffic and a spike in sales of his music. He had been preparing for a series of comeback concerts at London's O2 Arena from July 2009 to March 2010. A televised memorial service, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was viewed by an estimated 2.5 billion people globally. In 2010, Sony Music Entertainment signed a US$250 million deal with Jackson's estate to retain distribution rights to his recordings up until 2017 and to release seven posthumous albums over the decade following his death.
Circumstances
Michael Jackson arrived for rehearsal at the Staples Center around 6:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Wednesday, June 24, 2009. According to magician Ed Alonzo, Jackson jokingly complained of laryngitis and did not rehearse until 9 p.m. "He looked great and had great energy", Alonzo said. The rehearsal went past midnight.
The next morning, Jackson did not come out of his bedroom. Jackson's physician, Conrad Murray, entered the room that afternoon and found Jackson in bed and not breathing. He had a weak pulse and was still warm. Murray tried to revive him for five to ten minutes, at which point he realized that he needed to call for help. Murray stated that he was hindered because there was no landline telephone in the house. He also stated that he could not use his cell phone to call 9-1-1 because he did not know the exact address. He stated that he also phoned security, but got no answer.
Murray ran downstairs, yelled for help, and told a chef to bring security up to the room. Murray's lawyer stated that at least 30 minutes passed before security made the phone call. A Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) spokesman said that the 911 call came in at 12:21:04 p.m. Paramedics reached Jackson at 12:26 p.m. and found that he was still not breathing.
Statements described Murray using a non-standard CPR technique on Jackson. The recording of the emergency call was released on June 26, one day after Jackson's death, and it described Murray administering CPR on a bed, not on a hard surface such as a floor which would be standard practice. Murray said that he placed one hand underneath Jackson and used the other for chest compression, whereas standard practice is to use both hands for compression.
Paramedics performed CPR for 42 minutes at the house. Murray's attorney stated that Jackson had a pulse when he was taken out of the house and put in the ambulance. An LAFD official gave a different account, stating that paramedics found Jackson in "full cardiac arrest", and that they did not observe a change in his status en route to the hospital. LAFD transported him to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The ambulance arrived at the hospital at approximately 1:14 p.m., and a team of medical personnel attempted to resuscitate him for more than an hour. They were unsuccessful, and Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. at age 50.
Investigation
Autopsies
Jackson's body was flown by helicopter to the Los Angeles County Coroner's offices in Lincoln Heights, where a three-hour autopsy was performed the next day (June 26) on behalf of the Los Angeles County Coroner by the chief medical examiner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran. Jackson's family arranged for a second autopsy, a practice that could yield expedited, albeit limited, results. After the preliminary autopsy was completed, Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the coroner's office, said there was no evidence of trauma or foul play.
On August 28, 2009, the Los Angeles County coroner classified Jackson's death as a homicide, determining that Jackson died from combined drug intoxication, with the most significant drugs being the anesthetic propofol and the anxiolytic lorazepam, and less significant drugs found in Jackson's body being midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine, and ephedrine. The coroner kept the complete toxicology report private, as requested by the police and district attorney.
The autopsy report revealed that Jackson was otherwise healthy for his age (age 50) and that his heart was strong; his most significant health problem was that his lungs were chronically inflamed, but this did not contribute to his death. His other major organs were normal and he had no atherosclerosis except for some slight plaque accumulation in the arteries in his leg. The autopsy stated that he weighed 136 pounds (62 kg) and was 5'9" (175 cm) tall. Fox News said that this confirmed rumors that Jackson was emaciated, while the Associated Press stated that his weight was in the acceptable range.
Law enforcement agencies
Jackson's death was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the latter agency had the authority to investigate issues otherwise protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, allowing it to trace the complex trail of prescription drugs supplied to Jackson.
On August 28, 2009, LAPD announced that the case would be referred to prosecutors. Because the LAPD did not secure Jackson's home and allowed the Jackson family access to it as well before returning to remove certain items, the department raised concerns by some observers that the chain of custody had been broken. The police maintained that they had followed protocol. California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that his office was helping the LAPD and DEA to create a statewide database of all medical doctors and prescriptions filled.
The LAPD subpoenaed medical records from doctors who had treated Jackson. Police considered, but did not bring, homicide charges against those who had supplied drugs to Jackson.
Drug-use allegations
Marc Schaffel, Jackson's former video producer, said that the singer had used propofol, alprazolam (an antianxiety agent) and sertraline (an antidepressant). Other drugs included omeprazole, hydrocodone, paroxetine, carisoprodol, and hydromorphone. After his death, police found several drugs in his home, which included propofol. Some of these drugs had labels made out to false names, and others were unlabeled. A 2004 police document prepared for the 2005 People v. Jackson child abuse trial said that Jackson was taking up to 40 alprazolam pills a night. Alprazolam was not found in his bloodstream at the time of death. Jackson's friend Dr. A. J. Farshchian stated that Jackson was scared of drugs.
Eugene Aksenoff is a Tokyo-based physician who had treated Jackson and his children on a few occasions, and he expressed concern about Jackson's use of various drugs. He said that Jackson asked for stimulants so that he could get through some demanding performances, but he said that he refused to prescribe them. He recalled that Jackson suffered chronic fatigue, fever, insomnia, and other symptoms, and he took a large amount of drugs. He suspected that one of the major factors causing these symptoms was excessive use of steroids or other skin-whitening medications.
Janet Jackson claimed that the Jackson family tried to stage an intervention in early 2007 when Jackson was living in Las Vegas. She and some of her brothers allegedly traveled to his home but were turned away by security guards who were ordered not to let them in. He was also rumored to have refused calls from his mother. However, the family denied that they had tried to intervene.
Propofol
Of all the drugs found in Jackson's home, the one that most concerned investigators were propofol (Diprivan), a powerful anesthetic administered intravenously in hospitals to induce and maintain anesthesia during surgery. Nicknamed "milk of amnesia" because of its opaque, milk-like appearance (and a play on the words "milk of magnesia"), the drug has been associated with cardiac arrest, but it still may be increasingly used off-label for anxiolytic and other medically unsubstantiated purposes. Several propofol bottles, some empty, some full, were found in Jackson's home.
On June 30, Cherilyn Lee, a nurse who had worked as Jackson's nutritionist, said that he had asked her in May to provide propofol to help him sleep, but she refused. He told her he had been given the drug before for persistent insomnia, and that a doctor had said it was safe. Lee said she received a telephone call from an aide to Jackson on June 21 to say that Jackson was ill, although she no longer worked for him. She reported overhearing Jackson complain that one side of his body was hot, the other side cold. She advised the aide to send Jackson to a hospital.
Arnold Klein said that Jackson used an anesthesiologist to administer propofol to help him sleep while he was on tour in Germany. The anesthesiologist would "take him down" at night and "bring him back up" in the morning during the HIStory tour of 1996 and 1997.
Medical professionals
The DEA focused on at least five doctors who prescribed drugs to Jackson, trying to determine whether they had had a "face to face" relationship with him and whether they had made legally required diagnoses. At least nine doctors were under investigation. The police wanted to question 30 doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, including Arnold Klein. Klein said that he occasionally had given Jackson pethidine to sedate him, but had administered nothing stronger and that he had turned his records over to the medical examiner.
Personal physician
Cardiologist Conrad Murray joined Jackson's camp in May 2009 as part of Jackson's agreement with AEG Live, the promoter of his London concerts. Murray first met Jackson in Las Vegas when he treated one of Jackson's children. AEG Live said Jackson insisted the company hire Murray to accompany him to England. During Murray's trial it emerged that AEG employed Murray and that Jackson did not sign the contract for the above-cited employment either.
Murray said through his attorney that he did not prescribe or administer pethidine or oxycodone to Jackson, but did not say what, if anything, he did prescribe or administer. Los Angeles police said Murray spoke to officers immediately after Jackson's death, and during an extensive interview two days later. They stressed that they found "no red flag" and did not suspect foul play. On June 26, police towed away a car used by Murray, stating that it might contain medication or other evidence. The police released the car five days later.
Politician and minister Jesse Jackson, a friend of Michael Jackson's family, said that the family was concerned about Murray's role. "They have good reason to be ... he left the scene." Over the next few weeks, law enforcement grew increasingly concerned about Murray, and on July 22 detectives searched Murray's medical office and storage unit in Houston, removing items such as a computer and two hard drives, contact lists and a hospital suspension notice. On the 27th, an anonymous source reported that Murray had administered propofol within 24 hours of Jackson's death. Investigators had searched Murray's home and office in Las Vegas, as well as a Las Vegas pharmacy. Jackson paid Murray $150,000 a month.
On February 8, 2010, Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter by prosecutors in Los Angeles. Murray pleaded not guilty and was released after posting US$75,000 bail. Shortly thereafter, the California Medical Board issued an order preventing Murray from administering heavy sedatives.
On January 11, 2011, the judge from Murray's preliminary hearing determined that Murray should stand trial for involuntary manslaughter in the Jackson case. The judge also suspended Murray's license to practice medicine in California.
After several delays, the jury trial began on September 27, 2011. On November 7, 2011, Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and he was held without bail to await sentencing. On November 29, 2011, Murray received the maximum sentence of four years in prison. Murray was released on October 28, 2013, due to California prison overcrowding and good behavior.
Health
Stacy Brown, a biographer, said Jackson had become "very frail, totally, totally underweight", and that his family had been worried about him. Another biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, said Jackson had been addicted to painkillers on and off for decades. Arnold Klein, Jackson's dermatologist, confirmed that Jackson misused prescription drugs, and that Klein had diagnosed Jackson with vitiligo and lupus. However, Klein said when he saw Jackson at his office three days before his death, he "was in very good physical condition. He was dancing for my patients. He was very mentally aware when we saw him and he was in a very good mood."
Family and legal affairs
Family reaction
The Jackson family released a statement following the death:
La Toya believed her brother "was murdered for his music catalogue". Shortly after Jackson's death, his family raised questions about the role of AEG Live, the This Is It concert promoter, in the last few weeks of his life. Joseph, Michael's father, filed a complaint with the California Medical Board alleging that AEG Live was illegally practicing medicine by demanding that Murray get Jackson off various medications. The complaint also alleged that AEG Live failed to provide the resuscitation equipment and nurse which Murray had requested. AEG spokesman Michael Roth declined to comment on the complaint.
After Murray pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge, several members of the Jackson family said they felt he deserved a more severe charge. On June 25, 2010, Joseph filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Murray. The lawsuit alleged that Murray repeatedly lied to cover up his use of propofol, did not keep sufficient medical records and was negligent in his use of medications on Jackson. Murray's civil attorney, Charles Peckham, denied that Murray gave Jackson anything life-threatening. On August 15, 2012, Joseph dropped his wrongful death lawsuit against Murray.
Michael Jackson's family praised the guilty verdict against Murray. In 2017, Paris Jackson stated that she was "absolutely" convinced that her father had been murdered.
In 2010, Jackson's three children and his mother sued Jackson's concert promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (AEG) and its subsidiaries and principals, alleging that AEG had negligently hired the doctor. In 2013, following a 21-week trial in Los Angeles, the jury rendered a verdict in AEG's favor, finding that AEG had no reason to know that Murray would be "unfit or incompetent to perform the work for which he was hired" and therefore was not negligent.
Estate
Jackson's last will was filed by an attorney John Branca at the Los Angeles County courthouse on July 1, 2009. Signed July 7, 2002, it names Branca and accountant John McClain as executors; they were confirmed as such by a Los Angeles judge on July 6, 2009. All assets are given to the (pre-existing) Michael Jackson Family Trust (amended March 22, 2002), the details of which have not been made public. The Associated Press reports that, in 2007, Jackson had a net worth of $236.6 million: $567.6 million in assets, which included Neverland Ranch and his 50% share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing' catalogue, and debts of $331 million. The guardianship of his three children is given to his mother, Katherine, or if she is unable or unwilling, to singer Diana Ross. Jackson's will allocates 20% of his fortune as well as 20% of money made after death to unspecified charities.
Media reports suggested that the settlement of Jackson's estate could last many years. The value of Sony/ATV Music Publishing is estimated by Ryan Schinman, chief of Platinum Rye, to be US$1.5 billion. Shinman's estimate makes Jackson's share of Sony/ATV worth $750 million, from which Jackson would have had an annual income of $80 million. In September 2016, a deal was finalized for Sony's acquisition of Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750 million.
Public reaction
Media and Internet coverage
Jackson's death was first reported by the Los Angeles-based celebrity news website TMZ. Doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center pronounced Jackson dead at 2:26 p.m., and TMZ announced the death 18 minutes later. The Los Angeles Times confirmed the report at 2:51 p.m. PDT (5:51 p.m. EDT). The news spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down and crash from user overload. TMZ and the Los Angeles Times suffered outages. Google initially believed that the millions of search requests meant their search engine was under DDoS attack, and blocked searches related to Michael Jackson for 30 minutes. Twitter reported a crash, as did Wikipedia at PDT (22:15 UTC). The Wikimedia Foundation reported nearly a million visitors to Jackson's biography within one hour, probably the most visitors in a one-hour period to any article in Wikipedia's history up to that point. AOL Instant Messenger collapsed for 40 minutes. Around 15% of Twitter posts (5,000 tweets per minute) mentioned Jackson after the news broke, compared to the 5% recalled as having mentioned the Iranian elections or the flu pandemic that had made headlines earlier in the year. Overall, web traffic ranged from 11% to at least 20% higher than normal. MTV and BET aired marathons of Jackson's music videos.
Specials about Jackson aired on multiple television stations around the world. The British soap opera EastEnders added a last-minute scene to the June 26 episode, in which the character Denise Johnson discussed the news with Patrick Trueman. Magazines including Time published commemorative editions. A scene that had featured Jackson's sister La Toya was cut from the film Brüno out of respect toward Jackson's family.
According to an analysis released by the Global Language Monitor (GLM), 72 hours after his death, Jackson became the ninth most covered news item in global print and electronic media. For the Internet and social media, Jackson was number two, behind the election of President Barack Obama. Commentators discussed Jackson's work and his "profoundly tragic figure". Le Figaro columnist Yann Moix said that although Jackson, like his iconic Moonwalk, lived life in reverse, the world at his death shed "identical and universal tears".
A Pew Research Center survey found that two-thirds of Americans believed the coverage of Jackson's death was excessive, while 3% felt it was insufficient. In the UK, the BBC received over 700 complaints from viewers who thought his death dominated the news. On June 29, American conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh said the coverage was a "horrible disgrace" and lent his support to activist-ministers Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who were fighting to stem the press' speculation about what caused the death. Other conservatives, including commentator Bill O'Reilly and Congressman Peter T. King, also disapproved the receiving of the media attention about Jackson's death. Meanwhile, Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, called the pop star's death some "lamentable news", but criticized CNN for covering the death more heavily than the Honduran coup d'état.
In 2009, Jackson's family paid social media marketing company uSocial.net to increase the numbers of followers on Jackson's Twitter profile. According to the New York Daily News, uSocial was contracted to deliver 25,000 followers to the account.
Grief
News of Jackson's death triggered an outpouring of grief around the world. Fans gathered outside the UCLA Medical Center, Neverland Ranch, his Holmby Hills home, the Hayvenhurst Jackson family home in Encino, the Apollo Theater in New York, and at Hitsville U.S.A., the old Motown headquarters in Detroit where Jackson's career began, now the Motown Museum. Streets around the hospital were blocked off. A small crowd, including the city's mayor, gathered outside Jackson's childhood home in Gary, where the flag on city hall was flown at half-staff in his honor. Fans in Hollywood initially gathered around the Walk of Fame star of another Michael Jackson, as they were unable to access Jackson's star, which had been temporarily covered by equipment in place for the Brüno film premiere. Grieving fans and memorial tributes relocated from the talk radio host's star the next day.
From Odessa to Brussels, and beyond, fans held their own memorial gatherings. U.S. President Barack Obama sent a letter of condolence to the Jackson family, and the House of Representatives observed a moment of silence. Obama later stated that Jackson "will go down in history as one of our greatest entertainers". Former South African President Nelson Mandela said that Jackson's loss would be felt worldwide.
In Japan, Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Tsutomu Sato told reporters, "I feel sad as I had watched him since he was a member of Jackson Five." Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada credited him with building a generation with his music. Health Minister Yōichi Masuzoe called the death an "extremely tragic loss".
In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesperson said: "This is very sad news for the millions of Michael Jackson fans in Britain and around the world." Conservative opposition leader David Cameron said: "I know Michael Jackson's fans in Britain and around the world will be sad today. Despite the controversies, he was a legendary entertainer."
Russian fans gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to mourn. French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand, said, "We all have a Michael Jackson within." Elizabeth Taylor, a long-time friend, said that she couldn't imagine life without him. Liza Minnelli told CBS, "When the autopsy comes, all hell's going to break loose, so thank God we're celebrating him now." His sister La Toya stated that his daughter said he was being overworked. La Toya was quoted as saying, "She said, 'No, you don't understand. They kept working him and Daddy didn't want that, but they worked him constantly'. I felt so bad."
Tributes
On June 30, 2009, U2 while performing their first show of the U2 360 tour in Barcelona dedicated the song "Angel of Harlem" to Jackson. U2 vocalist Bono sang verses from "Man In The Mirror" and "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" at the end of the song. On July 10, 2009, six thousand fans attended a musical tribute in Jackson's hometown of Gary, Indiana. Local performers staged a medley of his songs, and mayor Rudolph M. Clay unveiled a seven-foot memorial to him. Jesse Jackson addressed the crowd, stating, "This is where Michael learned to dance, where he learned to sing, where he learned to sacrifice." The day after Jackson's death, rapper the Game released a tribute song, "Better on the Other Side", produced by DJ Khalil and featuring vocals by Diddy, Chris Brown, Polow da Don, Mario Winans, Usher, and Boyz II Men. A variety of other artists recorded tributes, including 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Robbie Williams, Akon and guitarist Buckethead.
On June 26, artists including Pharrell Williams and Lily Allen paid tribute to Jackson at the UK Glastonbury Festival. Allen wore a single white glove (a signature look for Jackson), while the Streets performed a cover of "Billie Jean". Tributes to Jackson at the festival continued over the weekend. On July 5, 2009, Madonna performed a medley of Jackson's songs during her Sticky & Sweet Tour, while a Jackson impersonator performed Jackson's signature dances and photos of Jackson were displayed behind them. Beyoncé performed an extended version of "Halo", dedicating it to Jackson in various shows during her I Am... World Tour.
Metal and hard rock acts who performed Jackson songs in tribute include Metallica, Chris Cornell, Steve Vai and Andy Timmons, Extreme, and CKY. Buckethead wrote a song entitled "The Homing Beacon", inspired by Jackson's film Captain EO. Statements of tribute came from rock musicians including Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill, Queen guitarist Brian May, members of Black Sabbath, former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche, Eddie Van Halen (who worked with Jackson during the recording of Thriller) and Slash (who played guitar on Jackson's single "Give In to Me"). In October 2013, a tribute album was released featuring current and former members of Iron Maiden, Kiss, Motörhead, Testament, Guns N' Roses, Fozzy, Quiet Riot, Dio, Whitesnake, and Mr. Big, among others.
Jackson's sister La Toya released her song "Home" on July 28 as a charity single in her brother's honor. All proceeds were donated to one of Michael's favorite charities. BET's annual 2009 Awards Ceremony aired three days after Jackson's death, on June 28, 2009, and included a tribute to him. Host Jamie Foxx said, "We want to celebrate this black man. He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else." The ceremony featured performances of several of Jackson's songs, including pieces from his time with The Jackson Five and those from his solo career. Joe Jackson and Al Sharpton were in the audience, and Janet Jackson spoke briefly on behalf of the family. The show was the most-watched BET annual awards show in the awards shows history.
The day after Jackson's death, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro announced that the city would erect a statue of him in the favela of Dona Marta. Jackson visited the community in 1996 and filmed a music video for "They Don't Care About Us" there. The mayor said that Jackson had helped make the community into "a model for social development". Memorials were held in locations as diverse as Tokyo, Bucharest and Baku, Azerbaijan. In Midyat, Turkey, a Salat al-Janazah (Islamic funeral prayer) was performed, and traditional funeral helva distributed.
The music video for "Do the Bartman", a Simpsons song co-written by Jackson, was broadcast ahead of an episode rerun of The Simpsons on June 28. It featured a title card paying tribute to Jackson. The 1991 Simpsons episode "Stark Raving Dad", which Jackson guest-starred in, was broadcast on Fox on July 5. The episode had been broadcast on the Dutch Comedy Central the day after his death and was dedicated to Jackson's memory. His 1978 film The Wiz (in which he co-starred alongside Diana Ross and Richard Pryor) was briefly rereleased in a rare 35mm format and was shown at the Hollywood Theater in his honor. It was also re-released a week prior to the release of Michael Jackson's This Is It in select cities. Madonna opened the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with a speech about Michael Jackson. Janet Jackson made an appearance at the VMAs to pay a musical tribute to her brother and honor his career. He was honored with a posthumous lifetime achievement award during the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. Jackson was featured in the 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony's "In Memoriam" tribute.
Record sales
Jackson's record sales increased dramatically, eightyfold by June 29, according to HMV. Bill Carr of Amazon said the website sold out of all Jackson and Jackson 5 CDs within minutes of the news breaking, and that demand surpassed that for Elvis Presley and John Lennon after their sudden deaths. In Japan, six of his albums made SoundScan Japan's Top 200 Albums chart, and in Poland, Thriller 25 topped the national album chart and was replaced by King of Pop the following week.
In Australia, 15 of his albums occupied the ARIA top 100 as of July 5, four of them in the top ten, with three occupying the top three spots. He had 34 singles in the top 100 singles chart, including four in the top ten. Album sales were 62,015 for the previous week; singles tallied 107,821 units. In the second week, album sales rose from the previous week and tallied 88,650 copies. On July 12, four albums were in the top 10 with three occupying the top three spots. In New Zealand, Thriller 25 topped the chart. In Germany, King of Pop topped the album chart, and from June 28 to July 4, nine of his albums occupied the Top 20 of CAPIF in Argentina.
In Billboard's European Top 100 Albums, he made history with eight of his albums in the top ten positions. As of August 3, King of Pop has spent four weeks atop Billboard's European Top 100 Albums chart. The Collection also spent two weeks atop the same chart.
In the UK, on the Sunday following his death, his albums occupied 14 of the top 20 places on the Amazon.co.uk sales chart, with Off the Wall at the top. Number Ones reached the top of the UK Album Chart, and his studio albums occupied number two to number eight on the iTunes Music Store top albums. Six of his songs charted in the top 40: "Man in the Mirror" (11), "Thriller" (23), "Billie Jean" (25), "Smooth Criminal" (28)", "Beat It" (30), and "Earth Song" (38). The following Sunday, 13 of Jackson's songs charted in the top 40, including "Man in the Mirror", which reached number two. He broke Ruby Murray's 1955 record of five songs in the top 30. The Essential Michael Jackson topped the album chart, giving Jackson a second number one album in as many weeks. He had five of the top ten albums in the album chart. In third week sales, The Essential Michael Jackson retained the number one position and Jackson held three other positions within the top five. By August 3, Jackson had sold 2 million records and spent six consecutive weeks atop the album chart. He retained the top spot on the album chart for a seventh consecutive week.
In the U.S., Jackson broke three chart records on the first Billboard issue date that followed his death. The entire top nine positions on Billboard Top Pop Catalog Albums featured titles related to him. By the third week it would be the entire top 12 positions. Number Ones was the best-selling album of the week and topped the catalog chart with sales of 108,000, an increase of 2,340 percent. The Essential Michael Jackson (2) and Thriller (3) also sold over 100,000 units. The other titles on the chart are Off the Wall (4), Jackson Five's Ultimate Collection (5), Bad (6), Dangerous (7), HIStory: Past, Present and Future – Book I (8) and Jackson's Ultimate Collection (9). Collectively, his solo albums sold 422,000 copies in the week following his death, 800,000 copies in the first full week, and 1.1 million copies in the following week of his memorial service. He also broke a record on the Top Digital Albums chart, with six of the top 10 slots, including the entire top four. On the Hot Digital Songs chart he placed a record of 25 songs on the 75-position list. In the U.S., Jackson became the first artist to sell over one million downloads in a week, with 2.6 million sales.
By August 5, Jackson had sold nearly 3.8 million albums and 7.6 million tracks in the U.S. Number Ones was the best-selling album for six out of seven weeks that followed his death. By year's end in 2009, Jackson had become the best selling artist of the year selling 8.2 million albums in the U.S. He also became the first artist in history to have four of the top 20 best-selling albums in a single year in the U.S., nearly doubling the sales of his nearest competitor. Jackson was also the third best selling digital artist of 2009 in the U.S., selling approximately 12.35 million units.
In the 12 months that followed his death Jackson sold nine million albums in the U.S., and 35 million albums worldwide. His estate also generated revenues of one billion dollars. In 2010, Sony Music Entertainment signed a US$250 million deal with Jackson's estate to retain distribution rights to his recordings up until 2017 and to release seven posthumous albums over the decade following his death.
Services
Memorial
A private family service was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, after a public memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on July 7, where Jackson had rehearsed on June 24, the day before he died. The memorial service was organized by Jackson's concert promoter, AEG Live, who initially planned to charge for tickets. Following public pressure, AEG instead distributed the 17,500 tickets for free through an online lottery that attracted over 1.2 million applicants in 24 hours, and over a half-billion hits to the webpage. The service was broadcast live around the world, and was believed to have been watched by more than 2.5 billion people.
Jackson's solid-bronze casket (which reportedly cost $25,000) was placed in front of the stage. Numerous celebrity guests attended the services. His brothers each wore a single, white, sparkling glove, while Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Jermaine Jackson and others sang his songs. Jackson's then 11-year-old daughter, Paris, broke down as she told the crowd, "I just want to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine ... and I just want to say I love him ... so much." Marlon Jackson said, "Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone."
Burial
According to reports, Jackson's burial was originally scheduled for August 29, 2009 (which would have been his 51st birthday). His service and burial were held at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park on September 3, 2009. The burial was attended by his family members, first wife Lisa Marie Presley as well as his old friends Macaulay Culkin, Chris Tucker, Quincy Jones, Eddie Murphy and Elizabeth Taylor, amongst others. The service began with Jackson's three children placing a golden crown on his casket.
Jackson's funeral cost $1 million, including $590,000 for Jackson's crypt; $11,716 for guest invitations; $30,000 for security and luxury cars; $16,000 for the florist; and $15,000 for the funeral planner. Jackson's family planned the funeral. Howard Weitzman, a lawyer for the estate executors, said that Jackson's "bigger than life" lifespan matched the lavishness of the funeral.
Jackson's remains are interred in the Holly Terrace section in the Great Mausoleum of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a cemetery in Glendale, California. The mausoleum is a secure facility that is not accessible to the general public or to the media, except on an extremely limited basis. The unmarked crypt, which is partially visible at the tinted entrance of the Holly Terrace mausoleum, is covered in flowers fans leave, which are placed by security guards outside the crypt. The family had considered burying Jackson at Neverland Ranch. However, some family members objected to the site, saying that the ranch had been tainted by the 2005 trial and police raids of the property. Also, the owners of the ranch would have had to go through a permitting process with county and state government before establishing a cemetery at the site. In July 2010, security was increased at the mausoleum due to vandalism by fans leaving messages such as "Keep the dream alive" and "Miss you sweet angel" in permanent ink.
References
Further reading
Jackson Tour Video—The Final Rehearsals, TMZ, July 2, 2009.
Barnes, Brooks. A Star Idolized and Haunted, Michael Jackson Dies at 50, The New York Times, June 25, 2009.
BBC News. Obituary: Michael Jackson, June 26, 2009.
Boucher, Geoff, and Woo, Elaine. Michael Jackson's life was infused with fantasy and tragedy, Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2009.
Rayner, Ben. Michael Jackson, 50: Child star, thriller, sad sideshow, The Toronto Star, June 26, 2009.
Saperstein, Pat. Michael Jackson dies at 50, Variety, June 25, 2009.
Sullivan, Caroline. Michael Jackson, The Guardian, June 26, 2009.
The Smoking Gun. "Lethal Levels" Of Drug Killed Jackson, August 24, 2009, includes State of California search warrant and affidavit.
The Sydney Morning Herald. Michael Jackson obituary: a gifted, troubled king of pop, June 26, 2009.
The Times. Michael Jackson, June 26, 2009.
Walters, Dell. "Michael Slept Here", Washingtonian, August 1, 2009.
Wikipedia article traffic statistics – Michael Jackson – June 2009.
2009 in American music
2009 in California
2009 in Los Angeles
Jackson, Michael
Jackson, Michael
Jackson, Michael
June 2009 crimes
June 2009 events in the United States
Michael Jackson
pt:Michael Jackson#Morte |
23697982 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Brandon%20McClelland | Death of Brandon McClelland | Brandon "Big Boy" McClelland (June 27, 1984 – September 16, 2008) was an African-American man whose death sparked racial controversy in the city of Paris, Texas. On September 16, 2008, McClelland was killed when he was first hit and run over by a vehicle, then dragged beneath it.
Investigation and trial
Further investigation revealed that McClelland was last seen alive with two white men, Paris, Texas, residents Shannon Finley and Charles Ryan Crostley, both of whom had long criminal histories with Finley being accused by the victims' family of having ties to white supremacist groups. McClelland had apparently known Finley and Crostley since they were all children and the two white men and McClelland were considered to be friends and had been working together earlier that evening hanging sheetrock.
By the time the police impounded the truck allegedly used, there were signs that it already had been washed, but despite this, police found blood and other physical evidence on the undercarriage of the truck and the blood was identified as belonging to McClelland. The police affidavit for Finley's arrest alleged that McClelland was walking in front of the truck when Finley ran him down, and dragged him at least 40 ft until his body popped out from underneath the chassis. Finley's estranged wife and another of his friends said the defendants told them that, after an argument about who was sober enough to drive, McClelland got out, and Finley bumped him with the truck until knocking him over, and then drove over him and dragged his body under the truck. The two men were charged with killing McClelland and both subsequently pleaded "not guilty." The prosecutor cited a lack of evidence in dropping murder charges in June 2009 and the two men were released.
Aftermath of trial
"Justice has not been served for Brandon," Jacqueline McClelland said shortly after the release of Finley and Crostley. "Until I get some justice for my son, it is not over by a long shot." "We plan to get U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the handling of this case," Brenda Cherry, president of the local civil rights organization Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality, said "We know it was not investigated properly, and we want an agency outside of Texas to come in and investigate this."
Local activists in Paris and others throughout the nation have been dismayed by the dismissal of charges, and would like to see the incident charged as a hate crime. The victim's mother, Jacqueline McClelland, said, "At the crime scene, it looked like these boys went back and poured beer on my son's body. Two beer cans were lying out there, but the police didn't even pick them up, they just left evidence out there. They won't even consider the racial issues. That's the way it is in Paris." The simmering racial tensions have been inflamed by outside activists according to some residents. A protest at the courthouse in November 2008, featured members of the New Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and the Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality on one side, while white hecklers, waving the Bible gathered on the other side. Brandon McClelland's death has been covered by journalist Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, The New York Times, and numerous other national media agencies.
References
External links
1984 births
2008 deaths
2008 in Texas
2008 murders in the United States
African-American history of Texas
Crimes in Texas
Lynching deaths in Texas
Paris, Texas
Racially motivated violence against African Americans
Racially motivated violence in the United States
September 2008 crimes
Hate crimes
September 2008 events in the United States |
23799192 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Kugan%20Ananthan | Death of Kugan Ananthan | Kugan Ananthan (died 20 January 2009) was a person Royal Malaysian Police detainee who died in the police lock-up while under arrest for suspicion of alleged car robbery. Kugan's family had to forcefully break into the morgue where Kugn's body was kept (later to be scolded by the then Home Minister and IGP Of Malaysia for breaking into the morgue) stated they believe he had been tortured to death while in police custody. His case was later classified as murder by the Attorney-General, and 11 officers at the station where he died were transferred to desk duty. The Inspector-General of Police has promised a full investigation into Kugan's death.
An initial autopsy declared the cause of death to be acute pulmonary edema (fluid accumulation in the lungs), but Kugan's family alleged scratches and other bruises on the corpse were proof he had been tortured. A second autopsy was later held. This second autopsy found the cause of death to be rhabdomyolysis—skeletal muscle damage resulting in acute kidney failure. Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Ismail Merican later released a report on the differences between the two autopsies. The report, based on the findings of a 10-person committee, suggested that although Kugan had been beaten, probably with a flexible blunt object such as a hose, the trauma was insufficient to cause death. The report also dismissed other discrepancies in the two autopsy reports, attributing them to miscommunication and misinterpretation on the part of the pathologist who performed the second autopsy.
The High Court found Inspector-General of Police (then the Selangor police chief) Khalid Abu Bakar, Khalid's predecessor as national police chief, Ismail Omar, and three other defendants liable for misfeasance leading to his death after finding contradictions between Khalid's and other witnesses' testimonies. The High Court awarded his mother RM851,700 in assault and battery, false imprisonment, misfeasance, and pain and suffering damages.
References
See also
Teoh Beng Hock
Gunasegaran Rajasundram
Aminulrasyid Amzah
Police (Malaysia) Act 1967
2009 deaths
Human rights abuses in Malaysia
Malaysian prisoners and detainees
Malaysian people of Tamil descent
Year of birth missing
Deaths in police custody in Malaysia |
23926622 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20a%20Hussy | Death of a Hussy | Death of a Hussy is a mystery novel by M. C. Beaton (Marion Chesney), first published in 1990. It is set in the fictional village of Lochdubh, Scotland, and features the local constable Hamish Macbeth.
Plot introduction
Maggie Baird, the hussy of the title, has decided she wants to get married again. She invites four of her previous lovers to her home in Lochdubh for a holiday and informs them that she will marry one of them. Maggie is forthright. She's rich and she has a serious heart condition and she will leave her money to the man she decides to marry. Maggie's death at first appears to be an unfortunate accident. But Hamish Macbeth, Lochdubh's local policeman has his doubts.
Plot
Maggie Baird is a newcomer to Lochdubh. Her considerable wealth has been garnered from a life of being the mistress of rich men. Not technically a prostitute, Maggie has nevertheless traded her looks and her sexual favours for money and material gain. Unlike the men with whom she involved herself, Maggie is financially astute and has invested wisely. In Lochdubbh, she arrives as a middle aged woman, fat and dressed in tweed suits. Her niece, Alison Kerr, comes to live with her aunt after a serious operation for cancer. Alison is a diffident young woman, easily intimidated by her domineering aunt.
Hamish Macbeth and his dog Towser are living in Strathbane. Lochdubh's police station has been closed. Neither Hamish, walking the beat with hard bitten PC Mary Graham, nor Towser, housed in police dog kennels with tough German Shepherds is happy away from their beloved village.
Maggie Baird, at a dinner party with the Halbuton-Smyths in Lochdubh, learns that the villagers are missing their local bobby, Hamish Macbeth. Maggie is intrigued and decides to rally the village to instigate a mini crime wave to have Hamish reinstated. Despite offending a number of the locals, the crime wave is set in motion and the senior police at Strathbane decide that it is indeed a necessity to have a local policeman. Hamish and Towser gleefully return to Lochdubh.
At the celebrations for Hamish's return, Maggie catches a glimpse of herself in a shop window and is shocked to see the fat, frumpish woman she has become. She announces to Alison and to her housekeeper, Mrs. Todd, that she is going away for several months to take herself in hand. During her absence, Alison is tasked with typing up Maggie's frankly pornographic memoirs.
Maggie returns transformed into the beautiful woman she once was, thanks to cosmetic surgery and expensive treatments. She announces to Alison and Mrs. Todd that she has invited four former lovers to visit. She will select a husband from these visitors, openly letting everyone know that she is very rich and has a very serious heart condition.
The former lovers have all been in love with Maggie in their youth. She gave each of them a good time, but took their money in exchange for the fun she gave them. Each man is now in difficult financial circumstances and somewhat bitter that Maggie is so rich, at their expense. Alison is anxious that a potential marriage could displace her as Maggie's heiress.
A simple fire in Maggie's car engine was not potentially fatal, but the shock clearly triggered a heart attack. Maggie's death is seen to have been an accident by the detectives from Strathbane, led by Hamish Macbeth's arch enemy, Blair. Hamish has his doubts. Too many people could wish Maggie dead. Each of the four previous lovers was overheard asking Maggie for a loan, Alison could be financially destitute by Maggie's remarriage and then there are the salacious memoires that have mysteriously disappeared. A second death leaves Hamish in no doubt. There is a murderer in Lochdubh. And it is Hamish who reveals just who that murderer is.
External links
Death of a Hussy UK publisher Constable & Robinson's web site.
Footnotes
1990 British novels
British detective novels
British mystery novels
Hamish Macbeth series
Novels set in Highland (council area) |
24763393 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Khalil%20al-Mughrabi | Death of Khalil al-Mughrabi | Khalil al-Mughrabi was a Palestinian boy aged 11 who was killed on 7 July 2001, by shots fired from an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank while Khalil was resting with friends after a game of soccer in Rafah. Two of his companions, aged 10 and 12, were also seriously wounded. This incident took place during the Second Intifada.
The Israeli Army said immediately that their forces had been attacked and that they had returned fire. Palestinian sources and a friend of Khalil said they were part of group throwing stones at Israeli troops when al-Mugrahbi was killed. A later investigation by the chief military prosecutor found that the clashes that had involved Palestinians throwing stones and grenades at Israeli soldiers had broken up at noon, and that al-Mughrabi was killed at 7 P.M, seven hours after the clashes. The investigation found that, later in the evening, Palestinian adults and children had attempted to seal a road with debris and barbed wire, drawing warning shots from an Israeli tank, with one shot evidently killing al-Mughrabi, who had been playing football in a field a half mile away.
Despite having determined that the circumstances "must dictate a military police investigation", the military prosecutor cleared the soldiers of wrongdoing on the grounds of the violence that had taken place earlier in the day. An independent investigation by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that the Israeli army's investigation of the incident amounted to a whitewash, calling the investigation "shallow and superficial" and that the actions by the Judge Advocate General "raises a serious concern that lying is considered legitimate practice in the office of the Judge Advocate General." Human Rights Watch, commenting on the army's failure to investigate the al-Mughrabi case further, noted that in international law, the governing principle where there is credible or prima facie evidence of a possible violation of international humanitarian law is that an investigation is required.
Incident
The incident occurred on 7 July 2001, in the Yubneh refugee camp, located on the outskirts of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border. At the time a ceasefire agreement, drawn up by George J. Tenet, the American director of the C.I.A., was supposed to have been in effect from the preceding June 13. In the interim 9 Israelis had died, and al-Mughrabi was the 17th Palestinian victim.
The Israeli army reported that Palestinians had thrown 26 grenades and four gasoline bombs at troops in Rafah over the course of the day. The spokesman for the Israeli army said that the troops had fired back following these attacks. In another incident, two Israeli soldiers were lightly injured when a roadside bomb exploded near the village of Asira ash-Shamaliya. The IDF spokesman said "dozens of Palestinians were rioting next to Rafah and endangering the lives of the soldiers... The soldiers acted with restraint and moderation and dispersed the rioters by using means for dispersing demonstrations, and by means of live gunfire into an open area distant from the rioters." A friend of al-Mughrabi reported that the two of them had been among the group of stone throwers at Israeli troops. Palestinian sources he had been throwing stones when he was killed. The army reported that to disperse the attacking crowd, "live gunfire into an open area distant from the rioters" and that the army had no evidence that anyone had been injured.
None of the essential facts in the army's initial account were true. A later internal investigation by the Israeli army determined that no attacks had taken place during the time range that al-Mughrabi was shot and killed. Colonel Einat Ron, the military's chief prosecutor, found that at 7 P.M, when al-Mughrabi had been playing soccer with his friends in a field, no grenades or stones had been thrown at Israeli troops. Nonetheless, Israeli troops opened fire from a heavy tank-mounted machine gun. The report found these shots were in response to an attempt by Palestinians to block a road while an Israeli army vehicle was leaving the town. Soldiers on an Israeli tank fired warning shots at this group. Ron's report determined that these shots violated army regulations due to their having been fired from a long-range heavy weapon and because the shots had been aimed near children. Her report stated that the shots were fired at a time "when no grenades were thrown, and it is doubtful that the force felt its life was in danger." One of the bullets from the tank fire struck al-Mughrabi's head and killed him.
The Israeli report offered three conflicting options. The first was to begin a military investigation into the suspected unlawful fire, the second to clear the soldiers on account of violence that had taken place earlier in the day, and the third to issue disciplinary measures without a criminal investigation. Col. Ron chose the second option, clearing the soldiers of any wrong doing. In a letter to B'Tselem, Ron stated that "Under the circumstances we did not find that there is suspicion of criminal behavior by soldiers, nor justification for starting a criminal investigation." B'Tselem's research director said of the letter that "it indicates that lying is legitimate in the military prosecutor's office in order to protect the troops."
The report by Ron discussed why it would be difficult to clear the soldiers of wrong-doing. Among the reasons the report gives for why it would be is the "gravity of the deviation" and the "results of the event". The report says that a "serious deviation from obligatory norms of behaviour" occurred. Ron's report stated that "An 11-year-old boy who was innocently playing football was killed", adding that "even if this is a 'slight' deviation, the consequences make it imperative that a military police investigation be conducted", though the letter sent by Ron to B'Tselem said that she did not believe that an investigation was warranted. She provided no reason for the contradicting views expressed.
B'Tselem investigation
B'Tselem, requested that the Israeli army provide information regarding the investigation. Col. Ron sent B'Tselem a letter in which she stated that the circumstances merited no criminal investigation. However, the letter was, apparently inadvertently, accompanied by the military's records of the internal investigation. B'Tselem released the internal documents along with its report on the incident, titled Whitewash: The Office of the Judge Advocate General's Examination of the Death of Khalil al-Mughrabi, 11, on 7 July 2001.
According to B'Tselem's report, twenty to thirty children were playing in the Yubneh Refugee Camp that afternoon. The children reportedly saw an Israeli tank moving towards the Gitrit military encampment around 5PM. al-Mughrabi arrived at the site at 5:30 PM with a friend, 13-year-old Suleiman al-Akhras. The two of them played soccer in the field until 6:45 PM. After the children had finished playing many sat near mounds of sand near the border fence, among them al-Mughrabi. At 7:10 PM, al-Mughrabi was shot in the head.
The children reported that the shots had come from the observation tower of the Gitrit encampment, approximately one kilometer from where the children had been playing. More shots were fired at the children, wounding another two children. Ibrahim Kamel Abu Susin, 10, was shot in the stomach and Suleiman Turki Abu Rijal, 12, was shot in the left leg. al-Mughrabi was evacuated by the civilians who had arrived on the scene. An ambulance took the two wounded children to the hospital.
The following testimonies were collected by B'Tselem:
Suleiman Abu Rijal had to have his left testicle amputated as a consequence of the thigh wound. The B'Tselem field investigator, Nabil Mukhairez, added that the bullet entered the top of Khalil’s head and came out the bottom, and was fired at a distance of roughly 1 kilometre from the Tel Zu’arub tower.
De-briefings by IDF
The incident occurred within the military designation zone of the 424 infantry battalion of the 84th "Giv'ati" Infantry Brigade, IDF's 366th (Reserve) Armor Division, Israeli Southern Command.
According to Holi Moshe, Major Operations Directorate Officer of Division 6643 and the Summary of battalion and brigade commanders' de-briefings dated 14 July 2001: "It is impossible to unequivocally determine that the child was killed by our forces' gunfire."
According to the Opinion of the Israeli Southern Command Judge Advocate, Baruch Y. Mani, Lt. Colonel, dated 29 August 2001:(A) It appears that tank fire was used as warning shots, which the regulations prohibit. The de-briefing itself specifies that the tank fire was a mistake (for reasons unrelated to the regulations). There was no mention of what measures, if any, were taken with regards to this shooting.<p>(B) The de-briefings mention that warning shots were toward the children. The regulations do stipulate that no warning shots should be fired to get children away from restricted areas on roadsides (section 19 of the Ahuda [sic] Regulation).<p>(C) It appears that the IDF response given to the press, claiming that there was no use of heavy weapons, was wrong.
Einat Ron, Colonel Israel's Chief Military Prosecutor wrote to B'Tselem stating: "...we have not found any suspicion of criminal behavior on the part of the IDF soldiers, or that there is a just cause to open an investigation."
Chris McGreal’s investigation
Chris McGreal used the Khalil al-Mughrabi case to illustrate an article which tried to address the phenomenon, widely attested, of many Palestinian children being shot by Israeli snipers over a brief period. Half of the estimated 408 Palestinian minors who had been killed since the second Intifada three years earlier had died in the Gaza Strip, and most of those, according to McGreal, were shot at just two refugee camps, Khan Yunis and at Rafah, where Khalil died. In just ten weeks in 2003 McGreal instanced six similar cases in that area: Haneen Suliaman, an 8 year-old girl, had been killed by an IDF sniper’s headshot while strolling out to buy a packet of crisps; soon after Huda Darwish, a 12 years old girl, was shot in the head while at her desk at school and left blind for life; a boy Abdul Rahman Jadallah, who attended Suliaman's funeral, was then shot under the eye after attending the funeral of a Palestinian fighter the next day - among a group of kids, he stood forth and hung a Palestinian flag on a fence, and was shot in the face; Ali Ghureiz, 7 years old, was shot in the head, below his left eye, outside his house in Rafah; Haneen Abu Sitta, aged 12, was killed while walking home from school near a Jewish settlement fence in southern Gaza; Nada Madhi, aged 12, took a bullet in the stomach and died, after leaning from her bedroom window in Rafah to watch a funeral procession for another child that had just been killed.
Khalil al-Mughrabi’s death, he noted, had been investigated by B'Tselem, whose study documented a discrepancy between the IDF's public pronouncements and what their internal investigations had uncovered. The chief military prosecutor, according to McGreal, covered various false scenarios that might be passed on to B’Tselem. He therefore sought an interview with an IDF source in the area concerned in order to go over all these episodes and find, even if from an anonymous source speaking off the record, an explanation of why these incidents were recurrent under that command. An Israeli officer subsequently did discuss these cases with McGreal and in the end conceded that some degree of fault existed in most of these cases of children being shot. He concluded however that, 'I remember the Holocaust. We have a choice to fight the terrorists or to face being consumed by the flames again.'
Aftermath
Immediately following the shooting of al-Mughrabi, Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi was quoted in The Guardian as vowing to send ten suicide bombers against Israel to avenge the Israeli army’s killing of Khalil Mughrabi in Rafah. In an essay on sacred violence, Jan Willem van Henten cited Rantisi's declaration, and argued that, while calls or justifications for acts of revenge often use Islamic religious language, more often than not the real purpose is political, and that the evidence he has examined shows that 'retaliation for Israeli killings of Palestinians is a prime motive for launching suicide attacks celebrated as martyrdom.'
Abdel Razek Majaidie, then head of Palestinian Security in Gaza, called the killing "another crime" by Israel, adding that it violated Israel's declared ceasefire. Al-Mughrabi was the 17th Palestinian killed following a United States brokered truce between the Israelis and Palestinians. Nine Israelis had been killed in that same time period. A panel led by George Mitchell urged Israel to resume military investigations into fatal shootings by soldiers, which had no longer been standard procedure.
B'Tselem, upon releasing the Israeli Army's records of the internal investigation, said that "the military cleared the soldiers who caused the death of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy, covered up the incident, refrained from opening an investigation by the military police, and issued a false statement regarding the circumstances of the death". B'Tselem further stated that the actions by the military prosecutor's office in clearing the soldiers "raise grave concern that cover-ups and falsifications are considered acceptable practice by the Military Advocate General's (prosecutor's) office". B'Tselem spokeswoman said that "We have a very clear feeling that the military is trying to avoid opening an investigation of Palestinian civilians killed by soldiers." The Israeli army responded to the accusations from B'Tselem by saying that the army investigates soldiers accused of violations and that "The fact that legal documents have reached the public is proof that the army is investigating such cases all the time."
On 5 August 2003 one refusnik, Shimri Tzameret, explained to a military court why he had declined to perform his duties in the IDF. His defense consisted in recounting the impact which the B'tselem account of the incident and the following cover-up had made on him.
Early in the following year, Sara Leibovich-Dar wrote of a string of cases like the al-Mughrabi episode where initial IDF reports denying that well-verified incidents ever took place turn out to be false. She cited the southern district prosecutor, Brigadier General Baruch Mani's determination that the army's statement to the press regarding al-Mughrabi, claiming that no heavy weaponry was used, was incorrect.
The prosecutor, Einat Ron, retired from the army. In 2007, she became a judge in the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court.
See also
Partial List of Palestinian civilian casualties in the Second Intifada
References
2001 deaths
Children in war
Palestinian casualties in the Second Intifada
Palestinian children
People from the Gaza Strip
Year of birth missing |
24863208 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Jay%20Ferdinand%20Towner | Death of Jay Ferdinand Towner | Jay Ferdinand Towner III (1910 – November 11, 1933) was a youth from Perryman, Maryland who was found dead on the campus of Princeton University shortly after a Princeton versus Dartmouth football game, in 1933. The mystery of Towner's death was taken up by United States Senator Millard Tydings.
Death circumstances
Towner was discovered a few hours after the game with both of his wrists fractured and internal injuries. However, there was no indication that he had been the victim of foul play or hit by a car. Authorities thought perhaps he had been crushed against the wall of Palmer Stadium, while the crowd was exiting from the game. He later died from his injuries as he walked across the Princeton campus. Other information contended that Towner was in one of Princeton's dormitories following the football game. Another source said that he was seen in an automobile parking area.
Three Princeton students reported seeing Towner in the undergraduate cheering section during the game. Princeton police were told on November 13 that Towner was seen falling down the concrete steps of the stadium during the football contest. This occurred during the most exciting part of the game when Princeton scored the only touchdown. Towner rose from his seat, tripped and fell down five concrete steps, landing on his hands. He was assisted to his seat by other spectators, appearing to be uninjured. Editors of the Daily Princetonian established that Towner was not pinned and crushed against a concrete wall by the departing crowd.
Investigation
Tydings received the cooperation of New Jersey Governor A. Harry Moore on November 20, 1933. Moore requested a report from prosecutor Erwin E. Marshall and Mercer County, New Jersey chief of detectives, James Kirkham.
Towner's death was the second unexplained and violent demise on the Princeton campus within a month's time. On October 9, 1933, John Tighe, a janitor, was discovered dead between two Princeton buildings. His skull was fractured and he had fractures of one arm and several ribs, as well as internal injuries. It was surmised that Tighe had fallen from a building or been hit by a car. However, there was no evidence to support either hypothesis.
See also
List of unsolved deaths
References
1933 deaths
Deaths by person in the United States
Unsolved deaths |
25110510 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Ramin%20Pourandarjani | Death of Ramin Pourandarjani | Dr. Ramin Pourandarjani (9 June 1983 – 10 November 2009) was an Iranian physician who examined prisoners wounded and killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests. He died under mysterious circumstances on November 10, 2009, at the age of 26.
Tehran's public prosecutor Abbas Dowlatabadi said Ramin Pourandarjani died of poisoning from a delivery salad laced with an overdose of blood pressure medication. The findings fueled opposition fears that he was killed because of what he knew.
Pourandarjani had worked as a physician at the Kahrizak detention center. Iranian authorities earlier had claimed at various points that Pourandarjani had been injured in a car accident, committed suicide, or died of a heart attack in his sleep at the health center at the police headquarters in Tehran where he worked.
Kahrizak doctor
Pourandarjani was responsible for the medical care of several prisoners believed to have been tortured. One of his patients was Mohsen Ruholamini, a government scientist's son, arrested following his participation in the post-election protests. Ruholamini, who was 25 years old, died in prison in July 2009. The death certificate originally identified Ruholamini's cause of death as multiple blows to the head. A report given to judicial authorities stated that Ruholamini had died of "physical stress, the effects of being held in bad conditions, multiple blows and severe injuries to the body."
Pourandarjani testified before a parliamentary committee investigating misconduct at the Kahrizak jail. This jail was subsequently closed by order of Ayatollah Khamenei, because of the poor conditions there. An investigation was conducted by Iranian judicial authorities on misconduct in this prison. In August, former presidential candidate and cleric Mehdi Karroubi publicly accused Iranian police of having tortured and raped detainees in this prison. Subsequently, police raided Karroubi's office, confiscating names, addresses, and testimonies of witnesses. In October, the deputy chief of the national police, Brig. Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan announced that ten persons were under investigation for misconduct at the Kahrizak facility, characterizing the issue as "minor."
Following his testimony, Pourandarjani was arrested by the police. During his imprisonment, Pourandarjani was interrogated several times by the police force's investigative unit, the martial court, and the Physician General's regulatory council. He was released on bail, warned to say nothing about what he had seen at Kahrizak, and threatened with further imprisonment and with losing his medical licence. Following his release, the physician also received threats from unknown persons warning him to keep silent about what he had witnessed at the Kahrizak jail. Shortly prior to his death, Pourandarjani had told his friends that he feared for his safety.
Death
Iranian authorities prohibited Pourandarjani's family from performing an autopsy. Pourandarjani was buried in the northern city of Tabriz, and unusual security measures were in place for his funeral. Iran's judiciary is reluctant to investigate Pourandarjani's death.
Pourandarjani was born on June 9, 1983 in Tabriz, Iran. When he was eleven years old, he was admitted to a school for gifted students, and at the age of 13 he was the winner of a national poetry competition. In 2001, he began his medical studies in Ardabil. He later transferred to the medical school at the University of Tabriz, and graduated with distinction in 2008. Pourandarjani was fluent in English and French as well as Persian.
Pourandarjani was a co-author on a paper entitled "Finasteride induced depression: a prospective study," published in BMC Clinical Pharmacology in October, 2006. This paper concluded that finasteride, which is used to treat benign prostatic enlargement and male pattern baldness, might induce depressive symptoms in patients. At the time, Pourandarjani was doing research at the Drug Applied Research Center at the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Tabriz, Iran.
Pourandarjani also volunteered on a medical advice web page, where he answered questions relating to HIV/AIDS.
He was a member of Language improvement committee "LIC", a student base group volunteering in teaching English to medical students.
References
1983 births
Pourandarjani, Ramin
2009 Iranian presidential election protests
Iranian whistleblowers
Pourandarjani, Ramin
People from Tabriz
Protests in Iran
Deaths in police custody in Iran
Tabriz University of Medical Sciences alumni |
25589515 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Seyed%20Ali%20Mousavi | Death of Seyed Ali Mousavi | Seyed Ali Mousavi was the nephew of the 2009 Iranian presidential candidate and opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Ali Mousavi died on December 27, 2009 during the 2009 Iranian election protests when he was reportedly shot in either the back or the chest by security forces during demonstrations against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contested election win. It was reported by abc news that before Seyed Ali Mousavi was killed, he got run over by a vehicle. According to france 24, reformist website Parlemannews claimed that Moussavi’s nephew died in the hospital after he was shot in the chest. However, according to the times, Mousavi’s nephew died prior to arriving at the hospital.
Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the official spokesman of Mir-Hossein Moussavi's campaign abroad, told BBC in an interview that Iranian secret police had called Seyed Ali Mousavi several times days before he was shot saying: "We will kill you."
After he died, his body was taken to Ebn-e Sina hospital, where protesters demonstrated outside. The protesters were broken up with tear gas by the Iranian security forces. It was later revealed that the government had removed his body and taken it to an undisclosed location in an attempt to crack down on the protests.
References
Al-Moussawi family
2009 deaths
Deaths by person in Iran
2009 in Iran
2009 riots
2009 Iranian presidential election protests
Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Protest-related deaths
Political repression in Iran
Year of birth missing |
25771702 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Theresa%20Allore | Death of Theresa Allore | Theresa Allore was a 19-year-old Canadian college student who disappeared on Friday, November 3, 1978, from Champlain College Lennoxville in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
1978 disappearance and discovery
Theresa Allore was a 19-year-old Canadian when she disappeared in 1978. Five months later, on April 13, 1979, her body was discovered in a small body of water approximately one kilometer from her dormitory residence in Compton, Quebec. Upon her disappearance police initially suggested she was a runaway. When her body was discovered police then suggested that she was the possible victim of a drug overdose, perhaps with the assistance of fellow college students.
2002 re-investigation
In the summer of 2002, the family of Allore enlisted the support of an investigative reporter and friend, Patricia Pearson, who produced a series of articles for Canada's National Post newspaper that presented compelling evidence that she was a victim of murder, and that her death was possibly linked to two other unsolved local cases: the death of 10-year-old Manon Dubé in March 1978, and the murder of Louise Camirand in March 1977. The theory was supported by geographic profiler and then FBI consultant, Kim Rossmo, who suggested a serial sexual predator may have been operating in the Quebec region in the late 1970s and advised police to investigate the three deaths as a series. The deaths of Allore, Camirand, and Dubé remain unsolved cold-cases.
Aftermath and significance
Since 2002, Theresa's brother, John Allore—who produces the podcast, Who Killed Theresa?—has continued the investigation, identifying 14 other unsolved murders from 1975 to 1981 which may be associated. He successfully lobbied for the creation of a Sûreté du Québec cold case unit, which was created in 2004. Beginning in 2018, John Allore started to focus on other Quebec cases from the 1970s through the present era, cases that further suggest systemic failures in Quebec criminal justice. On January 17, 2019 the Montreal police, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal announced it was creating its own cold case squad, in large part due to the lobbying efforts of John Allore.
In November 2018 John Allore was awarded the Senate of Canada’s Sesquicentennial Medal for his work in victims advocacy for “recognition of your valuable service to the nation.”
The book Wish You Were Here about the unsolved murder of Theresa Allore was published by Penguin Random House Canada in September 2020.
See also
List of solved missing person cases
List of unsolved murders
References
Literature
External links
Who Killed Theresa? The Podcast
1970s missing person cases
1978 crimes in Canada
1978 deaths
1978 in Quebec
Murder in Quebec
Missing person cases in Canada
Unsolved murders in Canada
Women in Quebec |
27242888 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Aminulrasyid%20Amzah | Death of Aminulrasyid Amzah | Aminulrasyid Amzah (c. August 1995 – 26 April 2010) was a 14-year-old Malaysian student from Shah Alam, Selangor who was fleeing from and then fatally shot by Royal Malaysian Police officers. The incident occurred sometime between 1:10 AM and 2 AM.
Reaction
Media
The shooting made national headlines, and the subsequent public outcry resulted in the Home Ministry establishing a special panel led by Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop to investigate.
Political
Both the federal governing coalition Barisan Nasional (traditionally associated with the police) and their opponents the Selangor governing coalition Pakatan Rakyat (who offered assistance to his family) received allegations of politicization after Aminulrasyid's death. Opposition leader Karpal Singh was later appointed counsel for Aminulrasyid's family. A number of Pakatan Rakyat politicians also asked the Inspector-General of Police to resign as a result of the shooting.
Legal case
After police corporal Jenain Subi was initially convicted, the legal case reached the Malaysian High Court, where evidence showed the boy was shot at over 20 times. Police Corporal Jenain Subi subsequently had his conviction overturned, an action that was branded "unfair" by members of Aminulrasyid's family. After the verdict, the Inspector-General of Police refused to offer an apology to Aminulrasyid's family, but police corporal Jenain Subi did offer a personal apology to them.
See also
Kugan Ananthan
Gunasegaran Rajasundram
Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed
Teoh Beng Hock
References
2010 deaths
Deaths by firearm in Malaysia
Deaths by person in Malaysia
Human rights abuses in Malaysia
Year of birth uncertain |
27282996 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Kaja%20Ballo | Death of Kaja Ballo | Kaja Bordevich Ballo (1988 – March 28, 2008) was a Norwegian university student who took her own life in Nice, France, on March 28, 2008, shortly after taking an Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA), a personality test administered by the Church of Scientology, earlier the same day. Family and friends state that Ballo was happy prior to taking the OCA, and that her mood dramatically shifted after receiving the results; she jumped from the fourth floor of her dorm room hours later. In addition to a suicide note, Ballo's family found the OCA among her belongings. French police investigated connections between Scientology and Ballo's death, and interviewed two leaders of the Church of Scientology in France; prosecutors stated in December 2008 that they were unable to establish a causative link.
A Scientology representative in France asserted that the OCA was not created by the Church, and that it was not related to the suicide. Scientology's information chief in Norway, Matthias Fosse, stated that the OCA was not dangerous and that the organization did not bear any responsibility for the tragedy. Ballo's father, Norwegian MP Olav Gunnar Ballo (SV), retained a lawyer to investigate his daughter's death, and her family considered filing a lawsuit against Scientology. 500 people attended Ballo's funeral on April 11, 2008, at Grefsen Church in Oslo.
The incident received significant media coverage in Norway, for which some outlets faced criticism. Norwegian MP Inga Marte Thorkildsen (SV) indicated that she thought Scientology had a role in Ballo's suicide. Psychologist Rudy Myrvang told Aftenposten that the OCA was designed to break down an individual; he characterized the test as a form of recruitment tool for the organization. Scientology critic Andreas Heldal-Lund stated parents of those involved in Scientology contacted him with similar concerns. The Norwegian Psychological Association warned individuals against taking such types of personality tests.
Ballo's father wrote a book about his daughter's death, and refrained from press interviews until the book was published in 2009. Titled Kaja: 1988–2008, the book became a bestseller in Norway. The author stated he wrote the book as an expository method to both process his grief, inform his family about the controversy, and educate the public about suicide.
Family
Kaja Bordevich Ballo was the daughter of Olav Gunnar Ballo, a member of the Norwegian parliament who at the time of her death belonged to the Socialist Left Party (SV). Her stepmother was Heidi Sørensen, a former Norwegian MP for the SV and State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment.
Scientology personality test
On March 28, 2008, Ballo took a Church of Scientology personality test, officially known as the Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA), at a storefront Scientology mission located a few meters from her dormitory in Nice, France. According to representatives for Scientology, Ballo spent a total of one hour at the facility. She received a negative result from the OCA, which indicated that some of her responses were situated on what is referred to in Scientology as "an unacceptable level". Out of the 200 questions on the OCA, Ballo missed 100 points, which was seen as "unstable". The OCA stated Ballo had a "very limited" IQ.
Friends and family members maintain that Ballo had not indicated any problems prior to taking the OCA, but her mood "changed" after receiving the results. Ballo's uncle, Heljar Ballo, told public broadcaster NRK that the results of the OCA were "devastating" to her. He described Ballo as "happy and bubbly", stating, "We can only relate the facts, that she was doing well in France, was happy and had many good friends, and that she took this test."
Death
Ballo jumped to her death from the fourth floor of her dorm room two hours after getting the results of the OCA. She left behind a suicide note, along with the OCA results, which was found by her family. In April 2008, Aftenposten noted that the French police and were investigating connections between Scientology and Ballo's suicide. The investigation was headed by a French judge, and involved prosecutors. In April 2008, French police interviewed two leaders of the Church of Scientology in France. One French prosecutor told Dagbladet that, "We are almost convinced that it is a suicide. But the question is whether something encouraged her to this." Prosecutors stated in December 2008 that they could not determine a direct link between the Scientology test and Ballo's death.
Agnes Bron, a Scientology representative in France, denied that the OCA was related to Ballo's death, and asserted that the test was not created by the Church of Scientology. Scientologists pay royalties to the Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation for use of the OCA. Bron claimed that Ballo never actually received her test results.
Scientology spokespeople asserted that the OCA non-judgmentally allows an individual to gain insight into their own personality, described the concerns arising from the controversy as "deeply unfair", and noted that Ballo had an eating disorder as a teenager. Scientology's Information Chief in Norway, Matthias Fosse, asserted that the OCA was not "dangerous", and stated that "millions" of individuals had partaken in the test. He asserted that approximately 10,000 residents of Norway had taken the OCA. "I have never, never, never heard of someone who has killed on the basis of the OCA test," said Fosse. Fosse said that Ballo had entered the Scientology premises in Nice of her own volition. He maintained that the negative views of Scientology were based on ignorance and intolerance. "I feel deeply for the Ballo family, but it is a rude insinuation that the Church of Scientology has any responsibility for this incident," said Fosse.
Ballo's father Olav was critical of the statements made by Fosse about his daughter's psychological history. He commented to Verdens Gang (VG) that Scientology was impugning her reputation and not respecting her privacy. Olav did not wish to comment regarding the nature of the investigation in France. Ballo's uncle Heljar explained that her family decided to come forward with information to the media about her suicide, due to a motivation to publicize information relating to the circumstances of her death. Heljar told Aftenposten that the family "had confidence" in the investigation by local law enforcement in France. He publicly expressed his belief that there was a connection between her death and Scientology. Olav retained an attorney to investigate his daughter's death. In April 2008, her family was considering taking legal action against Scientology. Ballo was interred on April 11, 2008, at Grefsen Church in Oslo, and approximately 500 people were present at the funeral ceremony.
Commentary
The Ballo case received a significant amount of coverage in Norwegian news publications; and media attention focused criticism on Scientology. Both VG and Dagbladet devoted several cover stories investigating Ballo's death. However, the media received criticism regarding the amount of coverage given to the case, which a representative of a Norwegian suicide support group regarded as excessive. Peter Raaum, news editor of Dagbladet, defended his paper's coverage: "We write about this because the survivor has made criticism of the Scientology test that Kaja took just before she took her life. The family wanted a debate about this. What makes this so important is this test. What kind of test is this? Is it so reprehensible, and significant to what happened? If it is, I mean it's something that's extremely important to focus on." Ballo's family agreed to discuss the incident with the media. Olav Ballo stated he did not have issues with how newspapers were covering his daughter's death.
Norwegian MP Inga Marte Thorkildsen (SV) told Dagbladet that, "All indications are that the Scientologist sect has played a direct role in Kaja's choice to take her own life." Ballo's friend and study partner, Henry Møinichen, told Dagbladet, "I think Kaja would be alive today if she had not gone to the Scientologists." Psychologist Rudy Myrvang told Aftenposten that testing procedures such as the OCA could have negative consequences; he said the goal was focused on "breaking you down, and then they'll offer to build you up again". Myrvang characterized the OCA as a recruitment tool for Scientology. Dagbladet consulted an expert on the subject of assessment tests, Ole I. Iversen, who characterized the OCA as "unethical and junk".
Scientology critic Andreas Heldal-Lund stated that Scientology views candidates for the OCA as "raw meat from the street". He stated that, "thousands of desperate parents contact me because they have children who have had major mental problems, or taken their own life after similar circumstances to Kaja Ballo". Musician Hank Von Helvete, a Scientologist, commented that he thought psychiatry, not Scientology, was the cause of Ballo's suicide. TV 2 reported that psychologists advised that subsequent to the OCA, there should be proper follow-up attention with the subject. In an analysis of personality tests available online on social networking sites, Andreas Høstmælingen of the Norwegian Psychological Association cited Ballo as "an example of how wrong things can go". The Association warned individuals against taking such types of personality tests.
Kaja: 1988–2008
Olav Ballo subsequently wrote a book about her suicide. He decided not to give press interviews about his ordeal until the book was published. He wanted to be able to tell the story and impact of his daughter's death, on his own terms. Titled, Kaja: 1988–2008, the book explores the sequence of events that led to Ballo's death. Her early history of psychiatric treatment is discussed in the book. Olav recounts the difficulties in getting information about Ballo's death from government authorities. According to the author, there was a slow response in receiving help from Norway's Foreign Ministry.
In an interview with Politiken, Olav explained the motivation for writing the book: "After the funeral I felt I had to do something relating to grief. This was my way to process the grief. The second issue was that I needed to transcribe the account to later tell my little daughter Oda." He also said, "I wanted to contribute to greater openness about suicide." He acknowledged, "Losing a child means that life is turned upside down. I believe that grief becomes heavier if you do not share it with anyone." The book was written with input from other family members.
Kaja: 1988–2008 became a bestseller in Norway. Kaja: 1988–2008 sparked renewed controversy over perceptions of Scientology activities in Norway. In a review of the book, Dagbladet noted that because the author was writing both as a private individual and as a physician, "he is trained to look at the familiar and intimate with professionalism and distance." Upon the book's publication, Matthias Fosse stated, "Church of Scientology had absolutely nothing to do with this young woman's decision to take her own life. We are sorry for the loss the family has suffered, but this young woman was never a member of the Church of Scientology and never participated in any of the church activities."
See also
List of suicides
Scientology controversies
Scientology in France: Suicide of Patrice Vic
Scientology in Norway
Scientology and the legal system
Scientology and psychiatry
References
Further reading
External links
Kaja Ballo, directory of info, media coverage
2008 deaths
Deaths by person in France
Death of women
Scientology-related controversies |
27502806 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Robert%20Hill | Death of Robert Hill | Robert Hill, known as Kentucky Kid, (died 8 December 2009) was a Jamaican entertainer who was shot dead by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). Hill had earlier filmed a previous incident in which police officers entered his house and confronted him and his wife Kumiko, who was eight months pregnant at the time. He uploaded it to the video-sharing website YouTube and showed it to the JCF, but got little response from the police. His shooting attracted international attention and suspicion that it was in retaliation for the earlier incident.
Collision and confrontation with the police
A police car travelled through a red light and collided with Hill's car, causing serious damage. Hill was brought to the station. Four hours later he was ordered to return home, to write his statement there, and come back to the station during the following 24-hour period by a Sergeant Gardner. He went back but his statement was refused on the grounds that he should have submitted it the previous day when the collision had occurred. Hill stood his ground but was physically manhandled from the station.
According to The Jamaica Observer reporter Kimmo Matthews, Hill told the paper he had been "threatened him at his home and [the police] were intimidating him". A lawyer told him to fit a camera to his property which he did. Within days Hill had brought the film of one incident to the paper depicting him and his heavily pregnant wife, Kumiko, being physically harassed by members of the police force who demanded that he forget about the damage caused to his car. The faces and acts of the police members were highly visible on the tape. The police did not assist Hill even when he showed them the video evidence.
Death
On 8 December 2009, an anonymous person telephoned Hill to request a viewing of a car being sold. Hill, alongside a cousin, left his wife's side but promised to return immediately. The cousin returned home at Hill's request to pick up a car key which they had forgotten.
The JCF fatally shot Hill, later claiming he held a gun. The incident was described by the JCF as a "shootout".
Video recordings
Hill placed video recordings of himself and the police on YouTube.
Among the words used in a long video message recorded before his death, Hill said:
Legacy
With Hill having successfully captured film evidence of corruption within the police force, Jamaicans for Justice consider this "a nadir for Jamaica". Hill's case is covered in Aljazeera's programme Island of music and murder.
References
2009 deaths
2009 in Jamaica
Place of birth missing
Year of birth missing
People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Jamaica |
28020883 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Khaled%20Mohamed%20Saeed | Death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed | Khaled Mohamed Saeed ( ; 27 January 1982 – 6 June 2010) was an Egyptian man whose death in police custody in the Sidi Gaber area of Alexandria on 6 June 2010 helped incite the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Photos of his disfigured corpse spread throughout online communities and incited outrage over the fact that he was beaten to death by Egyptian security forces. A prominent Facebook group, "We are all Khaled Said", moderated by Wael Ghonim, brought attention to his death and contributed to growing discontent in the weeks leading up to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. In October 2011, two Egyptian police officers were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison for beating Saeed to death. They were granted a retrial and sentenced to ten years in prison on 3 March 2014.
Personal life
Saeed was raised by his mother and the rest of his extended family after the death of his father when he was young. Showing an interest in computers, he lived and studied computer programming for some time in the United States. He also loved music and had been composing a musical piece before his death.
Death
On 6 June 2010, Saeed had been sitting on the second floor of a cybercafe. Two detectives from the Sidi Gaber police station entered the premises and arrested him.
Multiple witnesses testified that Saeed was beaten to death by the police, who reportedly hit him and smashed him against objects as he was led outside to their police car. The owner of the internet cafe in which Saeed was arrested stated that he witnessed Saeed being beaten to death in the doorway of the building across the street after the detectives took him out of the cafe at the owner's request.
In a filmed interview posted online by a leading opposition party, cafe owner Hassan Mosbah described the beating. "They dragged him to the adjacent building and banged his head against an iron door, the steps of the staircase and walls of the building... Two doctors happened to be there and tried in vain to revive him but (the police) continued beating him... They continued to beat him even when he was dead." This description given by the owner was confirmed by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.
The police reported that Saeed suffocated in an attempt to swallow a packet of hashish, a claim supported by two autopsy reports made by Forensic Authorities. The police further stated that Saeed was "wanted for theft and weapons possession and that he resisted arrest".
Former chief medical examiner of Egypt, Ayman Fouda, was interviewed about the proper procedure that should have been followed for Saeed's autopsy. He stated that the "mechanics of the injuries" that Saeed had sustained should have been investigated and his brain should have also been tested to see whether he had suffered a concussion. The medical examiner who conducted the autopsy had done neither.
The two police officers were later jailed for four days pending questioning on beatings that they carried out on Saeed. Saeed's family members stated that Saeed was "tortured to death for possessing video material that implicates members of the police in a drug deal".
Post-mortem photographs go viral
When Saaed's family visited his body in the morgue, his brother snapped pictures of the corpse using his mobile phone. The photo of Saeed's corpse was released onto the internet by Saeed's family in June 2010, causing a large outcry. Human Rights Watch released a press report about the photo that stated, "Photos of Said's battered and deformed face published on the internet show a fractured skull, dislocated jaw, broken nose, and numerous other signs of trauma" and that the image clearly showed "strong evidence that plainclothes security officers beat him in a vicious and public manner".
We are all Khaled Saeed
Among those who saw the photo was Google marketing executive Wael Ghonim. Ghonim was located in Dubai at the time of the incident and decided to create a Facebook memorial page for Said, called "We are all Khaled Said" within five days of his death. The page attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, becoming Egypt's biggest dissident Facebook page. Support for Said rapidly spread, with many Facebook members using his photograph for their own profiles. In mid-June, the Facebook page had already 130,000 members that were active. Because of the photo and the heavy amount of international criticism that arose from the incident, the Egyptian government consented to a trial for the two detectives involved in his death.
On 27 January 2011, Ghonim was arrested for 12 days. Egypt also blocked nearly all access to the internet throughout the country. Ghonim wanted to remain anonymous but could not avoid Egyptian security forces. It later became apparent that Ghonim recruited an Egyptian political activist named AbdulRahman Mansour to become his co-admin. Both administrators received the credit for the creation of the site. Under the anonymous name el shaheed ("the martyr"), they were able to post and moderate the Arabic Facebook page. The involvement of Mansour in the creation of this page caused great controversy because he was a member of the 25 January coalition as well as the author of an article on the Muslim Brotherhood's English website titled "Mastermind Behind Egypt Uprising." In a 2011 interview, Ghonim blamed the regime for the people's anger, saying that blocking access to Facebook made them even angrier and led them to protests in the streets.
The administrator's role in running this page, according to Iskander, included a number of important functions, such as being: "the gatekeeper, flag bearer, spokesperson, democrat, motivator, mobilizer, and the source of general inspiration and appeal for the page. In addition to being the liaison between members, the admin is also the link and mediator between the members and the architecture of the page, which in this case is Facebook as an organization. His/her task is to keep everyone energized and inspiringly engaged."
The profile photograph promoting the page was a smiling photograph of Khaled Saeed which conveyed his youth and innocence. The Facebook page existed in both Arabic and English, ensuring international exposure. Police forces were put under the spotlight because the webpage was advocating the fight against police brutality. By doing this, police forces became hesitant with their actions knowing that the Facebook page was being used to document their flaws and overuse of force.
Alexandria protests
On 25 June 2010, Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, led a rally in Alexandria against abuses by the police and visited Saeed's family to offer condolences. Protests over Saeed's death also occurred in Cairo's Tahrir Square and in front of the Egyptian Embassy in London. Thirty of the protesters in Tahrir Square were arrested by Central Security officers after the "security personnel vigorously beat back the crowds to keep them from reaching the ministry building."
Impact on the 2011 Egyptian revolution
One of the earliest pre-revolution articles to link the death of Saeed to an imminent nationwide explosion came from Saeed's neighbor, Egyptian-Australian Amro Ali. In an opinion piece titled "Egypt's Collision Course with History", Ali writes an intimate portrayal of Saeed and the Alexandria context, as well as the ramifications of his death for the regime. Ali states "Saeed's tragedy is Egypt's tragedy. A young man, neither a political activist nor religious radical, but an ordinary Egyptian whose accused actions could not in any way warrant his lynching. Saeed was someone's son, someone's brother, someone's friend, someone's neighbour, someone's customer, and if not for what had happened, someone's future. Saeed was, in the local vernacular, a son of Cleopatra [Saeed's suburb]. Yet the system that was supposed to protect him and give him his rights, took away those rights by taking away his life... It is one extra nail in the coffin of the ever-widening gulf between the ruler and ruled... What the Egyptian establishment maybe forgetting... is that pigeons come home to roost more than once." Ali would later publish a personal and analytical account in Jadaliyya on the second anniversary of Saeed's death: "Saeeds of Revolution: De-Mythologizing Khaled Saeed". As well as analysing what really happened to Saeed, Ali also examines the dynamics of how Saeed was rapidly mythologized and the ramifications it has produced in Egyptian society.
While the actual impact of Ghonim's site cannot be determined, it was Ghonim who first published a call to protest on 25 January, to the followers of his blog, and protesters carried banners and posters displaying the photograph of Saaed's corpse. This has been named one of the catalysts of the 2011 Egyptian protests, as an instance in which people formed a community around opposition to police brutality and, by extension, other government abuses. On 11 February 2011, these protests resulted in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power. ABC News characterized Saaed in his morgue photo as "The Face That Launched a Revolution". The Washington Post wrote that "Had it not been for a leaked morgue photo of his mangled corpse, tenacious relatives and the power of Facebook, the death of Khaled Said would have become a footnote in the annals of Egyptian police brutality. Instead, outrage over the beating death of the 28-year-old man in this coastal city last summer, and attempts by local authorities to cover it up, helped spark the mass protests demanding the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak."
Investigation and trial of the police officers
The investigation into Saeed's death yielded 300 papers, analysis and testimony which informed the decision to charge both police officers, Mahmoud Salah Mahmoud and Awad Ismael Suleiman, in criminal court with use of violence and unjustified detention of the victim. They were detained in July 2010 and the trial began that same month, but was then postponed until February 2011, at which point it was postponed again.
On 24 September 2011, Alexandria's criminal court adjourned the trial until 22 October 2011 as Judge Moussa al-Nahrawy decided to postpone the case to allow both the plaintiff's and the defendants' lawyers to review the report of a third forensic committee, whose formation the court had ordered in June 2011.
On 26 October 2011, both defendants were found guilty of manslaughter and were sentenced to seven years. Human rights activists, such as the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, objected to the short sentences. The two officers were convicted of using excessive force which killed Saeed but were not convicted of the more serious charge of "torture with the purpose of killing" which is a capital crime. Organizations such as the April 6 Youth Movement and the 25 Revolution Youth Union also criticized the verdict for its leniency. The prosecution and defence both appealed the sentence and a retrial was ordered. On 3 March 2014, Alexandria criminal court increased the punishment by three years sentencing the two police officers to ten years in prison.
See also
Death of Neda Agha-Soltan
Death of Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb
Death of Ali Jawad al-Sheikh
Mohamed Bouazizi
References
External links
We are all Khaled Said on Facebook
2010 deaths
2010 in Egypt
Death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed
Deaths by person in Africa
Egyptian revolution of 2011
People murdered by law enforcement officers
Political repression in Egypt
1982 births
Deaths by beating
Victims of police brutality
Law enforcement in Egypt
History of Alexandria
Police brutality in the 2010s |
28137836 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Leon%20Patterson | Death of Leon Patterson | Leon Patterson (23 December 1960 – 27 November 1992) was a 31-year-old man of mixed race who lived in north London and who died in police custody in Manchester, England.
Arrest
On 21 November 1992, Patterson was arrested on suspicion of theft from a BHS department store and was taken to Stockport police station by officers from Greater Manchester Police. On arrival he told police he was a heroin user and complained of feeling unwell and suffering withdrawal symptoms, which included vomiting, nausea and diarrhea. The police fed his name into the Police National Computer that told them, incorrectly, that he was an escapee. He had in fact failed to return to prison from home leave but this false information affected police perception of him and they are believed to have suspected that his “symptoms” were at least in part a strategy to aid
in his escape, and one of the three police doctors who saw him even wrote this conclusion on his custody record. The first police doctor who saw him treated his nausea and vomiting with Stemetil, a drug that the manufacturer says can cause neuroleptic malignant syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal condition.
Court appearance
Patterson was due to attend court on 26 November by which time his condition had worsened. At 5.00 a.m. he was found in his cell naked and collapsed and apparently unconscious. A police doctor was called and found him conscious but mumbling incoherently. This doctor was unable to make a proper examination but nevertheless deemed Patterson fit to be detained. By 8.30 a.m., despite the fact that his condition had not improved, the police made a decision that he should attend court and he was placed, still naked and with his hands handcuffed behind his back, on the floor of a police van in which he was taken to court. He was placed face down and naked on the floor of a cell at the court. His solicitor requested that Leon be taken to the local hospital but this request was ignored. Police did make attempts to get Leon admitted to the hospital at Strangeways prison but these were unsuccessful. A decision was made that he was not fit to attend the court and he was again placed naked and handcuffed on the floor of the police van and was taken to Denton police station five miles away.
Death
A doctor was called on arrival at Denton and he arrived at the police station three hours later. He spent three or four minutes with the accused but was unable to complete his examination because he found his patient “un-cooperative”. He left Patterson lying naked on a cold stone floor and recommended that he be taken to Strangeways Prison Hospital. When he learned later that evening that this would not be possible he neither visited nor made any recommendation that Patterson be taken to
some other hospital. At the inquest this doctor confirmed that he had failed to notice over thirty wounds to Patterson’s body (he saw wounds only to the face and head) that twelve other witnesses testified they had seen that day. The Coroner confessed himself “amazed” that a police doctor called to see a man who had spent the day lying naked on a concrete floor moaning and incoherent left him to remain in that condition without even suggesting that he be covered with a blanket or given a mattress. During the rest of the day his condition deteriorated and he suffered incontinence but was left by the police naked and injured on a bare stone floor lying in his own feces. Later that evening he was found dead in his cell. After six days in custody it
was only after death that he was finally given a mattress and a blanket.
Inquest
There have been three inquests into the death of Leon Patterson. The first inquest was adjourned and there have been two different explanations for this. The first explanation is “problems with a juror”. The second explanation is that the coroner was sacked because of some remarks he made to Patterson’s twin sister, Stephanie Lightfoot-Bennet, who was representing the family at the inquest. It is of course
possible that both of these explanations are true.
The second inquest in April 1993 resulted in a verdict of unlawful killing but on appeal by the police this verdict was quashed by the High Court and a third inquest in October 1994 returned a verdict of “misadventure contributed to by neglect”.
The cause of Patterson’s death has not been ascertained with any certainty. At postmortem examination it was found that part of his nose was missing, that he had severe bruising to his testicles and a total of 32 injuries covering his body. The family pathologist supported by an expert in drug withdrawal thought that Stemetil causing
neuroleptic malignant syndrome was the most likely cause of death. The Home Office pathologist initially subscribed to the view that he had died from an overdose of nitrazepam, supported by evidence from a Manchester toxicologist. The Home Office pathologist presented this as his opinion both at the second inquest and in a report prepared for the Police Complaints Authority. The Manchester toxicologist then admitted that he had fabricated the data that led to this conclusion and at the third inquest, presenting his evidence as the last witness, the Home Office Pathologist presented a radically different opinion, that Patterson had died as a result of a complex metabolic disorder “resulting from drug withdrawal symptoms, dehydration and
gastro-enteritis”. He said he formed this opinion at the original postmortem but failed to write it down.
Aftermath
Despite being visited by two different police doctors during the last twenty hours of his life neither doctor prescribed any medication nor offered any treatment nor took any steps to get him to a civilian hospital. Similarly, the police took no steps to get him to hospital once they were aware that the facility at Strangeways was not available. At inquest the police doctor accepted that it was inhuman to have transported him to and from court in the manner in which they did and in his condition and that he (the doctor) should have instructed the police that Patterson was not fit to go to court. The same doctor also accepted that it was negligent of police officers and the second police doctor to allow him to remain in such a critical condition. Eminent medical experts who gave evidence at inquest expressed profound disquiet over the fact that Patterson should ever have remained in police custody when he clearly needed to be in hospital, though none have so far asked why he needed to go to hospital in the first place.
No one has ever been charged with any offence in relation to the death of Leon Patterson.
His family continue to campaign for justice.
References
1960 births
1992 deaths
Deaths in police custody in the United Kingdom
November 1992 events in the United Kingdom |
28562025 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Gareth%20Williams | Death of Gareth Williams | Gareth Wyn Williams (26 September 1978 – ) was a Welsh mathematician and employee of GCHQ seconded to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) who was found dead in suspicious circumstances at a Security Service safe house flat in Pimlico, London, on 23 August 2010. The inquest found that his death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated." A subsequent Metropolitan Police re-investigation concluded that Williams's death was "probably an accident". Two senior British police sources have said some of Williams's work was focused on Russia – and one confirmed reports that he had been helping the US National Security Agency trace international money-laundering routes that are used by organised crime groups including Moscow-based mafia cells.
Background
Originally from Valley, Anglesey, Wales, Williams, who spoke Welsh as a first language, began studying mathematics part-time at Bangor University, while still at Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern, and graduated with a first-class degree at age 17. After gaining a PhD at the University of Manchester, he dropped out from a subsequent post-graduate course at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and took up employment with GCHQ in Cheltenham in 2001, renting a room for nearly a decade in Prestbury, Gloucestershire. Reportedly an intensely private man and a keen cyclist, Williams was due to return to Cheltenham at the beginning of September 2010 after his annual leave.
Death
Police visited Williams's home during the afternoon of Monday 23 August 2010, as a "welfare check" after colleagues noted he had been out of contact for several days. His decomposing naked remains were found in a red The North Face bag, padlocked from the outside, in the bath of the main bedroom's en-suite bathroom. The police had gained entry into his top floor flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico at around 16:40. His family alleged that crucial DNA was interfered with and that fingerprints left at the scene were wiped off as part of a cover-up. Inconclusive fragments of DNA components from at least two other contributors were found on the bag.A forensic examination of Williams's flat, a security service safe house, has concluded that there was no sign of forced entry or DNA that pointed to a third party present at the time of the spy's death.
Scotland Yard's inquiry also found no evidence of Williams's fingerprints on the padlock of the bag or the rim of the bath, which the coroner last year said supported her assertion of "third-party involvement" in the death. Hewitt said it was theoretically possible for Williams to lower himself into the holdall without touching the rim of the bath . A key to the padlock was inside the bag, underneath his body.
Williams was buried at Ynys Wen cemetery in Valley, Anglesey, on 26 September 2010, following a private funeral service at Bethel Chapel in Holyhead attended by his family, friends, former colleagues in the intelligence services, and also by the head of SIS, Sir John Sawers.
Investigation
Williams's date of death was estimated to have been in the early hours of 16 August, one week before he was found.
Soon after the investigation started, the heads of the Secret Intelligence Service and Metropolitan Police met to discuss how the police would handle the investigation in light of the top secret nature of Williams's work, and who would lead the investigation. Williams had recently qualified for operational deployment, and had worked with U.S. National Security Agency and FBI agents. The U.S. State Department asked that no details of Williams's work should emerge at the inquest. The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, signed a public-interest immunity certificate authorising the withholding from the inquest of details of Williams's work and U.S. joint operations.
After launching an investigation, coroner Fiona Wilcox said that there were no injuries on his body and no signs that he had been involved in a struggle; his body was also free of alcohol and common recreational drugs. The Metropolitan Police considered his death "suspicious and unexplained". The FBI also conducted their own investigation into the case.
In December 2010, police released further details, stating that Williams had visited a number of bondage websites although at the later inquest it was stated these visits were "sporadic and isolated" and accounted for only a small proportion of the time he spent online. Williams's wardrobe included £20,000 of "high-end" women's clothing, size small to medium, and 26 pairs of women's shoes, size six and six-and-a-half. Female wigs and makeup were also found. There was video footage on one phone of him posing naked apart from leather boots.
The landlady of the annex flat he had rented in Cheltenham for 10 years said she and her husband had found him shouting for help, with his hands tied to his bedposts, three years before his death. He said he was seeing if he could get free. They cut him free, believing it "sexual rather than escapology".
An expert brought in to examine the bag in which Williams's body was found concluded that Williams could not have locked it. A police spokesperson stated that: "If he was alive, he got into it voluntarily or, if not, he was unconscious and placed in the bag."
The heating in Williams's apartment was found to be turned on. It has been suggested an elevated temperature inside the apartment would have sped up the decomposition of Williams's body.
Subsequently, the police released an E-FIT photo of two people they were seeking, who were seen to enter the communal entrance of his home in June or July 2010.
Coroner's inquest
The lawyer for the family, Anthony O'Toole, at the Coroner's inquest in March 2012, said that a second person was either present when Williams died, or someone broke in afterwards and stole items. There was no forensic evidence to support this view. No sign of forced entry could be found, but it was also noted that the door and locks had been removed by the time police experts had become involved.
DNA found on Williams's hand turned out to be contamination from one of the forensic scientists and the police determined that a Mediterranean couple they had been seeking had nothing to do with the inquiry. LGC, the forensic company, apologized that the error had inflicted such pain on the family, caused by the incorrect data entry of a numerical code.
Evidence at the inquest showed that it would have been virtually impossible for Williams to have locked himself in the bag. Two experts were unable to lock themselves in a similar bag despite making 400 attempts to do so, although one stated there was a small chance Williams had managed the feat. Pathologist Richard Shepherd stated it was more likely that Williams was alive when he got into the bag, due to the difficulty of arranging a corpse in the position Williams's body was found in. Another pathologist stated that Williams would have been overcome by hypercapnia, elevated carbon dioxide levels, after only two or three minutes in the bag. A video surfaced on 9 May 2012, showing "that it is possible for someone to lock themselves in a bag identical to the one MI6 spy Gareth Williams was found in." There were no gloves found in the bag and no fingerprints on either the padlock nor indeed the bag.
Williams's family said they believed that they suspected this person “was a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services”.
Fiona Wilcox, the coroner, said that she "follow the evidence" wherever it led. Fiona Wilcox was also the coroner for the death of William Broeksmit who was an auditor at Deutsche Bank at the time the bank was underwriting the Danske/Estonia Russian money laundering operation.
Evidence given by Williams's former landlady in Cheltenham showed that one night he had awoken her and her husband, screaming for help. Apparently he had managed to tie himself to his bed, and required assistance in releasing himself. The testimony was that Williams had claimed at the time that he had done it just to see if he could free himself and that he promised not to try this again. Nothing further had been said about the incident since between Williams and his landlady.
Evidence was given of £20,000 worth of women's clothing being found in the flat.
Journalist Duncan Campbell reported that the inquest evidence indicated Williams was one of a team of intelligence officers sent to penetrate US and UK hacking networks. He had attended the 2010 Black Hat Briefings and DEF CON conferences. He had started with SIS in London in spring 2009, and after taking a number of training courses started on "active operational work". A few months before his death, he asked to return to GCHQ as he disliked the "rat race, flash car competitions and post-work drinking culture" at SIS and as a keen cyclist and walker wanted to go back to the countryside, and was due to return in September.
Inquest verdict
The coroner found in a narrative verdict that Williams's death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated". The coroner was "satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully". There was insufficient evidence to give a verdict of unlawful killing. The coroner concluded that another party placed the bag containing Williams into the bath, and on the balance of probabilities locked the bag. No fingerprints were found around the bath nor the bag. The coroner was critical of SIS for failing to report Williams missing for seven days, which caused extra anguish and suffering for his family, and led to the loss of forensic evidence.
The coroner rejected suicide, interest in bondage or cross-dressing, or "auto-erotic activity" being involved in Williams's death. She said his visits to bondage websites only occurred intermittently and were not of a frequency to indicate an active interest. The coroner condemned leaks about cross-dressing as a possible attempt at media manipulation.
The coroner was highly critical of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), who failed to tell the senior investigating officer before the inquest began of the existence of nine memory sticks and other property in Williams's SIS office. SO15 failed to take formal statements when interviewing SIS officers. The coroner said the possible involvement of SIS staff in the death was a legitimate line of inquiry for the police.
Metropolitan Police investigation
The finding by the coroner prompted a re-investigation by the Metropolitan Police lasting a further 12 months which officers said had been allowed unprecedented access to serving MI6 staff following strong criticism at the inquest of the spying agency's actions following the death of Mr Williams.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt announced that despite a re-examination of all evidence and the investigation of new leads no definitive answers had been obtained as to the cause of Williams's death and the "most probable scenario" was that he had died alone in his flat in Pimlico, central London, as the result of accidentally locking himself inside the bag.
2015 developments
In September and October 2015, Boris Karpichkov, a former KGB agent who defected from Russia and who now lives in Britain, stated during interviews that "sources in Russia" have claimed that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, also known as the SVR, was responsible for Williams's murder. According to Karpichkov, the SVR tried and failed to blackmail Williams into becoming a double agent.
In response to the SVR's attempts, Williams apparently claimed that he knew "the identity of a Russian spy inside the GCHQ." Karpichkov claimed that Williams's threat meant that "the SVR then had no alternative but to exterminate him in order to protect their agent inside GCHQ." Regarding the cause of death, Karpichkov claimed that the SVR killed Williams "by an untraceable poison introduced in his ear."
The 2015 BBC Two television series London Spy is loosely based on the Williams case. The miniseries stars Ben Whishaw as Danny, who is accused of murder after his partner, MI6 spy Alex, is found dead inside a locked trunk.
2021 developments
In February 2021 it was reported that a single hair found on Williams' hand could solve the mystery of his death.
At the time of the investigation, forensic scientists said that the hair belonged to a person other than Williams, but could not extract a DNA profile. Angela Gallop, a forensic scientist who founded the laboratory that carried out the testing, announced that, with technical advances, a profile could now be extracted from two millimetres of hair. She said she would be "happy" to help the police. The Metropolitan Police responded that there were no plans to review the case since both an investigation and an inquest has been completed. However later in 2021, the Metropolitan Police stated they were assessing whether new information and techniques could help the case.
See also
List of unsolved deaths
References
1978 births
2010 deaths
2010 in the United Kingdom
Alumni of Bangor University
Alumni of the University of Manchester
August 2010 events in the United Kingdom
Deaths by person in London
GCHQ people
People from Anglesey
Pimlico
Secret Intelligence Service personnel
Unsolved deaths
Welsh mathematicians |
29131336 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Linda%20Norgrove | Death of Linda Norgrove | On 26 September 2010, British aid worker Linda Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by members of the Taliban in the Kunar Province of eastern Afghanistan. She was working in the country as regional director for Development Alternatives Incorporated, a contractor for US and other government agencies. The group were taken to the nearby Dewegal Valley area. United States and Afghan forces began a search of the area, placing roadblocks to prevent the group from being moved east into Pakistan.
Norgrove's captors demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui in exchange for her return. The Taliban released the three Afghans on 3 October 2010 during negotiations. The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group conducted a predawn rescue attempt five days later on the Taliban mountain hideout where Norgrove was held captive, amid concerns that she would be killed or moved by her kidnappers. US forces killed several kidnappers and three local farmers during the assault. They subsequently located Norgrove, badly wounded in a nearby gully, and she died later from her injuries.
Initial reports said that she had been killed by an explosion set off by one of her captors. A joint official investigation by the United Kingdom and the United States later concluded that her fatal injuries were inflicted by a grenade thrown by one of her rescuers. A February 2011 coroner's narrative verdict reported that Norgrove died during the failed rescue attempt. In October 2012, one of her colleagues said in an interview that the captors had told Norgrove that they had no intention of killing her.
Early life, education and work
Norgrove was born in Altnaharra, Scotland, in 1974 to John and Lorna Norgrove. She grew up on a croft on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, attending a primary school in Uig. She later attended the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway. Norgrove attended the University of Aberdeen, receiving a first-class honours degree in tropical environmental science; her coursework included postgraduate research at the University of Chiapas in Mexico and a year of study at the University of Oregon (1993–94). She attended the University of London, receiving a MA with distinction in rural resources and environmental policy in 1997.
In 2002, Norgrove received a PhD from the University of Manchester in development policy and management. From 2002 to 2005, she worked for the World Wide Fund in Peru, supporting (and later supervising) the WWF's Forest Programme in the Peruvian Andes. At the time of her death, in addition to her aid work, Norgrove was working towards an MBA from the University of Warwick through distance learning. She worked in Afghanistan for the United Nations from 2005 to 2008, and as regional director of an international development company based in Jalalabad beginning in February 2010. She also worked in Laos as an environmental specialist for the UN in 2008–09, Mexico and Uganda where Norgrove researched the effects of national park management on the indigenous population near Mount Elgon National Park.
Kidnapping
On 26 September 2010, Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues were travelling in the Chawkay District (also known as Tsawkay and Sawkay) of eastern Kunar Province when they were kidnapped by local insurgents. They were ambushed while driving on the main highway from Jalalabad to Asadabad, in the Dewagal valley, in two unarmoured, unmarked Toyota Corollas. A US military convoy was ambushed two months earlier on the same stretch of road. Norgrove wore a burqa to disguise her foreign appearance. According to four sources within the United States military and intelligence services, at the time Norgrove was working for Development Alternatives Incorporated and was secretly employed by MI6. However, this is an unsubstantiated accusation by unnamed sources and there is no evidence for this. Her family has strongly and consistently said that the claims are "ridiculous". They have also said, "Linda was passionately against war, disliked the military with a vengeance and mostly sided with Afghans rather than western governments."
Dressed in men's clothing by her captors, she was taken first into the mountains and then brought to the Dewegal Valley in Chowkai District (which crosses the Korengal Valley). US Army troops from Bravo Company, 2/327 Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division began a 12-day search supported by Afghan army, police and commando units under the codename "Enterprise". A house-to-house search was conducted and roadblocks posted at the valley entrance to prevent Norgrove's captors from transferring her eastward into Pakistan. The difficult terrain (with few roads) complicated and slowed the process; the search efforts succeeded in containing the kidnappers in the vicinity and several local Taliban members were killed.
Negotiations
It was unclear at first who had kidnapped Norgrove and her colleagues. A Taliban commander, the Pakistan-based Mohammed Osman, was reported to demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui in return for Norgrove's freedom. Siddiqui, known as "Lady al-Qaeda", had received an 86-year prison sentence in the US on 26 September. "We are lucky that we abducted this British woman soon after the ruthless ruling by an American court on Aafia Siddiqui. We will demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui in exchange for her", said Osman.
Other Afghan sources denied any link to Osman. US military sources identified Norgrove's captors as Kunar Taliban, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said they were from a Salafist group affiliated with the local Taliban, known as Jamaat al Dawa al Quran. An Afghan intelligence official later identified her captors as local commanders Mullah Basir and Mullah Keftan. Negotiations for Norgrove's release were conducted through local tribal elders.
The three Afghans captured with Norgrove were released on 3 October. British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the primary fear was that she "was going to be passed up the terrorist chain, which would increase further the already high risk that she would be killed." The British foreign office asked the media not to release details about Norgrove's personal life while she was in captivity to avoid attaching "trophy value" to her kidnapping.
Rescue attempt and death
Intelligence reports indicated that a group of local elders were calling for Norgrove to be executed "like the Russian" (a possible reference to the Russian war in Afghanistan). The intelligence prompted Cameron and Hague to approve a United States special operations effort to rescue Norgrove during her 13th night of captivity. The operation was spearheaded by "SEAL Team Six", Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.
The SEALs staged a predawn raid on the Taliban hillside compound hideout, where Norgrove was held in a shack, on 8 October 2010. The stronghold was surrounded by high, thick perimeter walls in a densely wooded area in the village of Dineshgal, up a steep mountain in the Korengal Valley.
At approximately 3:30 am, 20 SEALs and about 24 US Army Rangers from the 75th Ranger Regiment (wearing night-vision goggles) approached the compound, fast roping from two CH-47 Chinook helicopters. They were fired on from the compound and from a nearby position by Taliban armed with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades, and suicide vests. Two American snipers aboard a helicopter killed two guards using sound-suppressed rifles. An AC-130 Spectre gunship provided the US troops on the ground with close air support, killing two fleeing Taliban. The Rangers secured enemy positions on the nearby hills, and all six Taliban gunmen who fought the US forces were killed.
During the gunfight, Norgrove's captors dragged her outside the building where she was being held, but she apparently broke away from them. Video footage of the raid showed an explosion in her vicinity; Norgrove was then found, injured, in a fetal position in a gully.
Norgrove was removed from the scene via helicopter and received medical care, but she died. It was reported initially that she had been killed by one of her captors setting off a suicide vest. According to The Guardian, insurgents often put on suicide vests if they think they are in danger of being attacked. Taliban commanders Mullah Basir and Mullah Keftan (who were holding Norgrove) were among those killed in the raid, according to an Afghan intelligence official. Other women and children in the compound were uninjured, and no members of the rescue team were wounded.
Joint investigation
The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, announced Norgrove's death. In a written statement, he said that after receiving information on her location it was "decided that, given the danger she was facing, her best chance of safe release was to act on that information." David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, defended the rescue attempt: "Decisions on operations to free hostages are always difficult. But where a British life is in such danger, and where we and our allies can act, I believe it is right to try".
On 10 October, an unnamed Afghan intelligence officer said that Norgrove was killed by a grenade thrown by one of her captors. The following day, Cameron said that new information indicated Norgrove may have accidentally been killed by a US grenade. A US military statement read: "Subsequent review of surveillance footage and discussions with members of the rescue team do not conclusively determine the cause of her death".
US President Barack Obama promised "to get to the bottom" of the failed rescue attempt. General David Petraeus, commander of the NATO security force in Afghanistan, ordered an investigation into the incident. US Major General Joseph Votel (then Chief of Staff of the US Special Operations Command) and British Brigadier Robert Nitsch (Head of Joint Force Support, UK Forces Afghanistan) were appointed to lead a joint UK and US investigation. It was reported on 12 October that the results were expected within days, and Norgrove's family was kept informed of the investigation's progress.
While the military investigation was conducted, Norgrove's body was returned to the United Kingdom on 14 October on a Royal Air Force flight to RAF Lyneham. A humanist funeral ceremony, attended by hundreds of people, was held on 26 October at the Uig Community Centre in the Western Isles. Norgrove was buried at Ardroil cemetery.
On 2 December, Hague announced the results of the joint investigation, which concluded that Norgrove was accidentally killed by a grenade thrown by a US sailor. Navy SEALs did not immediately notify senior officers about throwing the grenade; this breached military law, and a number of sailors were disciplined.
A post-mortem examination of Norgrove's body was conducted by British coroner Russell Delaney on 19 October 2010. Detective Chief Inspector Colin Smith of the Metropolitan Police told an inquest, opened 22 October in the Salisbury coroner's court, that the examination identified the cause of death as "penetrating fragment injuries to the head and chest." In February 2011, the coroner recorded a narrative verdict confirming the earlier military investigations' findings that Norgrove was killed by a member of the US rescue team, noting that a gunshot wound to the leg Norgrove received during the rescue did not contribute to her death. In October 2012, Abdul Wadood, Norgrove's colleague and fellow captive, told the BBC that she asked the kidnappers if they were going to kill her and that they assured her they would not.
Tributes
James Boomgard, regional director for Development Alternatives Inc., the company employing Norgrove when she was kidnapped, released a statement: "We are saddened beyond words by the death of a wonderful woman whose sole purpose in Afghanistan was to do good – to help the Afghan people achieve a measure of prosperity and stability in their everyday lives as they set about rebuilding their country". United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Robert Watkins praised Norgrove: "She was a true advocate for the people of Afghanistan and was dedicated to bringing improvements to their lives", and "her spirit and compassion will be greatly missed". First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond said: "Ms Norgrove was a dedicated aid worker who was doing everything she could to help people in Afghanistan—hopefully that legacy of service in a humanitarian cause can be of some comfort to her loved ones in their time of grief".
Norgrove received the 2011 Robert Burns Humanitarian Award posthumously for her work in Afghanistan. Her family has established the Linda Norgrove Foundation to continue her relief work.
See also
2010 Badakhshan massacre
List of solved missing person cases
References
External links
DAI official website
Confronting Conservation at Mount Elgon, Uganda by Linda Norgrove and David Hulme
The Linda Norgrove Foundation official website A charitable foundation set up by the Norgrove family which will continue the humanitarian work that Linda was doing in Afghanistan
2010 deaths
2010 in international relations
21st century in Kunar Province
Deaths by hand grenade
Deaths by person in Asia
Foreign hostages in Afghanistan
Kidnapping in Afghanistan
October 2010 events in Asia
Prisoners of the Taliban
September 2010 crimes
September 2010 events in Asia
Taliban attacks
Terrorist incidents in Afghanistan in 2010
United Kingdom–United States relations
United States Navy SEALs
Victims of Islamic terrorism
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) casualties
1974 births |
30098131 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Aristotelis%20Goumas | Death of Aristotelis Goumas | The death of Aristotelis Goumas () took place on August 12, 2010, in Himarë, Albania, when the motorcycle of 37-year-old ethnic Greek shopkeeper Aristotelis Goumas was hit by a car driven by three Albanian men from Vlorë. According to eyewitnesses the death occurred after an altercation in Goumas' store, when the three men demanded that Goumas not speak to them in Greek in his own store, which Goumas refused. The suspects reportedly drove over the victim at least twice to make sure he was dead.
The death sent shockwaves through the ethnic Greek community of Albania, and demonstrators blocked the main highway from Vlorë to Sarandë, which passes through the region. The event was reported by all major news outlets in both countries, and was strongly condemned by both the Greek and Albanian governments. Three suspects have been charged with murder and are awaiting trial.
Incident
On the morning of Thursday, August 12, 2010, three Albanian men from the town of Vlorë accosted Goumas in his store in the predominantly ethnic Greek town of Himarë, and demanded that he not speak to them in Greek according to eyewitnesses. According to eyewitness reports, Goumas refused, resulting in an altercation. The three men then assaulted Goumas. Several hours later, as Goumas was leaving his store, patrons at the store saw the three men leave in a hurry. Suspecting something to be amiss, friends of the 37-year-old followed them and found Goumas a short distance outside the town lying bleeding on the pavement, his motorcycle bearing marks of a hit and run. According to police reports, the suspects had rammed Goumas' motorcycle with their Audi, injuring him fatally. The suspects reportedly drove over the victim twice, so as to make sure he was dead, then fled the scene.
Reaction
The death and lack of immediate police response sparked outrage throughout the predominantly ethnic Greek region of Himarë.
Demonstrators blocked the main highway between the towns of Vlorë and Sarandë using rocks, while municipal workers in the town of Himarë held a work stoppage. According to the Himariote Union, the death of Goumas was the culmination of a series of recent provocations in the town of Himarë by Albanian nationalists. Local Greeks further called for the replacement of certain individuals in the Himarë police force, stating that attacks against ethnic Greeks have occurred frequently in the past and been duly reported, without the local police authorities showing the slightest interest.
Initial reports in the Albania news media characterized the incident as a traffic accident resulting from road rage. However, Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha issued an unusually strong condemnation of the incident, calling the incident an "act of extreme and blind fanaticism" and demanding that police authorities make every effort to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The death of Goumas was also condemned by the main opposition Albanian Socialist Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration party.
The ethnic Greek mayor of Himarë, Vasil Bollano, spoke of a "premeditated crime" as the suspects had been "provoking the victim for days".
Vangjel Dule, leader of the Unity for Human Rights Party, which champions the rights Greek minority in Albania, called for restructuring of the police force in Himarë, and for greater recruitment of local Himariotes to the local force.
The death was reported by all major news outlets in Greece, and was strongly condemned by the Greek government. George Papandreou, the Prime Minister of Greece, strongly condemned the incident, adding that "the rise of nationalism among extremist groups targeting the Greek minority in Albania is a very serious matter". Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Dimitris Delavekouras said that the perpetrators acted out of ethnic prejudice and that such incidents were designed to stir ethnic tensions and undermine Greek-Albanian relations. He called for "swift and proper" justice and further underlined that respect for minorities is one of the conditions for EU membership. The main opposition New Democracy (ND) party and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) also sharply condemned the incident and called on the Greek government to take all necessary measures to ensure that a full investigation and judicial actions are taken. The issue was brought to the European Parliament by three Parliamentary Questions.
The Albanian police were slothish at first, having ignored the victim's many pleas to them in the days beforehand. Only after the outcry following the murder did they being to treat the incident as a homicide and launch a manhunt in the region; they arrested seven individuals aged 19 to 22, while the main suspect remained at large. The main suspect, Ilir Mukaj from Vlorë, surrendered to police late on Sunday, August 15. Seven people were eventually charged in all: Three for the murder of Goumas, and the other four for hiding the murder suspects.
Several days after the incident, two cars driving on the road from Vlorë to Sarandë stopped in front of the Goumas family residence and fired bullets into the air. The Goumas family, which was in the house at the time, notified the police, who took eyewitness statements and collected bullet casings. According to diplomatic sources, there has recently been an upsurge in nationalist activity among Albanians, especially following the ruling of the International Court of Justice in favour of Kosovo's independence.
See also
Himarë
Greeks in Albania
Albanian nationalism
References
1970s births
2010 deaths
2010 in Albania
Racism in Albania
Deaths by person in Europe
Northern Epirus
Himara
Road incident deaths in Albania
Persecution of Greeks in Europe |
31437554 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Christopher%20Alder | Death of Christopher Alder | Christopher Alder was a trainee computer programmer and former British Army paratrooper who had served in the Falklands War and was commended for his service with the Army in Northern Ireland. He died while in police custody at Queen's Gardens Police Station, Kingston upon Hull, in April 1998. The case became a cause célèbre for civil rights campaigners in the United Kingdom. He had earlier been the victim of an assault outside a nightclub and was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary where, possibly as a result of his head injury, staff said his behaviour was "extremely troublesome." He was escorted from the hospital by two police officers who arrested him to prevent a breach of the peace.
On arrival at the police station Alder was "partially dragged and partially carried," handcuffed and unconscious, from a police van and placed on the floor of the custody suite. Officers laughed and joked between themselves and speculated that Alder was faking illness; CCTV footage showed that the officers made monkey noises, a common form of extremely racist abuse against black people. Twelve minutes later one of the officers present noticed that Alder was not making any breathing noises and although resuscitation was attempted, he was pronounced dead at the scene. A post mortem indicated that the head injury alone would not have killed him. The incident was captured on the police station's closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
A coroner's jury in 2000 returned a verdict that Alder was unlawfully killed. In 2002, five police officers went on trial charged with Alder's manslaughter and misconduct in public office, but were acquitted on the orders of the judge. In 2006, an Independent Police Complaints Commission report concluded that four of the officers present in the custody suite when Alder died were guilty of the "most serious neglect of duty" and "unwitting racism". In November 2011 the government formally apologised to Alder's family in the European Court of Human Rights, admitting that it had breached its obligations with regard to "preserving life and ensuring no one is subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment". They also admitted that they had failed to carry out an effective and independent inquiry into the case.
Christopher Alder
Christopher Ibikunle Alder (25 June 1960 – 1 April 1998) was a black British man of Nigerian descent, born in Hull in 1960. He joined the British Army at the age of 16 and served in the Parachute Regiment for six years. After leaving the Army, he first settled in Andover, Hampshire, before relocating to Dagger Lane, Hull in 1990. In 1998 he was taking a college course in computer skills in Hull. He had two sons, who had remained with their mother in the Andover area when their parents separated.
Events leading to death
The Waterfront Club
At around 7 pm on 31 March 1998, Alder went out for the evening in Hull with two friends, visiting several local bars and a fast food restaurant before Alder suggested going on to The Waterfront Club (later renamed The Sugar Mill), a nightclub on Prince's Dock Street in the Old Town area of the city. His companions, who later testified that at this stage of the evening Alder had drunk only two pints of lager and two bottles of Beck's beer and "seemed sober", declined the invitation. Alder went on alone to the club at around 10.30 pm. While there he drank a further two or three pints of lager. At approximately 1.30 am Alder became involved in a disagreement with another customer, Jason Ramm, which led to Ramm being ejected from the club. Ramm waited in the vicinity of Prince's Dock Street until Alder left the club at 2.15 am and another confrontation occurred which was captured on the club's exterior CCTV. A third person, Jason Paul, attempted to break up the fight and was struck by Alder. Paul retaliated by punching Alder in the face, which caused him to fall backwards, strike his head on the pavement, and lose consciousness. Staff at the nightclub telephoned the emergency services and an ambulance took Alder - who had by this time regained consciousness - to the Hull Royal Infirmary.
Two police officers, PC Nigel Dawson and PC Neil Blakey, who had arrived shortly after the ambulance in a marked patrol car, made no attempt to speak to Alder. They consulted with the club's manager, who took them inside to review the club's CCTV footage of the incident. A message they sent to their control room at this time indicates that they had already assumed Alder was very drunk, despite not having spoken to him or having been told this by any of the witnesses they spoke with. A third police officer, Acting Police Sergeant (A/PS) Mark Ellerington, arrived at about 2.50 am, after the ambulance left, and went inside to speak with the club manager and the officers already present. He was told by Dawson and Blakey that Alder was drunk. The IPCC report later criticised the stance the police took, saying: "This judgement, based upon very little evidence, tends to suggest that the two officers were making assumptions about Mr. Alder's behaviour, and choosing to attribute it to alcohol taken rather than the injury sustained, from an early stage in their dealings with him."
Hull Royal Infirmary
The ambulance arrived at the hospital at 2.44 am, where Alder was described by one witness who dealt with him as "confused and dazed" and "generally abusive." One of the paramedics from the ambulance crew who had transported him there stated that Alder asked: "Where am I? What's happened?" One of the nurses who treated him also stated that, in addition to being abusive and swearing at her, he was asking: "Where am I, what am I doing?" Two police officers who were present in the emergency department on an unrelated matter intervened at one point and asked him to cooperate with the nursing staff. They recalled later that he calmed down but remained "confused." PC Dawson and PC Blakey arrived at the hospital at approximately 3.05 am. Alder again became uncooperative with staff at the hospital, and the police control room were informed by the officers at 3.19 am: "Our complainant is being a wee bit troublesome. Probably the reason why he got smacked in the first place." The doctor who examined Alder listed his injuries as:
haematoma at the rear of his head caused by impact but not consistent with a direct blow
localised swelling to the area of the left side of his upper lip
two wounds to the left side of his upper lip which were not bleeding
front left canine tooth knocked out and the tooth adjacent to it upon the left upper side loosened and pushed into his mouth
minimal bleeding from the tooth that was knocked out
Medical staff tried to take an x-ray of Alder's head injury but he would not remain still and they abandoned the effort. PC Dawson wrote in his note book at this time that Alder was "heavily in drink" and "typical of people I've seen in the past on amphetamine." Staff eventually decided that they could not administer further treatment to Alder without his cooperation, and the police officers asked if he was well enough to be detained in police custody. The attending doctor agreed that he was. A subsequent (2005) Healthcare Commission report into the medical treatment Alder received described this decision as "flawed...[T]he doctor had yet to make a diagnosis. He was unable to carry out his plan of treatment for Christopher Alder, for example to admit him for observation, x-ray his skull and refer him to a maxillo-facial surgeon. Despite this he decided to discharge him without seeking advice from a senior colleague." This may also have contributed to the police officers' assumption that Alder's condition was not serious. Alder was forcibly removed from the hospital by PCs Dawson and Blakey, with medical staff stating that he was dragged out by his arms, backwards and with his legs trailing on the floor. The police officers, however, stated that Alder had walked out unaided although they had kept a gentle grip on him to prevent him falling and to "guide" him.
Once outside the hospital, Alder argued with the police officers, who had initially told him to go home, and he was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace. A/PS Ellerington drove to the hospital to collect Alder for transport to the police station and detention. The vehicle used was a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter with a caged section in the rear. Although handcuffed, a witness would subsequently state that he recalled Alder climbed into the back of the van unassisted.
Queen's Gardens Police Station
On arrival at the police station following a journey of approximately six minutes, the van doors were opened and the police described Alder being found "asleep" and "snoring." He was dragged from the van and into the custody suite at 3.46 am by PCs Dawson and Blakey, "unresponsive" and with his hands handcuffed behind his back, his legs and feet dragging along the floor and his face just above the ground. His trousers and underpants had been pulled down to his knees, possibly by dragging on the floor surface, and one of his shoes had come off. A/PS Ellerington followed them in. Two police officers, Police Sergeant (PS) John Dunn and PC Matthew Barr, were already present on duty in the custody suite. Dunn was the custody officer and Barr was the cell warder.
Dawson and Blakey left Alder lying face down on the floor, where the CCTV showed a pool of blood forming around his mouth. One of the officers commented on the blood, but no attempt was made to examine Alder. PS Dunn was heard on the CCTV footage saying that Alder should be taken to the hospital, to which Dawson and Blakey reply that they had just come from there and that they believe Alder is feigning unconsciousness. Dawson said: "This is acting now" and "This is just an acting thing," while Blakey said: "He's right as rain... This is a show, this" and "He kept doing dying swan acts falling off the [hospital] trolley." A/PS Ellerington also stated later that he believed Alder was "feigning deep sleep." PS Dunn stated that he: "formed the opinion, from what I was told, that the man's behaviour at the present time may be play-acting or attention seeking."
After a few minutes the handcuffs were removed; Alder's arms remained unmoving behind his back, and no attempt was made to examine or rouse him. The officers moved to the opposite side of the counter while a discussion took place about what offences he should be charged with and whether there was any possible justification for holding him, as any potential for breach of peace had clearly passed. Alder could be heard making "gurgling" noises as he breathed in and out through the pool of blood around his face. PS Dunn later explained that although he was aware of the gurgling he ignored it, believing Alder was deliberately blowing through the blood to "try and upset" the officers. PC Barr stated later that he had believed the noises "were intended for our attention, in other words he was putting it on, which fitted neatly into what we had been told by PC Dawson."
The audio track of the CCTV footage appears to show that the officers made monkey noises, a common form of racist abuse against black people. At 3.57 am PC Barr pointed out that Alder was not making any noise and PS Dunn walked around the counter to check him. The officers began resuscitation attempts and called for an ambulance at 3.59 am. It arrived at 4.04 am, operated by the same crew which had earlier transported Alder from The Waterfront Club to the Hull Royal Infirmary.
Although the crew had been informed that the casualty had "breathing difficulty," the only equipment that they took into the custody suite was a bag valve mask. The paramedic admitted later that when they had received the call out, he had told his colleague "that it would probably be someone trying to pull a sickie [ie feigning illness] to get out of appearing in court in the morning." He had to return to the ambulance outside to collect the necessary equipment, not returning until another minute had elapsed. The ambulance technician who first examined Alder reported him as having fixed, dilated pupils, no pulse and not breathing. They eventually ceased CPR at 4.35 am.
Alder's clothes were subsequently destroyed by a West Yorkshire Police team investigating the death and never subjected to forensic examination.
Inquest into death
At an inquest held in 2000, the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing. The five police officers who were present in the custody suite at the time were called to give evidence at the inquest, but on more than 150 occasions during the hearing refused to answer questions, citing Coroners Rules that the response could provide self-incriminating evidence. They were subsequently charged with misconduct in public office. Shortly after the verdict was returned the officers, backed by the Police Federation, sought to overturn it by means of a judicial review. They claimed that the coroner should not have given a verdict of unlawful killing as an option to the jury, as the breaches of duty alleged against them could not amount to gross negligence. They also alleged that a female juror had been "infatuated" with the prosecuting barrister and that there was a "real possibility that her infatuation converted into bias." The application for the judicial review was dismissed by the High Court of Justice in April 2001.
Trial of police officers
The Crown Prosecution Service initially decided that there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges against the officers but, following a review of the medical evidence, the officers were charged in March 2002 with Alder's manslaughter. In June 2002, the trial collapsed when the judge ordered the jury to find the officers not guilty on all charges. Following the acquittal, an internal police disciplinary inquiry cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.
In July 2003 the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith challenged the legal correctness of the officers' acquittals and sent the ruling to the Court of Appeal "to clarify the threshold for evidence in future death-in-custody cases", although this would not affect the acquittal because of the principle of double jeopardy that applied at that time. In April 2004, BBC television series Rough Justice broadcast "Death On Camera", a programme examining the circumstances of Alder's death, including the CCTV footage from the custody suite which had previously not been seen by the public. As a result of the programme and the public concern it raised, Home Secretary David Blunkett asked the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to review the case. In December 2004 four of the five police officers were granted early retirement on stress-related medical grounds and received lump-sum compensation payments of between £44,000 and £66,000 as well as pensions. The officers all declined requests to take part in the IPCC inquiry. In March 2006 the IPCC chairman, Nick Hardwick, said the officers present when Alder died were guilty of the "most serious neglect of duty" amounting to "unwitting racism."
In September 2006 Leon Wilson, one of Alder's sons, went to the High Court to challenge the Home Office's refusal to reopen the case. The judge rejected his case, saying it was "legally reasonable for the Secretary of State to believe that no more worthwhile evidence was likely to emerge."
Civil case arising from investigation
In January 2006, a civil jury also found that a man had been unlawfully arrested and charged with Alder's assault on the night he died "to divert attention away from the part the police themselves played in Mr Alder's death."
Burial
In November 2011 Alder's body was discovered in the mortuary at Hull Royal Infirmary, eleven years after his family believed they had buried him. An exhumation of his grave in Hull's Northern Cemetery during the night of 21 February 2012 found that Grace Kamara, a 77-year-old woman, had been buried in his place. South Yorkshire Police Detective Superintendent Richard Fewkes announced that a criminal investigation had begun to determine if an offence of misconduct in public office had been committed.
Deaths in police custody
Alder was one of 69 people who died in police custody in 1998. Between 1990 and 2011, 980 people died in police custody. Only one police officer has ever been convicted for such a death, although prosecutions were recommended against 13 officers based on "relatively strong evidence of misconduct or neglect". The successful prosecution related to the death of Craig Boyd in March 2004. Boyd hanged himself with a shoelace in his cell at St Mary's Wharf police station, Derby. PC David Stoll, the custody suite warden, was watching the Disney film Finding Nemo with two other officers at the time; custody records were falsified to show visits by officers to the cells "that were not substantiated by video evidence." Stoll was found guilty of misconduct in a public office and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, suspended for one year.
In 1999, Judge Gerald Butler criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for failing to take action over a number of deaths in police custody. He made several recommendations to improve accountability and expressed "unease" over the current system. In a December 2010 report, the IPCC suggested that juries were "unwilling to convict police officers." The report, which covered deaths in custody in England and Wales between 1998 and 2010, concluded that in 16 cases restraint by officers was the direct cause of death, of which four were classed as "positional asphyxia." The majority of deaths were ruled as occurring due to natural causes, many involving drug or alcohol abuse, and the authors called on the Home Office and Department of Health "to pilot facilities with medical care to replace police cells." Deborah Coles, co-director of the charity and campaign group Inquest said: "The study points to alarming failures in the care of vulnerable detainees suffering from mental health, drug and alcohol problems, many of whom should have been diverted from police custody."
According to the report, "fewer than half of detainees booked into custody who should have been risk assessed were actually assessed," while "incidents where custody officers had not conducted proper checks, or thoroughly roused detainees to check their state, were prevalent." Custody officers and staff also lacked basic first aid training. Mike Franklin, the IPCC commissioner, said: "What emerges most prominently from the report is the medical and mental health needs of a large number of people the police arrest," and questioned whether custody "is the best place for a large number of the people the police deal with."
On 1 September 2011, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was extended to include all deaths in police custody suites, prison cells, mental health detention facilities and Young Offenders Institutions.
Typical
Alder's story was related in the stage play Typical, written by Ryan Calais Cameron and produced by Nouveau Riche. The one-man show starred Richard Blackwood in the role of Alder.
See also
Death of Colin Roach
Death of Olaseni Lewis
Death of Oluwashijibomi Lapite
Death of Roger Sylvester
Death of Sean Rigg
Death of Wayne Douglas
Criminal black man stereotype
References
1998 deaths
1998 in England
British Army personnel of the Falklands War
British Parachute Regiment soldiers
Criminal trials that ended in acquittal
Deaths by person in England
Deaths in police custody in the United Kingdom
English people of Nigerian descent
Filmed killings by law enforcement
Humberside Police
Law enforcement in England and Wales
Manslaughter trials
People from Kingston upon Hull
Police misconduct in England
Race-related controversies in the United Kingdom
Anti-black racism in England
April 1998 events in the United Kingdom
Deaths from asphyxiation
British military personnel of The Troubles (Northern Ireland) |
31501334 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Lee%20Bradley%20Brown | Death of Lee Bradley Brown | Lee Bradley Brown (18 June 1971 – 12 April 2011) was a British tourist who died in custody in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after he was arrested for verbally assaulting a Nepalese maid. The circumstances surrounding his death remain disputed.
Personal
Brown was born in East London on 18 June 1971, the third of four children to Doris and Vic Brown. He went to Godwin Junior School in Forest Gate, then Rokeby Secondary School. Later, when the family moved to Devon, he went to Kingsteignton Secondary School. He resided in Ilford, Essex at the time of his death.
Incident at Burj al Arab hotel
In April 2011, Brown took a last minute vacation to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he stayed at the Burj Al Arab luxury hotel. According to the hotel staff, a Nepalese housekeeper entered his room unannounced and with no form of uniform or identification. In her statement to police she said she thought the room was empty and needed cleaning. The staff explained that after verbally abusing the maid, an agitated Brown attempted to throw the housekeeper from the internal balcony. Another guest at the hotel reported that Brown shouted for staff to call the police as he had caught her stealing. Hotel security and staff intervened, and they subsequently called an ambulance and then later the police, noting that the Nepalese maid required minor medical attention for her injuries. CCTV footage of the incident at the Burj al Arab had been requested, but none has been forthcoming to date.
Resisting arrest
According to Essam Al Humaidan, the Dubai Public Prosecutor, the group of hotel employees that intervened to prevent Brown from throwing the Nepalese maid off the balcony met "violent resistance" as they attempted to contain him. According to Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, then the Dubai Chief of Police, Brown resisted arrest, banging his head against a wall and trying to throw himself from the hotel's balcony. Police officers also testified that Brown continued to beat on the metal mesh barrier in the patrol car while he was being driven to the police station. Despite repeated claims of Brown's 'violence' nobody received or reported any injuries or other damage. The statement of the booking officer at Bur Dubai Police Station described Brown as 'calm and in good health'.
Criminal charges and bail denial
Brown was charged with using abusive language and intimidating behaviour and was denied bail.
Assault by fellow inmates
Shortly after his arrest, Brown was placed in a cell with other European prisoners. He got along well with his cellmates and four were British. He was moved to solitary confinement after returning from the prosecutor's office with injuries so severe an ambulance was called. Lieutenant General Tamim initially alleged that Brown's injuries were the result of an altercation with other inmates and said in a statement to the press that he would make surveillance camera tapes of the incident available as proof that Brown's behaviour warranted such action. This CCTV footage was requested on numerous occasions by both the Foreign Office in Britain and by the UK coroner but was never released. In a later statement Tamim retracted what he had previously stated and reported that Brown had caused all his injuries to himself by 'throwing himself to the ground'.
Health issues in prison
A European prisoner who shared a cell with Brown described Brown's condition as "terrible", but clarified he did not see him being beaten. The prisoner explained, "I saw him bleeding. He had bruises on his face, shoulder and arms when he asked me for help....he kept saying: ‘Please help me, please help me'." The European prisoner noted that "Brown was half naked with both his hands and legs in cuffs. He wore nothing on top … and no shoes… his pants were hanging well below the waist." The prisoner noted that Brown was not eating, and asked the police to help him. Dubai police noted that Brown had been vomiting the day before his death but added that Brown neither complained about nor sought medical help.
Death
The Foreign Office confirmed that Brown died in custody six days after his arrest, on 12 April 2011.
Allegations of police abuse
The allegations that Brown was beaten by police originated from four British citizens, who were being held at the same police station on charges unrelated to those of Brown. One of the British inmates used his cellular phone to contact the sister-in-law of Brown, Su Brown, after he found her phone number as the next of kin contact in Brown's passport, which had been left in his cell.
Media
The British newspaper, The Independent, ran a story in 2013, noting that a consultant pathologist, Dr Benjamin Swift, privately hired by Brown's family, had concluded that the irrefutable finding that Brown was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident was irrelevant and would not have contributed to a death by asphyxiation on his own vomit. The article asserted that the finding "lends credibility to mounting claims about brutality towards prisoners in the emirate." However, the article notably failed to mention that Dr. Swift did not rule out the possibility that Brown nonetheless sustained life-threatening injuries due to being under the influence of the drugs, and even more pointedly, that Dr. Swift explicitly ruled out violent trauma as a possible cause of death.
Forensic conclusions
A preliminary post mortem report, based on an examination performed one week after Brown's death, stated "the death... was caused by suffocation as result of outflow of vomiting liquids into his respiratory tract," and noted that hashish was found in Brown's system through analysis of his blood and urine. The report of the Dubai authorities noted that Brown suffered irregular bruising on the left side of the forehead, as well as bruising on the nose and on the inner arm.
An examination of Brown's body by British officials one week later found no evidence that Brown had vomit in his airways. Another post-mortem examination was carried out ahead of the British inquest into his death by consultant pathologist, Dr Benjamin Swift in 2012, at the behest of Brown's family. Dr. Swift concluded that the finding about cannabis was "not relevant" – adding that the drug had not "caused or contributed to his death". However, Dr. Swift also discounted violent trauma as a possible cause of death, describing the bruising as "light".
An official inquest was conducted at Walthamstow Coroner's Court in East London, and this proceeding was attended by Brown's mother, Doris Shafi, his brother, Steven, and his sister-in-law Su Brown. Unusually, no witnesses were called and no other evidence other than the post mortem reports was permitted. No CCTV footage was released by the Dubai authorities, despite references to this footage in UAE press by the Chief of Police and others.
The coroner, Chinyere Inyama, rejected the efforts of barrister John Lofthouse, to draw attention away from the evidence by citing the conflicts between the forensic findings of Emirati and British officials, reminding him that his submissions bore no relevance to the inquest's role, which was limited to a determination of the cause of death. As such, the British coroner returned an open verdict, indicating that there was insufficient evidence to prove either an unlawful nor a natural cause of death, which effectively served to leave doubts about the circumstances of Lee Brown's death.
See also
2011 in the United Arab Emirates
Britons in the United Arab Emirates
List of unsolved deaths
United Arab Emirates–United Kingdom relations
References
1971 births
2010s in Dubai
2011 deaths
2011 in the United Arab Emirates
April 2011 events in Asia
Deaths by person in Asia
Tourism in Dubai
Unsolved deaths |
31608391 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Ahmad%20Sarbani%20Mohamed | Death of Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed | Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed was a Malaysian customs officer from Port Klang. On 6 April 2011, he was found dead in an open air badminton court on the first floor of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) building in Kuala Lumpur. His death coincided with the MACC's investigation into allegations of corruption in the Royal Malaysian Customs. The MACC insists that Ahmad Sarbani was not murdered, nor did he commit suicide, but rather fell to his death trying to escape from the building. In September 2011, the coroner's court ruled the death an accident.
Ahmad Sarbani's death came nearly two years after the death of Teoh Beng Hock in the custody of the MACC. A royal commission of inquiry ruled Teoh's death as suicide resulting from abusive behaviour by MACC officers, a verdict which was rejected by the victim's family.
Biography
Ahmad Sarbani bin Mohamed was the Selangor Customs assistant director. He was attached to the Port Klang Customs office. At the time of his death, Ahmad Sarbani was 56 years old. He is survived by his parents, his wife, and five children.
Events leading to death
On 29 March 2011, the MACC announced that it had uncovered a syndicate involved in tax evasion, money laundering and illegal money outflows worth RM108 billion. That figure was later revised to RM2.2 billion. A special task force comprising the MACC, the Inland Revenue Board, the Customs Department and Bank Negara Malaysia raided over 100 premises, including 25 Royal Malaysian Customs offices, in what was known as "Operation 3B."
Ahmad Sarbani was among 62 customs officers who were detained relation to the investigation. He was first detained on 1 April 2011. He was then picked up again by the MACC for questioning on 4 April. During this round of questioning, he confessed to accepting between RM50 and RM100 a month from Schenker Logistics officer Wan Zainal Abidin Wan Zaki and between RM30 and RM200 a month from a Top Mark Freight & Shipping officer called Ah Seng. After giving his statement, Sarbani was released on bail.
He returned to the MACC building on Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur at 8:26am on 6 April, apparently to change a statement he had previously given. The MACC maintains he had gone on his own accord without prior appointment. According to MACC accounts, Ahmad Sarbani was brought into a room on the third floor by an officer and disappeared a few minutes after 10:15am. He was then found dead in the open air badminton court on the first floor at 10:20am.
Police classified the case as sudden death.
Aftermath
In a press conference after the news emerged, MACC director of investigations Mustafar Ali said Ahmad Sarbani went to the MACC building without prior appointment. Two MACC investigating officers who met Ahmad Sarbani were suspended on 8 April. The MACC also announced that all business with accused persons, suspects, witnesses and complainants would be conducted only on the ground floor with heightened supervision.
None of the Customs officers initially held under the tax evasion and money laundering allegations has been charged.
Ahmad Sarbani's family lawyers denied allegations that he was involved in money laundering and rejected suggestions that he committed suicide.
Inquest
On 2 June 2011, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail agreed to hold an inquest into Ahmad Sarbani's death. The inquest was held from 4 to 15 July 2011 at the magistrate's court in Kuala Lumpur and continued on 2 August.
Family
Sarbani's wife, Maziah, told the court that her husband was "very calm, patient and rational" and would "never" have committed suicide.
Schenker Logistics
Schenker Logistics senior executive Wan Zainal Abidin Wan Zaki denied that Sarbani ever took bribes from his company. Zainal Abidin said Sarbani called him at 8:55pm on 4 April to tell him that his name was mentioned by Sarbani when questioned by the MACC. He also told the court he felt Sarbani was being pressured. Zainal Abidin last spoke to Sarbani at 9:55pm on 5 April to ask how he was.
Customs officers
Customs officer Abdul Rahim Abdul Kadir, who among those arrested in the MACC crackdown on tax evasion and money laundering, told the court that he was beaten and forced to confess to accepting bribes by the MACC. He said he lodged a police report on the incident then retracted it out of fear. Another Customs officer, Mohd Khairul Hisyam Mohd Gazali, said Sarbani told him on 2 April that he was pressured by the MACC to confess that he had accepted bribes but refused to give in.
Three of Sarbani's colleagues testified that Sarbani was calm and patient man with "high integrity."
MACC
Investigating officer Abdul Ghani Ali testified that he was under orders from KL MACC investigation unit head Mohd Fauzi Husin not to allow Sarbani to change his statement on 6 April. He said he ordered Sarbani to wait in the MACC office before Sarbani was found dead. Ghani also said: "Throughout my career, I think no one has confessed like this before. I’ve never met a suspect who confessed."
Assistant superintendent Mohd Rosly Mohd Saup testified that Sarbani denied accepting bribes from a Top Mark officer on 2 April.
Assistant superintendent Sheikh Niza Khairy Sheikh Mohamad said Sarbani confessed to him on 4 April to receiving "goodwill payments" and that Sarbani went to the MACC office two days later to change his statement.
Forensics
DSP Sharul Othman Mansor from the Bukit Aman Forensic Division said Sarbani fell 10 m to his death.
Forensic investigator DSP Sharul Othman Mansor told the court that Sarbani's death was neither suicide nor murder. He instead claimed that Sarbani tried to jump over the roof of the badminton court, but missed and fell to his death. Sharul added that there were no signs of a struggle and that an optical illusion made the roof appear near to the corner of the window.
Forensic pathologist Faridah Mohd Noor, who performed the autopsy, said the death was "accidental" based on "the injuries and circumstantial evidence."
Verdict
On 26 September 2011, the coroner's court ruled Sarbani's death an accident. Coroner Aizatul Akmal Maharani said the fear of being arrested must have preyed heavily on Ahmad Sarbani's mind so as to make him consider the window exit. Aizatul also remarked that the MACC officer tasked to look after Sarbani on 6 April had been "negligent."
Malaysia Today allegations
Prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin alleged on his Malaysia Today blog that Sarbani fell accidentally from the third-floor pantry window of the MACC building after being forced onto the ledge by a senior MACC officer. He claimed the MACC then went through great lengths, including "concoct[ing] the most plausible story" and wiping CCTV footage, to cover up the incident. Raja Petra also posted what appeared to be Sarbani's cautioned statement denying that he had ever received "additional profit" as a Customs officer.
Sarbani's family lawyer Awtar Singh said Raja Petra's allegations were "plausible [ada asasnya]."
The MACC's lawyer called the allegations "nonsense."
References
Mohamed Ahmad Sarbani
Mohamed Ahmad Sarbani
Political scandals in Malaysia
Malaysian prisoners and detainees
Deaths in police custody in Malaysia |
31778247 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Charlotte%20Shaw | Death of Charlotte Shaw | Charlotte Shaw was a fourteen-year-old British schoolgirl who drowned while crossing a swollen stream on Dartmoor during training for Ten Tors in 2007. Her death, the first to occur in connection with Ten Tors or one of its training expeditions, made national news headlines in the United Kingdom. She was with a group of students from Edgehill College trekking the route of Ten Tors in training for the main event when the group got into difficulties crossing a stream. Shaw slipped into the water and was washed downstream. She was located 20 minutes later by a Royal Navy search and rescue helicopter and airlifted to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where she died in the early hours of the next morning.
A police investigation concluded that nobody should be held criminally responsible for Shaw's death. The investigation was later criticised by the coroner, who adjourned the inquest and recommended that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reconsider the possibility of criminal charges. Three months later, however, the CPS reported that there was insufficient evidence to press charges and the inquest was resumed. After hearing testimony from eyewitnesses, including other members of Shaw's group, the inquest concluded with a narrative verdict in October 2010. In addition to the verdict, the coroner gave several recommendations for future activities of a similar nature. Among the recommendations were suggestions that both participants and the adult "team leaders" should receive better training.
On the same day Shaw died, 26 other participants had to be airlifted from the moor. The British Army, which organises Ten Tors, initially stated that the 2007 event would proceed as planned. However, in the light of severe weather and Shaw's death, it was abandoned halfway through. The rules for the event were modified before the 2007 event to allow teams to carry a mobile telephone for use in case of an emergency.
Background
Ten Tors is an annual event organised by the British Army in which groups of young people, between the ages of 14 and 20, trek a route of 35, 45 or 55 miles (depending on the age of the participant) across Dartmoor. The event started in 1960 with just over 200 teenagers taking part and has grown to include 2,400 teenagers from schools and youth organisations, mostly from the United Kingdom. The number of participants is capped at 2,400—400 groups of six—to minimise damage to the environment caused by the event. Participants start from the British Army training camp at Okehampton and are required to carry all their supplies for the trek and spend one night in a tent on the moor. Shaw's group, on a training expedition with dozens of other groups ahead of the main event, was accompanied by a teacher from Edgehill College designated the "team manager". All team managers undergo compulsory training, run by the Army and the Dartmoor Rescue Group, which involves trekking the route themselves.
Charlotte Shaw was a 14-year-old from Frithelstock, near Great Torrington, Devon. She was a student at Edgehill College, Bideford (after a merger in 2009, now Kingsley School, Bideford), where she was involved in various sporting activities run by the school, including captaining its netball and gymnastics teams. Shortly after Shaw's death was announced, the school released a statement in which it said "We are all shocked by the tragedy. [Shaw] was a delightful member of our school community". Shaw was part of a group of 10 students from Edgehill who, along with 84 other groups, were training on 4 March 2007 for Ten Tors, which is held every May. Her death is believed to be the first to occur during, or training for, Ten Tors.
Dartmoor is notorious for its rapidly changeable weather. There had been heavy rain in the 12 hours prior to the accident, causing rivers and streams on Dartmoor to swell much higher than their normal levels. On the same day, 26 other teenagers had to be airlifted from the moor due to the adverse weather.
Death
During the training expedition, Shaw's group came to Walla Brook at a crossing near Watern Tor in the north-east of Dartmoor. According to evidence given at Shaw's inquest in 2009, the group believed they had to cross because the alternative route would add at least four miles to the trek. Another member of the group got into difficulties crossing the stream, which, due to heavy rain, had swollen to approximately five times its normal size. The other group member removed her rucksack and passed it to Shaw. As Shaw, the last member of the group on her side of the stream, was throwing the rucksack across, she slipped and fell into the water.
Shaw was knocked unconscious and swept downstream. A third member of the group raised the alarm by mobile telephone by 14:05 (GMT), less than five minutes after Shaw had been swept away, and Devon and Cornwall Police, a Royal Navy helicopter and the Dartmoor Rescue Group were mobilised to search for Shaw. Believing that the weather conditions may be too bad for the helicopter to fly, members of the Dartmoor Rescue Group—a volunteer organisation which co-ordinates the four separate charities who undertake search and rescue operations on Dartmoor—set out on foot in an attempt to reach the scene of the accident.
Shaw was found by the Royal Navy helicopter, approximately 20 minutes after the alarm was raised, 150 metres downstream from where she had fallen in. Due to poor visibility as a result of heavy rain, the other members of her group had been unable to see her from where they were standing. There were two adults in the group. A member of the helicopter crew explained: "There were two people waving their jackets and pointing into the river. Initially we thought 'Why are they not in the water helping?' what looked like a child face down in the water. Seeing the fast-flowing river, and how dangerous it would have been for them, there was no alternative for them to wait for us to arrive."
The helicopter, from RNAS Culdrose, airlifted Shaw to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, but she died in the early of hours of 5 March. The cause of death was later established as cardiac arrest as a result of drowning.
Aftermath
Devon and Cornwall Police launched an investigation into the accident, saying in a statement, "There is absolutely no suggestion at all of wrongdoing. The police are here to fully investigate the circumstances and report them to the coroner." An inquest was opened and, three weeks later, the police investigation concluded that nobody should face criminal charges as a result of the accident. Shaw's funeral was held in Bideford Methodist Church on 21 March 2007 and was attended by hundreds of mourners.
The Army said in a statement that it had no plans to cancel the 2007 Ten Tors event; however, the event was abandoned halfway through due to "deteriorating weather conditions". A spokesman for the Dartmoor Rescue Group said that Shaw's death, which occurred in similar conditions, was a factor in the decision. For the first time, participants were allowed to carry one mobile telephone per group for use in an emergency. The Edgehill College team had been given special dispensation to enter a larger-than-normal team for the event in order to allow all the participants of the expedition on which Shaw died to take part. In light of Shaw's death, the North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team, one of four teams working under the umbrella organisation Dartmoor Rescue Group, developed a capability to conduct rescues from fast-flowing water, known as "swift-water" rescues.
Inquest
An inquest into Shaw's death commenced in Exeter shortly after her death was reported to the coroner. The inquest heard evidence in late 2009, among which was eyewitness testimony that the team manager, a teacher from Edgehill College, had met with the group the morning of Shaw's death. During the meeting, the group asked to end the training hike early, but they were instructed by the teacher to carry on. However, the group's navigator gave evidence that she and Shaw had been happy to continue the expedition. The possibility was also raised by other group members that the group was under-prepared for the conditions they faced. The group member whose bag Shaw had been attempting to throw across the stream told the coroner "We were not told how to cross swollen rivers. We were told how to check how deep it was but we were never told how to cross them. Nobody ever talked to us about using ropes".
The inquest was adjourned in December 2010, as the coroner, Elizabeth Earland, recommended that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reconsider criminal charges in the case. The CPS completed its review in April 2010 and concluded that there was insuffient evidence to pursue a criminal case. Devon and Cornwall Police were criticised by the coroner for their handling of the investigation, particularly regarding contradictory testimony by eyewitnesses. The force voluntarily referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) after the coroner's comments in December 2009, but, in January 2010, the IPCC decided not to open its own inquiry. A solicitor representing Shaw's family said in a statement that "No-one wanted criminal proceedings", but indicated that the family planned to take civil proceedings against Edgehill College for negligence.
The inquest concluded in October 2010. Earland, the Exeter and Greater Devon Coroner, recorded a narrative verdict and came up with several recommendations. Among the recommendations were that Ten Tors participants should undergo more than two training expeditions prior to the main event, that the team managers attain recognised qualifications and that the Health and Safety Executive ensure that independent schools adhere to the same safety standards as state schools. She went on to say that "It would be a tragedy if [Ten Tors] was to stop but the public need to be satisfied it is as safe as it reasonably can be, bearing in mind it is what it says, a challenge, not a survival exercise." After the inquest, Shaw's mother stated that she had been helped by the inquest, saying "I have found out the facts and I'm grateful for that but I am still looking for accountability and some kind of apology and acknowledgement".
Charlotte Shaw's mother subsequently sued Edgehill College and the teacher leading the expedition for negligence. The judgement given on 28 June 2012 found that the teacher had given clear instructions that the group should not attempt to cross Walla Brook but should instead go round it. It further found that the intervention of a passerby, who suggested that the group could cross the brook, had meant that the school could not be held responsible for the accident. It said that the failure of two teachers to meet up with the group as planned was not incompetence. The judge therefore rejected the claim.
In April 2013, Shaw's mother lost her appeal for damages against the school.
There is now a statue in her former school commemorating her.
References
2007 deaths
2007 in the United Kingdom
Deaths by person in England
March 2007 events in the United Kingdom |
32022320 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Michael%20Swindells | Death of Michael Swindells | DC Michael Swindells, was a British police officer who was stabbed to death on 21 May 2004 in Birmingham whilst attempting to arrest a suspect who had earlier threatened members of the public with a knife.
Background
Swindells lived in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire but was originally from Hyde, Greater Manchester. He was a former Royal Engineers lance corporal who had served with West Midlands Police for 14 years until his death.
Death
Swindells was stabbed once in the chest, penetrating his heart, while pursuing a suspect, known to be armed with a kitchen knife, on a towpath of the Tame Valley Canal underneath Gravelly Hill Interchange in Aston, Birmingham. The suspect had used the knife earlier in the day to threaten a carpenter carrying out routine repair work on a garden gate outside his council house, which led to Swindells and some of his colleagues later encountering the suspect on a park bench then pursuing him down the towpath for over half-a-mile. The officer's colleagues administered first aid after the stabbing but were unable to save him; the suspect was arrested later in a cemetery, three miles away, by armed police.
Aftermath
Glaister Earl Butler, a 48-year-old paranoid schizophrenic who resided in a council-owned maisonette in Nechells, Birmingham, was convicted of Swindells's manslaughter. He had been charged with murder but the jury accepted his defence of diminished responsibility. He was detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric hospital.
The jury in Butler's trial heard how he suffered intermittently with paranoid schizophrenia for between 15 and 20 years and had been treated in hospital, sometimes against his will, on more than one occasion in the previous four years, most recently in October 2001. The actions of Butler's treatment staff were criticised in an independent inquiry by Robert Francis, QC, in 2009. A total of 432 doses of the medication prescribed to Butler for his mental disorder were discovered unused in his home; he was allowed to get into financial difficulty by not renewing his housing benefit and owed rent money to the housing authority; and workers, including a consultant psychiatrist, visited Butler's residence only weeks before Swindells' death and observed a large knife on the sofa and damage to a door, but they accepted Butler's explanation that this was caused by martial arts practice and concluded wrongly that there was no cause for concern. Before the attack on Swindells the mental health services were called by police enquiring about Butler's condition and how dangerous he should be considered if officers encounter him, but staff were unable to give full and accurate details due to the poor state of the records.
Swindells was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal posthumously. The Police Memorial Trust erected a stone memorial to him in 2008 at the location of the incident (). The memorial was unveiled by the Trust's founder and chairman Michael Winner.
See also
List of British police officers killed in the line of duty
References
Recipients of the Queen's Gallantry Medal
2004 crimes in the United Kingdom
2004 in England
2000s in Birmingham, West Midlands
History of mental health in the United Kingdom
History of Birmingham, West Midlands
2008 in England
2004 deaths |
32122685 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Phillip%20Walters | Death of Phillip Walters | PC Phillip John Walters was a police officer in London's Metropolitan Police Service who was shot dead while investigating a domestic disturbance in Ilford, Essex, on 18 April 1995.
Background
After working as an air steward, Walters joined the Metropolitan Police Service in September 1993 and was posted to Ilford in February 1994.
Death
On 18 April 1995, Walters responded to reports of a domestic disturbance at a flat in Empress Avenue, Ilford, with his colleague Police Constable Derek Shepherd, who he had partnered in the job for the eighteen months since he entered service. Upon arrival, the pair discovered three men beating the male occupant of the property; it later transpired that they were hired to beat the man who was the former boyfriend of a woman. As the suspects attempted to escape, one produced a Smith & Wesson handgun and shot Walters in the chest as he was tackled by the officer. The bullet penetrated Walters' heart and he died later in hospital. A second shot grazed Shepherd's shoulder. Shepherd only managed to save himself by jamming his finger in front of the gun's hammer.
Aftermath
A 28-year-old man, thought to be a Jamaican illegal immigrant and named only as 'Ray Lee' (one of three aliases he used on his fake passports) was convicted of Walters' manslaughter at the Old Bailey in a second trial in June 1996 (an original trial collapsed when the jury became irrevocably split). Judge Ann Goddard sentenced 'Lee' to ten years imprisonment for the manslaughter of Walters (the maximum sentence which could have been imposed is 25 years) and an additional eight years for firearms offences, robbery and grievous bodily harm in the incident which led the officers to the Ilford flat. In a separate trial, the two other men who escaped the scene, and a woman, were convicted of lesser charges.
Walters' colleague Derek Shepherd returned to service ten months after the shooting, having suffered from stress, contributing to the breakdown of his marriage. Walters' girlfriend of four years at the time of his death emigrated to the United States and later married.
In 1997, the Police Memorial Trust erected a stone memorial dedicated to Walters near the place of his death in Empress Avenue, Ilford.
'Ray Lee' was released in 2007 having served 12 years of his 18-year sentence. He was reported to have been deported to Jamaica.
See also
List of British police officers killed in the line of duty
References
1995 crimes in the United Kingdom
1995 deaths
1995 in London
April 1995 events in the United Kingdom
Metropolitan Police officers
Metropolitan Police officers killed in the line of duty
1990s crimes in London
Deaths by person in London
Ilford
History of the London Borough of Redbridge |
32483227 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Lydia%20Schatz | Death of Lydia Schatz | Lydia Charity Schatz (March 15, 2002 – February 6, 2010) was a 7-year-old American child of Liberian origins who was killed in 2010 by her adoptive parents in an attempt to discipline her.
Background
Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz lived in Paradise, California, where they were raising and homeschooling their six biological and three adopted children. In 2007, they had adopted Lydia along with two other children from Liberia. Later that year, Kevin was interviewed in the family home by NBC 24 Action News regarding his love of children and the adoption process.
Murder
On February 5, 2010, Lydia Schatz received forceful and numerous whippings with a quarter-inch plastic tubing. She was held down for nine hours by Elizabeth and beaten dozens of times by Kevin on the back of her body, causing massive tissue damage according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. She was being disciplined for apparently mispronouncing a word. She died in the hospital on February 6, 2010. Her sister, Zariah, 11 years old, was also beaten for "being a liar and a bad influence on the 7 year old." Zariah was hospitalized in critical condition with severe injuries, but she survived.
Trial
The Schatzes told police they were following the teachings about child discipline of a fundamentalist Christian organization headed by Michael and Debi Pearl. Investigators say the Schatzes practiced a similar form of corporal punishment on their six biological children and were training their oldest daughter in the proper way to deliver spankings. Pearl's website, www.nogreaterjoy.org, suggests "A swift whack with the plastic tubing would sting but not bruise. Give ten licks at a time, more if the child resists."
Kevin Schatz was found guilty of second degree murder and torture and was sentenced to serve at least 22 years of imprisonment from two life sentences. Elizabeth Schatz was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and infliction of unlawful corporal punishment and was sentenced to serve at least 13 years of imprisonment.
See also
Adoption in the United States
Child discipline
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment in the home
Domestic violence
List of murdered American children
References
2002 births
2010 deaths
2010 murders in the United States
Child abuse resulting in death
Deaths by person in the United States
Murdered American children
American torture victims
Whipping
Crimes in California
2010 in California
Incidents of violence against girls |
32520576 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Vincent%20van%20Gogh | Death of Vincent van Gogh | The death of Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch post-Impressionist painter, occurred in the early morning of 29 July 1890, in his room at the Auberge Ravoux in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise in northern France. Two days earlier, Van Gogh is presumed to have shot himself.
Background
Early presentiments of a premature death
As early as 1883 Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: "... as to the time I still have ahead of me for work, I think I may safely presume that my body will hold up for a certain number of years... between 7-10, say", "... I should plan for a period of between 5 and 10 years..." Van Gogh authority Ronald de Leeuw interprets this as van Gogh "voic[ing] the presentiment that he himself had at most another ten years of life in which to realize his ideals."
Deteriorating mental health
In 1889, van Gogh experienced a deterioration in his mental health. As a result of incidents in Arles leading to a public petition, he was admitted to a hospital. His condition improved and he was ready to be discharged by March 1889, coinciding with the wedding of his brother Theo to Johanna Bonger. However, at the last moment his resolution failed him and he confided to Frédéric Salles, who served as an unofficial chaplain to the hospital's Protestant patients, that he wanted to be confined to an asylum. At Salles' suggestion van Gogh chose an asylum in nearby Saint-Rémy. Theo originally resisted this choice, even suggesting that Vincent rejoin Paul Gauguin in Pont Aven, but was eventually won over, agreeing to pay the asylum fees (requesting the cheapest third-class accommodation). Vincent entered the asylum in early May 1889. His mental condition remained stable for a while and he was able to work en plein air, producing many of his most iconic paintings, such as The Starry Night, at this time. However at the end of July, following a trip to Arles, he suffered a serious relapse that lasted a month. He made a good recovery, only to suffer another relapse in late December 1889, and early the following January an acute relapse while delivering a portrait of Madame Ginoux to her in Arles. This last relapse, described by Jan Hulsker as his longest and saddest, lasted until March 1890. In May 1890 Vincent was discharged from the asylum (the last painting he produced at the asylum was At Eternity's Gate, an image of desolation and despair), and after spending a few days with Theo and Jo in Paris, Vincent went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise, a commune north of Paris popular with artists.
Changing mood at Auvers from May 1890
Shortly before leaving Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh told how he was suffering from his stay in the hospital: "The surroundings here are beginning to weigh me down more than I can say... I need some air, I feel overwhelmed by boredom and grief."
On arriving at Auvers, van Gogh's health was still not very good. Writing on 21 May to Theo he comments: "I can do nothing about my illness. I am suffering a little just now—the thing is that after that long seclusion the days seem like weeks to me." But by 25 May, the artist was able to report to his mother that his health had improved and that the symptoms of his disease had disappeared. His letters to his sister Wilhelmina on 5 June and to Theo and his wife Jo on about 10 June indicate a continued improvement, his nightmares almost having disappeared.
On about 12 June, he wrote to his friends Mr and Mrs Ginoux in Arles, telling them how his health had suffered at Saint-Rémy but had since improved: "But latterly I had contracted the other patients' disease to such an extent that I could not be cured of my own. The other patients' society had a bad influence on me, and in the end I was absolutely unable to understand it. Then I felt I had better try a change, and for that matter, the pleasure of seeing my brother, his family and my painter friends again has done me a lot of good, and I am feeling completely calm and normal."
Furthermore, an unsent letter to Paul Gauguin which van Gogh wrote around 17 June is quite positive about his plans for the future. After describing his recent colourful wheat studies, he explains: "I would like to paint some portraits against a very vivid yet tranquil background. There are the greens of a different quality, but of the same value, so as to form a whole of green tones, which by its vibration will make you think of the gentle rustle of the ears swaying in the breeze: it is not at all easy as a colour scheme." On 2 July, writing to his brother, van Gogh comments: "I myself am also trying to do as well as I can, but I will not conceal from you that I hardly dare count on always being in good health. And if my disease returns, you would forgive me. I still love art and life very much..."
The first sign of new problems was revealed in a letter van Gogh wrote to Theo on 10 July. He first states, "I am very well, I am working hard, have painted four studies and two drawings," but then goes on to say, "I think that we must not count on Dr Gachet at all. First of all, he is sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much, so that's that... I don't know what to say. Certainly my last attack, which was terrible, was in a large measure due to the influence of the other patients." Later in the letter he adds, "For myself, I can only say at the moment that I think we all need rest—I feel like - a failure (in French Je me sens - raté)." In an even more despairing tone he adds: "And the prospect grows darker, I see no happy future at all."
In another letter to Theo on about 10 July, van Gogh explains: "I try to be fairly good-humoured in general, but my life too is threatened at its very root, and my step is unsteady too." He then comments on his current work: "I have painted three more large canvases. They are vast stretches of corn under troubled skies, and I did not have to go out of my way very much in order to try to express sadness and extreme loneliness." But he adds, "I'm fairly sure that these canvases will tell you what I cannot say in words, that is, how healthy and invigorating I find the countryside."
In a letter to his mother and sister written around 12 July, van Gogh again appears to be in a far more positive frame of mind: "I myself am quite absorbed in that immense plain with wheat fields up as far as the hills, boundless as the ocean, delicate yellow, delicate soft green, the delicate purple of a tilled and weeded piece of ground, with the regular speckle of the green of flowering potato plants, everything under a sky of delicate tones of blue, white, pink and violet. I am in a mood of almost too much calm, just the mood needed for painting this."
Theo recognised that Vincent was experiencing problems. In a letter dated 22 July 1890, he wrote, "I hope, my dear Vincent, that your health is good, and since you say that you write with difficulty, and don't talk about your work I am a little afraid that there is something troubling you or not going right." He went on to suggest that he consult his physician, Paul Gachet.
On 23 July, van Gogh wrote to his brother, stressing his renewed involvement in painting: "I am giving my canvases my undivided attention. I am trying to do as well as certain painters whom I have greatly loved and admired... Perhaps you will take a look at this sketch of Daubigny's garden—it is one of my most carefully thought-out canvases. I am adding a sketch of some old thatched roofs and the sketches of two size 30 canvases representing vast fields of wheat after the rain."
He returned to some of his earlier roots and subjects, and did many renditions of cottages.
The shooting
Adeline Ravoux, the innkeeper's daughter who was only 13 at the time, clearly recalled the incidents of July 1890. In an account written when she was 76, reinforced by her father's repeated reminders, she explains how on 27 July, Van Gogh left the inn after breakfast. When he had not returned by dusk, given the artist's regular habits, the family became worried. He finally arrived after nightfall, probably around 9 pm, holding his stomach. Adeline's mother asked whether there was a problem. Van Gogh started to answer with difficulty, "No, but I have..." as he climbed the stairs up to his room. Her father thought he could hear groans and found Van Gogh curled up in bed. When he asked whether he was ill, Van Gogh showed him a wound near his heart, explaining during the night, Van Gogh admitted he had set out for the wheat field where he had recently been painting, and attempted suicide by shooting himself.
Adeline goes on to explain how her father sent Anton Hirschig, also a Dutch artist staying in the inn, to alert the local physician, who proved to be absent. He then called on Gachet, van Gogh's friend and physician, who dressed the wound but left immediately, considering it a hopeless case. Her father and Hirschig spent the night at van Gogh's bedside. The artist sometimes smoked, sometimes groaned but remained silent almost all night long, dozing off from time to time. The following morning, two gendarmes visited the inn, questioning van Gogh about his attempted suicide. In response, he simply replied: "My body is mine and I am free to do what I want with it. Do not accuse anybody, it is I that wished to commit suicide."
As soon as the post office opened on Monday morning, Adeline's father sent a telegram to van Gogh's brother, Theo, who arrived by train during the afternoon. Adeline Ravoux explains how the two of them watched over van Gogh who fell into a coma and died at about one o'clock in the morning; his death certificate records the time of death as 1.30 am. In a letter to his sister Lies, Theo told of his brother's feelings just before his death: "He himself wanted to die. When I sat at his bedside and said that we would try to get him better and that we hoped that he would then be spared this kind of despair, he said, "La tristesse durera toujours" (The sadness will last forever). I understood what he wanted to say with those words."
In her memoir of December 1913, Theo's wife Johanna refers first to a letter from her husband after his arrival at Vincent's bedside: "He was glad that I came and we are together all the time... Poor fellow, very little happiness fell to his share, and no illusions are left him. The burden grows too heavy at times, he feels so alone..." And after his death, he wrote: "One of his last words was, 'I wish I could pass away like this,' and his wish was fulfilled. A few moments and all was over. He had found the rest he could not find on earth..."
Émile Bernard, an artist and friend of van Gogh, who arrived in Auvers on 30 July for the funeral, tells a slightly different story, explaining that van Gogh went out into the countryside on the Sunday evening, "left his easel against a haystack and went behind the château and fired a revolver shot at himself." He tells how van Gogh had said that "his suicide had been absolutely deliberate and that he had done it in complete lucidity... When Dr Gachet told him that he still hoped to save his life, van Gogh replied, 'Then I'll have to do it over again.'"
The funeral
In addition to the account given by Adeline Ravoux, Émile Bernard's letter to Albert Aurier provides details of the funeral which was held in the afternoon of 30 July 1890. Van Gogh's body was set out in "the painter's room" where it was surrounded by the "halo" of his last canvases and masses of yellow flowers including dahlias and sunflowers. His easel, folding stool and brushes stood before the coffin. Among those who arrived in the room were artists Lucien Pissarro and Auguste Lauzet. The coffin was carried to the hearse at three o'clock. The company climbed the hill outside Auvers in hot sunshine, Theo and several of the others sobbing pitifully. The little cemetery with new tombstones was on a little hill above fields that were ripe for harvest. Dr Gachet, trying to suppress his tears, stammered out a few words of praise, expressing his admiration for an "honest man and a great artist... who had only two aims, art and humanity."
Controversy of Naifeh and Smith biography
In 2011, authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith published a biography, Van Gogh: The Life, in which they challenged the conventional account of the artist's death. In the book, Naifeh and Smith argue that it was unlikely for van Gogh to have killed himself, noting the upbeat disposition of the paintings he created immediately preceding his death; furthermore, in private correspondence, van Gogh described suicide as sinful and immoral. The authors also question how van Gogh could have travelled the mile-long (about 2 km) distance between the wheat field and the inn after sustaining the fatal stomach wound, how van Gogh could have possibly obtained a gun despite his well-known mental health problems, and why van Gogh's painting gear was never found by the police.
Naifeh and Smith developed an alternative hypothesis in which van Gogh did not commit suicide, but rather was a possible victim of accidental manslaughter or foul play. Naifeh and Smith point out that the bullet entered van Gogh's abdomen at an oblique angle, not straight as might be expected from a suicide. They claim that van Gogh was acquainted with the boys who may have shot him, one of whom was in the habit of wearing a cowboy suit, and had gone drinking with them. Naifeh said: "So you have a couple of teenagers who have a malfunctioning gun, you have a boy who likes to play cowboy, you have three people probably all of whom had too much to drink." Naifeh concluded that "accidental homicide" was "far more likely". The authors contend that art historian John Rewald visited Auvers in the 1930s, and recorded the version of events that is widely believed. The authors postulate that after he was fatally wounded, van Gogh welcomed death and believed the boys had done him a favour, hence his widely quoted deathbed remark: "Do not accuse anyone... it is I who wanted to kill myself."
On 16 October 2011, an episode of the TV news magazine 60 Minutes aired a report exploring the contention of Naifeh and Smith's biography. Some credence has been given to the theory by van Gogh experts, who cite an interview with French businessman René Secrétan recorded in 1956, in which he admitted to tormenting—but not actually shooting—the artist. Nonetheless, this new biographical account has been greeted with some scepticism.
Sceptic Joe Nickell also was not convinced and offered alternative explanations. In the July 2013 issue of the Burlington Magazine, two of the research specialists from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Louis van Tilborgh and Teio Meedendorp, present a theory that at the time of his death, van Gogh was in a troubled state, both personally (mentally and physically) and with his relations with his brother, Theo, and in danger for suicide. They also present alternative explanations to the theories presented by Naifeh and Smith.
In 2014, at Smith and Naifeh's request, handgun expert Vincent Di Maio reviewed the forensic evidence surrounding Van Gogh's shooting. Di Maio noted that to shoot himself in the left abdomen Van Gogh would have had to have held the gun at a very awkward angle, and that there would have been black powder burns on his hands and tattooing and other marks on the skin around the wound, none of which is noted in the contemporary report. Di Maio gave his conclusion that "It is my opinion that, in all medical probability, the wound incurred by Van Gogh was not self-inflicted. In other words, he did not shoot himself."
and to which Nickell responded, unconvinced.
The 2017 film Loving Vincent drew heavily on Smith and Naifeh's theory; it is also the account presented in the 2018 film At Eternity's Gate.
Selection of van Gogh's final works
Van Gogh was particularly productive during his last few weeks in Auvers, completing over 70 paintings as well as a number of drawings and sketches. They cover landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Some of them appear to reflect his increasing loneliness while many others, with their bright colours, convey a more positive attitude. The letters he wrote during his last two months offer a considerable amount of background on van Gogh's relentless will to paint coupled with frequent periods of despondency.
References
Further reading
Jan Hulsker, Vincent and Theo van Gogh: A Dual Biography, Fuller Publications, 1990, .
Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith: Van Gogh: The Life, Random House, 2011, 976 pages.
Ronald Pickvance: Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers (exhibition catalog Metropolitan Museum of Art), New York: Abrams, 1986.
Wouter Van Der Veen, Axel Ruger: Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days, Monacelli Press, 2010, 304 pages. .
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov: Van Gogh in Provence and Auvers, Universe, 2008, 320 pages.
External links
"Vincent van Gogh and Auvers-sur-Oise" with an account of Van Gogh's last weeks, his paintings from Auvers, and the relevant correspondence.
1890 in France
Deaths by person in France
July 1890 events
Painters who committed suicide
Suicides by firearm in France
Death |
32583938 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Kelly%20Thomas | Death of Kelly Thomas | Kelly Thomas (April 5, 1974 – July 10, 2011) was a homeless man diagnosed with schizophrenia who lived on the streets of Fullerton, California. He died five days after struggling with six members of the Fullerton Police Department that he encountered on July 5, 2011, in what was later described as "one of the worst police beatings in [US] history."
Medical records show that bones in his face were broken and he choked on his own blood. The coroner concluded that compression of the thorax made it impossible for Thomas to breathe normally and deprived his brain of oxygen. Officer Manuel Ramos was charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter; Corporal Jay Cicinelli and Officer Joseph Wolfe were each charged with one count of felony involuntary manslaughter and one count of excessive force. All three pleaded not guilty.
A judge declined to dismiss the charges against the officers in January 2013, finding that "a reasonable person could infer that the use of force was excessive and unreasonable." An appeals court judge also denied a request to overturn the lower court's decision. On January 13, 2014, Ramos and Cicinelli were found not guilty of all charges, while the trial for Wolfe was pending. Following the verdict for the two officers, the district attorney's office announced it would not pursue the case against Wolfe. On January 17, 2014, charges against Wolfe were dropped.
As summarized by the Orange County Register in 2020, "the name Kelly Thomas has become synonymous with police brutality and a rallying cry for reforms in how law enforcement treats the homeless." The incident motivated various changes in the treatment of homeless and mentally ill persons in Fullerton and elsewhere in California.
Background
Kelly Thomas was born April 5, 1974, to Ron Thomas, a former Orange County Sheriff's deputy, and Cathy Thomas. Thomas, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was a "fixture" among Fullerton's homeless population. The death of Thomas has sparked debate about systemic reforms in treatment of the mentally ill.
Between 1990 and 2011, Thomas had 92 encounters with the police. These encounters ranged from minor infractions such as trespassing to a guilty plea in an assault with a deadly weapon case sixteen years prior.
Manuel Ramos, one of the police officers who would later be arrested on murder charges for his beating of Thomas, had been put on a performance improvement plan due to having made comments in January 2010 that were found to violate the standards of the Fullerton police department.
Incident
On July 5, 2011, at about 8:30 PM, officers of the Fullerton Police Department responded to a call from the management of the Slidebar that someone was vandalizing cars near the Fullerton Transportation Center. While investigating, they encountered the shirtless and disheveled Thomas and attempted to search him. According to statements given by the officers, Thomas was uncooperative and resisted when they attempted to search him, so backup was called. "Now you see my fists?" officer Manuel Ramos asked Thomas while slipping on a pair of latex gloves. "Yeah, what about them?" Thomas responded. "They are getting ready to fuck you up," said Ramos, to which Thomas replied, "Start punching, dude". A video of the event surfaced. Thomas can be seen being uncooperative with the officers, but sitting and being non-aggressive. After the officers grab Thomas to arrest him for stolen mail they apparently found, Thomas can be heard repeatedly screaming in pain while officers are heard repeatedly asking him to place his arms behind his back. He audibly responds "Okay, I'm sorry!" and "I'm trying!" while the officers stretch his arm back. The police officers claim that, unable to get Thomas to comply with the requests, they used a taser on him (up to five times according to a witness statement, and the video footage), and in the video Thomas can be heard screaming for his father. Six officers were involved in subduing Thomas, who was unarmed. At one point, Officer Ramos can be heard saying, “I just smashed his face to hell.” After repeatedly hitting Thomas with the blunt end of his flashlight. Thomas was initially taken to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton but was transferred immediately to the UC Irvine Medical Center with severe injuries to his head, face, and neck. One of the paramedics testified that he was first instructed to attend to a police officer's minor injury and then noticed Thomas lying unconscious in a pool of blood.
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas gave a detailed account of the events during a press conference on September 21, 2011. Using digital audio recording devices carried by the officers, surveillance video from a pole camera at the Fullerton Transportation Center, and other evidence, Rackauckas provided evidence that Thomas did comply with orders from Ramos. Rackauckas went on to describe how Thomas begged for his life, before being struck repeatedly by the officers. He was admitted to the hospital, slipped into a coma, and his parents removed him from life support five days later on July 10, 2011, without him having regained consciousness.
Aftermath
The story of his beating broke shortly before his death. An investigation into the beating was undertaken by the Orange County district attorney starting on July 7, 2011, and later the FBI became involved. The decision to involve the FBI was praised by the American Civil Liberties Union, which stated that the Orange County district attorney had an "abysmal" record when investigating shootings with police involvement.
Kelly Thomas was removed from life support and died on July 10, 2011, five days after the beating. Initial reports claimed that Thomas had been very combative with officers and two had suffered broken bones. Later, the police department confirmed that no officers had suffered any broken bones, and that no one other than Thomas had any significant injuries. Department supervisors were criticized for allowing the involved officers to watch the video of the incident before writing their reports. In 2020, it was also revealed supervisors had subsequently made changes to these reports.
On July 18, 2011, a large protest outside the Fullerton Police Department was organized by several people, including the victim's father Ron Thomas.
On August 2, 2011 many members of the public spoke out about the beating at the biweekly city council meeting at the Fullerton City Hall. Over 70 members of the public spoke to the city council, the vast majority of whom criticized the police. Among the speakers was Ron Thomas, the father of Kelly Thomas, as well as Kelly Thomas's stepmother. The public comment session lasted for approximately three hours. The city attorney emphasized that the city council could not respond to the comments, however following the public comment period discussion was given to provide clarification on the city's policy regarding the mentally ill. In addition, Tony Bushala, a local developer and conservative activist, announced plans to recall three members of the city council thought to have responded insufficiently to the beating, which succeeded the following year.
On August 6, 2011, a large street protest was held outside of the Fullerton City Hall. Activists at that protest, which was attended by hundreds of people, called for the release of a surveillance video shot by cameras installed at the bus depot and carried signs with slogans like "Jail All Killer Cops" and "End Police Brutality."
Criminal lawsuits
In late September 2011, the officers involved were arrested on murder charges. Local law enforcement personnel showed support by raising money for their bail and criminal defense.
Thirty days after the incident all six officers involved in the beating were placed on administrative leave with pay and benefits intact. Several people, including two members of the Fullerton City Council, called for the resignation of police Chief Michael Sellers, who was later placed on medical leave in August 2011 for undisclosed reasons. Sellers continued his medical leave for 7 months and resigned on February 18, 2012 having never returned to work. 19,948 people signed an online petition calling for the firing of all six police officers that were present during the beating.
In an October 2011 televised interview with PBS SoCal, Fullerton City Councilman Bruce Whitaker stated his belief that there was a cover-up of the beating of Thomas within the police department and that the six officers involved in the beating falsified their reports on the incident.
A preliminary hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence for a trial was held on May 9, 2012. The court ordered that two of the police officers involved will stand trial. Manuel Ramos was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and Jay Cicinelli was charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony use of excessive force. Both officers pleaded not guilty at the second arraignment on July 13, 2012. Attempts by the defendants to dismiss the charges were denied. In September 2012, Officer Joseph Wolfe was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and use of excessive force.
On May 16, 2012, press reports indicated that the Fullerton City Council had agreed to pay Thomas' mother one million dollars as a settlement of her civil complaints against the city. This did not impact the ongoing civil actions by Thomas' father or the criminal trial.
Trials for Cicinelli and Ramos were scheduled to begin October 18, 2013, but actually began on December 2, 2013. On January 13, 2014, Manuel Ramos was acquitted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 death of Thomas. Jay Cicinelli was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force. After the verdicts, the District Attorney's office announced that it would not proceed with Wolfe's trial.
The protests picked up again after the acquittals. On January 18, 2014, 14 people were arrested for protesting after ignoring a dispersal order from the police.
On January 23, 2017, federal prosecutors announced that they would not bring charges against former officers Ramos, Cicinelli and Wolfe for violating Thomas' civil rights.
Slidebar Kitchen involvement
In June 2012, Michael Reeves, a former employee of the Slidebar Rock-N-Roll Kitchen, filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination against Jeremy Popoff related to the beating. The Slidebar, which is owned by Popoff, the guitarist for Lit, was the source of the call that caused police to report to the area and confront Thomas. Reeves, a bouncer at the establishment, made statements to investigators claiming the Slidebar had a policy to do "anything necessary" to keep loiterers out of the area and that his manager lied about Thomas breaking into cars when calling the police to get them to respond more quickly. He further claimed that Thomas was only loitering in the area that night and not causing trouble. Soon after making statements to investigators about what he saw that night he claimed his managers were "furious at him for it" and slowly started taking away his responsibilities, culminating with his firing two months later. Reeves also claimed that Popoff wanted everyone working at the Slidebar to act as if the "Slidebar had nothing to do" with the beating of Thomas, and that his refusal to echo these statements is the chief reason for his firing. Eric Dubin, an attorney representing the Slidebar and Popoff, claimed the suit was without merit and that it should be quickly dismissed. Dubin claimed that "This whole thing is all copy from blogs and sold to some lawyer" and that, while the call did originate from the Slidebar, "that she [the manager] never used the phrase 'breaking into cars.'" Dubin further claimed that "Everything in that lawsuit is 100 percent false" and the real reason Reeve was fired was because of a confrontation with a manager in front of customers. On June 12, 2012, Ron Thomas organized a small gathering outside of the Slidebar to protest the false report made to police. Thomas and Popoff spoke at the event and Thomas later said that if the report was correct, "then I have no beef" but that if there were any inconsistencies then "I have to do what I have to do".
One day after this statement, on June 13, 2012, after months of denials, Slidebar owner Jeremy Popoff stated on KFI's John and Ken Show that one of his employees did, in fact, call police the night Kelly Thomas was beaten. He declined to say what the employee reported, citing the criminal investigation into Thomas' death, but said a recording of the call had been reviewed by the District Attorney's Office and other investigators. Popoff and his lawyer denied the claims of an anti-homeless policy during a press conference.
The issue was eventually resolved in a settlement.
Cause of death
On September 21, 2011, Orange County district attorney Tony Rackauckas held a press conference to announce the results of the investigation. Rackauckas announced that according to the Orange County coroner, the cause of death was "asphyxia caused by mechanical chest compression with blunt cranial-facial injuries sustained during physical altercation with law enforcement." Rackauckas said Thomas died because of the force of the officers on his chest, which made it impossible for him to breathe, causing Thomas to become unconscious. He then became comatose, and he died when taken off life support five days later.
According to Rackauckas, the coroner stated that the injuries to Thomas' face and head contributed to his death. Also contributing to his death were brain injuries, facial and rib fractures, and the extensive bruising and abrasions he suffered during the beating, which left him lying in a "growing pool of blood", Rackauckas said. The toxicology report shows that Thomas had no illicit drugs or alcohol in his system. Thomas was bleeding severely, and struggled while pleading, "I can't breathe", and "Dad, help me." The DA stated that the officers did not reduce their level of force during the nearly 10-minute assault.
In contrast, Dr. Gary Vilke, a professor of clinical emergency medicine at UC San Diego, testified for the defense during the trial. He had investigated in-custody deaths for 20 years and has published studies on "mechanical compression." He testified, "I know he was breathing when the officers got off him because he was still talking." "As far as the cause of death, it's not asphyxiation." The defense also implied medical treatment could have played a part in Thomas's death (hospital records reportedly showed that a tube placed down his windpipe to assist his breathing had been pushed too far). The prosecution dismissed these claims, saying they did not apply and their value was not great enough.
Civil lawsuits by parents
Within days after the incident, Ron Thomas, the father of Kelly Thomas, retained noted personal injury and civil rights attorney Garo Mardirossian to represent him in a civil action against the City of Fullerton and the involved officers. Atty. Mardirossian held several press conferences to address bringing criminal charges against Officer Manuel Ramos, Corporal Jay Cicinelli, and Officer Joseph Wolfe, and the civil lawsuit filed against the City. These press conferences aired locally, nationally, and internationally, heightening public interest, and imposing pressure on the Orange County District Attorney to file criminal charges.
In the civil proceedings, Cathy Thomas, the mother of Kelly Thomas, settled for $1 million. Cathy Thomas was represented by another lawyer.
Despite the subsequent verdicts in favor of Officer Ramos and Corporal Cicinelli, Mr. Mardirossian obtained a $4.9 million settlement just before Manuel Ramos, the chief perpetrator, was to testify in the civil jury trial. The settlement precluded the officers who were fired from being re-hired by Fullerton Police Department.
Recall election
The recall election against Don Bankhead, F. Dick Jones, and Pat McKinley, three members of the city council thought to have responded insufficiently to the beating, qualified on the ballot in February 2012 and was scheduled for June 5, 2012, consolidated with the statewide primary election. All three council members were successfully recalled by Fullerton residents. Each was voted out by an almost identical majority of nearly 66%. Their replacements were: Travis Kiger, a planning commissioner and blogger for the site Friends for Fullerton's Future, who filled Jones' term, which expired December 4, 2012; Greg Sebourn, a land surveyor, who filled Bankhead's term, which also ended December 4; and attorney Doug Chaffee, who filled McKinley's term, which ended December 2, 2012. All were sworn into office in July 2012. Tony Bushala, a leading organizer of the Fullerton recall election, said he was seeking accountability for Kelly Thomas' death. The city's other two council members did not face a recall.
Employment termination
On July 3, 2012, Ramos' employment was terminated. According to a statement issued by Fullerton Police, Joe Wolfe was no longer employed by the department as of July 16, 2012. Jay Cicinelli was no longer employed by Fullerton Police as of July 20, 2012.
As of 2018, Wolfe and Cicinelli were suing over their termination in the Orange County Superior Court, alleging that Fullerton city council had been unconstitutionally biased against them.
Response by Anonymous
In August 2011, the Internet activist group Anonymous demanded that the officers involved be prosecuted, the Fullerton Police Chief resign, and that Thomas's family be awarded $5 million in compensation; they threatened to shut down the Fullerton municipal website if their demands were not met. In January 2014, after the police officers involved were acquitted, Anonymous released their personal addresses, as well as the identities of the jurors. On January 18 and 19, Anonymous disabled several websites belonging to or run by Fullerton Police and municipality.
2020 document release
In May 2020, the city of Fullerton published 2,400 pages of documents about the Kelly Thomas case, as required by the recently enacted SB 1421 law.
See also
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States
References
External links
Ramos, Cicinelli et al (FPD No. 11-38750) 2020 document releases by the city of Fullerton
Fullerton Stories has a brief write up about Thomas' life
Friends For Fullerton, a blog with extensive coverage of the event
"Full, unedited Kelly Thomas confrontation video (35 min.)" on YouTube, published by the Orange County Register
1974 births
2011 deaths
Criminal trials that ended in acquittal
Deaths by beating in the United States
Deaths in police custody in the United States
Homeless people
People from Fullerton, California
History of Orange County, California
People with schizophrenia
Victims of police brutality
2011 in California
Deaths by person in the United States
Filmed killings by law enforcement
Fullerton, California
Law enforcement in California
Law enforcement controversies in the United States |
32592259 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Nina%20Mackay | Death of Nina Mackay | WPC Nina Alexandra Mackay was a police officer serving with London's Metropolitan Police Service who was fatally stabbed on 24 October 1997 by a man with paranoid schizophrenia she was attempting to arrest. She is the only female police officer in Great Britain to have been stabbed to death while on duty and her killing was the first of a female officer since the murder of Yvonne Fletcher in 1984.
Background
Mackay was from Essex, the only daughter of Sidney MacKay, a former chief superintendent with the Metropolitan Police Service. She attended Davenant Foundation School, Loughton, Essex from 1983-1990.
Mackay joined the Metropolitan Police and served in the service's Territorial Support Group for five years until her death.
Death
On 24 October 1997, Mackay went with colleagues to a property in Arthingworth Street in Stratford, east London, to arrest a man who was in breach of bail conditions.
After removing her protective vest for ease of movement and then forcing entry into the bedsit, Mackay led her colleagues into the hallway, where she was confronted by a man armed with a knife with a seven-and-a-half-inch blade. He stabbed the officer once in the abdomen. She was taken to hospital by ambulance but died two hours later from her injuries. The suspect was arrested and later charged with her murder.
Aftermath
At the Old Bailey in October 1998, Magdi Elgizouli, an unemployed man with paranoid schizophrenia was convicted of Mackay's manslaughter. The British-born 30-year-old of Sudanese origin had been charged with murder but the jury accepted his defence of diminished responsibility. He was detained indefinitely, initially at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire and later at St. Bernard's Hospital in west London.
It was subsequently reported that prior to killing Mackay, Elgizouli had served time in prison for shoplifting, was on bail for assaulting a police officer and possessing a knife, and had stopped taking his medication for his schizophrenia. He had also smoked cannabis, which had apparently exacerbated his condition, and he had an expressed hatred of the police.
A 1999 inquiry into Mackay's death criticized the Metropolitan Police for not attempting to have a family member persuade Elgizouli to leave the flat peacefully, and recommended that mentally ill people should be given greater support and that guidance on helping patients take their medication needed to be improved. Despite calls from Mackay's family, the report did not recommend that patients be compelled to take their medication.
In 2008, Elgizouli was granted day-release from his secure unit for four hours per week, plus a further five hours once each month to visit his brother. After four years of occasional day-release, in 2012, it was reported that Elgizouli was to be moved from the secure unit to a community hostel with full freedom of movement. Due to his expressed hatred of the police, he was to be housed in a suburban area of London with few police on patrol.
Memorials
In 1998, the Police Memorial Trust erected a memorial to Mackay at the place on Arthingworth Street in Stratford where she was stabbed. The memorial was unveiled by the then prime minister, Tony Blair.
The Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit has a Botnia Targa 31 boat named Nina Mackay II and there is a road in Stratford called Nina Mackay Close.
See also
List of British police officers killed in the line of duty
References
1997 in London
1990s crimes in London
Deaths by person in London
Deaths by stabbing in London
History of mental health in the United Kingdom
October 1997 events in the United Kingdom |
32965083 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Rebecca%20Zahau | Death of Rebecca Zahau | Rebecca Mawii Zahau (March 15, 1979 – July 13, 2011), also known as Rebecca Nalepa, was found hanging at the Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California on July 13, 2011, and pronounced dead by first responders called to the residence. Zahau's death occurred two days after 6-year-old Max Shacknai, the son of her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai, had fallen from the staircase of the mansion and was in critical condition in a hospital. Rebecca and her younger sister, Xena, were the only known people present at the time of Max's fall. Subsequently on July 16, 2011, Max Shacknai died of his injuries.
San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore announced on September 2, 2011, that Zahau's death was a suicide while the younger Shacknai's death had been ruled an accident, and that neither was the result of foul play. Members of Zahau's family disputed this finding and filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against Jonah Shacknai's brother Adam. The jury in that civil trial found Adam Shacknai responsible for Zahau's death and granted her family a $5 million judgment for loss of love and companionship as well as an additional $167,000 for the loss of financial support Zahau would have provided her mother and siblings.
In February 2019, Shacknai appealed the judgment with the defense arguing procedural errors and juror misconduct. Prior to final arguments being presented to the judge, Shacknai's insurance company and the Zahau family reached a settlement of $600,000 resulting in the civil case being dismissed with prejudice, and vacating the original $5m judgment.
Background
Rebecca Zahau (born March 15, 1979), was of Burmese immigrant origin. She was born in Falam, Chin State, a town in the Chin Hills in northwestern Burma, to her father Khua Hnin Thang and mother Zung Tin Par (also known as Pari). Zahau came from a family of Chin ethnicity and was raised as a Protestant. After living in Nepal and Germany, Zahau moved to the U.S. about ten years before her death. Zahau's parents and most family members live in Saint Joseph, Missouri. She had an older sister, Mary Zahau-Loehner; a younger sister, Snowem Horwath, who lives in Germany; and a teenage sister, Xena Zahau, among other siblings.
In August 2009, Zahau was arrested for shoplifting after stealing $1,000 worth of jewelry from a Macy's in Phoenix, Arizona, to which she pled guilty. In 2002, she married then-36-year-old nursing student Neil Nalepa of Scottsdale, Arizona; they divorced in February 2011. She worked as an ophthalmic technician until quitting in December 2010.
In 2008, Zahau began dating Jonah Shacknai, the CEO of Medicis Pharmaceutical, while she was still married to Nalepa. Shacknai's position at Medicis made him the ninth-highest-paid CEO in Arizona, earning $6.4 million in 2010. He had two previous marriages. His first marriage to Kimberly James resulted in a divorce and a three-year custody fight over the couple's two children. He had a son, Maxfield Aaron "Max" Shacknai (June 7, 2005 – July 16, 2011), with second wife Dina Romano.
Overview
Max's death
On July 11, 2011, Zahau, Max, and Zahau's teenaged sister, Xena, were at the Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California, which Shacknai used as a summer estate. At some point during that day, Max fell face-first over a second-floor banister, suffering injuries to his spinal cord and facial bones, the former of which affected his heart rate and breathing. Zahau said she was in the bathroom at the time; she found Max moments later, and Xena called 9-1-1. Max was not breathing and unresponsive, and was taken to Rady Children's Hospital. He died on July 16 due to brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation resulting from his injuries.
On July 26, investigators ruled the boy's death as an accident, speculating that he somehow tripped. However, a trauma doctor who examined Max prior to his death and autopsy stated to police that he did not believe the injuries from his fall were consistent with the cardiac arrest and brain swelling experienced by him, suggesting that Max may have suffocated prior to his fall.
Zahau’s death
On July 12, 2011, Zahau dropped off Xena at the airport for her flight back to Missouri, and then picked up Shacknai's brother, Adam, who had just arrived on a flight from Memphis, Tennessee. Zahau, Shacknai, and Adam ate dinner with a friend named Howard that evening. Zahau and Adam returned to the Spreckels Mansion, while Jonah reportedly kept a vigil at Max's bedside with Max's mother, Dina Romano; he would leave the hospital to recuperate at a nearby Ronald McDonald House. There were reports of loud music coming from the Spreckels Mansion later that night.
On the morning of July 13, at roughly 6:45 AM, Adam stated that he found Zahau's nude body hanging from a balcony, with her wrists and ankles bound and her hands behind her back. Zahau was gagged with a blue long-sleeve T-shirt wrapped around her head, with the sleeves double knotted and stuffed into her mouth. There was also what appeared to be tape residue on her legs.
Adam called 9-1-1 at 6:48 AM, then sent a text message to his brother to inform him of the news. He cut down Zahau's body before the police arrived. Medics attempted to revive her, but pronounced her dead at the scene. Police initiated forensic and toxicology testing on her body as part of an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Speculations of foul play began early on in the case; however, investigators were unable to find any other DNA at the scene besides Zahau's. On September 2, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department formally announced their finding that Zahau committed suicide.
Evidence considered
Zahau's autopsy results revealed four instances of head trauma, about which investigators and outside commentators expressed various theories. San Diego Medical Examiner Jonathan Lucas stated that "because there was evidence that she went over the balcony in a non-vertical position, she may have struck her head on the balcony on the way down." Werner Spitz, an expert witness who testified during the trial of Casey Anthony, said it was a possibility, stating, "When the body first dropped, she doesn't necessarily jump to her death, so she would drop directly downward and she could easily hit against the side of the structure from which she is hanging." However, he noted that to draw stronger conclusions he would have preferred to see what the body looked like before the wrist bindings were removed. Forensic consultant Dr. Maurice Godwin expressed doubt, stating, "The chances of bumping into the railing, going over the balcony and hitting your head four times is highly unlikely."
A second autopsy on Zahau was conducted by pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht at her family's request. Wecht testified that he believed fractures in Zahau's throat were caused by manual strangulation, not by suicidal hanging. He further stated that he thought Zahau's death "was a homicide." An attorney for Zahau's family stated that other inaccuracies were found with the Sheriff's Department investigation, including evidence that indicated that Zahau was sexually assaulted before her death.
Family members expressed suspicions for why Zahau's hands and feet were bound. San Diego Sheriff Roy Frank stated, "There are documentations of incidents throughout the country where people have secured their feet and hands as well to commit suicide," to prevent themselves from changing their minds. Police re-enacted the scenario in an effort to determine whether it would have been possible for Zahau to bind herself in that fashion, and showed a video demonstration in which a woman wrapped a rope around her hands several times in front of her, slipped one hand out of the binding, then placed her hands behind her back, rebound them, and tightened the bindings with the aid of a string similar to the one which police found in Zahau's hands.
A message had been painted on the door of the room leading to the balcony below where police found Zahau's body; according to Zahau's ex-husband Nalepa, it read, "She saved him, can he save her." Officials initially declined to confirm this. In media comments, Sheriff Gore only stated that it was "not a clear suicide note"; however, investigators took it as further evidence of suicide. Zahau liked to paint as a hobby and had signed her paintings in the past; her siblings contended that the message did not match her handwriting. Nalepa also stated the note "did not appear to be something [Zahau] would have written."
Police served Verizon and AT&T with search warrants to obtain cell phone billing records, and took Zahau's Samsung Focus cell phone as evidence. According to AT&T records, from roughly 8 PM until 10 PM, Zahau talked and texted with her older sister Mary, who confirmed that Xena had arrived home safely. At 10:48 PM, Zahau received a text from Nina Romano, the twin sister of Shacknai's ex-wife, who wanted to stop by the house and talk about Max's accident. Zahau did not reply to that message. Police said Zahau checked her voicemail a few hours later, at 12:50 AM, and listened to a message. Billing records do not show who left that message. Police stated it was a message regarding the worsening of Max's condition, but declined to confirm at that time who left the message; Mary stated that police told her it was from Jonah Shacknai. The message was deleted, meaning that police and Zahau's family never heard the contents of the message.
Investigators initially did not attempt to power up or operate the cell phone, fearing that they might overwrite evidence contained in its memory. Instead, they tried to determine whether forensic software was available which would allow them to examine that model of phone. On August 15, unable to identify any such technology, a detective turned on the phone and conducted a manual search of it, finding that the voicemail message was not stored on the phone. They did not request that AT&T try to retrieve the deleted message from its servers. Later, on September 21, an investigator announced that they would be using "new technology" to copy the phone's data for further investigation. In early October, investigators completed their second examination of the phone, stating that they did not uncover any additional information and would soon return it to Zahau's family.
Reactions
Public and media
Zahau and Max's deaths drew intense public and media scrutiny. On July 14, 2011, Medicis had its sharpest one-day decline in stock price since February. News of the investigations received international coverage in various countries including Brazil, New Zealand, Finland, Spain, and the U.K. throughout July and August.
In early September, various Forbes writers, including true crime writer Cathy Scott and lawyer Victoria Pynchon, expressed doubts about the investigators' conclusions; Pynchon described the ruling as an "embarrassing public blunder." The Daily Beast published a column by trial lawyer Roy Black, in which he criticized "half-baked theories" about Zahau's death, in particular stating the lack of DNA evidence: "How could anyone do all this without leaving behind a scintilla of microscopic evidence? They would have to have been wearing a full rubber suit or some type of space suit and levitated over the scene." He called on the media and public to "stop calling it murder."
On September 19, 2011, it was reported that local Coronado author Kathleen McKenna would be writing a book on the case; McKenna expressed doubts that Zahau's death was a suicide.
Family
Family members and people close to Zahau expressed doubt that her death was suicide. Her younger sister, Snowem Horwath, insisted that, "Becky did not commit suicide. My sister was murdered." Her former trainer also stated that, "She was always happy [and] always smiling when she came in. I didn't see a problem or anything like that." Family members disputed police characterizations of Zahau as depressed, describing her instead as a happy person. Furthermore, they state that Zahau believed as a Christian that suicide was wrong. After the suicide ruling, Nalepa was quoted as stating, "I would not believe Rebecca would commit suicide. It's out of character."
However, Sheriff Gore, who investigated the death, stated of the family's reluctance to accept the suicide ruling, "We laid out the case extensively to them in Missouri to answer their questions, and it's unfortunate [Zahau's sister] can't accept the results." On September 7, the family launched the website JusticeForRebecca.org, seeking donations to fund their own investigation into Zahau's death. The site states: "It was obvious that the Sheriff's Department had worked too hard to paint this picture of suicide and they were not about to let the Zahaus ruin it." In late September, they continued to demand that the case be re-opened.
On September 20, 2011, Jonah Shacknai wrote a letter to then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris requesting a state review of the investigation. Shacknai himself did not doubt the findings of investigations, but said he hoped a review would bring "confidence, comfort and resolution" to others close to Zahau. However, Chief Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette replied the following day, stating that "we must decline your invitation to review this investigation at this time." On September 30, family members appeared on NBC's Today and called for a completely independent investigation by the state attorney general's office.
Lawyers and public relations personnel
Zahau's family hired Seattle attorney Anne Bremner, who derided the medical examiner's conclusions, stating, "This would be the first case in the history of the world that a woman killed herself like this ... It's ridiculous on the face of it." Dan K. Webb of Winston & Strawn LLP, a lawyer for Jonah Shacknai, alleges that other statements of Bremner's imply that Shacknai used his wealth and profile to improperly influence the investigation. He sent a cease and desist letter to Bremner warning her that certain statements of hers constituted defamation, as well as being "highly insensitive on a human level" and contributing to "the harsh and unkind glare of a national media frenzy." However, Jim Edwards of BNET suggested it was unlikely that Shacknai would actually sue, as it would simply bring more publicity to the case; he expected that the situation effectively "leaves the Zahau family to continue their claims unchallenged."
Shacknai hired public relations firm Sitrick and Company to represent him the week after Zahau's death. In response to media inquiries, a Sitrick and Company employee stated that he had hired the firm to handle his large volume of incoming calls in the days after the deaths, to give him time to grieve and make arrangements for the funerals. Sitrick and Company executives later held discussions with journalists whom they believed had made errors in their reporting on the case.
In 2018, jurors on the panel in the wrongful death suit against Adam Shacknai found him responsible in the death of Rebecca Zahau, and awarded the Zahau family $5 million.
References
1979 births
2011 deaths
2011 in California
Burmese emigrants to the United States
Conspiracy theories in the United States
Deaths by person in the United States
Death conspiracy theories
July 2011 events in the United States
People from Chin State
Suicides by hanging in California |
32971533 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Ali%20Jawad%20al-Sheikh | Death of Ali Jawad al-Sheikh | Ali Jawad al-Sheikh () was a 14-year-old Bahraini who died in the hospital on 31 August 2011 after reportedly being hit in the head by a tear gas canister shot by Bahraini security forces during the Bahraini uprising. The Bahraini government denied security force involvement in his death and offered a reward for information on the incident. Activists, however, began a series of large protests after his funeral.
Background
As part of a string of protests that occurred across the Arab World following the self-immolation and eventual death of Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the most of Bahrainis took to the streets demanding greater freedoms. The move was seen as potentially destabilising to the regime of Bahrain, following which a brutal government crackdown led to widespread suppressions of the Shia people across many sectors, especially the medical field after the invasion of Bahrain by Gulf Cooperation Council soldiers led by Saudi Arabia. The Bahraini government also hired Pakistani mercenaries to maintain security against the protesters, however, lesser intermittent protests continued.
Death
A number of protesters, including Isa Hassan, Ali's uncle, took part in a demonstration in Sitra, Bahrain on 31 August just after morning prayers. They stated that they were "confronted by the police, who fired tear gas at them from roughly 20 feet away" and causing Ali Jawad al-Sheikh's death. In an interview with the Associated Press, Isa explained that "they are supposed to lob the canisters of gas, not shoot them at people. Police used it as a weapon."
After his death, Ali's body was removed from the hospital and moved to the morgue, where the Interior ministry conducted an autopsy and compiled a forensic report based on the results. Investigators from the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry were present during the autopsy, and compiled their own forensic report. In the afternoon, Osama al-Asfoor, the head of public prosecution, stated that the autopsy had shown that "Ali had died of injuries to the back of his neck" and that "the boy had injuries under his chin and bruises on his face, hand, knees and pelvic area." However, he also added that a "blood examination showed no effects of tear gas exposure." The Interior ministry's forensic report concluded that Ali's injuries were inconsistent with an impact from a tear gas canister, as the markings on his neck were too large. The Commission's forensic report concluded that Ali's injuries were consistent with an impact from an unexploded tear gas canister fired at short range.
Aftermath
Photographs of Ali directly after being injured were released by the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights. Mohammed al-Maskati, the leader of the Society, said that, "The picture is affecting people." A videotape had also been made of Ali's family around his body in the hospital. Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, explained that the video was "a gift to the people". The father of Ali, Jawad al-Sheikh, asked in an interview with CNN for "human rights groups to take steps against Bahrain's leaders, saying, 'I lost my child. ... He does not deserve this destiny.'"
The government acknowledged Ali's death, but stated in a report from the state-run news agency that "no reported police action against lawbreakers in Sitra" had occurred the morning of that day and that the security forces had last been involved in "dispersing a small group of around 10 people at 1:15 a.m." that day. The Ministry of the Interior then also set out a "reward of more than $26,000 for information about those responsible for his death."
Activists who had taken part in the uprising stated that police had surrounded the hospital where Ali had died, effectively preventing any gatherings of people in the area. The activists also stated their intention to have a protest on 1 September 2011, after attending Ali's funeral earlier that day. Clashes with police, however, began on 31 August and continued into the morning of September 1.
Funeral and protests
The funeral procession was held early on 1 September, with photographs of Ali both before he died and of his dead body covering the coffin. It had already been delayed for some hours, as Ali's father was unwilling to sign the death certificate for release of his son's body, since the cause of death listed was stated to be "unknown". It is uncertain if the certificate was ever signed or if the body was just released.
Activists stated that thousands of people attended his funeral. Afterwards, the mourners began marching in the streets of Sitra carrying pictures of Ali and chanting 'Down, down, Hamad!'". No security personnel were present at the protest and the protesters had dispersed by the afternoon. However, extensive protests were held in the national capital of Manama that night as the protesters tried to take back control of the Pearl Roundabout, which was the site of protests earlier in the year until a government crackdown and the destruction of the monument. Government forces used tear gas and blocked roads with buses to stop the protests.
Local reactions
Sheik Isa Qassim, a senior Shiite cleric, has blamed security forces for the death of Ali Jawad, saying, "the killing of a 14-year-old boy by security forces during an anti-government demonstration Wednesday shows that the island nation's rulers are not listening to people's demands for greater rights."
See also
Death of Ahmed Jaber al-Qattan
Death of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima
Death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed
Death of Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb
Death of Neda Agha-Soltan
References
External links
1997 births
2011 in Bahrain
Police brutality in Bahrain
Protest-related deaths
Deaths by person in Bahrain
Deaths during the Bahraini uprising of 2011
2011 deaths
Police brutality in the 2010s |
33294637 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Hank%20Williams | Death of Hank Williams | Hiram "Hank" Williams died on January 1, 1953. Williams was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as one of the most significant country music artists of all time. Williams was born with a mild undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a disorder of the spinal column, which gave him lifelong pain—a factor in his later abuse of alcohol and other drugs. In 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip in Tennessee, reactivating his old back pains and causing him to be dependent on alcohol and prescription drugs. This addiction eventually led to his divorce from Audrey Williams and his dismissal from the Grand Ole Opry.
Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia. Williams had to cancel the concert due to an ice storm; he hired college student Charles Carr to drive him to his next appearance, a concert on New Year's Day 1953, at the Canton Memorial Auditorium in Canton, Ohio. In Knoxville, Tennessee, the two stopped at the Andrew Johnson Hotel. Carr requested a doctor for Williams, who was feeling the combination of the chloral hydrate and alcohol he consumed on the way from Montgomery. A doctor injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that contained morphine. Carr talked to Williams for the last time when they stopped at a restaurant in Bristol, Virginia. Carr later kept driving until he reached a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where Williams was discovered unresponsive in the back seat. After determining that Williams was dead, Carr asked for help from the owner of the station who notified the police. After an autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be "insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart."
Tributes to Williams took place the day after his death. His body was initially transported to Montgomery and placed in a silver coffin shown at his mother's boarding house. The funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium, where an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 attended while the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners.
Background
In 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip in Tennessee, reactivating his old back pains. Later, he started to consume painkillers, including morphine, and alcohol to ease the pain. His alcoholism worsened in 1952. In June, he divorced Audrey Williams, and on August 11, Williams was dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry for habitual drunkenness. He returned to perform in KWKH and WBAM shows and in the Louisiana Hayride, for which he toured again. His performances were acclaimed when he was sober, but despite the efforts of his work associates to get him to shows sober, his abuse of alcohol resulted in occasions when he did not appear or his performances were poor. In October 1952 he married Billie Jean Jones.
Due to Williams's excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. Also, the Drifting Cowboys were at the time backing Ray Price, while Williams was backed by local bands. By the end of 1952, Williams had started to suffer heart problems. He met Horace Raphol "Toby" Marshall in Oklahoma City, who claimed to be a doctor. Marshall had been previously convicted for forgery, and had been paroled and released from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1951. Among other fake titles he claimed to be a Doctor of Science. He purchased the DSC title for $35 from the "Chicago School of Applied Science"; in the diploma, he requested that the DSc was spelled out as "Doctor of Science and Psychology". Under the name of Dr. C. W. Lemon he prescribed Williams with amphetamines, Seconal, chloral hydrate, and morphine.
Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia on Wednesday, December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1952. Advance ticket sales totaled US$3,500 (equivalent to US$ in 2011). Because of an ice storm in the Nashville area that day, Williams could not fly, so he hired a college student, Charles Carr, to drive him to the concerts. Carr called the Charleston auditorium from Knoxville to say that Williams would not arrive on time owing to the ice storm and was ordered to drive Williams to Canton, Ohio for the New Year's Day concert there. Williams and Carr departed from Montgomery, Alabama at around 1:00 p.m.
The final trip
Williams arrived at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Carr checked in at 7:08 p.m and ordered two steaks in the lobby to be delivered to their rooms from the hotel's restaurant. He also requested a doctor for Williams, as Williams was feeling the combination of the chloral hydrate and alcohol he had drunk on the way from Montgomery to Knoxville. Dr. P.H. Cardwell injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that also contained a quarter-grain of morphine. Carr and Williams checked out of the hotel at around 10:45 p.m. Hotel porters had to carry Williams to his vehicle, an Olympic Blue 1952 Cadillac Series 62 convertible, as he was coughing and hiccuping. Carr and Williams headed out of Knoxville from the Andrew Johnson Hotel via Gay Street to Magnolia Ave to 11w. Ironically “Bloody 11w” is a fitting name for the route the two took that night considering many including the Williams family believe Hank died on the road between the hotel and Rutledge, Tennessee where Carr was issued a ticket for reckless driving and the officer told Carr his passenger looked dead. Carr told him he was just drunk and the officer later speculated Hank was dying coming out of the hotel in Knoxville and passed somewhere on 11w. At around midnight on New Year's Day, Thursday, January 1, 1953, they crossed the Tennessee state line and arrived in Bristol, Virginia.
At one stage, Carr was fined $25 (US$ in dollars) after being arraigned on a traffic ticket.
Carr stopped at a small all-night restaurant and asked Williams if he wanted to eat. Williams said he did not, and those are thought to be his last words. Carr later drove on until he stopped for fuel at a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where he discovered Williams seemingly asleep in the back seat. He was unresponsive and rigor mortis had already begun to set in. Carr immediately realized that he was dead and informed the filling station's owner, Glenn Burdette, who called the chief of the local police, O.H. Stamey. Because a corpse was involved, Stamey called in radio officer Howard Janney. Stamey and Janney found some empty beer cans and the unfinished handwritten lyrics to a song yet to be recorded in the Cadillac convertible.
The town's coroner and mortician, Dr. Ivan Malinin, a Russian immigrant who barely spoke English, performed the autopsy on Williams at the Tyree Funeral House. Malinin found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of [the] right ventricle of [the] heart." Malinin also found that, apparently unrelated to his death, Williams had also been severely kicked in the groin during a fight in a Montgomery bar a few days earlier in which he had also injured his left arm, which had been subsequently bandaged. That evening, when the announcer at Canton announced Williams's death to the gathered crowd, they started laughing, thinking that it was just another excuse. After Hawkshaw Hawkins and other performers started singing "I Saw the Light" as a tribute to Williams, the crowd, now realizing that he was indeed dead, followed them.
Controversy
The circumstances of Williams's death are still controversial. The result of the original autopsy indicated that Williams died of a heart attack. Author Colin Escott concluded in his book Hank Williams: The Biography that the cause of death was heart failure caused by the combination of alcohol, morphine and chloral hydrate.
The investigating officer in Oak Hill declared later that Carr told him that he had pulled over at the Skyline Drive-In restaurant outside Oak Hill, and found Williams dead. Having interviewed Carr, the best that Peter Cooper of The Tennessean could offer was that "somewhere between Mount Hope and Oak Hill", Carr noticed Williams' blanket had fallen off.
"I saw that the overcoat and blanket that had been covering Hank had slipped off," Carr told yet another reporter. "When I pulled it back up, I noticed that his hand was stiff and cold." When he tried to move his hands, they snapped back to the same position the hotel porters had arranged him in.
Carr told Cooper this happened at the side of the road six miles from Oak Hill, but investigating officer Howard Janney placed it in the Skyline Drive-In restaurant's parking lot, noting that Carr sought help from a Skyline employee. Another researcher decided it could have happened at any of the gas stations near Mount Hope.
Regardless, Carr said he next drove to "a cut-rate gas station". "I went inside and an older guy, around 50, came back out with me, looked in the back seat, and said, 'I think you've got a problem'. He was very kind, and said Oak Hill General Hospital was six miles on my left," and that would place him in Mount Hope.
They later drove to Oak Hill in search of a hospital, stopping at a Pure Oil station on the edge of town. Carr's account of how he discovered that Williams was dead outside Oak Hill is challenged by Dr. Leo Killorn, a Canadian intern at Beckley hospital, West Virginia, fifteen miles from Oak Hill, who claims that Carr drove up to the hospital and asked him to see Williams. Killorn stated that the fact that Carr told him it was Hank Williams caused him to remember the incident. Carr was exhausted and, according to the police reports, nervous enough to invite suspicion that foul play had been involved in Williams' death.
Funeral
The body was transported to Montgomery on January 2. It was placed in a silver coffin that was first shown at his mother's boarding house at 318 McDounough Street for two days. His funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium, with his coffin placed on the flower-covered stage. During the ceremony, Ernest Tubb sang "Beyond the Sunset" followed by Roy Acuff with "I Saw the Light" and Red Foley with "Peace in the Valley." An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people passed by the silver coffin, and the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners. During the funeral four women fainted and a fifth was carried out of the auditorium in hysterics after falling at the foot of the casket. His funeral was said to have been far larger than any ever held for any other citizen of Alabama, and the largest event ever held in Montgomery, surpassing Jefferson Davis' inauguration as President of the Confederacy. Around two tons of flowers were sent. Williams's remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery.
Aftermath
The president of MGM told Billboard magazine that the company got only about five requests for pictures of Williams during the weeks prior to his death, but over 300 afterwards. The local record shops sold out of all of their records, and customers were asking for all records ever released by Williams. His final single released during his lifetime was ironically titled "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written and recorded in 1952 but released in 1953 after Williams's death. The song was number one on the country charts for six weeks. It provided the title for the 1964 biographic film of the same name, which starred George Hamilton. The Cadillac in which Williams was riding just before he died is now preserved at the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.
Oklahoma investigation of Horace Marshall
As part of an investigation of illicit drug traffic conducted by the Oklahoma legislature, representative Robert Cunningham seized Marshall's files. During an initial hearing, Marshall insisted that he was a doctor, refusing to answer further statements. Marshall gave Cunningham a list of his patients, including Hank Williams. Defending his position, he claimed that Williams possibly committed suicide. Marshall stated that Williams told him that he had decided to "destroy the Hank Williams that was making the money they were getting". He attributed the decision to Williams' declining career: "Most of his bookings were of the honky-tonk beer joint variety that he simply hated. If he came to this conclusion (of suicide), he still had enough prestige left as a star to make a first-class production of it ... whereas, six months from now, unless he pulled himself back up into some high-class bookings, he might have been playing for nickels and dimes on skid row."
On March 10, Marshall was called again to testify. He acknowledged that in previous testimony he had falsely claimed to be a physician. Representative Cunningham presented the committee a telegram from Marshall's seized files, directed to the estate of Hank Williams for $736.39, and stated that the committee was evaluating the revocation of Marshall's parole. On March 12, 1953, Billie Jean Jones appeared before the Oklahoma committee. She stated that she received after Williams' death a bill for $800 from Marshall for the treatment. Jones refused to pay, and further stated that Marshall later intended to convince her to pay him by assuring that he would "pave her the way to collect her husband's state". Jones declared "I have never accepted the report that my husband died of a heart attack."
On March 19, Marshall declared that he felt Williams was depressed and committed suicide by taking a higher dose of the drugs he had prescribed. Marshall admitted that he had also prescribed chloral hydrate to his recently deceased wife, Faye, as a headache medicine. He denied any responsibility in both deaths. On March 21, Robert Travis of the State Crime Bureau determined that Marshall's handwriting corresponded to that of Dr. Cecil W. Lemmon on six prescriptions written for Williams. The same day, the District Attorney's office declared that after a new review of the autopsy report of Faye Marshall, toxicological and microscopic tests confirmed that her death on March 3 was not related to the medication prescribed by her husband. Oklahoma Governor Johnston Murray revoked the parole of Horace Raphol "Toby" Marshall, who returned to prison to complete his forgery sentence.
References
Cited Texts
1953 in American music
January 1953 events in the United States
Williams, Hank
Williams, Hank
Williams, Hank
1953 in West Virginia
Hank Williams |
33345099 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Ahmed%20Jaber%20al-Qattan | Death of Ahmed Jaber al-Qattan | Ahmed Jaber Ali al-Qattan () was a 16 or 17-year-old Bahraini who died in a hospital on 6 October 2011 after reportedly being hit in the chest, abdomen and upper limb by bird pellet gunshots fired by Bahraini security forces during the Bahraini uprising (2011–present). Several human rights organizations in Bahrain believe that the use of birdshot against humans is banned under international law, while the Ministry of Interior disagrees. The Ministry of Interior stated that there was a gathering of 20 people in Abu Saiba who blocked the roads and police men intervened to disperse them as authorized. Activists, however, began a series of large protests after his funeral.
Background
As part of a string of protests that occurred across the Arab World following the self-immolation and eventual death of Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the mostly Shia population of Bahrain took to the streets demanding greater freedoms. The move was seen as potentially destabilising to the Sunni-led regime of Bahrain, following which a brutal government crackdown led to widespread suppressions of the Shia people across many sectors, especially the medical field after the invasion of Bahrain by Gulf Cooperation Council soldiers led by Saudi Arabia. The Bahraini government also hired Pakistani mercenaries to maintain security against the protesters, however, lesser intermittent protests continued.
According to Al Wefaq opposition party and Bahrain Centre for Human Rights al-Qattan was 16; the government put his age at 17.
Death
A number of protesters took part in a demonstration in Abu Saiba, Bahrain which started on late night of 6 October. The government's Information Affairs Authority said the area where al-Qattan was in, Abu Saiba, west of Manama, saw clashes that evening. It said youths blocked roads and set fire to rubbish bins and police fired tear gas and sound grenades when they were attacked with rocks and petrol bombs.
An anonymous witness who was protesting with Ahmed said in an interview with Bahrain Mirror (opposition online newspaper): "We were 70 protesters and Ahmed was in the front, we were ambushed by security forces. They were standing only 10 meters away from us, they didn't use tear gas or rubber bullets, they used bird pellet gunshots directly. Ahmed was injured in the chest and another protester who was behind him injured in the abdomen. He was trying to protect protesters behind him, we ran back to hide. Ahmed ran for a short distance then fell, he called his friend "Ahmed, hold me, I want to breathe". Those were his last words". He added: "A young protester was hiding behind a building rushed to Ahmed as he fell and carried him. With other protesters we carried him through farms to avoid being chased by police. At first we didn't know what to do, so I tweeted specific people like Al Wefaq and some human rights activists. The first to respond was Yousef al-Mahafdha (member of BCHR) who contacted some medics. Medics came, but they found no pulse and requested taking Ahmed to a hospital. At Bahrain International hospital (located in Jidhafs area of the capital, and sits along Budaiya Highway) medics from the hospital attached medical instruments to Ahmed and after 15 minutes announced that he is dead and asked us to leave fast to avoid arrest. Human rights activist Yousif Al-Mahafdha was the first to announce the death of Ahmed from Bahrain international hospital."
After his death, Ahmed's body was moved to Bahrain International hospital where he was initially examined. Later it was moved to Salmaniya hospital morgue for an autopsy. Ahmed's older brother was told by young male to attend at Bahrain International hospital. At the hospital, without explaining anything to his brother, Ahmed's body was taken to Salmaniya hospital morgue. For 20 minutes Ahmed's brother was stopped by security forces from getting into the morgue where Ahmed's body was. After a while he tried again, but this time a National Security Agency officer yelled at him. When Ahmed's brother explained that he's only trying to see his brother's body and security shouldn't act this way. The officer responded with "I'm a soldier and I can do whatever I want with you right now if you don't stop attempting to get in". Later, a policeman in civilian clothes spoke to the family. He told them that Ahmed died a natural death, his chest doesn't contain bird pellet gunshots and that his body is completely clean from any injures. Then he asked the family to bring him some of Ahmed's clothes in order to investigate the cause of his death. The family wasn't allowed to see the body until next morning when they received it.
One of the lawyers responded to the family's cries on Twitter and came along with a lawyer from Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry. Security forces allowed Al-jeshy and his companion to enter the morgue, where the Public Prosecutor announced that the direct cause of death was due to injury by bird pellet gunshots which went through Ahmed's body into his heart and caused a severe bleeding.
Aftermath
At first ministry of interior stated that Ahmed al-Qattan died from severe respiratory and blood flow problems after he was received in hospital without saying what caused this. In another statement the ministry stated that they're launching an investigation into the incident "after the report of the medical examiner of the Public Prosecution attributed the death to injury" by bird pellet gunshots, but have not described under what circumstance al-Qattan was fatally wounded. The statement said that "legal procedures would be taken according to the results of the investigation." Moreover, Bahrain News Agency, an official governmental website said that Ahmed died by police birdshot.
On 8 October, two days after Ahmed's death, Nawaf Al-Awadi, the attorney general of the northern governorate stated that police did not use bird pellet gunshots while depressing protesters in Abu Saiba that night and that the gunshots found in Ahmed's body do not match those used by Ministry of Interior. Al-Awadi also stated that the investigations are still on-going to find the persons who carried the body to the hospital to investigate with them.
Shia activists said al-Qattan died from bird-shot pellets and distributed photos of his body in the morgue. "(He) was shot by the security forces at close proximity during a protest with the pellet shotgun, which seems to have penetrated his heart and/or lung and caused his death," said Maryam Alkhawaja a human rights activist working for Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). Al Wefaq party, the biggest shia opposition party said in a statement: "Security forces have killed the boy Ahmed al-Qattan after shooting him with the internationally prohibited pellet shotgun (..) many people who are injured due to use of force by security forces are afraid to go to hospitals, because they might be arrested there."
Funeral and protests
The funeral procession was held afternoon on 7 October. Security forces sat up roadblocks to prevent people from attending the funeral, yet thousands of people attended the funeral which is thought to be one of the largest in months. The number of mourners who took part in al-Qattan's funeral was over 10,000. The funeral march moved through the villages of Shakhoora, Janusan and Karrana, with participants carrying the red and white flags of Bahrain and chanting, "We will redeem you, Bahrain" and "Down with Hamad," a reference to King Hamad, whose family, Al Khalifa has controlled Bahrain for about 230 years. Al-Qattan was to be buried in Shakhoora, his home town.
After the funeral hundreds of mourners marched towards Burgerland roundabout where police forces were present heavily. Police used tear gas, sound grenades and rubber bullets to disperse protesters, injuring no less than 11 protesters, according to activists. Some protesters threw stones at police. "More injuries were expected, though the chaotic scene around a makeshift clinic near the clashes made it impossible to verify the number," Al Jazeera's reporter in Bahrain said. An Al Jazeera reporter said he saw four injured protesters, three of them apparently due to rubber bullets and one "suffered a severe facial injury after being hit by a sound grenade." by night, clashes were over.
Ministry of Interior said "A group of vandals blocked Budaiya highway after funeral of Ahmed Jaber, which led to interference of security forces to bring situation to normal".
On 10 October, 3 days after Ahmed's funeral, where the final mourning rituals were supposed to be held in Shakhoora, security forces blocked all the roads leading to Shakhoora to prevent people from participating in the mourning rituals. Al Jazeera reported that security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets
on tens of protesters who were trying to start a demonstration after the end of mourning rituals and that some protesters were arrested.
Local and international responses
Former Al Wefaq MP Matar Matar said that: "There was a great sense of outrage today. The government claims they will investigate the death and that an independent commission of monitors has been formed, but the injuries and deaths continue to happen. Woman and children must be careful." The party issued a statement reading: "The martyrdom of young Jaber falls under the systematic oppression of those demanding democracy in Bahrain."
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said: "The tragic death of Ahmed al-Jaber al-Qatan must be independently investigated and those responsible must be brought to justice. If it is found that security forces have opened fire on peaceful protesters when they were not in a life threatening situation, that would be yet again another unacceptable case of excessive use of force."
See also
Death of Ali Jawad al-Sheikh
Death of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima
Death of Fadhel Al-Matrook
References
2011 deaths
2011 in Bahrain
Police brutality in Bahrain
Deaths by person in Bahrain
Deaths during the Bahraini uprising of 2011
Year of birth missing
Protest-related deaths
Police brutality in the 2010s |
33485306 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Wang%20Yue | Death of Wang Yue | Wang Yue (), also known as "Little Yue Yue" (), was a two-year-old Chinese girl who was run over by two vehicles on the afternoon of 13 October 2011 in a narrow road in Foshan, Guangdong. As she lay bleeding on the road for more than seven minutes, at least 18 passers-by skirted around her body, ignoring her. She was eventually helped by a female rubbish scavenger and sent to a hospital for treatment, but succumbed to her injuries and died eight days later. The closed-circuit television recording of the incident was uploaded onto the Internet, and quickly stirred widespread reaction in China and overseas.
Many commentators believed this to be indicative of the moral decline in contemporary Chinese society. However, other commentators credited the high-profile Peng Yu incident in 2006, wherein a Good Samaritan who helped an injured accident victim was accused of having injured the victim himself and was forced to pay for the victim's medical bill, as having caused people to fear getting in trouble for helping in Wang's case. Several regional Good Samaritan laws were passed following the incident and in 2017 a new national Good Samaritan law came into force to prevent such situations through the country.
Accident
Wang, who was two years old, wandered away from her home in Foshan while her mother was quickly collecting laundry during a thunderstorm. Closed-circuit television cameras captured the child wandering into a narrow, busy market street. Within a few moments of her appearance on the screen, Wang was struck by a white van, and knocked to the ground and under the van's front wheels. The van driver pauses, but does not get out. After a moment, he pulls forward slowly, at which time his rear wheel drives over Wang. The driver moves on. Subsequently, at least 18 people walk past her, and fail to assist her, some pausing to stare before moving on. In that time, another large truck runs over Wang's legs with both front and back tires. She is eventually helped by a female rubbish scavenger, Chen Xianmei (). It is apparent in the video that Wang is crying, holding her head, moving her arms and legs, and bleeding.
Wang's parents Wang Chichang and Qu Feifei chose not to blame anyone besides themselves for their daughter's death. Qu said, "Granny Chen represents the best of human nature, it's the nicest and most natural side of us."
The drivers of both vehicles were detained by police in the days after the incident on suspicion of causing a traffic accident.
Trial
On May 26, 2012, Hu Jun, who was driving the first minivan that ran over Wang, was put on trial in Foshan and charged with Wang's death. He pleaded guilty to traffic crimes, but not homicide. On September 6, 2012, Hu was convicted of involuntary homicide and sentenced to years in prison. The sentence was lightened because he turned himself in and had paid part of Wang's medical expenses.
Public reaction
Closed-circuit footage of the incident was broadcast by a local television station, then posted online. The footage sparked worldwide news reports, and triggered dozens of editorials and millions of posts on social media sites, the majority criticizing the callousness and cruelty of those who passed Wang Yue without helping her.
Previously, there had been incidents in China, such as the high-profile Peng Yu incident in 2006, wherein Good Samaritans who helped people injured in accidents were accused of having injured the victim themselves and were forced to pay for the victim's medical bills. Some commentators have explained that this may have caused people to fear getting in trouble for doing the right thing in Wang's case, thus failing to help.
The Communist Party Chief of the Guangdong province, Wang Yang, called the incident "a wake-up call for everybody". The Sina Weibo website attracted more than 4.5 million posts on the incident within a few days and launched a "stop apathy" campaign online. There are also reports that some of the 18 people identified in the camera footage have received harassment, threats, and crank calls since the news broke.
In November 2011, the results of a poll by the China Youth Daily, the official Communist party newspaper for youth, showed that 80% of the young people surveyed said they had been following the case closely, and 88% of those polled thought Wang died because of growing indifference [in China] towards other people. A majority, 71%, also thought the people who passed the child without helping were afraid of getting into trouble themselves. According to an article by Chen Weihua, deputy editor of the China Daily, "Various surveys in the past weeks have shown that the majority of the people polled believe our morals have suffered a major setback in the past decade."
Several regional Good Samaritan laws were passed following the incident and on October 1, 2017, a new national law came into force to prevent such situations.
Aftermath
According to China Daily, “At least 10 Party and government departments and organizations in Guangdong, including the province's commission on politics and law, the women's federation, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Communist Youth League, have started discussions on punishing those who refuse to help people who clearly need it.”
Officials of Guangdong province, along with many lawyers and social workers, also held three days of meetings in the provincial capital of Guangzhou to discuss the case. It was reported that various lawmakers of the province were drafting a "Good Samaritan" law, which would "penalize people who fail to help in a situation of this type and indemnify them from lawsuits if their efforts are in vain." Legal experts and the public debated the idea ahead of discussions and a legislative push. On 1 August 2013, the nation's first Good Samaritan law took effect in Shenzhen.
While most attention was focused on the passers-by who failed to assist Wang, a British journalist interviewed other shopkeepers in the Foshan hardware market who were just meters away yet failed to respond. He found that the area where the incident occurred was inhabited mainly by internal migrant families (the Wangs had migrated from Shandong seven years earlier). In the writer's view, there was little sense of community and little in common there. One resident noted, "It is quite sad that we don't really talk to each other."
Later incidents
While media outlets reported on the perceived Chinese apathy in the aftermath of Wang Yue's death, another incident occurred in Hangzhou when a Chinese woman attempted suicide by drowning in a lake, while local Chinese bystanders gathered at the edge of the lake to watch. After noticing that no one was attempting to rescue the woman, a Uruguayan visitor to China named Maria Fernanda Gomez Arregui swam into the water and saved the woman from drowning. Chinese government officials announced that Maria Fernanda would receive a cash reward of 3000 yuan for her heroic display of "traditional Chinese virtues". The rescue achieved a high profile after the media presented photographs by Wang Ronggui to contrast with the lack of action of bystanders in the death of Wang Yue, and several other similar deaths that occurred around the same time.
Later incidents in China have been continuously compared to the death of Wang Yue. In December 2012, a five-year-old boy named Yan Zhe received crush injuries from a minibus in Zhejiang province. Despite the pleas of the child's mother, other drivers and passers-by refused to help. He was eventually taken to a hospital but died on the way. On the other hand, there have also been numerous reported instances in Chinese and occasionally foreign media of passers-by successfully helping those who are critically injured or in need of assistance.
See also
Bystander effect
Psychopathology of the masses
Civil courage
Death of Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic
Murder of Kitty Genovese
Social loafing
Volunteer's dilemma
Good Samaritan law
References
2011 deaths
2011 in China
Articles containing video clips
Crowd psychology
Deaths by person in Asia
Filmed deaths in Asia
Pedestrian road incident deaths
People from Foshan
Road incident deaths in the People's Republic of China
Scandals in China |
33528631 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Ali%20Abdulhadi%20Mushaima | Death of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima | Ali Abdulhadi Saleh Jafar Mushaima () (26 August 1989 – 14 February 2011) was a 21-year-old Bahraini who on Monday 14 February 2011, the "Bahraini Day of Rage", became the first fatality of the Bahraini Uprising. He died on his way to hospital from injuries he received when he was hit in the back by birdshot pellets fired from close range (two to five meters) by security forces (riot police) during the Bahraini uprising (2011–present). According to Nabeel Rajab, head of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Mushaima was participating in a protest in Al Daih, in Manama's outskirt, when he was shot.
In a rare televised speech the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, announced that the deaths of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima and Fadhel Al-Matrook would be investigated. Bahrain's Interior Minister said that legal steps would be taken if the use of the weapon had been unwarranted.
Details of the investigation were disclosed in the report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, established by King Hamad to look into events in the Bahraini uprising. The investigation failed to identify any culprits in the killing of Mushaima. The Commission concluded that Mushaima's death resulted from the "use of excessive force by police officers," and "that there was no justification for the use of lethal force."
Background
As part of a string of protests that occurred across the Arab World following the self-immolation and eventual death of Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the mostly Shia population of Bahrain took to the streets demanding greater freedoms. Al Jazeera reported that a protest was planned for 14 February, just a few months after the controversial 2010 election.
On 14 February (referred to by protesters as Day of Rage), clashes were reported from parts of Bahrain. Helicopters circled over Manama, where protesters were expected to gather in the afternoon; there was also a greater police presence in Shia villages. At least fourteen people were injured in clashes overnight and with police having fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in the village of Nuwaidrat, south west of Bahrain. The marchers were calling for the release detainees who were arrested during earlier protests.
Short biography
Mushaima was the eldest son, he had one brother and one sister. His uncle Mohammed explained that Mushaima's family were extremely poor and had been living in his grandfather's house since it was built in the 1980s. They were still waiting to be rehoused, having first applied in 1988. Mushaima worked as a welder and supported the family financially.
Previous detention
Ali Abduhadi Mushaima was detained for 20 days when he was aged 16. In 2009 he was detained again for 4 months in connection with what is known in Bahrain as the "Hujaira case". Mushaima's mother stated that he had been subjected to physical and mental torture. She said that although he was not involved in any political activities, Mushaima was closely monitored by the authorities.
Death
During the so-called "Day of Rage" on 14 February, Mushaima participated in a protest in Al Daih, west of the capital Manama. After security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters, Mushaima returned to his home in Al Daih where he had his last dinner with his family.
The Al Wasat, a local independent newspaper, interviewed members of Mushaima's family, the main witnesses to his death. Mushaima's aunt, who lived in the same house, reported that Mushaima left home at 7:30 pm after having dinner. She went out after him and saw him walking back. He fell to the ground but got up again and she helped him get back home. He fell when he entered the house; she said that his body was "full of blood" and he vomited some blood. Mushaima's mother reported that policemen had fired birdshot at her son a few seconds after he went out. Mushaima's father heard a gunshot and was going to investigate when Mushaima entered the house and started vomiting blood. Her son was being taken by car to hospital with his father, aunt, and two of his cousins. Mushaima's aunt said that a few minutes before they reached the hospital she felt his pulse but it had stopped.
Mushaima's uncle Mohammed, said that Mushaima went out after hearing a strange sound. The house is located in a very narrow alley; after Mushaima reached the end of the alley he was hit by birdshot fired from close range.
Mushaima's death was announced one hour after arriving at the Salmaniya medical complex. Birdshot pellets had entered Mushaima's body and penetrated his heart and lung causing severe bleeding that led to his death.
Aftermath
Interior Minister, Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, offered his condolences and deep sympathy to the family and promised an investigation into the use of a weapon. According to the Ministry statement, if the investigation found no legal justification for the use of the weapon, legal steps would be taken to have the person responsible referred to the criminal court.
In a televised speech on 15 February, Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Al-Hassan said that Mushaima had died in a separate incident, not while participating in a protest.
According to Mushaima's mother, a few days after his death a government official visited Mushaima's family and offered them a cheque. The family refused, and instead asked that Mushaima's killer(s) be punished.
Investigation
The Interior Ministry conducted an investigation into Mushaima's death, as the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report revealed. The investigation concluded that around 500 protesters had surrounded six police officers and attacked them with rocks. The policemen tried unsuccessfully to disperse the crowd using rubber bullets and tear gas. After their supply of rubber bullets and gas was exhausted the police then used shotguns and managed to disperse the crowd between 18:00 and 18:30, at which point the officers set out on foot patrol. Although Ali allegedly died at 19:00, no police officer reported clashes at that time, seeing an injured protester or hearing any shots fired while on foot patrol.
Although the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry was unable to determine the effectiveness of individual investigations conducted by the Interior Ministry, the Commission described the Ministry's findings generally as "in many cases, flawed and biased in its favour."
Funeral and protests
On 14 February, after Mushaima's death was announced, a large crowd gathered at the Salmaniya medical complex. Late into the night they set off in a protest march towards Pearl Roundabout in Manama. Clashes with security forces resulted in some of the protesters being injured.
Because of delays waiting for the coroner and the public prosecutor's report Mushaima's body was not released to the family until late after midnight.
On 15 February, funeral procession of Mushaima took place. It was organized that the body be taken from the Salmaniya medical complex and then carried to the cemetery in Al Daih for burial. According to eyewitnesses, more than 2,000 were starting to gather by hospital gates in order to take part in the procession, when riot police began firing tear gas and shotguns at them. One man, Fadhel Al-Matrook, died in hospital after getting shot by shotgun pellets. According to witnesses, at least 25 were injured as a result of police rubber bullets, tear gas and shotgun.
An estimated 10,000 people participated in the funeral march for Mushaima through the streets of Jidhafs and Al Daih, west of Manama. Mourners carried Bahrain flags as well as black flags.
After the funeral, protesters marched to the Pearl Roundabout, where security forces were already stationed. The protesters were initially allowed to occupy the traffic junction and the security forces withdrew without any violent clashes. Two days later, however, on Bloody Thursday (2011), security forces attacked the crowd and killed four more protesters.
The next day, Mushaima's final mourning rituals were held in Al Daih. Thousands of mourners carrying Bahrain and black flags participated in the ritual mourning procession from Al Daih Ma'tam to Jidhafs graveyard. Mourners chanted "With our blood and soul we sacrifice ourselves for Martyr" and "With our blood and soul we sacrifice ourselves for Bahrain".
At the close of the mourning ceremony, many mourners carrying Bahrain flags gathered for a protest march to the Pearl Roundabout. As they reached the fire station in Manama, with army forces stationed 100 meters away from them, they were chanting "peaceful, peaceful". Witnesses said that soldiers opened fire on the protesters using live ammunition, wounding at least 40 including Abdul Redha Buhmaid, who was shot in head and died a few days later.
Local and international reactions
In a rare national TV address on Tuesday, February 15, King Hamad expressed his regret about the victims of recent events and announced an investigation. He expressed regret about the deaths of Ali Mushaima and Fadhel Al-Matrook "There have sadly been two deaths. I express my deep condolences to their families," he said. "Everyone should know that I have assigned Deputy Prime Minister Jawad al-Urayyid to form a special committee to find out the reasons that led to such regrettable events," he added.
Prime minister, Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifa praised the king's speech. "We regret the events which led to the death of two of my sons and express condolences to their families".
Minister of Interior, Rashed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa said in a televised speech on February 15, that they are reserving on those responsible for the death of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima and Fadhel Al-Matrook and that initial investigations began. As well as full cooperation with the committee formed by Bahrain's king.
Al Wefaq, the country's biggest opposition party suspended their participation in the Parliament and threatened to resign, in protest at the brutal practices of the security forces, according to Matar Matar, Al Wefaq's MP (now former MP).
The Independent block, the second largest in the parliament praised the king's speech and supported his decision to form an investigation committee. They also expressed condolences to families of victims.
Nationalist Democratic Rally Society called for an open dialogue between the regime and civil society foundations. They emphasized their refusal and condemnation to the "brutal and repressive" methods that protests are dealt with by riot police which led to the death of 2 martyrs. They also expressed condolences to the families of the martyrs and victims.
Progressive Democratic Tribune denounced the use of excessive force by security forces and called to respect the rights of people to protest. They expressed condolences to families of martyrs Ali Mushaima and Fadhel Al-Matrook who joined the martyrs convoy of our people in their journey to democracy. They Called for the formation of a national body which unites Shia and Sunna like the National Union Committee in the 1950s.
Islamic Association party, a relatively small Shia society expressed condolences to citizens of Bahrain and the families of the victims. They said "At the same time that we emphasize our refusal to the excessive use of force against protesters, we stress the importance of keeping the peacefulness of the protests". and "we appeal to the committee formed by Bahrain's king to make a neutral and honest investigation and to accelerate publishing the results as well as punishing those responsible".
P.J. Crowley, the United States State Department spokesman said: "The United States is very concerned by recent violence surrounding protests in Bahrain,". He added that US welcomed the investigation into the killings and urged the government of Bahrain to "quickly follow up on its pledge."
Amnesty International called for the authorities "to immediately stop using excessive force against the protesters", "to set up an immediate, thorough and independent investigation into the deaths of ‘Ali ‘Abdulhadi Mushaima’ and Fadhel ‘Ali Matrook, and ensure that any police found to have used excessive force are brought to justice." and "to respect and protect the right of freedom expression, movement and assembly in Bahrain".
In May 2011, Council of Representatives of Bahrain dismissed one of its employees due to taking part in the funeral procession of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima.
See also
Death of Fadhel Al-Matrook
Bloody Thursday
Death of Ahmed Jaber al-Qattan
References
1989 births
2011 deaths
2011 in Bahrain
Police brutality in Bahrain
Deaths by person in Bahrain
Bahraini uprising of 2011
Deaths by firearm in Bahrain
Deaths during the Bahraini uprising of 2011
Protest-related deaths
Police brutality in the 2010s |
33783068 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Cristina%20and%20Violetta%20Djeordsevic | Death of Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic | Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic or Ebrehmovich were Italian Roma sisters aged 13 and 11 who drowned in the sea at the public beach at Torregaveta in the Metropolitan City of Naples on 19 July 2008. News media circulated photographs of other beach users apparently continuing with their leisure activities indifferent to the nearby bodies of the girls partially covered by beach towels. Commentators interpreted this as symbolising widespread anti-Roma sentiment in Italy.
Deaths
Cristina and Violetta were born and raised in the "Campo Autorizzato" (authorised Roma camp) at Scampia or Secondigliano in Naples to Branko and Miriana Djeordsevic, originally from former Yugoslavia and of Eastern Orthodox faith. On the day of their deaths, Cristina and Violetta with their sister Diana (aged 9) and cousin Manuela (aged 16) took the Cumana railway from the camp to its terminus at Torregaveta, beside a popular public beach next to private beaches. The beach is divided between the suburban comuni of Bacoli and Monte di Procida. The girls were hawking trinkets to holidaymakers and also, according to some reports, begging.
The four girls decided to enter the sea, despite rough waves and not knowing how to swim. The sea at the beach has dangerous currents and there had been at least 10 drownings in the previous 15 years. There was no lifeguard or warning notices; the area is poor and public funds were scarce. One eyewitness said nobody else was in the water at the time. Cristina and Violetta were further out and were swept underwater against rocks. Manuela and Diana called for help, and lifeguards from nearby private beaches arrived. The coastguard arrived within 10 minutes but the girls had drowned, so they notified the municipal morgue and left. The police took away the surviving girls to contact their parents. A beach towel covered each corpse except for the feet.
A "crowd of curious onlookers that had formed around the bodies quickly dispersed". The bodies remained on the beach until the morgue personnel arrived, after an interval variously reported as one or three hours. During this time, "beach life resumed" with people sunbathing, picnicking, or playing. Eventually the bodies were placed in coffins and carried away.
Response
Photographs were published on the front pages of La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, as well as online and in foreign media. One showed the girls' corpses with a couple having a picnic in the background; another a coffin being carried past people in sunloungers. Italians described as having condemned the scene included the "liberal elite", newspapers, and civil liberties groups, as well as Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the Archbishop of Naples, who posted on his blog that it represented the "coarsening of human sentiment". Laura Boldrini, Italy's UNHCR representative, expressed "worry at the circumstances of how the tragedy unfolded".
Commentators linked the incident to a recent upsurge in anti-Roma populist discourse, including confrontations in working-class neighbourhoods and sensationalist media coverage of alleged Roma criminality. In May rumours that a Roma woman had abducted a baby led to violence and arson in two Roma camps in Naples. Roberto Maroni, the Minister of the Interior in the Berlusconi-led government, had announced a scheme to register all Roma by photograph or fingerprint. An ongoing garbage collection strike was also souring the public mood in Naples. Agence France-Presse said Italians had made "little reaction to the outcry", and that Cardinal Sepe was "alone among leading figures to condemn the sunbathers' apparent indifference".
Francesco Iannuzzi, mayor of Monte di Procida, blamed the incident on the delay in the morgue staff arriving at the scene; he denied the charge of indifference on the basis that many had tried to save the girls; he doubted whether the crowd could have known the girls' ethnicity. Sergio Romano, while acknowledging the crowd's indifference, like Iannuzzi questioned the racist dimension, pointing out a similar instance of a non-Roma body on a beach in northern Italy in 1997. Of those whose photographs had been published, one asked of the beachgoers, "what were they supposed to do?"; one told France 24 that concerned bystanders had kept vigil by the bodies, and his photograph showed "a rare moment when they moved away". An article in Nanni Magazine suggested that foreshortening in the published photographs made the beachgoers appear closer to the bodies than was the case. Some locals said that those who remained on the beach were "Ukrainians or Poles".
The girls were given an Eastern Orthodox funeral service in the Roma camp in Naples, attended by 300 Roma and city and regional representatives. It was followed by a 10-day wake. They were buried in Qualiano cemetery. The local Catholic parish and the Community of Sant'Egidio organised a memorial mass at nearby Ercolano on 23 July "to send a message of love and solidarity". A meeting of Naples comune council agreed unanimously to name a street after the girls. Sant'Egidio held anniversary prayer services in later years.
Roberto Malini of human rights body EveryOne Group cast doubt on the official version of events, suggesting a cover up for homicide. The girls' mother denied this and insisted that they had drowned. In October 2009, the girls' next of kin brought a lawsuit against Bacoli and Monte di Procida municipalities for failure to provide the required marine safety measures at the beach.
SEPSA — Spettatori all'esequie di passeggeri senz'anima, a 2009 play by , is based on two events: the Torregaveta drownings and the death, also in Naples, of Petru Bîrlădeanu, a Romanian street musician killed by crossfire in a Camorra shootout.
Footnotes
Citations
See also
Bystander effect
2008 deaths
2008 in Italy
Accidental deaths in Italy
Antiziganism in Europe
Child deaths
Crowd psychology
Death of women
Deaths by person in Italy
Deaths by drowning
21st century in Naples
Italian people of Yugoslav descent
Italian Romani people
Sisters
Racism in Italy
Romani advocacy
Romani in Italy
Romani-related controversies |
34066881 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Jeannie%20Saffin | Death of Jeannie Saffin | Jeanne Lucille Saffin (20 March 1921 – 23 September 1982) was a British woman whose death from fire in 1982 is cited by paranormal researchers and authors as an example of spontaneous human combustion, and is reported to be the most recent suspected case in the UK. Aspects of the reports made immediately after her injury and death apparently supported the conclusion that her death was due to spontaneous human combustion; John Heymer devoted a chapter of his 1996 book The Entrancing Flame to the case. However, later research has cast doubt on some of the evidence and refutes the claims that her injuries were caused by spontaneous human combustion
Death
Jeannie Saffin was born in Edmonton, London with birth defects that led to mental handicaps which reduced her abilities to those of a child. She was 61 years old at the time of her death. On the evening of 15 September 1982, she was at the family's home in Edmonton with her father, Jack Saffin, and her brother-in-law, Don Carroll. Jeannie was sitting with her father in the kitchen. Jack Saffin was looking away from Jeannie when his attention was drawn to his daughter as she was suddenly on fire. Jack Saffin and his son-in-law Don Carroll put out the fire using water from the kitchen, and then called for an ambulance. Jeannie was treated en route to the hospital by paramedics, admitted to North Middlesex Hospital, and then transferred to the burn unit at Mount Vernon Hospital, where she was treated until her death caused by "broncho-pneumonia due to burns" eight days after the original fire and injury. Relatives suggested at the inquest that the death could have been a case of spontaneous human combustion, but the coroner, Dr John Burton, said there was "no such thing" and gave an open verdict.
Spontaneous human combustion
Saffin's case has been held as an example of spontaneous human combustion by paranormal researchers and authors. Jack Saffin's son-in-law, Don Carroll, who was in the home at the time of the fire, has stated that Jeannie had flames coming from her mouth, and made roaring noises like a dragon. Both Carroll and Jack Saffin have repeatedly claimed that prior to Jeannie being lit aflame there was no source of ignition in the kitchen except the pilot light on the gas stove. Carroll also states that Jeannie's clothes were unburned and that there was no smoke damage in the kitchen. The interpretation of Heymer and Arnold's works have led to Saffi'’s case as being quoted as proof of spontaneous human combustion by researchers and authors anxious to make the case for spontaneous human combustion.
An alternate view debunks the evidence pointing towards Saffin being an example of spontaneous human combustion. Proponents of the combustion theory have stated that Saffin "came to be burned inside unburned clothes," However, later research noted by Joe Nickell suggests that Saffin's clothes were burned. In a written statement given at the time of Saffin's death, 12 years before the interview conducted by Heymer, Carroll stated that Saffin's clothes were severely burned. Also, police reports indicated that upon their arrival, constables witnessed Jeannie's clothing burning and removed it after putting out the flames.
The source of the flames has also been scrutinized by skeptics. Carroll has stated that the flames came from Saffin's mouth; however, the medical evidence does not support this conclusion: Saffin's mouth was undamaged, according to hospital records. Medical records also support the conclusion that the majority of Saffin's burns were the result of contact with burning or melted nylon from her clothing. The burning and melting patterns of her nylon clothing could make it appear that the fire was coming from inside Saffin's body.
Opponents of the spontaneous human combustion theory also have a potential explanation for the source of the flame that ignited Saffin's clothing, causing the fire. Carroll made several statements that the only source of flame in the kitchen was the pilot light for the stove. In one interview he specifically noted that Jack Saffin's pipe was unlit and filled with fresh tobacco. Nickell outlines a plausible explanation, that Jack Saffin knocked out used tobacco from his pipe in order to refill it, and that while doing so, caused lit embers of pipe tobacco to land on Jeannie's clothing. Nickell suggests this is even more likely, because at the time of the fire, the kitchen window and door were open, causing a cross breeze. Pipe embers, carried by the breeze and then landing on Saffin's flammable nylon clothing, would easily catch fire and cause the severe burns found on Saffin's body at autopsy.
References
1982 deaths
Accidental deaths in London
Deaths by person in London
Deaths from fire
Deaths from pneumonia in England
Paranormal
Spontaneous human combustion |
34226354 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Santiago%20Pampill%C3%B3n | Death of Santiago Pampillón | Santiago Pampillón (1942–1966) was an Argentine student and activist. He was shot and killed by security forces during a protest in downtown Córdoba in September 1966.
Student Strike
On the night of 7 September 1966, thousands of students responded to the call for a strike, including Santiago Pampillón. The police were ordered to prevent and suppress the protest and a battle ensued, spanning more than twenty blocks from downtown. Amid the struggle, Pampillón received three shots to the head, fired at close range by a policeman. He was taken to a hospital, where he died on 12 September.
In solidarity with the student movement, the CGT of Córdoba organized a silent march that was later repressed by the police.
Implications
Santiago Pampillón was the first casualty in a long series of murders that occurred during the course of the military regime (1966-1973), among others such as Juan José Cabral, Adolfo Bello, Luis Norberto White and Silvia Filler. His death anticipated an escalation of violence that eventually led to full-fledged state terrorism in Argentina. Since then, the Argentine student movement has vindicated his name as a symbol of university activism and worker-student unity.
See also
List of cases of police brutality in Argentina
References
1942 births
1966 deaths
History of Argentina (1955–1973)
Police misconduct in Argentina
1966 in Argentina
Deaths by person in South America
September 1966 events in South America |
34307122 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Gabriel%20Cadis | Death of Gabriel Cadis | Gabriel Cadis (1951 – 6 January 2012) headed the Eastern Orthodox Church Association in Jaffa, Israel. He served as a senior figure and attorney for the organisation until his death in 2012. Gadis won a third term as leader of the Greek Orthodox in Jaffa a month prior to his death. He was viewed as an important figure in local politics and it is speculated that his electoral victory "triggered deep tensions with some of his rivals."
Death
Cadis was murdered during a parade outside St. George's Church celebrating the Nativity of Jesus according to the Eastern church calendar. Eyewitnesses reported an unidentified man wearing a Santa Claus outfit stabbing Cadis and fleeing the scene. Cadis then shouted: "I've been stabbed", and collapsed to the floor. He was evacuated to the Wolfson Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Israeli police established a special unit to investigate Cadis's murder.
Investigation
Six Israeli-Arabs were arrested in connection with Cadis' murder. Four members of the same Christian-Arab family remain in custody. One of the suspects includes Talal Abu Maneh who ran for the position of chairman of the Jaffa Orthodox Church Association twice, and lost to Cadis each time. Investigators are looking into "the possibility that Cadis was murdered over a real estate dispute or power struggles within the Jaffa Orthodox Church Association."
Reaction
Ahmad Masarweh, a Tel Aviv city council member, said: "This is a shock to Jaffa and a hard blow to the Christian community. We had a successful procession. Cadis made a speech and everything was fine until he all the sudden this happened. We are shocked because we can't imagine who would want to hurt him." Jaffa residents described Cadis' death like "an earthquake".
Atallah Hanna, a senior leader of the Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarchate, described the perpetrator as a killer of "Christmas joy" and one who "killed the human and spiritual values embodied by Father Christmas – who makes children happy on Christmas Eve..."
References
Date of birth missing
1951 births
2012 deaths
Deaths by stabbing in Israel
Israeli Christians
Israeli murder victims
People murdered in Israel |
34587738 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20of%20Valeriu%20Boboc | Death of Valeriu Boboc | Valeriu Victor Boboc (May 5, 1985 – April 8, 2009) was a protester who died in police custody amid the post-election protests in Chișinău, Moldova. The initial official cause was smoke poisoning from the riot, but his family insisted that he was beaten to death by the police, his body being full of contusions. According to 2009 Human Rights Report of the United States Department of State, a British forensics expert examined Boboc's body after it was exhumed on June 15, 2009 and concluded that Boboc was killed by severe blows to his head. Only after a new ruling coalition came to power, an investigation was opened into the case and a policeman was arrested on charges of Boboc's murder.
Valeriu Boboc was posthumously decorated, by a presidential decree, with Moldova's highest state decoration – the Order of the Republic. "April 7 events opened the way of Moldova to Europe and Boboc became a symbol of struggle for democratic values and freedom of expression." In 2010, the "Valeriu Boboc" Prize was established by the Senate of Romania for "defending the fundamental human rights and democratic values", but has never been awarded.
Biography
He was born on May 5, 1985, in Bubuieci (a Chișinău suburban community), to Victor Boboc, a history teacher and Ala Boboc, a Romanian language teacher. But the poverty has radically changed the situation in his family, his father working as taxi driver and his mother, Ala Boboc, became unemployed. Valeriu Boboc graduated from "Miguel de Cervantes" High School Chișinău and attended International Relations Institute of Moldova for one year. He left university because he didn't have three thousand lei to pay the study contract. Looking to find a better paid work, he tried to leave for Russia, but failed. He worked at a car wash, a car service and then sold belts at market. In the same place was selling clothes Natalia, whom he married in 2007. Valeriu Boboc lived in an apartment in Bubuieci, with his wife, his child Dragoș (born July 30, 2007), his brother Marcel and parents. Some claim he was known at local city police stations as a passive addict and a hooligan.
Reactions to the death
After the results of the April 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election were announced, he was a peaceful participant at the protest. Boboc arrived in the Square after 5.00 p.m., when the presidential and parliament buildings were being ravaged. Following his arrest, Valeriu Boboc died in a Chișinău hospital on 8 April 2009.
Boboc was pronounced dead in the early hours of April 8 at a Chisinau hospital. The official cause of death was given as inhalation of poisonous gas. His case was reopened after the current ruling coalition won elections in July. The police declared he died of smoke inhalation from the riot, but his family claims that he was beaten to death by the police, his body being full of contusions.
Valeriu Boboc was killed intentionally, said Valeriu Pleșca, the lawyer of the family of Boboc. According to a witness who witnessed the death of Valeriu Boboc, "On the night of April 8, Valeriu Boboc and other men were peacefully sitting near the Triumph Arch in Chisinau's downtown, watching the events on the Great National Assembly Square. Suddenly we were surrounded by 50 armed policemen. The police ordered us to lay on the ground and started to beat us with clubs, legs and weapons," the lawyer read out from the witness's testimonies. The lawyer of the family of Boboc Valeriu Pleșca was called to lay testimonies on June 1, 2009. Damian Hancu, the man who witnessed the death of Valeriu Boboc, declared he could identify the policemen who beat him and Boboc.
"It was around 2 AM. We've heard an information on the radio that someone had found a person with a bullet wound in the Cathedral Square. That was the initial version regarding Valeriu Boboc's death", declared former vice-minister of Internal Affairs, Ghenadie Coșovan. He was surprised about the first declarations made by former minister of Health Larisa Catrinici, that Valeriu Boboc has died due to intoxication, said Ghenadie Coșovan.
The body of Valeriu Boboc was handed to the relatives by the police on April 12 and was buried on the same day. Dorin Chirtoacă, the mayor of Chișinău and vice-president of the Liberal Party, attended Boboc's funerals. The opposition parties subsequently used his death as an important subject during the July 2009 electoral campaign.
The police declared he was found dead in the Great National Assembly Square. According to the official investigation, he died of inhaling a toxic gas, his death certificate stating as cause "poisoning with an unknown substance". The Boboc family and the lawyers disputed this, claiming instead that the young man was beaten to death while in custody. Moldova's Attorney General however noted that the bruises and bleeding traces on Boboc's body were not a cause of his death. The body of Valeriu Boboc was exhumed at the cemetery of Bubuieci on June 15, 2009 for further investigations.
During a protest gathering around 3,000 in the city's central square on April 12, 2009, Dorin Chirtoacă called for a moment of silence in memory of Valeriu Boboc.
On April 12, the spokeswoman of the Interior Ministry, Ala Meleca, has denied media reports blaming the police for the death of Boboc. Ministry of Internal Affairs (Moldova) released a statement on April 12, 2009 saying an autopsy showed that Boboc had a broken rib, but that his death had not been caused by the injury. "Doctors think that the young man was poisoned by unknown substances," the statement said. "Prosecutors are ready for an international probe in order to exclude other interpretations of this fact."
"In connection with the multiple rumors related to the death of the citizen Valeriu Boboc, the Press Service of the Prosecutor Office is in right to inform the following. On April 8, at 1.15 am, V. Boboc died on his way to the Emergency Hospital. According to the results of the autopsy, the body injuries and namely a broken rib have no causative connection with the cause of death. According to the doctors, he was subject to intoxication with an unknown substance. In order to exclude any doubts related to the cause of death, the prosecutors are ready to call an international expertise."
A silent protest was held in Dublin city centre on April 13, 2009, in memory of Valeriu Boboc.
An open letter from the mayor of Chișinău, Dorin Chirtoacă, circulated on 14 April showed disturbing photos of Valeriu Boboc.
On April 17, 2009, Amnesty International wrote: "Valeriu Boboc reportedly died during the demonstrations on 7 April. There are conflicting reports as to the cause of his death. The General Prosecutor's Office has reported that his death was due to poisoning with unknown substances, while his family allege that he died as a result of injuries inflicted by the police."
Between April 17 to June 8, 2009, lawyers Veaceslav Țurcan and Valeriu Pleșca of the family of the victim submitted many requests for the exhumation of Boboc, but they received 12 letters of denial. Later, after attacking the Prosecution in court, they got right to the exhumation and the expertise of an specialist from the UK.
One day after a member of the Institute for Human Rights, an NGO that assisted victims of torture, had called a London-based pathologist seeking assistance in investigating the death of Valeriu Boboc, the prosecutor's office called Boboc's father and promised to bring in the same pathologist to investigate the case. That is an evidence that his phone was tapped.
The body of Valeriu Boboc was exhumed at the cemetery of Bubueci on 15 June 2009. The exhumation lasted nearly 2 hours, and was held in the presence of the Boboc family's two lawyers, the prosecutor conducting the Boboc case, and an expert from Great Britain. The coffin was delivered to a Chisinau morgue, where the body was subjected to a thorough forensic examination to establish the true reason of the young man's death. The British expert Derrick John Pounde (born February 25, 1949) played a key role in the work.
On June 22, 2009, "Amnesty International welcomes the fact that the Moldovan authorities have invited an international forensic expert to take part in the autopsy of Valeriu Boboc, who died during the demonstrations on 7 April under disputed circumstances, but calls on the authorities to ensure that all cases of alleged police ill-treatment are promptly, independently, impartially and thoroughly investigated and that anyone reasonably identified as responsible is brought to justice, in accordance with Moldova's obligations under international human rights law."
Even if Professor John Pounder Derrik presented on June 29, 2009 to the Prosecutor Ion Matiușenco his report, the access of the lawyers to it was delayed.
On July 9, 2009, the Prosecutor General Valeriu Gurbulea said that on the night of April 8, Boboc was taken from the Great National Assembly Square, was taken to the Emergency Hospital in a police car and the doctors established that he was dead. "Legal action was immediately taken over this case," Gurbulea said
On July 24, 2009, the Prosecutor General Valeriu Gurbulea said no policeman who maltreated protesters had been identified yet. Neither is it known who killed Boboc. One of the reasons is that policemen were wearing masks.
Two days after July 2009 election, Ion Matiușenco, the prosecutor investigating Boboc's case, resigned on July 31 and was replaced by another prosecutor. But at year's end there were no further developments in the case.
When the ruling coalition Alliance for European Integration came to power, it promised to tell the whole truth about the April 2009 unrest.
On October 8, 2009 hundreds of people came to the Stephen the Great Monument in Chișinău to mark 6 months from the bloody events. While was attending the ceremony, the prime minister Vlad Filat, expressed condolences to Victor Boboc, the father of Valeriu Boboc. Filat also said that the Ministry of the Interior has already started a domestic investigation into the police's actions on April 7, 2009 and especially during subsequent days and weeks.
After December 2009, Dragoș Boboc, Valeriu Boboc's son, will monthly receive 1000 lei from Mihai Ghimpu's salary. This action will continue as long as his interim mandate of acting President of Moldova is valid.
On October 2, 2009, the Prosecutor General Valeriu Gurbulea resigned. "Foreign and national experts determined the death was as a result of injuries caused to Valeriu Boboc and not caused by an unknown, poisoning gas, as was said immediately after the tragedy," said the new Prosecutor General Valeriu Zubco in January 2010.
According to 2009 Human Rights Report of the United States Department of State, released on March 11, 2010:
On March 22, 2010, former President Vladimir Voronin said during a televised interview with Lorena Bogza on ProTV that Valeriu Boboc was beaten and then thrown out of a Parliament window. "We can say without exaggeration that Valeriu Boboc's death is on the consciousness of Vladimir Filat and his comrades" wrote on April 2, 2010 Iurie Roșca, a deputy president of Parliament during the riots.
More information appeared one year after the April events, on Valeriu Boboc's death. Dorin Chirtoacă, the mayor of Chisinau, declared on March 23, 2010 that he has certain information on the abuses of April 7 from one source inside the Minister of Interior Affairs. Almost 60 policemen, dressed as civilians, received an order from the present police commissar, Serghei Cociorva, to arrest those who were between the Puskin street and the Parliament", said Chirtoaca.
On April 5, 2010 acting President Mihai Ghimpu and Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoacă showed journalists a videotape of 2009 protests. In one scene on the videotape, several men are shown kicking what appears to be an unconscious man lying on the pavement in Chisinau's main square. Ghimpu and Chirtoaca said the assailants were policemen in plain clothes and the man they were attacking was Boboc.
On April 6, 2010, the president of police officers union "Demnitate", Mihai Lașcu, stated Valeriu Boboc was criminally investigated for drugs` storage and robbery. He said that he would not accept that a citizen who is criminally investigated for drugs` storage and robbery to receive the medal "Honor Order".
A year after Boboc's death, General Prosecutor's office announced on April 6, 2010 that they arrested the supposed murderer, a collaborator of the General Police Commissariat. The Moldovan prosecutor's office announced on April 7, 2010 that Ion Perju has been charged with killing 27-year-old Valeriu Boboc on April 7, 2009. Moldovan Interior Minister Victor Catan confirmed the arrest and he said more arrests will follow, but did not elaborate. On June 18, 2010, the warrant for the home arrest of suspended police officer Ion Perju was extended by the Buiucani District Court for another 90 days.
On the death of the citizen Valeriu Boboc, criminal proceedings were initiated under Article 151 paragraph (4) and Article 328 paragraph (3) point d) of the Criminal Code.
The initiative regarding founding the Prize "Valeriu Boboc" for the liberty of press and defending of democratic values was launched on April 19, 2010 by the Romanian senator Mihaela Popa. She said in front of the Senate that "April 7 events opened the way of Moldova to Europe and Boboc is no longer just a name, but a symbol of struggle for democratic values and freedom of expression." On April 23, the newspaper of a former ally of Communists Iurie Roșca, Flux, had a very hostile reaction to the initiative. The memorandum regarding founding the Prize "Valeriu Boboc" for the liberty of press and defending of democratic values was adopted on April 30, 2010 by the permanent bureau of the Romanian Senate.
A moment of silence was held for Boboc on May 5, 2010 (his birthday) in the Romanian Senate.
On June 9, 2010, the Buiucani district court released former deputy police commissioner Iacob Gumeniță from home arrest and allowing him to be 'investigated at liberty' with respect to his role in the events of April 7 / 8 2009.
As of November 2010, the case is still ongoing.
In October 2011, the mayor Dorin Chirtoacă required to be prepared a memorial plaque in memory of Valeriu Boboc, mounted in where the young man was killed.
Former Interior Minister Gheorghe Papuc and former police commissioner general, Vladimir Botnari – accused by prosecutors of misconduct in office during the events of April 2009 that killed young Boboc – were acquitted on December 29, 2011.
Awards
On April 7, 2010, Boboc was posthumously awarded the country's highest award, the Order of the Republic (Moldova).
On November 3, 2009, "Liberty prize" for year 2009 was posthumously offered to Valeriu Boboc. "Liberty prize" (Premiul Libertății) is offered annually by the newspaper Jurnal de Chișinău since 2009.
Legacy
Dorin Chirtoacă, the mayor of Chișinău and vice-president of the Liberal Party, attended Boboc's funerals. The opposition parties subsequently used his death as an important subject during the July 2009 electoral campaign.
On October 8, 2009 hundreds of people came to the Stephen the Great Monument in Chișinău to mark 6 months from the bloody events. While was attending the ceremony, the prime minister Vlad Filat, expressed condolences to Victor Boboc, the father of Valeriu Boboc. Filat also said that the Ministry of the Interior has already started a domestic investigation into the police's actions on April 7, 2009 and especially during subsequent days and weeks.
A year after Boboc's death, General prosecution announced on April 6, 2010 that they had arrested the supposed murderer, a collaborator of the General Police Commissariat.
"Valeriu Boboc" Prize
The memorandum regarding founding the Prize "Valeriu Boboc" for the liberty of press and defending of democratic values was adopted on April 30, 2010 by the permanent bureau of the Romanian Senate. The initiative was launched on April 19, 2010 by the Romanian senator Mihaela Popa. The prize "Valeriu Boboc" will be given each year, during a symposium, organized by the Romanian Senate, in April, on the topic "Defending the fundamental human rights and democratic values".
See also
Monument of Liberty, Chișinău
Ion Țâbuleac
Eugen Țapu
Maxim Canișev
References
External links
Moldova makes arrest in post-election killing
Valeriu Boboc, decorated post-mortem with The Republic's Order
Moldova commemorates 7 April 2009 anti-Communist protests
A fost identificat ucigasul lui Valeriu Boboc
Valeriu Boboc eroul ucis de politie Proteste Chisinau Romanian Television
Silent protest in memory of Valeriu Boboc 13-04-09
Ex-President Voronin speaks about Valeriu Boboc's death in April's anti-Communist protests
Valeriu Boboc – Death certificate
There was beating, 'but not like in Europe'
2009 in Moldova
April 2009 events in Europe
Deaths by person in Europe
Deaths in Moldova
2009
Political violence in Moldova
Protest-related deaths |