Chicago's Dark Legacy Of Police Torture.

Liliana's article demonstrates that America is a brutal, lawless rogue state and has no place in today's society.


Author Liliana Segura

On January 25, 1990, the Chicago Reader, the free alternative weekly, published a cover story, nearly 20,000 words long, titled “House of Screams.” Written and reported over the course of a year by journalist John Conroy, the investigation exposed, in meticulous detail, a long and chilling history of abuse by police against suspects on the South Side of Chicago. At the Area 2 Violent Crimes Unit, Police Commander Jon Burge had overseen and participated in the systemic torture of an untold number of African-American men, dating back to the early 1970s. They had been beaten, burned against radiators, suffocated with plastic bags and, most disturbingly, had their genitals subjected to electric shocks. “Fun time” was how Burge referred to the electrocution sessions, which, Conroy would later reveal, drew on his experience as a military police officer in Vietnam.

Despite its bombshell revelations, the story did not spark immediate or widespread outrage. Even the local dailies failed to run with it. So over the next seventeen years, Conroy would write twenty-two more articles about Chicago’s police torture regime—stories that laid bare the extent of the abuse and decried the total impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. Among those who knew about the torture was former Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Daley, sworn in as mayor months before “House of Screams” was published. (Some fifty men claim to have been brutalized in the eight years he served as state’s attorney.) In 2003, out of concern that innocent men had been convicted and sentenced to die based on confessions that had been tortured out of them, Governor George Ryan famously emptied Illinois’s death row, commuting 167 sentences and pardoning four men.....read more

http://www.thenation.com/article/168965/chicagos-dark-legacy-police-torture

Texas:Execution Of Mentally Impaired Yokamon Hearn With Animal Drugs.

Yokamon Hearn executed in Texas‎

A 33-year-old man with alleged mental impairments was executed by the state of Texas on Wednesday after being administered a single narcotic by lethal injection — the same drug commonly used by veterinarians to kill dogs and cats.

Despite requests for authorities to reconsider the mental functions of Yokamon Hearn, the convicted car jacker and murderer became the sixth death row inmate executed in only seven months by the state. And although the execution occurred in a state unarguably infamous for its routine capital punishment procedures, the case is continuing to raise questions about why and how Hearn was put to death.

Not only had attorneys argued that Hearn suffered severe mental impairments brought on by his mother’s incessant prenatal drinking, but a long history of neglect and abuse from his parents painted a picture of a defendant mentally scared and unfit for execution.
The assistant district attorney argued, however, that honoring this appeal "would be a free pass for anyone whose parents drank."

Only a day before he was set to die, an official with the United Nations wrote the US to beg for state authorities to reconsider the killing.

“[T]here is evidence to suggest that he…suffers from psychosocial disabilities,” Christof Heyns, the special rapporteur on arbitrary executions for the UN, wrote from Geneva, Switzerland. Heyns also reintroduced the fact that experts clearly opined that Hearn’s mother abused alcohol before his birth, an act that caused him to be “affected by structural brain dysfunction” while still in the womb.

Even after the UN’s pleas, Texas went forth with the execution on Wednesday, killing Hearn by way of lethal injection shortly after 7:00 p.m. local time.

What raises additional scrutiny, however, is how the state went about the killing. For the first time in history of Texas, authorities induced death by injecting the inmate with a single drug — pentobarbital — instead of the standard cocktail of narcotics regularly used in the past. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed one week earlier that their supply of one of the drugs previously used in executions — the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide — had expired and that they’d be forced to find another way to carry out the execution.

After the European Union banned the export last year of the barbituric acids regularly used in a three-drug cocktail favored by American prisons, officials in the States were forced to find alternative means of executing their inmates. In September, authorities in Florida used pentobarbital to kill a death row inmate, despite pleas from the drug’s manufacturer that demanded otherwise.

Before the September execution of Manuel Valle, Lundbeck manufactures wrote to Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) to say that using their product to kill people “contradicts everything Lundbeck is in business to do — provide therapies that improve people's lives.”
Lundbeck has banned the export of the drug to the US, but a surplus of supplies in some states is forcing authorities to use the narcotic to kill inmates, especially in instances where the components of the three-drug cocktail are unavailable.

“While the company has never sold the product directly to prisons and therefore can’t make guarantees, we are confident that our new distribution program will play a substantial role in restricting prisons’ access to Nembutal for misuse as part of lethal injection,” Lundbeck wrote last year.

By switching to a single dose of Nembutal — the product name of pentobarbital — Mr. Hearn’s execution cost the state $1,286.86 instead of the normal $84.55 for a three-drug cocktail. Before a string of recent executions across America, pentobarbital was used primarily in lethal injections administered to pets that were put to sleep by veterinarians.

Before being administered the narcotic on Wednesday evening, Hearns offered a final statement to his loved ones.

"I'd like to tell my family that I love y'all and I wish y'all well. I'm ready," the inmate said. He was pronounced dead a full 25 minutes later.

Ohio, Arizona, Idaho, and Washington have already switched to using a single dose of pentobarbital to execute death row inmates. On Tuesday, officials in Georgia revealed that they’d be implementing it as a means of execution as well. It has yet to be confirmed, however, if that will be how the state goes about a planned execution of Warren Hill, a death row inmate scheduled to be killed this week despite being declared “mentally retarded” by the court. Mr. Hill was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday as well but the state has since put the killing on hold to reconsider its means of lethal injection. The UN has asked for an appeal in that case as well.

Since 1982, Texas has formally executed nearly 500 death row inmates. Mr. Hearns was the first person to be killed with a single drug. Texas officials note that they currently have "an adequate supply of pentobarbital to carry out all scheduled executions,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

http://rt.com/usa/news/texas-execution-hearn-animal-583/

UN urges Texas and Georgia not to execute the mentally disabled

The United Nations is asking authorities in the states of Texas and Georgia to intervene in the cases of two American death row inmates who are slated to be executed this week despite having known mental disabilities.

Christof Heyns, the special rapporteur on arbitrary executions for the UN, has written the American government this week in hopes that his plea, penned all the way in Geneva, Switzerland, will convince the United States to reconsider killing two death row inmates scheduled to die on Wednesday. Although both cases involve putting to death inmates who have long been imprisoned for murder convictions, Heyns says that their documented mental states should be considered by the court before their executions are carried out.

In his memo, dated Tuesday, Heyns says the executions of Warren Hill and Yokamon Laneal Hearn are a "violation of death penalty safeguards" and that anyone suffering from "psychosocial disabilities" should have their death sentence commuted.

Mr. Hill, 52, was slated to be killed on Wednesday by the state of Georgia, even though the court previously agreed that he is “mentally retarded” by a “preponderance of the evidence.” In Georgia, however, the state court says that such a mental condition needs to be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

"Executing Warren Hill, a 52-year-old man whom a court has found to be more likely than not mentally retarded, would be a terrible miscarriage of justice,” Mr. Hill’s attorney recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Georgia Department of Corrections said on Tuesday this week that they would temporarily postpone the execution of Mr. Hill so that they could make changes to its lethal-injection protocol, the Wall Street Journal reports, but the UN hopes that his death sentence is commuted entirely. Heyns argues that if an appeal is not honored, putting Hill to death “would be a fatality in violation of international as well as domestic law.”

Hearn, 33, is slated to be executed Wednesday evening in Texas for a 1998 murder he has been convicted of, although his attorney argues that the presiding jury in that case was never informed that he suffered brain damage as a child, was neglected by his parents, and was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Pleading for the state to reconsider the execution, the UN’s Heyns writes that “there is evidence to suggest that he also suffers from psychosocial disabilities” and mention that is the opinion of experts that his mother’s alcohol abuse caused him to be “affected by structural brain dysfunction” before birth.

Amnesty International reports that the United States is the only member state from the Group of Eight leading economies that participated in capital punishment last year. The Death Penalty Information Center’s records reveals that the US has executed 23 prisoners so far in 2012.


http://on.rt.com/zalh4h 

Documentary: Secret CIA Prisons In Europe.

Uploaded by messiandread on 11 Sep 2011

WWW, September 2011 - In Eastern Europe, people thought they became free when the German Wall and the iron Curtain fell. Freedom was the buzzword. After 9/11, however, the American based CIA began planting secret prisons in Poland and Lithuania. The Russian-based RT channel investigates two claims of the existence of these prisons and cam with a remarkable documentary as a result which the Babylon Observer presents to you with permission.
It's called "rendition": a nice little word which hides the true meaning. People are being kidnapped and brought to secret prisons all over the world, including several European countries. In Lithuania and Poland, for example. Government leaders fall over it, parliaments do not get the right information, and journalists trying to uncover the facts often engage people who are unwilling to speak about it.

In this documentary, a crew from the Russian based RT station tries to unravel just what's been going on in the two mentioned countries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcIS_lZTSsI&feature=related

Documentary: Torture Inside America's Brutal Prisons. (Videos 1-5)

 

Texas: Clips From America's Brutal Prisons.

Prison Rape:Author T.J. Parsell talks about his time spent as a youth in a Michigan prison. Lecture and Reading at UCLA Law School.

Uploaded by tjparsell on 2 May 2007

Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison

U.K. Riots : Mark Duggan An Unarmed Man Shot Dead By Police - They Claimed He Was Armed - They Lied And Continue To Lie.

http://smileyculturelies.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/markduggan-documentary-still-no-answers.html

U.K. Riots : BBC Documentary - The Aftershock

Published on 16 Jul 2012 by MrBestdocumentary

Radio 1's Gemma Cairney investigates how last year's UK riots changed the lives of those who got caught up in them. Over nine months the film follows three young people who were arrested on those anarchic nights in August 2011, as well as some of the young victims of the riots. With intimate access, we find out how their lives changed as they went through the court process or, for some, the prison system as each began the challenge of building a new life after the riots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCQnM-tF4SI

U.K. Rioters Allegedly Suffererd Abuse Whilst In Prison.

by Anthony Organ

 

 

As the UK prison population continues to grow after reaching a record high, there is some concern that those convicted of rioting are finding being victimised by other prisoners.

Allegations have emerged today that conditions in prisons are worsening in the wake of the riots, including segregation of rioters from other prisoners, overcrowding, and physical attacks on suspected rioters. One anonymous mother of a teenager imprisoned at the Isis Young Offender Institution described how he was assaulted due to prisoners falsely believing him to be a rioter, when in fact he simply arrived on the same day as some of the rioters.

With over 3,000 people arrested in connection to the riots and recent figures suggesting that around 70 per cent of those who have appeared in court are being remanded in custody as opposed to the usual 10 per cent, there are concerns that the prison system will find itself unable to cope. As prisons become overcrowded, staff find it increasingly difficult to control behaviour and so the potential for violence amongst prisoners increases. Also, last week Harry Fletcher, of the probation officers' union Napo, noted that the chance for work, education or rehabilitation will be "zero" as space runs out. This has led many to question whether the harsh prison sentences being given will do more harm than good in the long-term. Paul Matthew, a lawyer for firm GT Stewart who are representing a 15-year-old suspected rioter said that "we're creating criminals of the future" due to the lack of chance for rehabilitation. There were concerns earlier this year that the quality of prison education were deemed "unacceptable" at Reading Young Offenders Institution, the country's main provider of prison education, and statistics released by the Ministry of Justice in December last year noted that "75% of offenders sentenced to youth custody re-offend within a year". There are concerns that with less chance for rehabilitation due following the riots this figure may rise even further.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice denied the allegations of prisoner segregation or lack of space at Isis. She also claimed that there "have been no assaults other than some scuffles two weeks ago". She did however admit that some juveniles from London had been moved to the North-West as far as Wetherby Prison in Leeds and Hindley which is near Manchester. She claimed that "they will be moved as space becomes available in the south", but gave no indication as to when that was expected to be.

http://digitaljournal.com/article/310863

Jail Time : Rape In Prison.

Ian Brady:Mental Health Tribunal Decision

Re: Ian Brady

Reasons for the Tribunal’s Decision

6^th July 2012

The Tribunal yesterday received information concerning the medical condition of Ian Brady following his admission to hospital on Tuesday 3^rd July 2012. It also received submissions on his behalf from Mr Hugh Southey Q.C. and from Miss Eleanor Gray Q.C. on behalf of the Responsible Authority, Ashworth Hospital.

The Tribunal accepted that Mr Brady’s medical condition, though not life threatening, is such as to preclude his attendance and proper participation in the hearing in public which is listed for Monday 9^th July 2012.

The Tribunal considered that it would not be proper to continue in his absence as it had been a significant factor in the decision to grant a hearing in public that he would participate in such a hearing.

The Tribunal further considered whether the situation could be accommodated by a short postponement. It concluded that, given the present prognosis, that would not be practical.

The Tribunal are acutely aware of the public interest in this case being resolved as soon as possible and of the extensive arrangements which have been made to facilitate its hearing. But in the circumstances the Tribunal had to conclude that the forthcoming hearing must be adjourned to a date to be fixed when the commitments of those involved have been ascertained because of Mr Brady’s present physical condition.

His Honour Judge Robert K. Atherton
6^th July 2012

Mental Health Tribunal decision on media attendance at Ashworth Hospital hearing Arrangements have been made for the hearing in public of the application by Mr Ian Brady. The Tribunal will sit at Ashworth Hospital, Merseyside and the proceedings will be relayed to the Civil Justice Centre Manchester.
ian-brady-tribunal-decision-june-2012.pdf (PDF 99.0kb)

 

 

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Re the Application of Ian Brady

Notice to the media

The Tribunal made the following order which contains information for the General Public.
1. The Hearing is listed for Monday 9^th July 2012 with a time estimate of 8 days.
2. The Tribunal will convene at Ashworth Hospital and the proceedings will be relayed by Close Circuit Television to the Civil Justice Centre Manchester where members of the General Public (including the media) will be able to observe the proceedings.
3. No member of the General Public will be admitted to the hearing room at Ashworth Hospital. Further consideration is being given to the position of the media’s attendance at Ashworth Hospital and a Direction will be issued as soon as possible.

His Honour Judge Robert K. Atherton

9^th March 2012

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The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) Health Education & Social Care Chamber Rules 2008

Re: Ian Brady

Judgment re: Publication of the Tribunal’s Decision

In a decision given on 17^th October 2011, the application by Mr Ian Brady for a hearing in public that his application dated 4^th August 2010 should be held in public was granted. The date of the hearing and appropriate arrangements are presently being determined and will be published as soon as possible. The fact of this decision should be published. The Tribunal also ordered that the reasons for the decision must not to be made public.

His Honour Judge Robert K. Atherton
7^th December 2011

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http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/media/judgments/2012/ian-brady-mental-health-tribunal-decision

DEATHS In Custody: Don't fall for cops story on Smiley Culture....

by Patrick Ward

Police are attempting to spin their version of how reggae artist Smiley Culture died during a raid on his home last month.

The Sun newspaper printed claims by an anonymous officer who allegedly witnessed the star’s death. The source claims that Smiley said, “Do you want some? I do,” and then stabbed himself.

Smiley’s nephew, Merlin Emmanuel, said he was “disgusted” by the story and condemned police leaks about his uncle’s death as “damage limitation”.

“I am perplexed by the police’s continual release of information without making a statement themselves,” he told Socialist Worker.

“The Sun has shown its true colours. It wants to impose the interests of the elite.”
Four more people have died in police custody this month.

Anthony Davies from Crewe died after arrest on 7 April. Colin Ranford from Worcester died on 13 April. Kirk Williams from County Durham died on 17 April. And Michael Sweeney from Bow, east London, died on 18 April.

The Campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture has demanded that in future all arrests be filmed. “If people die in these circumstances, we would have the evidence,” said Merlin.

The campaign has organised a political and cultural event for young people in London next week, and is planning a protest for judicial reform.

Youth for Smiley Culture, 6.30pm, Saturday 7 May, ULU, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY

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Dorothy “Cherry” Groce, who was paralysed after being shot by police in Brixton in 1985, died on Monday.

Inspector Douglas Lovelock shot Cherry while she was in her bed. This triggered the 1985 Brixton riot.

Lovelock was cleared of all charges and reinstated.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24665

Prisoners Sentenced For Disemboweling Rapist.

Michael Parr and Nathan Mann, two prisoners at Frankland Prison in Durham, England, were sentenced by a judge to life in prison for killing and disemboweling a fellow inmate last year, the UK’s Press Association reports.

According to the BBC, Parr, 32, and Mann, 23, cut the neck of Mitchell Harrison, a 23-year-old convicted of raping a minor. The pair, however didn’t stop there; they then proceeded to cut open Harrison’s stomach with the intention of eating his liver.
The Press Association, via The Guardian, offers more of the sinister details:

Mann, described by a psychiatrist as “a remorseless, callous psychopath” who “harbours cannibalistic urges”, also stabbed Harrison in the eye with a pen and, after he was dead, cut his stomach open. He and Parr had planned to cut Harrison’s liver in half and share it, but could not bring themselves to do it, the court heard.

According to the BBC, the pair fantasized about beheading and disemboweling fellow prisoners.
“Because of the risk these prisoners pose I cannot envisage the circumstances where either of them are ever released,” Justice Peter Openshaw said, according to the Durham Times....read more

http://jaillife.co.uk/pair-of-prisoners-sentenced-for-disemboweling-rapist.html