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  1. Clive Stafford Smith

    William Hague's torture inquiry: a prospectus

    Clive Stafford Smith on 24 May 2010

    When it comes to British complicity in torture and rendition, for some years the Labour government has put up stolid, rearguard action against the truth. Those who thought of Labour as the party of human rights will, perhaps, be sad that it has taken a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to announce an inquiry.

    Not a moment too soon. As Richard Nixon taught us during Watergate, no matter what the crime, the cover-up often does more harm. Significantly, if we suppress evidence of crimes, we also make it far more likely that the same offence will be committed in ...

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  2. Clive Stafford Smith

    William Hague's torture inquiry: a prospectus

    Clive Stafford Smith on 21 May 2010

    When it comes to British complicity in torture and rendition, for some years the Labour Government has put up stolid, rearguard action against the truth. Those who thought of Labour as the party of human rights will, perhaps, be sad that it has taken a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to announce an inquiry.

    Not a moment too soon. As Richard Nixon taught us during Watergate, no matter what the crime, the cover up often does more harm. Significantly, if we suppress evidence of crimes, we also make it far more likely that the same offence will be committed ...

    Read more

  3. Generic - light bulb in dingy corridor

    Defining Detention

    Crofton Black on 20 May 2010

    Imagine you're a high ranking US officer, an ex-Navy SEAL, who now has the less glamorous role of sorting out your country’s detention strategy in Afghanistan. Over the last eight and a half years your troops have picked up thousands of people, most of whom have either been released or handed over to the Afghan authorities, but you’ve still got a bunch of long-term prisoners whom you’re not quite sure what to do with. Your boss has made you aware, in no uncertain terms, that so far the handling of detentions has been a disaster: it ...

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  4. Linda Carty - portrait by Claire Phillips

    New York Times analyses Guerinot's record in capital cases

    Cortney Busch on 18 May 2010

    In an article for New York Times today, Adam Liptak looks at Jerry Guerinot's record in capital cases.

    Guerinot, responsible for Linda Carty’s life, has represented twenty individuals sentenced to death. He has since left the business of capital cases, but the damage is done.

    Please help Linda Carty. Sign the petition and write to Governor Perry asking to spare her life.

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  5. Nao Terai photo

    Obama Administration okays the execution of a US citizen without any due process or judicial oversight

    Nao Terai on 17 May 2010

    American-born Anwar al-Awlaki is now on the C.I.A.’s “targeted killing” list that the C.I.A. maintains as part of their secretive drone missile strikes program.

    The program, originally authorized by the Bush Administration, allows the C.I.A. to gather evidence through surveillance cameras on unmanned aircrafts and other sources and launch missile strikes against top leaders of Al Qaeda and Taliban. According to Harold Koh, the State Department’s legal advisor, drone strikes against al Qaeda and its allies are lawful as part of the military action authorized by Congress after 9/11 and under ...

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  6. Death row - cell

    Family of murder victim ask court to refrain from executing prisoner

    Chloe Strowger on 17 May 2010

    Death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner, who recently caused controversy over his decision to be executed by firing squad, has received support from an unlikely ally. Family members of the victim, Michael Burdell, are due to testify in favour of life imprisonment during a requested clemency.

    The Attorney General's Office in Utah has a week to approve the request for a clemency hearing.

    Burdell’s family believe that he would not want to be the reason a man was killed. They are hoping that the board will grant Gardner a hearing so that they can argue that their late ...

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  7. Clemency wells by E.Purdon BW

    The California Democratic Party has announced it will add abolition of the death penalty to their party platform

    Clemency Wells on 17 May 2010

    California is the largest state in the USA. It is the world’s eighth largest economy. It is also broke.

    The California Democratic Party has decided that there are better ways to spend tax-payers money than maintaining the country’s largest death row, where a staggering 700 people currently languish.

    Capital punishment in the USA is eye-wateringly expensive. To prosecute a capital case costs vastly more than a case in which life in prison is the maximum sentence. It is estimated that California would save around $1bn over five years by repealing the death penalty. Simply to house those on ...

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  8. Generic - light bulb in dingy corridor

    Relaxation and Renditions in Mallorca

    Crofton Black on 13 May 2010

    Extraordinary rendition is hard work. It’s tough on the victims, who are stripped, put in diapers, hooded, shackled and spreadeagled on the floor of the plane. Apparently it’s quite gruelling for the crew too. 

    This must be why, in the course of transporting Binyam Mohammed and Khaled el-Masri in January 2004, the CIA renditions team aboard Boeing 737 N313P made not one but two pleasant stopovers in Palma de Mallorca. Here, they relaxed at taxpayers’ expense at the five-star Hotel Mallorca Marriot Son Antem (“With fragrant olive and almond trees perfuming the sun-kissed air, a paradise for golfers ...

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  9. Death row - cell

    Why Georgia cannot afford the death penalty

    Kate Morris on 13 May 2010

    On Tuesday, lawyers for Jamie Ryan Weis petitioned the US Supreme Court to consider a 4-3 ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court that Jamie’s trial should go ahead, despite the fact that a lack of state funding has deprived Jamie of his Sixth Amendment rights to the assistance of counsel and a speedy trial.

    Jamie, who is mentally ill, was arrested and charged with the murder of Catherine King in February 2006. He has since been sitting in prison, waiting for his trial. During that time, he has attempted suicide three times, and his mother – due to be a ...

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  10. Generic - barbed wire

    Each, for now, a living human being...

    Sherif Malak on 11 May 2010

    • Bill Gates
    • David Bowie, Hendrix, Willy Mason, Maxwell, Dave Matthews and Suggs
    • George Martin
    • Owen, Vieira, Wright, Henri and Bobby Moore
    • Hayes, Hatten, Eubanks, Bruno and Ali
    • Cruise, Baldwin and Garcia
    • Hoskins and Keith Allen
    • Richard E. Grant
    • Hale & Pace, Armstrong & Miller, Mitchell & Webb, Smith & Jones, Hall & Oats
    • Hitchcock, Scott, Mann, John Irving and David Lynch
    • Holmes, Christie, Edwards and John Higgins
    • Washington, Nixon, Clinton and Bush
    • Hertz, Hyatt and Haliburton
    • Holland, England and Israel
    • Alvin, Simon and Theodore

    Just some of the names that have endured life on death row in the United States. Almost all face the horror ...

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