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Rotting on Remand

Billy Bragg
Language: English


Billy Bragg

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‎[1988]‎
Album: “Workers Playtime (Capitalism Is Killing Music)”‎

Workers Playtime

‎“… Ho protestato che non c’era ragione di non liberarmi, ma il giudice mi ha risposto ‘Ragazzo, qui ‎non c’entra la giustizia, qui c’entra solo la legge’… Innocente fino a prova contraria ma costretto a ‎marcire in custodia cautelare…”‎
I stood before the judge that day
As he refused me bail
And I knew that I would spend my time
Awaiting trial in jail
I said there is no justice
As they led me out of the door
And the judge said, "this isn't a court of justice, son
This is a court of law."

They first sent me to windsor
And then to stoke on trent
In a holding cell in liverpool
Three days and nights I spent
My solicitor can't find me
And my family don't know
I keep telling them that I'm innocent
They just say, "come on son, in you go."

I was picked up on suspicion of something I haven't done
Here I sit in 'f' wing waiting for my trial to come
It's a cruel unusual punishment that society demands
Innocent till proven guilty, rotting on remand

I ended up in this jail
Built in 1882
When one man to one prison cell
Was a victorian value
Now three of us are squeezed in here
And you can't escape the smell
Of that bucket in the corner
And we eat in here as well

They let me out of this cage
To slop that bucket out
To get my food and bring it back
And if I'm lucky, get a shower
Apart from one hour's exercise
I'm locked in here all day
You don't turn criminals into citizens
By treating them this way

Is the price of law and order the stench of wormwood scrubs
With judges quick to sentence more down from above
It's a cruel unusual punishment that society demands
Innocent till proven guilty, rotting on remand

Contributed by Dead End - 2012/6/28 - 12:10


Usa: 27 anni in carcere da innocente, ricevera' 16 mln dlr

Houston, 19 nov. - Washington Dc ha acconsentito ad un risarcimento danni da 16 milioni di dollari per Donald Eugene Gates, un afroamericano che ha passato 27 anni in carcere pur uno stupro e un omicidio mai commessi. Si tratta di 617.000 dollari per ogni anno trascorso in carcere dove e' rimasto fino al 2009 quando, grazie un test del Dna, e' stato scagionato dall'accusa di aver stuprato ed ucciso la 21enne studentessa della Georgetown University, Catherine Schilling nel 1981. Contro di lui, secondo quanto stabilito da un giudice federale, erano state costruite prove ad hoc da parte di due agenti di polizia. Il vero killer, scoperto grazie ad un test del Dna nel 2013, era morto l'anno precedente...

da La Repubblica del 19 novembre 2015

Bernart Bartleby - 2015/11/20 - 00:02




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