It’s a sad day for the friends and family of Mark Duggan.
It has today been announced that his mother has had her appeal against the lawful killing verdict rejected by the court of appeal. The decision was made despite the jury now knowing he was unarmed.
Duggan, 29 at the time, was shot dead by a police officer in 2011, leading to nationwide riots in protest against his death, which many believed to be unlawful.
Marcia Willis Stewart, the family’s solicitor of Birnberg Peirce solicitors, said, “We need to take time to consider this decision and then decide what action to take.”
The family’s barrister, Hugh Southey QC, believed the coroner “directed the jury that the lawfulness of the lethal force, and the question of whether V53 was acting in self-defence, should be judged solely by reference to V53’s honest belief as to the threat posed”.
He continued, “They were not told that, in deciding whether the belief was honestly held, they should consider whether or not that belief was based on reasonable grounds.”
“That consideration was, as a matter of common sense, an inevitable part of the exercise that they had to carry out,” said the court in summary of their verdict.