PRESS RELEASE
Released 29 October 2009
INQUEST OPENS AFTER SIX YEAR WAIT
10am Wednesday 4 November 2009 before HM Coroner (Assistant Deputy Campbell) for Birmingham, sitting at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, Upper Clifton Road, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, B73 6AB (close to Sutton Coldfield railway station). The inquest into the controversial death in police custody of Michael Lloyd Powell (known as Mikey) opens on Wednesday 4 November 2009, and is expected to last for six weeks. Mikey was a cousin of the renowned poet and writer, Benjamin Zephaniah, a patron of INQUEST.
Mikey Powell was a fit and healthy 38 year old black man and a father of three young children. He had suffered several short episodes of mental illness in the past from which he had recovered. One of these episodes occurred on 7 September 2003. Police had previously dealt appropriately with Mikey and were called again on this occasion by concerned family members.
The inquest into the death of Mikey Powell will be commencing on 