Eddie Africa Denied Parole New York City Jericho Movement
Ona Move
When The Move 9 became eligible for parole in 2008 The Pennsylvania Parole Board took on the responsibility of officials of this system in keeping innocent Move Members in prison for the rest of their lives. From 2008 up until as recently as this past week all of The Move 9 have been denied parole. We received a call last night from our brother Eddie Africa who was calling to let us know he was denied yet again by The Pa Parole Board and was given a two year hit where he would not go before the board again until 2018.
The Parole Board has cited the issue of Eddie being a risk to the safety of the community. At Eddie’s parole hearing the parole board was presented with a petition of 300 signatures of members of the community who would welcome him on parole into the community and who in fact felt no threat to their safety with Eddie in the community. It’s obvious that this community that the parole board is talking about is none other than the law enforcement community across the country who have mobilized against parole for Move Members .
This clearly shows that The Parole Board has no regard for the community and their input on anything, as they only value the input of law enforcement officials who they are obviously working in conjunction with to keep our family in prison. Eddie sounded strong as always and he has not been deterred by this and neither are we. The fight continues to win parole for our family as we prepare for our sisters May 2016 parole hearings. There will be more information to follow in the next couple of days on the next steps we are taking.
In the meantime we urge people to sign The Petition we aimed at US Attorney General Loretta Lynch as we demand that The Justice Department investigate the wrongful and ongoing imprisonment of The Move 9 . People can go to https://www.causes.com/campaigns/92454-free-the-move-9.
Also For More Info People Can Go To www.onamove.com.
Justice For The Move 9/Facebook: http://move9parole.blogspot.com/
Ona Move
The Justice And Accountability Campaign
Sundiata Acoli Denied Parole
The New York City Jericho Movement reported that political prisoner Sundiata Acoli, who has been imprisoned since 1973 as a result of a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that resulted in the deaths of a New Jersey State Trooper and a member of the Black Liberation Army, was recently denied parole by the New Jersey Supreme Court. The following comes from an article titled N.J. Supreme Court denies parole for man who killed trooper in 1973 by S.P. Sullivan on February 23 for NJ.com.
Sundiata Acoli has been serving a life sentence for his role in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that ended in the death of Trooper Werner Foerster.
An appeals court in 2014 found Acoli was wrongly denied parole and ordered his release, but the state Parole Board and the Attorney General’s Office petitioned the state’s highest court, asking them to throw out the ruling.
Their 4-1 decision means Acoli will have to appear before the Parole Board for a full hearing before he is eligible for release. …
Court documents show that Acoli’s gun went off while he struggled with Foerster after another trooper pulled over a white Pontiac containing [Joanne] Chesimard [Assata Shakur], Acoli, and James Costan in the early hours of May 2, 1973.
The three were associated with black nationalist groups including the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.
There were conflicting accounts of who shot whom, but state prosecutors claimed Chesimard shot and wounded the other trooper, James Harper, before executing Foerster with his own gun.
[Testimony by the medical examiner during the trial, however, indicated that Assata Shakur was shot in the back with her hands raised in surrender, and was incapable of having executed Foerster as the prosecution claimed – Editor.]
Costan, also known as Zayd Malik Shakur, was shot and killed at the scene.
Acoli, now in his 70s, has been repeatedly denied parole. In 2011, a two-member parole board panel rejected his latest bid before he could appear before the full board for a formal hearing.
But the appeals court found that the panel had ignored evidence in Acoli’s favor. Court records show a psychologist testified in 2010 that Acoli had “expressed regret and remorse about his involvement” in the killing and was at “low to moderate risk” of re-offending.
The appellate panel ordered the board to “expeditiously set conditions for parole,” but the state petitioned the Supreme Court, claiming a convicted murderer could not be released under state law without the approval of the full board.
In the majority opinion, Justice Jaynee LaVecchia agreed.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/02/sundiata_acoli_supreme_court_decision.html
Freedom and Medical Care for Leonard Peltier!
by Mumia Abu-Jamal, Monday, February 22, 2016
For 40 years, former American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Leonard Peltier has been in the clutches of the U.S. prison system –The Iron House of the whites, as indigenous people call them – on trumped up murder charges. Now, as he suffers poor health and an abdominal aortic aneurism, time is no longer on his side.
The aneurysm, diagnosed just weeks ago, threatens his very life, so supporters of Leonard are demanding his freedom, so he doesn’t perish in the Iron House. Decades ago, when Bill Clinton was president, he visited Pine Ridge, South Dakota – once Peltier’s home – and told people there, “Tell Leonard I won’t forget about him.”
A promise from Clinton proved as empty as any politician’s promise: gas, air, wind. (He musta forgot, huh?)
So Peltier languished in the Iron House as decades passed. He wrote. He painted – and he awaited white justice.
He’s still waiting.
His supporters want people to write to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), demanding his health care and release. The International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee needs you to write and call on Leonard’s behalf. Contact www.bop.gov/inmates/concerns.jsp.
Refer to Leonard Peltier, 89637-132, and his home jail, USP Coleman I. Warden Tamyra Jarvis USP Coleman I 846 NE 54th Terrace Sumterville, FL 33521 Fax: 352-689-6012
Helen J. Marberry RO Southeast Regional Office 3800 Camp Crk. Pk. SW Bldg 2000 Atlanta, GA 30331 Fax: 678-686-1229
Office of the Director Federal Bureau of Prisons 320 First Street, NW Washington, DC 20534 Fax: 202-514-6620 CONTACT LEONARD Send Cards and Letters:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132 USP-Coleman I U.S. Penitentiary PO Box 1033 Coleman, FL 33521
And while you’re at it, contact the White House and demand Leonard’s executive clemency.
Leonard Peltier needs freedom now; and Native Peoples need him to return home. The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home · 13 N. Bedford St · New York, NY 10010
— Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
Exclusive Interview: Albert Woodfox of Angola 3, Freed After 43 Years in Solitary Confinement
L
ongtime political prisoner Albert Woodfox was recently interviewed on DemocracyNow! The interview can be watched at the following web address:
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/2/22/exclusive_interview_albert_woodfox_of_angola
Guests:
Albert Woodfox
longest-standing solitary confinement prisoner in the United States. He was held in isolation in a six-by-nine-foot cell almost continuously for 43 years. On Friday February 19, Woodfox was released from a Louisiana jail. He is a member of the Angola 3.
Robert King
member of the Angola 3 who spent 29 years in solitary confinement for a murder he did not commit. He was released in 2001 after his conviction was overturned. He’s written a book about his experience, From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King.
Billy Sothern
one of the trial attorneys representing Albert Woodfox, one of the Angola Three, who was released from prison on Friday. He is the author of Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City.
After more than 43 years in solitary confinement, Albert Woodfox is a free man and joins us today for his first broadcast interview. The former Black Panther spent more time in solitary confinement than anyone in the United States, much of it in a six-by-nine cell for 23 hours each day. Albert Woodfox was released Friday, February 19 after he entered a plea of no contest to charges of manslaughter and aggravated burglary of a prison guard more than four decades ago. Prior to Friday’s settlement, his conviction had been overturned three times. Albert Woodfox was serving a five-year sentence for armed robbery at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola when he and fellow prisoner Herman Wallace were accused in 1972 of stabbing prison guard Brent Miller. The two men always maintained their innocence, saying they were targeted because they had organized a chapter of the Black Panther Party to address horrific conditions at the Angola prison, a former cotton plantation. Woodfox, Wallace and a third man, Robert King, became collectively known as the Angola 3. For decades, Amnesty International and other groups campaigned to free the three men. Woodfox was the last remaining member of the group to be released. Today we speak to Woodfox and King, who was freed in 2001 when his conviction for killing a fellow inmate was overturned. Herman Wallace was freed in 2013, just days before he died from cancer.
Pennsylvania Acts to Remove Pro Bono Lawyer for Corey Walker
Report from the Courtroom by Mark Lance
mlance390@gmail.com
February 24, 2016—Fifteen months after launching legal action to remove Rachel Wolkenstein as attorney for Corey Walker, the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General (OAG) concluded its evidentiary hearing in Harrisburg on February 9 to support its motion to have her pro hac vice admission vacated. Walker, an innocent man serving a sentence of life without parole, has spent the last 19 years behind bars.
Post-hearing legal briefs will be filed by the OAG and Walker’s attorneys 45 days after receiving the transcript of the proceeding. Senior Judge Lawrence Clark will then rule on the OAG motion to remove attorney Wolkenstein as Corey Walker’s pro hac vice, pro bono lawyer.
The OAG’s action to get long-time political activist and attorney Rachel Wolkenstein out of this case is retaliation against the efforts of Corey Walker to overturn his frame-up murder conviction. Since Wolkenstein began working with Walker pro bono in May 2014, first helping with investigation and his pro se petitions and then as his attorney pro hac vice, Corey Walker filed three sets of legal papers. Each time yet more evidence was given showing his conviction was the result of extensive police and prosecution misconduct.
There was no witness to the shooting, no fingerprints or murder weapon, no blood evidence or confession. Instead, witnesses, whose false testimony was obtained through coercion and promises of leniency on charges they faced, were knowingly and deliberately put before the predominantly white jury by the Deputy Attorney General. Exonerating evidence was kept from Walker for close to 20 years.
The OAG explicitly claims that Wolkenstein’s practicing law in Pennsylvania is “intolerable” due to her public statements that the criminal justice system is racially and class-biased. The OAG also specifically cited Wolkenstein’s courtroom arrest by the notorious Judge Albert Sabo while she represented Mumia Abu-Jamal in the weeks before his scheduled execution date in August 1995. The OAG also falsely claims Wolkenstein violated rules of Professional Conduct.
Two defense motions prevented the OAG from compelling Walker and his trial co-defendant, Lorenzo Johnson, to be witnesses at the hearing. The subpoenas were an attempt to stop the decades of collaboration between the two men in fighting for their innocence and freedom. The subpoenas were part of a fishing expedition by the prosecution to undermine their respective pending legal cases.
The OAG presented only one witness, Lorenzo Johnson’s lawyer Michael Wiseman. It was Lorenzo Johnson who urged Wolkenstein to take up Walker’s legal case. It was the OAG who seized on Wiseman’s disagreement with a legal strategy advocated by Wolkenstein, that includes publicly exposing the facts and details of the frame-ups of Johnson and Walker, to accuse her of violating rules of professional conduct. During two-years working closely with Johnson, Wolkenstein helped bring public attention to the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson and provided legal advice. Wiseman testified that Wolkenstein had informed him she was communicating and working with Johnson from the outset. Wiseman’s testimony also confirmed Johnson’s and Walker’s declaration of their own and each other’s innocence. Wiseman also strongly asserted the state had suppressed significant favorable evidence at Johnson’s and Walker’s 1997 trial.
Senior Judge Lawrence Clark made repeated comments during the hearing that amounted to denying Corey Walker his First and Sixth Amendment rights to have the lawyer of his choice. Clark consistently supported the OAG’s interpretation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
The OAG’s legal attack on Wolkenstein and her client has effectively stopped any judicial action on the post-conviction legal challenges of Corey Walker on grounds of actual innocence, police and prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel. A full year has gone by with the Judge taking no action. This is state conspiracy to keep this innocent man locked up for the rest of his life. Free Corey Walker!
Read: Pennsylvania Seeks to Remove Lawyer
Jim Crow Justice–The Frame-up of Corey Walker by Charles Brover
“A SWAT team raided Corey Walker’s home in July 1996, and arrested him on a 1995 frame-up murder charge from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has been behind bars ever since. Evidence of his innocence was withheld. He is the victim of prosecutorial misconduct and incompetent legal representation. And now the state is trying to deny him the attorney of his choice, Rachel Wolkenstein, who has defended Mumia Abu-Jamal. Corey Walker is flesh and blood, not a statistic. He is son, father, brother and lifelong companion. He cries out for freedom and justice and tries to keep body and soul together under excruciating conditions ….” to continue reading …
What Can I Do to Help Corey Walker?
Contribute to Corey’s Defense — Make a Contribution Here
Tell the Attorney General — We Stand for Justice: Free Corey Walker!
Write to Corey directly:
Corey Walker DF1014
SCI Dallas
1000 Follies Road
Dallas, PA 18612
If you want to email Corey directly, you may go to jpay.com
Code: Corey Walker DF1014 PA DO www.FreeCoreyWalker.org
NJ Cops Oppose Travel to Cuba Unless Assata Shakur is Returned http://www.eurweb.com/2016/02/nj-officials-oppose-travel-cuba-unless-assata-shakur-returned/
Not only have the Jericho Movement consistently spoken out in support of political prisoners; not only have the Freedom Archives and Prison Radio shared messages of support for political prisoners and from the “Voice of the Voiceless”, Mumia Abu-Jamal; now the Electronic Urban Report, which has primarily covered more “mainstream” entertainment and political news, has gotten into the act. The following post by Qwest7 on February 25 concerns the situation of political exile Assata Shakur, currently living in Cuba and now the target an increased effort by US politicians to force her extradition as a condition of normalization of relations between the US and Cuba:
Assata Shakur’s fugitive status and current residence in Cuba is not sitting well with the State Troopers Fraternal Organization of New Jersey as officials voiced a desire to stop flights to the country until Shakur is returned home.
Vibe notes a troubled history Shakur has with the state, which stems from her being arrested during a traffic stop at a New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. Shakur, who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Party, ended up in a shoot out that left her wounded and the vehicle’s driver, Zayd Shakur, dead. In addition to Zayd Shakur, a state trooper at the scene was also left dead from the shooting.
Ultimately, Assata Shakur was blamed for the shooting and was convicted of first-degree murder in 1977. In 1979, Assata fled to Cuba was granted asylum by Fidel Castro soon after arriving in the country.
In a letter written on Feb. 17, the organization’s president, Christopher Burgos, relayed the opposition to any effort to fly to and from Cuba as he blasted the country for harboring Shakur.
“We strongly oppose any request or approval of United Airlines or any other airline a permit to NJ Port Authority airports to fly back and forth to a country such as Cuba, that has openly slapped all Americans in the face with their policy of keeping U.S. fugitives away and safe from the reach of U.S. justice,” Burgos wrote.
Assata’s involvement in the Black Power movement occurred during the time Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.