“I would like to make an appeal in a special way to the men of the army, to the police, to those in the barracks. Brothers, you are part of our own people. You kill your own campesino brothers and sisters. And before an order to kill that a man may give, the law of God must prevail that says: Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to fulfill an immoral law. It is time to recover your consciences and to obey your consciences rather than the orders of sin. The church, defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, the dignity of the person, cannot remain silent before such abomination. We want the government to take seriously that reforms are worth nothing when they come about stained with so much blood. In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people whose laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuously, I beg you, I ask you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!”

Read Professor Joseph A. Palermo’s recent article and learn more about Romero’s life and death.

Media Advisory—for immediate release December 16, 2009

Eco-prisoner Jeff “Free” Luers released from prison

PORTLAND – Dec 16th , 2009 – Jeff “Free” Luers, political prisoner and environmental activist, was released from the Columbia River Correctional Institution this morning after serving nine and half years. Luers was originally sentenced in 2001 to twenty two years and eight months for the politically motivated arson of three SUV’s at a car dealership in Eugene, OR. This sentence was deemed grossly disproportionate to the damage sustained by the car dealership and was condemned by legal professionals, human rights groups and activists worldwide. At an appeal hearing in 2007 it was ruled that Luers’ original sentence was illegal, and was consequently reduced to ten years.

Luers’ release today comes after what Oregon Department of Corrections described as a ‘mistake’ when they released him early on October 20th this year. After a few short hours of freedom, Luers was taken back into custody in Eugene after the State agency reversed its decision and determined that he did not qualify under the new House Bill 3508 for an additional 10% reduction in sentence. DOC’s gross incompetence in this situation, and the emotional toll borne by his family and loved ones, is just one of many examples of the distressing levels of bureaucratic impropriety that Luers has endured during his years behind bars.

Upon his release this morning, Mr. Luers stated:

“ The last 9½ years have been difficult at best. I have witnessed things in prison that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I have endured hardship and loss. Without a doubt, this experience has changed me. What hasn’t changed is my commitment to environmental and social justice.”

“ I would like to thank all the people who have supported me through the years; especially the dedicated few who worked tirelessly to get me out of prison. I look forward to spending time with my loved ones and continuing my education, as well as continuing my activism.”

During his time in prison, seven of which were served in maximum security, Luers has maintained his activism by writing about environmental and social justice issues. In particular, he has continued to bring attention to the specter of human induced climate change, the cause that motivated Luers to set fire to three SUV’s in 2000. Since his original sentencing, awareness of climate change has become omnipresent. It seems ironic that Luers has been released during the Copenhagen Climate Summit where world leaders are converging around the need for extreme action to be taken on global carbon emissions.

http://www.freejeffluers.org

Contact: Lauren Regan, Attorney with Civil Liberties Defense Center, for comment or to arrange interviews. 541-687- 9180; info@cldc.org.

General Background

In June 2001, 23 year-old forest defense activist Jeffrey “Free” Luers was sentenced to 22 years and 8 months in prison for the burning of three Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV’s) in Eugene, Oregon. In an attempt to make a statement about global warming, Jeff and his codefendent, Craig ‘Critter’ Marshall, set fire to 3 SUV’s at a Eugene car dealership causing minor property damage. Their stated purpose was to raise awareness about global warming and the role that SUV’s play in that process. No one was hurt in this action nor was that the intent. An arson specialist at trial confirmed that the action did not pose any threat to people based on its size and distance from any fuel source. Despite the fact that this action hurt no one, caused only $40,000 in damages and the cars were later resold, Jeff was sent to prison for a sentence considerably longer than those convicted of murder, kidnapping and rape in Oregon and around the country. Amnesty International declared Luers a political prisoner based upon the egregious disparity in his sentence.

Jeff’s appeal was filed in January 2002 and oral arguments before the Oregon Court of Appeals were heard on November 30, 2005. Over a year later, on February 14, 2007 the Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Jeff’s case should be reversed and remanded back to the Circuit Court for resentencing. A year after their decision, a resentencing hearing finally took place on February 28, 2008 in Lane County Circuit Court which reduced Jeff’s sentence to 10 years. On October 1, 2009, the Court signed a supplemental judgment granting Jeff an additional 10% reduction in his total incarceration time, and he was released the next day. Six hours later the prison outrageously took him back into custody due to a “mistake”.

Los cargos contra cuatro de los acusados fueron derogados y Jalil Muntaqim declaró ‘no contest’ a a los cargos de conspiración por homicidio voluntario.  Cerca de 2 ½  años le fueron acreditados además de 3 años en probatoria.  Regresará a New York para luchar su probatoria.

La corte en el 850 Bryant Street estuvo abarrotada por manifestantes a favor de los SF 8 quienes cargaron con una enorme pancarta la cual ubicaron al tope de Bernal Heights con el propósito que fuera vista por todos en la ciudad.

“Este es el fin de un caso que nunca debió haberse presentado en corte jamás,” anunció el abogado Soffiyah Elijah.

Francisco Torres todavía enfrenta una vista en la corte el 10 de agosto.

Más información sobre el caso será presentada próximamente.

July 6, 2009

First, I would like to thank all my friends and supporters for their tenacious and tireless work in support of the S.F.8, especially the San Francisco 8 Support Committee, Committee in Defense of Human Rights, Asian-Americans Committee for the S.F. 8, Freedom Archives, and many others.  I wish to thank the excellent legal team whose unwavering commitment to the task was inspiring.  I especially want to thank the lawyers who did the majority of the behind-the-scenes legwork by name: Soffiyah Elijah, Jenny Kang, Julie de Almeida, Heather Hardwick, Rai Sue Sussman, and Lori Flowers.  This team of women suffering the testosterone of as many as ten male lead attorneys, plus the eight men accused, truly had their feminist code tested.  Naturally, I want to thank the most noted private investigators, Adam Raskin and Nancy Pemberton, whose investigative technique and services were outstanding.

Today we were to start the preliminary hearing but because of our strong legal defense team and growing public support, the California prosecutor offered plea settlements that could not be ignored.  The entire group discussed whether I would plead no contest to conspiracy to manslaughter.  After some discussion, I reluctantly agreed to take the plea and be sentenced to 3 years probation; 1 year of jail time, credit for time served, concurrent with New York State sentence, dismissing 1st degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.  Also, because of my plea, four other defendants would have all charges dismissed for insufficient evidence.  This was a no-brainer especially considering the elder brothers suffered a variety of health issues ranging from high blood pressure, chronic respiratory problems, diabetes, PTSD, and prostate cancer.  Although I have my own health issues, in my near 38 years of imprisonment, I believe I am in better shape than all four combined (Ha).  In the last 25 years prior to these charges being lodged, the brothers had been living peaceful and productive lives raising their families, and offering community services. During the period from their release on bail to this date, they had been running themselves ragged across the country telling the story of Cointelpro destruction of the Black Panther Party, the Legacy of Torture, and building support for the case. While I would have liked to have continued the legal fight to what I believe would have resulted in complete exoneration of all charges, I know the jury system is fickle.  I have seen too many innocent men in prison who fought with the conviction of being innocent after a reasonable plea bargain was offered, and they ultimately lost due to prosecutorial misconduct, defense attorney errors, improper jury instructions by a judge, and/or a fickle jury.  Unfortunately, their loss results in spending decades in prison fighting for a reversal or waiting to be released on parole, or in the worst cases, death row DNA exonerations.  The American judicial system is nowhere near being without flaws, as the overwhelming number of Black men in prison sorely attests.  Given these circumstances, my taking this plea is a bitter-sweet win-win.

Finally, I would like to thank with profound appreciation my attorneys Daro Inouye, a 30+ year veteran of the San Francisco Public Defenders Office, whose trial experiences and skills are incomparable; and Mark Goldrosen, a remarkable, selfless trial technician and writer whose understanding of both State and Federal law brought the court (and some of the attorneys) to task.

A luta continua -  Jalil

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An open letter from Mexican political prisoner Gloria Arenas read at solidarity actions in Mexico City on December 6 in the zócal and December 9 at the U.S. embassy

Forty years ago, in the country that was the center of worldwide military and economic hegemony, an organization emerged that not only demanded the rights of Black people, but showed them how to use them. The Black Panthers founded schools, carried out community projects and, from the ground up, breathed life into autonomous power and practiced self-defense against police racism and brutality. In the middle of the Cold War with everything against them, they were able to overcome conformity in the Black communities and extend their organization to many important cities in the United States. The system felt threatened and in 1969-70 launched a persecution that included armed searches of the organization’s offices, raids, imprisonment, shooting people down in the streets and where they lived, torture, harassment and a smear campaign.

Mumia Abu-Jamal was only fifteen years old when he joined the Black Panthers. Several years later, in 1981, when they arrested him, he was President of the Black Journalists Association of Philadelphia. He had denounced police attacks against the ecologist organization MOVE, as well as the legal machinations used to jail nine members of the organization. The honorable and steadfast stance of John Africa must have left a deep impression on the journalist who covered the trial of this activist in 1981, the same year that Mumia was jailed. But Mumia’s story is an amazing tale of a true man.

Who is Mumia Abu-Jamal?

He’s the boy who joined the Black Panthers, the committed journalist, the radio broadcaster, the social activist, the writer, and also the political prisoner who’s spent twenty-seven years––yes, twenty-seven years in prison!, the man who said “Many people say it’s insane to resist the system, but actually it’s insane not to.”

As a political prisoner, Mumia is the example of a free, insubordinate spirit. He’s written several books, including We Want Freedom. A Life in the Black Panther Party, and has written numerous essays and articles in which he lays out, in a convincing, agreeable style, the world reality and the imperialist nature of United States interventions in many different countries. He’s the political prisoner who, before thinking of himself, stands up for other political prisoners in the United States and the world.

Mumia has been on death row, a step away from capital punishment, for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s now officially sentenced to life imprisonment, but despite his executioners, finds a way to speak out from death row, explaining with extraordinary political clarity that “The people of Oaxaca should be supported, not just with words, but with similar organizing against flawed and corrupt elections, from folks all over the world.
It should begin with the people of the U.S.”

Mumia is the political prisoner who, even as he awaits a possible execution order, writes. Not to ask for mercy, not to complain, but to criticize power groups in the United States and the invasion of Iraq: “It is ironic that a government that is profoundly autocratic, that relies on elite authoritarianism, secrecy, wireless wiretaps, secret prisons and torture, can claim to be fighting for something that is becoming so rare in the U.S. (ahem — democracy).” .

Mumia has the gift of speech. From the time he was very young he began to develop it, and it was his weapon against racism and capitalism. Now he uses it to speak of the invisible ones, the excluded, the oppressed. With it, he demands justice for Acteal and Atenco just as he does for Palestine. It doesn’t matter what he’s writing about; with admirable simplicity he always gets to the bottom of exactly where imperialism’s hand is to be found.

He is a political prisoner among tens of thousands in the world, but his ethical stance makes him an exceptional being, a star whose light shines in many faraway prisons. The political prisoners of Mexico can’t give way to defeatism, to discouragement, or inactivity, knowing that there’s a prisoner under threat of death who’s been imprisoned for twenty-seven years and still keeps on struggling.

I lift my voice together with all the other voices from México demanding Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal!

Freedom, as well, for Leonard Peltier and John Graham of the American Indian Movement; for Marilyn Buck, the ex guerrilla held prisoner in California; for the Puerto Rican Independence fighters Oscar López Rivera, Carlos Alberto Torres and Haydee Beltrán Torres; for the Chicano Álvaro Luna Hernández; for Jalil Muntaqim, Herman Bell, Mutulu Shakur, Sundiata Acoli, Jalil Al-Amin, Veronza Bowers, Sekou Odinga, Russel Maroon Shoatz, Hugo Pinnell, Ruchell Cinqué Magee, Ojore Lutalo, Chip Fitzgerald, Seth Hayes and Zolo Azania of the Black movement; for Tom Manning, Jaan Laaman and David Gilbert; for the ecologists Jeff Luers, Daniel McGowan and Eric McDavid; for the MOVE prisoners; for Ramon Labañino, Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, and René González, the five Cuban patriots held prisoner in North American jails.

Freedom for all political prisoners in the United States!

Gloria Arenas Agis, Chiconautla Prison, Ecatepec, December 2008.
Gloria Arenas Agis and her husband Jacobo Silva Nogales were in the leadership of the Revolutionary Army of Insurgent People (ERPI) and captured in an operation in 1999 and tortured for several days. From their cells, they participate in the Zapatista Other Campaign. They are still being held illegally; in effect, the State is trying them twice for the same offence in violation of the Constitution and illegally lengthening their sentences for the offenses of rebellion and property damage.

translation—Amig@s de Mumia, Mx

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Photo obtained from Indy Media.

Bashir Hameed

Long time Black Liberation Political Prisoner Bashir Hameed died August 30, 2008 at the age 67, from complications of a triple bypass surgery at the New York prison system.  Formerly James York, Hameed was born and raised in New Jersey.  In 1982, Bashir and a former BPP comrade, Abdul Majid (formerly Anthony LaBorde), were charged and later convicted of the murder of two police officers, a case known as the Queens Two.  In almost three decades of incarceration, Bashir, a devout Muslim, applied his religious and political principles to the struggle against injustice and racism behind the walls, gaining wide respect among prisoners.

The photo was taken from Pan-African News Wire File Photos’ photostream.

Yaki gave leadership to the struggle to free the Pontiac Brothers, a successful fight against the death penalty, and he helped lead the campaign to free C number prisoners (hundreds of prisoners unfairly held).

A memorial service was held on April 5, an outpouring of love, admiration and respect from ex-prisoners, family members and many others, including José López from the Puerto Rican Cultural Center who spoke of how Yaki understood that nationalism and internationalism must go hand in hand.

As one speaker said: “We love you, Yaki. We love you for being a husband, a father, a friend and a great human being with a smile that we saw far too rarely. And we love you for being a revolutionary.”

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