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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Russell Maroon Shoatz Out of Solitary NOW!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Seven arrested in protest outside Graterford prison
Published: Monday, in: Montgomery News
November 19, 2012
By Bradley Schlegel
Authorities arrested seven protesters from Decarcerate PA early Monday morning along Route 73 in Skippack.
The group was blocking the entrance to the construction site of two new prisons on the grounds of SCI Graterford, according to a public information release report from the Pennsylvania State Police.
The protesters lined up a number of chairs, desks and apples along the road between Hudnut and Lucon roads, according to Decarcerate PA spokesperson Thomas Dichter.
All from Philadelphia, the protesters face charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal trespass, failure to disperse and disorderly conduct, according to state police. The intent of the “mock schoolhouse” was to bring further attention to Gov. Tom Corbett’s plan to construct the new prisons, according to Dichter.
He said the grassroots organization believes the approximately $400 million needed to build the two facilities would be better utilized to fund Pennsylvania’s education, calling the demonstration an attempt to draw attention to the “wasting of valuable state resources.”
Authorities observed 10 school-style desks purposefully placed by the protesters to block the construction entrance, according to information provided by Morgan Crummy, the public information officer at the state police’s Skippack barracks.
The protesters set up at 6:40 a.m. Monday, according to Dichter.
He said they were arrested approximately one hour later.
Police said the desks were occupied by seven protesters and that authorities observed eight other protesters on foot.
All seven protestors — Layne Mullett, 27, of the 4000 block of Walnut Street; Jenna Peters-Golden, 27, of the 800 block of Saint Bernard Street; Leana Cabral, 29 of the 4000 block of Hazel Avenue; Erica Slaymaker, 23, of the 400 block of Sansom Street; Sean Damon, 35, of Chester Avenue; David Fisher, 41, of the 5000 block of Chester Avenue and Robin Markle, 26, of the 5000 block of Cedar Avenue — were arraigned by District Judge Albert Augustine, according to authorities.
The judge set the bail for each at 10 percent of $5,000, according to police.
Dichter described the nature of the demonstration as escalation of Decarcerate PA’s willingness to “do what needs to be done” to prevent the construction of the prisons.
http://www.montgomerynews.com/
November 19, 2012
By Bradley Schlegel
Authorities arrested seven protesters from Decarcerate PA early Monday morning along Route 73 in Skippack.
The group was blocking the entrance to the construction site of two new prisons on the grounds of SCI Graterford, according to a public information release report from the Pennsylvania State Police.
The protesters lined up a number of chairs, desks and apples along the road between Hudnut and Lucon roads, according to Decarcerate PA spokesperson Thomas Dichter.
All from Philadelphia, the protesters face charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal trespass, failure to disperse and disorderly conduct, according to state police. The intent of the “mock schoolhouse” was to bring further attention to Gov. Tom Corbett’s plan to construct the new prisons, according to Dichter.
He said the grassroots organization believes the approximately $400 million needed to build the two facilities would be better utilized to fund Pennsylvania’s education, calling the demonstration an attempt to draw attention to the “wasting of valuable state resources.”
Authorities observed 10 school-style desks purposefully placed by the protesters to block the construction entrance, according to information provided by Morgan Crummy, the public information officer at the state police’s Skippack barracks.
The protesters set up at 6:40 a.m. Monday, according to Dichter.
He said they were arrested approximately one hour later.
Police said the desks were occupied by seven protesters and that authorities observed eight other protesters on foot.
All seven protestors — Layne Mullett, 27, of the 4000 block of Walnut Street; Jenna Peters-Golden, 27, of the 800 block of Saint Bernard Street; Leana Cabral, 29 of the 4000 block of Hazel Avenue; Erica Slaymaker, 23, of the 400 block of Sansom Street; Sean Damon, 35, of Chester Avenue; David Fisher, 41, of the 5000 block of Chester Avenue and Robin Markle, 26, of the 5000 block of Cedar Avenue — were arraigned by District Judge Albert Augustine, according to authorities.
The judge set the bail for each at 10 percent of $5,000, according to police.
Dichter described the nature of the demonstration as escalation of Decarcerate PA’s willingness to “do what needs to be done” to prevent the construction of the prisons.
http://www.montgomerynews.com/
Friday, September 14, 2012
Pa. legislative panel asks for moratorium on executions
Pa. legislative panel asks for moratorium on executions
September 13, 2012|By Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
September 13, 2012|By Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
With three weeks left before Pennsylvania's first execution in 13 years, a bipartisan legislative task force studying the death penalty's efficacy asked Gov. Corbett on Thursday to halt executions until the panel files its report in December 2013.
Calling the delay "particularly prudent," the task force, in a letter to Corbett, noted that Pennsylvania has not executed anyone in 50 years.
Will Pennsylvania Execute a Man Who Killed His Abusers?
Sign the petition here.
From: The Nation
By: Liliana Segura on September 12, 2012
Eighteen-year-old Terrance Williams “did not fit the mold of a typical street criminal,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in September of 1984. “He was a bright, talented college student, former star quarterback of the Germantown High School football team. His friends, teachers, coaches and neighbors could not believe that he would be involved in murder, or any sordid activity.”
Yet Williams, who is African-American, had committed two grisly killings. One victim, the Inquirer reported, was 50-year-old Herbert Hamilton, who had been found naked, with a knife through his throat, on his kitchen floor. The other, Amos Norwood, who led the altar boys and directed the Youth Theater Fellowship at Philadelphia’s St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, had been beaten with a tire iron, set on fire, and left in a cemetery.
“The problem I find with you, Mr. Williams, is you are a Jekyll and Hyde, apparently,” one judge told him. Tried as an adult for the Hamilton murder despite being 17 at the time, Williams was already in prison when he was sentenced to die for killing Norwood. “We were glad we did it,” one juror told the press.
Today, Williams, 46, is facing death by lethal injection. This August, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed a warrant scheduling his execution for October 3. But in the meantime, the same jurors who sealed his fate have had a dramatic change of heart. At least five say that if they could go back, they would never have sent Williams to death row. That’s because they were never told a salient and deeply disturbing detail about his relationship with his victim. Williams, it turns out, had been violently and systematically raped by Norwood, beginning when he was 13 years old.
In fact, behind the image of Williams as a model student athlete was a childhood marred by horrific physical and sexual abuse that began from the time Williams was just 6 years old. Relentlessly beaten by his mother (herself a victim of abuse) and his alcoholic stepfather and gang-raped at a juvenile detention center when he was 16, by the time Williams killed Norwood he was regularly cutting himself, abusing drugs and alcohol, and had endured more than a decade of abuse.
Among the others who sexually assaulted him: his other victim, Herbert Hamilton.
Hamilton’s preying on teen boys seemed to be an open secret. The same Inquirer story opened with a description of the man as a devoted supporter of the Ben Franklin High School basketball team, a man who bought warm-up suits for the players and “bought a van to shuttle the team to and from games.” But he “also often invited youths he met through sports to his West Philadelphia apartment to join him, according to police, in homosexual activity.”
Williams was among them. While the Ben Franklin basketball coach claimed not to know about the abuse—a word conspicuously absent from press reports at the time, along with “rape”—he told the Inquirer that Williams was one of the boys who was “was over to his house a lot.”
Williams was shown some leniency for the Hamilton killing, in part because it reportedly occurred during a violent struggle after Hamilton demanded that Williams pose naked for him. He was convicted of third-degree murder and given a maximum sentence of twenty-seven years. But such evidence played no role in the trial for Norwood’s murder. His co-defendant, Marc Draper, the son of a police officer, testified against him to save his own life, claiming that Williams had been primarily motivated by a desire to rob Norwood. He got a life sentence, while Williams was given the death penalty.
At a post-conviction relief hearing in the late 1990s, attorneys argued that Williams had inadequate representation—his original lawyer, who would later be disbarred, did not meet him until one week before trial—and presented proof that, in addition to being raped at age 6 by a neighbor and “repeatedly molested by a [male] teacher” in his early teens, when he was 13, “[he] met and began a relationship with Norwood,” who was “cruel and physically abusive at times.” Family, friends and teachers attested to the abuse, and a trio of mental health experts would describe him as “suffering from extreme mental or emotional disturbance when he killed Norwood.” (Court filings describe how Norwood raped Williams in a parking lot the night before he was killed.)
But appeals at the state level were denied. And while a federal District court would acknowledge that Williams’s trial lawyer “failed to recognize that it was his duty—not his imprisoned client’s—to identify and pursue potentially mitigating evidence,” it, too, denied relief on procedural grounds.
It was not until this past winter that another witness would come forward, a former pastor named Charles Pointdexter, who knew Norwood for thirty years. He admitted having known that he had sexually abused teen boys.
“Amos seemed to have lots of close relationships with young men…” he stated in an affidavit signed February 9, 2012, saying that he began to suspect that they were “inappropriate” in nature. A few years before Amos’s death, one of the parishioners, the mother of a 15-year-old boy, told him that he had “touched her son’s genitals” during a car ride and that “Amos had inappropriately touched a number of boys at the church.” Pointdexter kept the knowledge to himself.
According to Williams’s lawyer, Shawn Nolan, this revelation was key. Speaking to The Nation after visiting his client on death row last week, he described how it would ultimately lead to the jurors’ coming out against the execution. “Once we talked to Rev. Pointdexter and he told us this stuff, we did further investigation and that led us to another guy…who indicated that Mr. Norwood approached him and propositioned him,” Nolan said. “And none of that evidence had ever come out before this year.”
Then, “we went and talked to the jurors,” he said. “And the jurors said if they had known this, they wouldn’t have voted for death.”
Indeed, affidavits signed in July include repeated statements to this effect. “If I had known about the sexual abuse and how it related to the crime,” one former juror wrote, “it would have changed my mindset.” Another wrote, “Now that I know that he was a victim of sexual abuse by Mr. Norwood, I would have voted for life without parole instead of the death penalty.” In addition, three of these jurors also explained that they had sentenced Williams to die partly based on the fear that he might be eventually released. (Pennsylvania is the only state that does not compel sentencing judges to make clear that a life sentence means life without parole.) “The reason that I opted for the death sentence was because I was under the impression that if we sentenced Terrance Williams to life in prison then he could get out on parole,” one former juror said. “I didn’t want him to get out of prison.”
“That’s powerful to me,” says Nolan. And as he seeks clemency for his client, “hopefully that’s powerful to the governor.”
Also powerful is a signed declaration from Norwood’s widow, Mamie, who says she has forgiven Williams for killing her husband. “I do not wish to see Terry Williams executed,” she said, citing her Christian faith. “He is worthy of forgiveness and I am at peace with my decision.… I wish to see his life spared.”
On the victims’ side, says Nolan, “There is nobody in this case that is asking for the death penalty.”
Indeed, there is overwhelming support for clemency. Among those calling on the state to spare Williams’s life are twenty-two former prosecutors, eight retired judges and forty-seven mental health professionals—a highly unusual display of support. Part of this is likely due to an increased public awareness of sexual abuse. Particularly in the wake of the Penn State abuse scandal, says Nolan, “when you put that in the context of the bigger discussion that everyone’s been having over the last year,” the case for clemency is compelling. “We have learned that so many young people have been the victims of sexual abuse [in Pennsylvania],” he says. While not all victims murder their abusers, Williams’s petition argues that his case is largely about devastating effects of that victimization.
At a hearing on Monday, September 17, Williams’s attorneys will have thirty minutes to convince the state pardons board to spare his life. It won’t be easy: the five-member body is notoriously stingy when it comes to commutations. Its members include the lieutenant governor and state attorney general, who, Nolan “interestingly is our opposing counsel in some of this litigation.”
Recommendations for clemency must be unanimous, and the governor must then agree. “It’s a tough process,” says Nolan. But he believes if there was ever a case for clemency, this is it.
This is not the first time Williams has faced the death chamber. Governor Ed Rendell signed an execution warrant for him in 2005—the thirty-ninth of his term. (He would go on to sign many more, boasting a total of 119 by the end of his tenure.) In fact, despite piles of execution warrants signed over the years—Corbett has signed at least nineteen since taking office—Pennsylvania has not carried out the death penalty since a prisoner volunteered in 1999. The last time Pennsylvania put a man to death against his will was in 1962.
To his supporters, resuming executions by killing of Terrance Williams would put a particularly ugly face on the state’s death penalty. —To me, this is a much more compelling case than a lot of cases that you see,” says Nolan. “It has that direct correlation to the crime. The man who was killed was victimizing this young boy, for years. And the jury never knew that. And that’s outrageous.”
Go here to read the clemency petition, signed affadavits, and more in support of Terrance Williams.
From: The Nation
By: Liliana Segura on September 12, 2012
Eighteen-year-old Terrance Williams “did not fit the mold of a typical street criminal,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in September of 1984. “He was a bright, talented college student, former star quarterback of the Germantown High School football team. His friends, teachers, coaches and neighbors could not believe that he would be involved in murder, or any sordid activity.”
Yet Williams, who is African-American, had committed two grisly killings. One victim, the Inquirer reported, was 50-year-old Herbert Hamilton, who had been found naked, with a knife through his throat, on his kitchen floor. The other, Amos Norwood, who led the altar boys and directed the Youth Theater Fellowship at Philadelphia’s St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, had been beaten with a tire iron, set on fire, and left in a cemetery.
“The problem I find with you, Mr. Williams, is you are a Jekyll and Hyde, apparently,” one judge told him. Tried as an adult for the Hamilton murder despite being 17 at the time, Williams was already in prison when he was sentenced to die for killing Norwood. “We were glad we did it,” one juror told the press.
Today, Williams, 46, is facing death by lethal injection. This August, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed a warrant scheduling his execution for October 3. But in the meantime, the same jurors who sealed his fate have had a dramatic change of heart. At least five say that if they could go back, they would never have sent Williams to death row. That’s because they were never told a salient and deeply disturbing detail about his relationship with his victim. Williams, it turns out, had been violently and systematically raped by Norwood, beginning when he was 13 years old.
In fact, behind the image of Williams as a model student athlete was a childhood marred by horrific physical and sexual abuse that began from the time Williams was just 6 years old. Relentlessly beaten by his mother (herself a victim of abuse) and his alcoholic stepfather and gang-raped at a juvenile detention center when he was 16, by the time Williams killed Norwood he was regularly cutting himself, abusing drugs and alcohol, and had endured more than a decade of abuse.
Among the others who sexually assaulted him: his other victim, Herbert Hamilton.
Hamilton’s preying on teen boys seemed to be an open secret. The same Inquirer story opened with a description of the man as a devoted supporter of the Ben Franklin High School basketball team, a man who bought warm-up suits for the players and “bought a van to shuttle the team to and from games.” But he “also often invited youths he met through sports to his West Philadelphia apartment to join him, according to police, in homosexual activity.”
Williams was among them. While the Ben Franklin basketball coach claimed not to know about the abuse—a word conspicuously absent from press reports at the time, along with “rape”—he told the Inquirer that Williams was one of the boys who was “was over to his house a lot.”
Williams was shown some leniency for the Hamilton killing, in part because it reportedly occurred during a violent struggle after Hamilton demanded that Williams pose naked for him. He was convicted of third-degree murder and given a maximum sentence of twenty-seven years. But such evidence played no role in the trial for Norwood’s murder. His co-defendant, Marc Draper, the son of a police officer, testified against him to save his own life, claiming that Williams had been primarily motivated by a desire to rob Norwood. He got a life sentence, while Williams was given the death penalty.
At a post-conviction relief hearing in the late 1990s, attorneys argued that Williams had inadequate representation—his original lawyer, who would later be disbarred, did not meet him until one week before trial—and presented proof that, in addition to being raped at age 6 by a neighbor and “repeatedly molested by a [male] teacher” in his early teens, when he was 13, “[he] met and began a relationship with Norwood,” who was “cruel and physically abusive at times.” Family, friends and teachers attested to the abuse, and a trio of mental health experts would describe him as “suffering from extreme mental or emotional disturbance when he killed Norwood.” (Court filings describe how Norwood raped Williams in a parking lot the night before he was killed.)
But appeals at the state level were denied. And while a federal District court would acknowledge that Williams’s trial lawyer “failed to recognize that it was his duty—not his imprisoned client’s—to identify and pursue potentially mitigating evidence,” it, too, denied relief on procedural grounds.
It was not until this past winter that another witness would come forward, a former pastor named Charles Pointdexter, who knew Norwood for thirty years. He admitted having known that he had sexually abused teen boys.
“Amos seemed to have lots of close relationships with young men…” he stated in an affidavit signed February 9, 2012, saying that he began to suspect that they were “inappropriate” in nature. A few years before Amos’s death, one of the parishioners, the mother of a 15-year-old boy, told him that he had “touched her son’s genitals” during a car ride and that “Amos had inappropriately touched a number of boys at the church.” Pointdexter kept the knowledge to himself.
According to Williams’s lawyer, Shawn Nolan, this revelation was key. Speaking to The Nation after visiting his client on death row last week, he described how it would ultimately lead to the jurors’ coming out against the execution. “Once we talked to Rev. Pointdexter and he told us this stuff, we did further investigation and that led us to another guy…who indicated that Mr. Norwood approached him and propositioned him,” Nolan said. “And none of that evidence had ever come out before this year.”
Then, “we went and talked to the jurors,” he said. “And the jurors said if they had known this, they wouldn’t have voted for death.”
Indeed, affidavits signed in July include repeated statements to this effect. “If I had known about the sexual abuse and how it related to the crime,” one former juror wrote, “it would have changed my mindset.” Another wrote, “Now that I know that he was a victim of sexual abuse by Mr. Norwood, I would have voted for life without parole instead of the death penalty.” In addition, three of these jurors also explained that they had sentenced Williams to die partly based on the fear that he might be eventually released. (Pennsylvania is the only state that does not compel sentencing judges to make clear that a life sentence means life without parole.) “The reason that I opted for the death sentence was because I was under the impression that if we sentenced Terrance Williams to life in prison then he could get out on parole,” one former juror said. “I didn’t want him to get out of prison.”
“That’s powerful to me,” says Nolan. And as he seeks clemency for his client, “hopefully that’s powerful to the governor.”
Also powerful is a signed declaration from Norwood’s widow, Mamie, who says she has forgiven Williams for killing her husband. “I do not wish to see Terry Williams executed,” she said, citing her Christian faith. “He is worthy of forgiveness and I am at peace with my decision.… I wish to see his life spared.”
On the victims’ side, says Nolan, “There is nobody in this case that is asking for the death penalty.”
Indeed, there is overwhelming support for clemency. Among those calling on the state to spare Williams’s life are twenty-two former prosecutors, eight retired judges and forty-seven mental health professionals—a highly unusual display of support. Part of this is likely due to an increased public awareness of sexual abuse. Particularly in the wake of the Penn State abuse scandal, says Nolan, “when you put that in the context of the bigger discussion that everyone’s been having over the last year,” the case for clemency is compelling. “We have learned that so many young people have been the victims of sexual abuse [in Pennsylvania],” he says. While not all victims murder their abusers, Williams’s petition argues that his case is largely about devastating effects of that victimization.
At a hearing on Monday, September 17, Williams’s attorneys will have thirty minutes to convince the state pardons board to spare his life. It won’t be easy: the five-member body is notoriously stingy when it comes to commutations. Its members include the lieutenant governor and state attorney general, who, Nolan “interestingly is our opposing counsel in some of this litigation.”
Recommendations for clemency must be unanimous, and the governor must then agree. “It’s a tough process,” says Nolan. But he believes if there was ever a case for clemency, this is it.
This is not the first time Williams has faced the death chamber. Governor Ed Rendell signed an execution warrant for him in 2005—the thirty-ninth of his term. (He would go on to sign many more, boasting a total of 119 by the end of his tenure.) In fact, despite piles of execution warrants signed over the years—Corbett has signed at least nineteen since taking office—Pennsylvania has not carried out the death penalty since a prisoner volunteered in 1999. The last time Pennsylvania put a man to death against his will was in 1962.
To his supporters, resuming executions by killing of Terrance Williams would put a particularly ugly face on the state’s death penalty. —To me, this is a much more compelling case than a lot of cases that you see,” says Nolan. “It has that direct correlation to the crime. The man who was killed was victimizing this young boy, for years. And the jury never knew that. And that’s outrageous.”
Go here to read the clemency petition, signed affadavits, and more in support of Terrance Williams.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Terrell Johnson Found Not Guilty!
From: Human Rights Coalition:
Sept 13, 2012
Read also: http://justiceforterrell.blogspot.com/
Terrell Johnson found not guilty on all charges: Only minutes before the close of court on Wednesday, September 12, a jury returned a verdict of not guilty on all three charges in the 18-year-old case of Commonwealth v. Terrell Johnson, causing the defendant and his family and supporters to burst into tears of joy. Terrell had spent more than 17 years in prison after being convicted of the 1994 murder of Verna Robinson. The jury found him not guilty of first degree murder, retaliation against a witness, and criminal conspiracy.
The close of the case brings an end to the relentless efforts of the Allegheny County District Attorney's office to frame Terrell for a crime that he did not commit, using evidence that had been incredible and insufficient since day one.
After the prosecution rested last week in the case of Commonwealth v. Terrell Johnson, the only fact definitively proven was that Verna Robinson was shot twice in the head and murdered in the early morning hours of July 22, 1994. Relying on the testimony of two witnesses with serious credibility problems, prosecutor Russell Broman attempted to portray Terrell as a member of an alleged gang known as the Hazelwood Mob who gunned down Verna to prevent her from testifying against him in a simple assault case.
Terrell's conviction in 1995 hinged on the testimony of one witness, Evelyn McBryde. When she testified last week she told a story that differed in significant respects from earlier versions, as she now claims she saw Terrell shoot Verna, which she had never testified to before.
Perhaps most harmful to her credibility was the 18-page criminal record dating from the mid-1980s to 2009 that involved repeated instances of criminal activity, including bank fraud, endangerment of children, retail theft, and prostituting her own children. Terrell's attorney brought to the jury's attention Evelyn's thirteen aliases from her FBI file, four different social security numbers used, and four dates of birth. McBryde has received favorable treatment from the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office ever since she first came forward as an alleged witness in this case after being arrested committing retail theft with her young children in 1994. At the time, prosecuting attorney Kim Berkley Clark intervened and asked other jurisdictions to drop charges against Evelyn at the time that she was the prosecutor's witness in Terrell's first trial.
Several police officers were called to bolster the prosecution's case. Lt. McQuigan testified that she took down a report of Verna Robinson's that a man named "Ralph" had assaulted her at the end of April 1994. The prosecutor then blurted out "Ralph" followed by "Rel", suggesting that the name Ralph was actually the latter half of Terrell's name. Lt. McQuigan was unable to testify as to how Terrell became a suspect who was eventually charged in the simple assault, agreeing with defense counsel that Verna's description of a six foot young black male with a mustache was "generic." Lt. Herrmann then also testified that he was involved in bringing simple assault charges against Terrell, though he could not determine how he became a suspect.
The victim's mother, Barbara Robinson was called to testify as well. In August 2010, after Terrell had twice refused a plea offer that would have allowed him to walk out of prison for time served, Barbara Robinson signed a new statement that contradicted her past statements to police, testimony at three trials, and conversations with journalist Bill Moushey. During a break in her testimony, Barbara Robinson was instructed by a woman attending the trial that she should testify that she was afraid to come forward in the past in order to explain why her story had changed. It is unclear if the woman who coached her was a part of the prosecution team, with the state Office of Victims' Advocate, or had some other role. After this conversation Barbara re-took the stand and alleged, for the first time, that she had been afraid to come forward in the past.
Several of the defense's witnesses refuted every aspect of Evelyn McBryde's testimony. Dinah Brown told the jury that Evelyn was not in her apartment prior to the shooting as she had claimed. Carol Smith testified that the gate in her front yard was locked, which would have made it impossible for Evelyn to enter through it and hide behind the bushes, which is where she claimed she witnessed the shooting from. Finally, Skinny Robinson testified that Evelyn was at his home at the time of the shooting, trading sexual services for drugs in the basement of his home.
On Monday afternoon, Terrell Johnson took the stand for the first time in 18 years to answer the charge that he murdered Verna Robinson. During the shooting, Terrell had been at a friend's house where he ended up staying the night. The following morning he found out that Verna had been killed and that the police wanted to question him since he had been implicated in a simple assault charge against her, which he claimed was a case of mistaken identity. Upon learning that police had been looking for him, Terrell turned himself in for questioning. Terrell testified that police reports he had seen indicated that the police had corroborated his alibi. He was not arrested until seven months later, after Evelyn McBryde had implicated him. He also turned himself in when he was charged, thinking that this was a mistake and would be cleared up quickly.
18 years later, a definitive chapter in this saga has closed. Terrell Johnson remains in state custody after the trial pending being "processed" out of the prison he was held at.
This victory represents a resounding testament to the power of faith and family, and it would not have been possible without the steadfast determination of Saundra Cole, Terrell's wife, who tracked down the new evidence that led to the re-trial, inspired others to help organize press conferences, teach-ins, rallies, and community events, and together with Terrell raised and maintained a caring and supportive family throughout this trying but transformative struggle.
Sept 13, 2012
Read also: http://justiceforterrell.blogspot.com/
Terrell Johnson found not guilty on all charges: Only minutes before the close of court on Wednesday, September 12, a jury returned a verdict of not guilty on all three charges in the 18-year-old case of Commonwealth v. Terrell Johnson, causing the defendant and his family and supporters to burst into tears of joy. Terrell had spent more than 17 years in prison after being convicted of the 1994 murder of Verna Robinson. The jury found him not guilty of first degree murder, retaliation against a witness, and criminal conspiracy.
The close of the case brings an end to the relentless efforts of the Allegheny County District Attorney's office to frame Terrell for a crime that he did not commit, using evidence that had been incredible and insufficient since day one.
After the prosecution rested last week in the case of Commonwealth v. Terrell Johnson, the only fact definitively proven was that Verna Robinson was shot twice in the head and murdered in the early morning hours of July 22, 1994. Relying on the testimony of two witnesses with serious credibility problems, prosecutor Russell Broman attempted to portray Terrell as a member of an alleged gang known as the Hazelwood Mob who gunned down Verna to prevent her from testifying against him in a simple assault case.
Terrell's conviction in 1995 hinged on the testimony of one witness, Evelyn McBryde. When she testified last week she told a story that differed in significant respects from earlier versions, as she now claims she saw Terrell shoot Verna, which she had never testified to before.
Perhaps most harmful to her credibility was the 18-page criminal record dating from the mid-1980s to 2009 that involved repeated instances of criminal activity, including bank fraud, endangerment of children, retail theft, and prostituting her own children. Terrell's attorney brought to the jury's attention Evelyn's thirteen aliases from her FBI file, four different social security numbers used, and four dates of birth. McBryde has received favorable treatment from the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office ever since she first came forward as an alleged witness in this case after being arrested committing retail theft with her young children in 1994. At the time, prosecuting attorney Kim Berkley Clark intervened and asked other jurisdictions to drop charges against Evelyn at the time that she was the prosecutor's witness in Terrell's first trial.
Several police officers were called to bolster the prosecution's case. Lt. McQuigan testified that she took down a report of Verna Robinson's that a man named "Ralph" had assaulted her at the end of April 1994. The prosecutor then blurted out "Ralph" followed by "Rel", suggesting that the name Ralph was actually the latter half of Terrell's name. Lt. McQuigan was unable to testify as to how Terrell became a suspect who was eventually charged in the simple assault, agreeing with defense counsel that Verna's description of a six foot young black male with a mustache was "generic." Lt. Herrmann then also testified that he was involved in bringing simple assault charges against Terrell, though he could not determine how he became a suspect.
The victim's mother, Barbara Robinson was called to testify as well. In August 2010, after Terrell had twice refused a plea offer that would have allowed him to walk out of prison for time served, Barbara Robinson signed a new statement that contradicted her past statements to police, testimony at three trials, and conversations with journalist Bill Moushey. During a break in her testimony, Barbara Robinson was instructed by a woman attending the trial that she should testify that she was afraid to come forward in the past in order to explain why her story had changed. It is unclear if the woman who coached her was a part of the prosecution team, with the state Office of Victims' Advocate, or had some other role. After this conversation Barbara re-took the stand and alleged, for the first time, that she had been afraid to come forward in the past.
Several of the defense's witnesses refuted every aspect of Evelyn McBryde's testimony. Dinah Brown told the jury that Evelyn was not in her apartment prior to the shooting as she had claimed. Carol Smith testified that the gate in her front yard was locked, which would have made it impossible for Evelyn to enter through it and hide behind the bushes, which is where she claimed she witnessed the shooting from. Finally, Skinny Robinson testified that Evelyn was at his home at the time of the shooting, trading sexual services for drugs in the basement of his home.
On Monday afternoon, Terrell Johnson took the stand for the first time in 18 years to answer the charge that he murdered Verna Robinson. During the shooting, Terrell had been at a friend's house where he ended up staying the night. The following morning he found out that Verna had been killed and that the police wanted to question him since he had been implicated in a simple assault charge against her, which he claimed was a case of mistaken identity. Upon learning that police had been looking for him, Terrell turned himself in for questioning. Terrell testified that police reports he had seen indicated that the police had corroborated his alibi. He was not arrested until seven months later, after Evelyn McBryde had implicated him. He also turned himself in when he was charged, thinking that this was a mistake and would be cleared up quickly.
18 years later, a definitive chapter in this saga has closed. Terrell Johnson remains in state custody after the trial pending being "processed" out of the prison he was held at.
This victory represents a resounding testament to the power of faith and family, and it would not have been possible without the steadfast determination of Saundra Cole, Terrell's wife, who tracked down the new evidence that led to the re-trial, inspired others to help organize press conferences, teach-ins, rallies, and community events, and together with Terrell raised and maintained a caring and supportive family throughout this trying but transformative struggle.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Two tributes to John ‘J-Rock’ Carter, murdered by Pennsylvania prison guards
From: SF Bay View, Sept 10, 2012
One by Mumia Abu-Jamal, the other by J-Rock’s friend and comrade, S. Muhammad Hyland
The real John Carter
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
John “J-Rock” Carter
Several months ago, a movie was released: a science-fiction flick featuring a superhuman fighting nasty aliens on a forbidding planet somewhere in the cosmos.
As a sci-fi fan I confess interest, but I never heard of the title character, John Carter. (I later learned that the story was based on the lesser-known works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, known for the “Tarzan” books.)
In fact, as the movie was seeking an audience, another John Carter was facing a deadly force of prison guards, armed with weapons of mayhem. Carter was locked in a prison cell as it was being pumped full of pepper spray.
This John Carter had spent over half his life in Pennsylvania prison cells following a robbery-murder conviction after he was certified by the courts as an adult despite his juvenile age.
Irony over irony abounds, for this John Carter seems to have predicted his own demise in a letter he wrote to members of the U.S. Congress seeking passage of a bill outlawing juvenile life terms.
In his June 2009 letter, John Carter wrote the following:
Photo: SCI Rockview is an old prison, built in 1912. This 1940 view was printed as a postcard.
Witnesses from the hole at Rockview Prison say John Carter barricaded himself in his cell, and armored guards attacked the cell, pumping at least three canisters of pepper spray into the windowless, enclosed area – not only burning his eyes, mouth and nose, but depriving him of any usable oxygen.
When the door was breached, guards rushed in using electrified stun shields to subdue him, repeatedly.
Those in view said the 35-year-old man was carried out, his knees and head dragging on the ground.
His friends called him “J-Rock.”
But his name was John Carter on state records recording his death on April 26, 2012.
“Instead of living, I simply exist until my heart stops beating, my lungs stop breathing, and my soul is called into the next life. I ask myself on occasion – is this the form of damnation other human beings wish upon troubled youth? Are we in a society that believes in a forgiving God, but the same society will turn around and be UNFORGIVING to a child’s trespass?”
The real John Carter was a juvenile lifer who was sentenced at 16 years old under a law that the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled was unconstitutional in Alabama v. Miller.
Irony of Ironies. J-Rock never lived to see it.
Source: “In Memory of John Carter,” The Movement (official newsletter of the Human Rights Coalition, Philadelphia) Summer 2012: #151, p.47
© Copyright 2012 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s latest book, “The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America,” co-authored by Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill, available from Third World Press, TWPBooks.com. Keep updated at www.freemumia.com. For Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org. For recent interviews with Mumia, visit www.blockreportradio.com. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries and interviews. Send our brotha some love and light: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Mahanoy, 301 Morea Road, Frackville, PA 17932.
Remembering the contributions of a dedicated soldier
by S. Muhammad Hyland
SCI Rockview, known as Pennsylvania’s “Big House,” was the first prison in the state to use the electric chair. This is the main building.
“Now years go by as I struggle to evolve and mature within a cell I now view as my casket. Some days I’m hopeless … some days I’m focused. But every day I realize that after 14 years I am no longer growing … I am deteriorating – emotionally, physically, psychologically and spiritually. Instead of living, I simply exist, until my heart stops beating, my lungs stop breathing, and my soul is called to the next life.”
Those words were part of a letter written by my friend and comrade John “J-Rock” Carter. He sent that letter to members of the United States Congress in 2009, attempting to appeal to their humanity, by asking them to support H.R. 2289, a bill that would grant relief to juveniles sentenced to serve life sentences without the possibility of parole. At the time, he was only 29 years old, already entering his 14th year behind the walls of a state penitentiary. At the age of 16, he was sentenced to serve a life term without the possibility of parole.
And the racist, fascist, pig prison patrol at SCI Rockview made sure that he completed that sentence.
“Now years go by as I struggle to evolve and mature within a cell I now view as my casket. Some days I’m hopeless … some days I’m focused. But every day I realize that after 14 years I am no longer growing … I am deteriorating – emotionally, physically, psychologically and spiritually.”
My sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of J-Rock, who was the latest victim of fascist Amerika’s unchecked brutality against prisoners – specifically minority prisoners – all across Amerika.
Prisoners are sent to “the hole” – solitary confinement – like this unit in a Pennsylvania prison most often, they say, for protesting prison conditions, especially if they’re Black or Brown.
During a cell extraction, J-Rock was murdered by racist pigs for allegedly refusing to cuff up and exit his cell. A number of reports reveal that he did agree to be handcuffed, but the pigs – looking for some “action” – refused to follow protocol and opted for the more inhumane extraction. The Vietnam-raid, SWAT-style techniques to extract a “piece of shit murderer” from his cell proved to be too appealing to a bunch of bloodthirsty racists.
For the record, John Carter was a victim. He was sentenced to serve life without parole for participating in a robbery where an innocent man was killed. He always took responsibility for his actions. Still, his case put on full display two – of many – components of Amerikan society that have been neglected over and over.
First, Amerika’s readiness to send juvenile offenders away to rot inside of modernized dungeons for the rest of their lives, without the possibility of parole, or any chance to redeem themselves for a mistake they made at a time in their lives when every doctor on earth agrees that their brains weren’t developed enough to appreciate the consequences of their actions.
Secondly, as the Prison Industrial Complex has become big business, the incentive to rehabilitate has long been abandoned, replaced by longer sentences, harsher conditions and tough guy overseer pigs, whose job it is to intimidate, harass, brutalize and terrorize prisoners who openly take issue with this abuse and act against it. J-Rock was one of those people!
Prisoners in SCI Rockview who are not in solitary confinement work in the Big House Products factory manufacturing products used throughout the state. – Photo: Dave Bonta
The Amerikan public is ignorant to the goings-on behind prison walls, and that ignorance has plenty of purpose. If the public had knowledge of the injustices taking place inside of these Amerikan torture camps, they would work to destroy this $70 billion per year industry.
The problem is that they don’t know. They don’t know that prisoners are commodities – exactly as slaves were. They don’t know that educational and vocational programming has been eliminated, replaced with service-style jobs in maintenance and plumbing, paying prisoners 19 cents per hour – a ploy to keep prison operational costs low.
They don’t know that if you refuse to be a slave, you’re automatically labeled as a “trouble maker” and targeted throughout your incarceration – ultimately landing in the Restricted Housing Unit, or “hole,” just like J-Rock was. And the “hole” has one purpose and one purpose only: to break the minds, bodies and souls of the women, children and men placed in them! The hope is that a rebellious prisoner can be forced into submission and compliance through the terrorist tactics that are sanctioned all throughout DOC policy.
Some fight back, and live to tell about it.
Others end up like my comrade J-Rock.
A guard patrols one of the tiers at SCI Rockview. – Photo: Daily Collegian
It’s much more common than people think. My little brother, Walter Rushing, was a victim of SCI Rockview’s “no tolerance” policy when he was “found” dead in his cell in the “hole.” Of “natural causes.” At age 24. He, like J-Rock, was unwilling to accept Rockview’s brutality.
This system within prison reflects a violent societal norm – less subtle, much more intense – and willingly kept out of view of the only people who possess the power and ability to change it. It reflects capitalism’s need to ride the backs of the under-represented in order to keep the “fat cats” on Wall Street in a position of power.
Without these tentacles of intimidation, the “fat cats” wouldn’t exist. And until we confront this power, everybody will continue to suffer – the incarcerated and the “free” – but especially the youth. And since the media is part of the conspiracy to keep the public out of the loop, think about this:
Up until a short while ago – until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to serve a sentence of life without the possibility of parole – the only other nation on this planet to sentence juveniles to serve life was Somalia.
It’s time for the public to be educated about the realities of prison and the criminal injustice system. This education will save tons of money and, more importantly, lives.
S. Muhammad Hyland
J-Rock fought for justice. He put himself on the front line of the struggle against inhumanity – and paid for it with his life. But his contribution will never be overlooked, ignored or down-played.
Many people deserve credit for the Supreme Court’s ruling. He is one of them. I just wish that he was still alive so he could one day enjoy the fruits of his labor, along with his family.
It’s time for the public to be educated about the realities of prison and the criminal injustice system.
The struggle to abolish prisons will continue. The court’s ruling was just the first step. But myself and my comrades – in and out of prison – will continue to move forward in the spirit and memory of a truly dedicated soldier and humanitarian.
Rest in peace, John J-Rock Carter, March 5, 1979-April 26, 2012.
Send our brother some love and light: S. Muhammad Hyland, FX1537, SCI Greene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg, PA 15370. Read more at www.facebook.com/rebelnotes.
One by Mumia Abu-Jamal, the other by J-Rock’s friend and comrade, S. Muhammad Hyland
The real John Carter
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
John “J-Rock” Carter
Several months ago, a movie was released: a science-fiction flick featuring a superhuman fighting nasty aliens on a forbidding planet somewhere in the cosmos.
As a sci-fi fan I confess interest, but I never heard of the title character, John Carter. (I later learned that the story was based on the lesser-known works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, known for the “Tarzan” books.)
In fact, as the movie was seeking an audience, another John Carter was facing a deadly force of prison guards, armed with weapons of mayhem. Carter was locked in a prison cell as it was being pumped full of pepper spray.
This John Carter had spent over half his life in Pennsylvania prison cells following a robbery-murder conviction after he was certified by the courts as an adult despite his juvenile age.
Irony over irony abounds, for this John Carter seems to have predicted his own demise in a letter he wrote to members of the U.S. Congress seeking passage of a bill outlawing juvenile life terms.
In his June 2009 letter, John Carter wrote the following:
“Now years go by as I struggle to evolve and mature within a cell I now view as my casket. Some days I’m hopeless … some days I’m focused. But every day I realize that after 14 years I am no longer growing …. I am deteriorating … emotionally … physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Instead of living, I simply exist until my heart stops beating, my lungs stop breathing, and my soul is called into the next life. I ask myself on occasion – is this the form of damnation other human beings wish upon troubled youth? Are we in a society that believes in a forgiving God, but the same society will turn around and be UNFORGIVING to a child’s trespass?”
Photo: SCI Rockview is an old prison, built in 1912. This 1940 view was printed as a postcard.
Witnesses from the hole at Rockview Prison say John Carter barricaded himself in his cell, and armored guards attacked the cell, pumping at least three canisters of pepper spray into the windowless, enclosed area – not only burning his eyes, mouth and nose, but depriving him of any usable oxygen.
When the door was breached, guards rushed in using electrified stun shields to subdue him, repeatedly.
Those in view said the 35-year-old man was carried out, his knees and head dragging on the ground.
His friends called him “J-Rock.”
But his name was John Carter on state records recording his death on April 26, 2012.
“Instead of living, I simply exist until my heart stops beating, my lungs stop breathing, and my soul is called into the next life. I ask myself on occasion – is this the form of damnation other human beings wish upon troubled youth? Are we in a society that believes in a forgiving God, but the same society will turn around and be UNFORGIVING to a child’s trespass?”
The real John Carter was a juvenile lifer who was sentenced at 16 years old under a law that the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled was unconstitutional in Alabama v. Miller.
Irony of Ironies. J-Rock never lived to see it.
Source: “In Memory of John Carter,” The Movement (official newsletter of the Human Rights Coalition, Philadelphia) Summer 2012: #151, p.47
© Copyright 2012 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s latest book, “The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America,” co-authored by Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill, available from Third World Press, TWPBooks.com. Keep updated at www.freemumia.com. For Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org. For recent interviews with Mumia, visit www.blockreportradio.com. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries and interviews. Send our brotha some love and light: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Mahanoy, 301 Morea Road, Frackville, PA 17932.
Remembering the contributions of a dedicated soldier
by S. Muhammad Hyland
SCI Rockview, known as Pennsylvania’s “Big House,” was the first prison in the state to use the electric chair. This is the main building.
“Now years go by as I struggle to evolve and mature within a cell I now view as my casket. Some days I’m hopeless … some days I’m focused. But every day I realize that after 14 years I am no longer growing … I am deteriorating – emotionally, physically, psychologically and spiritually. Instead of living, I simply exist, until my heart stops beating, my lungs stop breathing, and my soul is called to the next life.”
Those words were part of a letter written by my friend and comrade John “J-Rock” Carter. He sent that letter to members of the United States Congress in 2009, attempting to appeal to their humanity, by asking them to support H.R. 2289, a bill that would grant relief to juveniles sentenced to serve life sentences without the possibility of parole. At the time, he was only 29 years old, already entering his 14th year behind the walls of a state penitentiary. At the age of 16, he was sentenced to serve a life term without the possibility of parole.
And the racist, fascist, pig prison patrol at SCI Rockview made sure that he completed that sentence.
“Now years go by as I struggle to evolve and mature within a cell I now view as my casket. Some days I’m hopeless … some days I’m focused. But every day I realize that after 14 years I am no longer growing … I am deteriorating – emotionally, physically, psychologically and spiritually.”
My sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of J-Rock, who was the latest victim of fascist Amerika’s unchecked brutality against prisoners – specifically minority prisoners – all across Amerika.
Prisoners are sent to “the hole” – solitary confinement – like this unit in a Pennsylvania prison most often, they say, for protesting prison conditions, especially if they’re Black or Brown.
During a cell extraction, J-Rock was murdered by racist pigs for allegedly refusing to cuff up and exit his cell. A number of reports reveal that he did agree to be handcuffed, but the pigs – looking for some “action” – refused to follow protocol and opted for the more inhumane extraction. The Vietnam-raid, SWAT-style techniques to extract a “piece of shit murderer” from his cell proved to be too appealing to a bunch of bloodthirsty racists.
For the record, John Carter was a victim. He was sentenced to serve life without parole for participating in a robbery where an innocent man was killed. He always took responsibility for his actions. Still, his case put on full display two – of many – components of Amerikan society that have been neglected over and over.
First, Amerika’s readiness to send juvenile offenders away to rot inside of modernized dungeons for the rest of their lives, without the possibility of parole, or any chance to redeem themselves for a mistake they made at a time in their lives when every doctor on earth agrees that their brains weren’t developed enough to appreciate the consequences of their actions.
Secondly, as the Prison Industrial Complex has become big business, the incentive to rehabilitate has long been abandoned, replaced by longer sentences, harsher conditions and tough guy overseer pigs, whose job it is to intimidate, harass, brutalize and terrorize prisoners who openly take issue with this abuse and act against it. J-Rock was one of those people!
Prisoners in SCI Rockview who are not in solitary confinement work in the Big House Products factory manufacturing products used throughout the state. – Photo: Dave Bonta
The Amerikan public is ignorant to the goings-on behind prison walls, and that ignorance has plenty of purpose. If the public had knowledge of the injustices taking place inside of these Amerikan torture camps, they would work to destroy this $70 billion per year industry.
The problem is that they don’t know. They don’t know that prisoners are commodities – exactly as slaves were. They don’t know that educational and vocational programming has been eliminated, replaced with service-style jobs in maintenance and plumbing, paying prisoners 19 cents per hour – a ploy to keep prison operational costs low.
They don’t know that if you refuse to be a slave, you’re automatically labeled as a “trouble maker” and targeted throughout your incarceration – ultimately landing in the Restricted Housing Unit, or “hole,” just like J-Rock was. And the “hole” has one purpose and one purpose only: to break the minds, bodies and souls of the women, children and men placed in them! The hope is that a rebellious prisoner can be forced into submission and compliance through the terrorist tactics that are sanctioned all throughout DOC policy.
Some fight back, and live to tell about it.
Others end up like my comrade J-Rock.
A guard patrols one of the tiers at SCI Rockview. – Photo: Daily Collegian
It’s much more common than people think. My little brother, Walter Rushing, was a victim of SCI Rockview’s “no tolerance” policy when he was “found” dead in his cell in the “hole.” Of “natural causes.” At age 24. He, like J-Rock, was unwilling to accept Rockview’s brutality.
This system within prison reflects a violent societal norm – less subtle, much more intense – and willingly kept out of view of the only people who possess the power and ability to change it. It reflects capitalism’s need to ride the backs of the under-represented in order to keep the “fat cats” on Wall Street in a position of power.
Without these tentacles of intimidation, the “fat cats” wouldn’t exist. And until we confront this power, everybody will continue to suffer – the incarcerated and the “free” – but especially the youth. And since the media is part of the conspiracy to keep the public out of the loop, think about this:
Up until a short while ago – until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to serve a sentence of life without the possibility of parole – the only other nation on this planet to sentence juveniles to serve life was Somalia.
It’s time for the public to be educated about the realities of prison and the criminal injustice system. This education will save tons of money and, more importantly, lives.
S. Muhammad Hyland
J-Rock fought for justice. He put himself on the front line of the struggle against inhumanity – and paid for it with his life. But his contribution will never be overlooked, ignored or down-played.
Many people deserve credit for the Supreme Court’s ruling. He is one of them. I just wish that he was still alive so he could one day enjoy the fruits of his labor, along with his family.
It’s time for the public to be educated about the realities of prison and the criminal injustice system.
The struggle to abolish prisons will continue. The court’s ruling was just the first step. But myself and my comrades – in and out of prison – will continue to move forward in the spirit and memory of a truly dedicated soldier and humanitarian.
Rest in peace, John J-Rock Carter, March 5, 1979-April 26, 2012.
Send our brother some love and light: S. Muhammad Hyland, FX1537, SCI Greene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg, PA 15370. Read more at www.facebook.com/rebelnotes.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Help bring Terrell home! September 4th!
Help bring Terrell home!
http://justiceforterrell.blogspot.com
18 years after being framed for a murder he didn't commit and three years after being awarded a new trial, the case of Commonwealth v. Terrell Johnson is set to be re-tried in Pittsburgh tomorrow, September 4.
Supporters of Terrell are calling for courthouse support all week, September 4-7 from 9am to 5pm, and the following week September 8 until the trial ends.
The trial will be held in the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh on 436 Grant Street in front of Judge Machen in court room 326.
Please attend as often and for as long as possible. Supporters are asked to dress appropriately and to conduct themselves in a serious and dignified manner throughout the proceedings.
Also, please be advised that any literature or clothing that acknowledges that Terrell has already been incarcerated for this crime are not to be brought in or near the courtroom since the jury is not permitted to be aware of this fact. Leaving a flyer in the courthouse or wearing a Justice for Terrell shirt that indicates he was wrongfully convicted may result in a mistrial.
For questions as to scheduling of the trial, including if it still occurring, or when it will end or recess on particular days, contact Bret at 412-654-9070.
One final thing that it is important to remember: Terrell could have come home in the fall of 2009 or the spring/summer of 2010 if he would have accepted the prosecution's offer of a plea bargain on a third-degree homicide charge that would have carried a 7-15 year sentence. He would have been released for time served. He refused because he is innocent and he refused to cut an immoral deal with a government that has knowingly framed him and denied his humanity.
He deserves our support now.
In solidarity,
HRC/Fed Up!
http://justiceforterrell.blogspot.com
18 years after being framed for a murder he didn't commit and three years after being awarded a new trial, the case of Commonwealth v. Terrell Johnson is set to be re-tried in Pittsburgh tomorrow, September 4.
Supporters of Terrell are calling for courthouse support all week, September 4-7 from 9am to 5pm, and the following week September 8 until the trial ends.
The trial will be held in the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh on 436 Grant Street in front of Judge Machen in court room 326.
Please attend as often and for as long as possible. Supporters are asked to dress appropriately and to conduct themselves in a serious and dignified manner throughout the proceedings.
Also, please be advised that any literature or clothing that acknowledges that Terrell has already been incarcerated for this crime are not to be brought in or near the courtroom since the jury is not permitted to be aware of this fact. Leaving a flyer in the courthouse or wearing a Justice for Terrell shirt that indicates he was wrongfully convicted may result in a mistrial.
For questions as to scheduling of the trial, including if it still occurring, or when it will end or recess on particular days, contact Bret at 412-654-9070.
One final thing that it is important to remember: Terrell could have come home in the fall of 2009 or the spring/summer of 2010 if he would have accepted the prosecution's offer of a plea bargain on a third-degree homicide charge that would have carried a 7-15 year sentence. He would have been released for time served. He refused because he is innocent and he refused to cut an immoral deal with a government that has knowingly framed him and denied his humanity.
He deserves our support now.
In solidarity,
HRC/Fed Up!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Abolish Solitary Confinement: Sept 17 at 5 PM and Sept 18 at 10 AM both in Philadelphia
Join the Human Rights Coalition for two major September events in the push to end solitary confinement torture on September 17 & 18.
Read HRC's Platform for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement at this link and contact us to endorse.
Email written submissions to share with PA legislators to hrcfedup@gmail.com. We will be creating a website featuring all written submissions.
Rally to Abolish Solitary Confinement - September 17 in Philadelphia
Join us on Monday, September 17 in Philadelphia at 5:00 p.m. at Love Park (15th Street and JFK Boulevard)
23-24 hours in the "Hole" for months, years, even decades - Solitary Confinement is torture in any form.
Rise up, raise your voice, end torture in the U.S.
Speakers to be announced.
Legislative Hearing on Solitary Confinement
The Democratic Policy Committee will be holding a legislative hearing on solitary confinement on September 18 in Philadelphia featuring testimony from survivors of solitary, family members of those in solitary , advocates, mental health and legal experts.
10:00 am at Temple University, President's Conference Suite, First Floor, 1810 Liacouras Walk, Philadelphia.
Read HRC's Platform for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement at this link and contact us to endorse.
Email written submissions to share with PA legislators to hrcfedup@gmail.com. We will be creating a website featuring all written submissions.
Rally to Abolish Solitary Confinement - September 17 in Philadelphia
Join us on Monday, September 17 in Philadelphia at 5:00 p.m. at Love Park (15th Street and JFK Boulevard)
23-24 hours in the "Hole" for months, years, even decades - Solitary Confinement is torture in any form.
Rise up, raise your voice, end torture in the U.S.
Speakers to be announced.
Legislative Hearing on Solitary Confinement
The Democratic Policy Committee will be holding a legislative hearing on solitary confinement on September 18 in Philadelphia featuring testimony from survivors of solitary, family members of those in solitary , advocates, mental health and legal experts.
10:00 am at Temple University, President's Conference Suite, First Floor, 1810 Liacouras Walk, Philadelphia.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Solitary confinement: Torture chambers for black revolutionaries
From: Al-Jazeera, Aug 10th 2012
An estimated 80,000 men, women and even children are being held in solitary confinement on any given day in US prisons.
With: Kanya D'Almeida and Bret Grote
"The torture technicians who developed the paradigm used in (prisons') 'control units' realised that they not only had to separate those with leadership qualities, but also break those individuals' minds and bodies and keep them separated until they are dead." - Russell "Maroon" Shoats
Russell "Maroon" Shoats has been kept in solitary confinement in the state of Pennsylvania for 30 years after being elected president of the prison-approved Lifers' Association. He was initially convicted for his alleged role in an attack authorities claim was carried out by militant black activists on the Fairmont Park Police Station in Philadelphia that left a park sergeant dead.
Despite not having violated prison rules in more than two decades, state prison officials refuse to release him into the general prison population.
Russell's family and supporters claim that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC) has unlawfully altered the consequences of his criminal conviction, sentencing him to die in solitary confinement - a death imposed by decades of no-touch torture.
The severity of the conditions he is subjected to and the extraordinary length of time they have been imposed for has sparked an international campaign to release him from solitary confinement - a campaign that has quickly attracted the support of leading human rights legal organisations, such as the Centre for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild.
Less than two months after the campaign was formally launched with events in New York City and London, Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, agreed to make an official inquiry into Shoats' 21 years of solitary confinement, sending a communication to the US State Department representative in Geneva, Switzerland.
[video: Whistleblower 'isolated' in US jail]
What the liberals won't tell you
While the state of Pennsylvania has remained unmoved in this matter so far, some in the US government are finally catching on. Decades after rights activists first began to refer to the practice of solitary confinement as "torture", the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights and human rights held a hearing on June 19 to "reassess" the fiscal, security and human costs of locking prisoners into tiny, windowless cells for 23 hours a day.
Needless to say, the hearing echoed in a whisper what human rights defenders have been shouting for nearly an entire generation: that sensory deprivation, lack of social contact, a near total absence of zeitgebers and restricted access to all intellectual and emotional stimuli are an evil and unproductive combination.
The hearing opened a spate of debate: with newspapers in Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Ohio and elsewhere seizing the occasion to denounce the practice as "torture" and call for a reversal of a 30-year trend that has shattered - at a minimum - tens of thousands of people's lives inside the vast US prison archipelago.
But as happens with virtually all prison-related stories in the US mainstream media, the two most important words were left unprinted, unuttered: race and revolution.
Any discussion on solitary confinement begins and ends with a number: a prisoner is kept in his or her cell 23 or 24 hours per day, allowed three showers every week and served three meals a day. According to a report by UN torture rapporteur Mendez, prisoners should not be held in isolation for more than 15 days at a stretch. But in the US, it is typical for hundreds of thousands of prisoners to pass in and out of solitary confinement for 30 or 60 days at a time each year.
Human Rights Watch estimated that there were approximately 20,000 prisoners being held in Supermax prisons, which are entire facilities dedicated to solitary confinement or near-solitary. It is estimated that at least 80,000 men, women and even children are being held in solitary confinement on any given day in US jails and prisons.
Unknown thousands have spent years and, in some cases, decades in such isolation, including more than 500 prisoners held in California's Pelican Bay state prison for ten years or more.
Perhaps the most notorious case of all is that of the Angola 3, three Black Panthers who have been held in solitary confinement in Louisiana for more than 100 years between the three of them. While Robert King was released after 29 years in solitary, his comrades - Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace - recently began their 40th years in solitary confinement, despite an ongoing lawsuit challenging their isolation and a growing international movement for their freedom that has been supported by Amnesty International.
But all these numbers fail to mention what Robert Saleem Holbrook, who was sentenced to life without parole as a 16-year-old juvenile and has now spent the majority of his life behind bars, pointed out: "Given the control units' track record in driving men crazy, it is not surprising that the majority of prisoners sent into it are either politically conscious prisoners, prison lawyers, or rebellious young prisoners. It is this class of prisoners that occupies the control units in prison systems across the United States."
Holbrook's observation is anything but surprising to those familiar with the routine violations of prisoners' human rights within US jails and prisons. The Prison discipline study, a mass national survey assessing formal and informal punitive practices in US prisons conducted in 1989, concluded that "solitary confinement, loss of privileges, physical beatings" and other forms of deprivation and harassment were "common disciplinary practices" that were "rendered routinely, capriciously and brutally" in maximum-security US prisons.
The study also noted receiving "hundreds of comments from prisoners" explaining that jailhouse lawyers who file grievances and lawsuits about abuse and poor conditions were the most frequently targeted. Black prisoners and the mentally ill were also targeted for especially harsh treatment. This "pattern of guard brutality" was "consistent with the vast and varied body of post-war literature, demonstrating that guard use of physical coercion is highly structured and deeply entrenched in the guard subculture".
Race and revolution
But while broad patterns can be discerned, these are the numbers that are missing: how many of those in solitary confinement are black? How many are self-taught lawyers, educators or political activists? How many initiated hunger strikes, which have long been anathema to the prison administration? How many were caught up in the FBI-organised dragnet that hauled thousands of community leaders, activists and thinkers into the maws of the US "justice" system during the Black liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s?
Former Warden of United States Penitentiary Marion, the prototype of modern supermax-style solitary confinement, Ralph Arons, has stated: "The purpose of the Marion Control Unit is to control revolutionary attitudes in the prison system and in the society at large."
One of these revolutionaries is Russell "Maroon" Shoats, the founder of the Black Unity Council, which later merged with the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party. He was first jailed in early 1970.
Read the rest here:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/20128694647587767.html
Monday, June 25, 2012
Hell hole: It's time to view solitary confinement as torture
From: Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette, June 24th 2012
How would any of us like to be locked up in a tiny cell for 23 out of 24 hours a day, sometimes for years, with no human contact other than prison guards, and with no radio, TV or personal phone calls?
This is life in the hole and it is hardly any life, because the whole point is to separate humanity from the prisoner. It sounds like a debased practice of totalitarian regimes, but solitary confinement is also a staple of the U.S. prison system, including in Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, incredibly given the flagrant affront to human rights, members of Congress for the first time held a hearing on solitary confinement, which a growing body of opinion has come to regard as torture, plain and simple.
The Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights heard a former inmate from Texas who spent 18 years in prison tell of his horrible time in the hole. Anthony Graves, whose conviction for involvement in multiple murders was overturned in 2006, said that solitary confinement "is inhumane and by its design it is driving men insane."
Some Americans hold little sympathy for prisoners, believing that any punishment is what they deserve. But nobody deserves to be driven mad, and that offends something else beyond basic decency -- the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids the infliction of "cruel and unusual punishments." It's hard to believe that being driven to madness doesn't qualify.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/hell-hole-its-time-to-view-solitary-confinement-as-torture-641741/#ixzz1yo1iEQ3Z
How would any of us like to be locked up in a tiny cell for 23 out of 24 hours a day, sometimes for years, with no human contact other than prison guards, and with no radio, TV or personal phone calls?
This is life in the hole and it is hardly any life, because the whole point is to separate humanity from the prisoner. It sounds like a debased practice of totalitarian regimes, but solitary confinement is also a staple of the U.S. prison system, including in Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, incredibly given the flagrant affront to human rights, members of Congress for the first time held a hearing on solitary confinement, which a growing body of opinion has come to regard as torture, plain and simple.
The Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights heard a former inmate from Texas who spent 18 years in prison tell of his horrible time in the hole. Anthony Graves, whose conviction for involvement in multiple murders was overturned in 2006, said that solitary confinement "is inhumane and by its design it is driving men insane."
Some Americans hold little sympathy for prisoners, believing that any punishment is what they deserve. But nobody deserves to be driven mad, and that offends something else beyond basic decency -- the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids the infliction of "cruel and unusual punishments." It's hard to believe that being driven to madness doesn't qualify.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/hell-hole-its-time-to-view-solitary-confinement-as-torture-641741/#ixzz1yo1iEQ3Z
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