TRUE DEMOCRACY SPRING 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS
political prisoners
The Agenda for African Americans
Does it also include others of color?
The "Tatum Chronicles" and Senator Kerry's committee hearing transcripts on the Contra Affair "Operation Megg Pie," "Guns For Drugs" were brought to my attention by Marc Pierre Hall #11691-058, an African American who is incarcerated in USP Beaumont in Texas. Mr. Hall fears for his life because he filed a civil lawsuit #1:01CV 75 in U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas at Beaumont that incorporated a claim against United States elite employees, George H.W. Bush, William Barr (US Congressman representing one district in Georgia), Bill Clinton, John Poindexter, Oliver North, and many others because of declassified information of the White House and CIA which incorporates a pilot's affidavit concerning a conspiracy to "Lock up all the Niggers in the United States."
Mr. Hall comes from an upstanding family of lawyers and teachers and affiliation with Yale University and even has a connection at the Pentagon so he is not a poor Black person but a persecuted person nevertheless. He has filed a lawsuit, possibly the first of its kind because he was unjustly convicted of federal drug charges and is sentenced to life in prison.
His mother has a copy of the Tatum Chronicles and refuses to send it into the prison facility because she knows what would happen to it if she did. Mr. Hall had a copy of the Tatum Chronicles but the prison administration destroyed them. The Tatum Chronicles has Senator Kerry's Congressional Investigation which includes testimony of several witnesses of "arms for cocaine."
The pilot who was at the same prison as Mr. Hall is, Beaumont, was moved.
Try to imagine what it is like for people of African heritage to understand that they would be incarcerated because of their skin color and you begin to realize the overwhelming effect on this nation-a nation which is supposed to be composed of laws. As the publisher of this periodical, it is so egregious to me because our blood is all the same color. Our cultures are different but we all want the same things-life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. AND, we are all guaranteed that in the U.S. Constitution. If we aren't, we should be.
Please contact Governor Rick Perry, Office of the Governor, P. O. Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711 USA 800-843-5789 (For Texas residents) (512) 463-1782 (512) 475-3165 (Deaf Callers) Main switchboard: (512) 463-1849 Fax: (512) 463-1849
Email: http://www.governor.state.tx.us/acgperry2001/e-mail.html and tell him that you won't visit Texas on vacation or buy the products Texas produces until he frees Marc Pierre Hall and allows him to sue for false arrest and expunges the record. Texas residents can tell the governor that they won't vote for him next time he runs unless he does this. Please include his ID number.
Gary Lee Hawkins #01648027 5-D-5
Harris County Jail, 1301 Franklyn Street, Houston, TX 77002
Gary is another example of this agenda. He is the son of Shaka Sankofa (aka Gary Graham) who was deliberately executed because of the color of his skin. The fact that Shaka had converted to Islam didn't help his situation either so then Governor George W. Bush deliberately murdered Shaka on June 22, 2000 despite protesters going to Texas from as far away as New York to my knowledge. The possibility is that protesters came from farther away but I personally know that protesters came from New York. George W. Bush knew that Shaka Sankofa was innocent of the crime but he didn't care. The man had black skin so he had to be terminated. I'm sorry everyone but that is the reality in today's America. This will end if there is breath in my body because it is wrong.
Gary Lee Hawkins is just as innocent as his father was but he is in jail too simply because of the color of his skin. Please demand that Gary Lee Hawkins be released and reunited with his family. He was convicted and sentenced to 40 years on the evidence of one person with not a single shred of solid evidence to prove his guilt.
Please contact Governor Rick Perry on this case too. Thank you.
Fred Hampton, Jr. #B-42954
Stateville C.C., P. O. Box 112, Joliet, IL 60434
Fred Hampton, Jr. (aka Alfred Johnson) is the son of Fred Hampton who was one of the leaders of the Black Panther Party. As such, he is being targeted because the FBI is steadfast in its desire to imprison so they can eliminate these people.
There has been something of a victory for Fred Jr. however, but he still is not free as of this writing. Here is what was posted to the The Black List listserv on April 11, 2001:
Victory for Fred Hampton, Jr. and the African Community!
April 4th Clemency Hearing in Chicago a Great Success!
On April 4th, 2001 the Illinois Prisoner Review Board heard the appeal for Complete Executive Clemency based on total innocence of Fred Hampton Jr., an African Political Prisoner in Illinois. The National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, (NPDUM), a national rights organization for the African community, has been leading the campaign to free Fred Hampton Jr. for the past eight years. As the Chicago President of NPDUM, Fred was framed by the Chicago police and the U.S. government in 1992 in retaliation for his powerful organizing work for justice and economic development, and against police terror, poverty, and mass imprisonment in the African Community. Fred Hampton Jr. was brought back into active political life by the Uhuru (freedom) Movement in the late 1980s, some 20 years after the brutal assassination of his beloved father, Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton Sr. by the U.S. government, FBI, and Chicago police on December 4, 1969.
NPDUM formed the International Campaign to Free Fred Hampton Jr. which has activated a mass, international grassroots movement to Free Fred Hampton Jr. and all political prisoners. This is a key aspect of winning the liberation of all African people and ending the government's counter-insurgency that it wages daily against the black population inside the U.S. Fred Hampton Jr.'s constitutional and democratic rights were violated when he was falsely arrested with a warrant on May 11, 1992 and charged with aggravated arson for a firebombing incident in which he was not involved at all. He was sentenced by an almost all-white jury to 18 years for an incident where no one was injured and minimal fire damage was sustained by MJM Jewelry store. The state had no physical evidence nor eyewitnesses to link Fred to the arson, and in fact he was put on trial for his political beliefs.
NPDUM upholds that Fred Hampton Jr. and all African people have the right to organize for the rights of the community without political intimidation, harassment, imprisonment, or assassination. For the past year, thousands of people from around the U.S., Canada, and Europe have participated in sending postcards, petitions, and letters and calling Governor George Ryan and the Illinois Department of Corrections, demanding Fred's immediate release.
NPDUM secured a lawyer, Carlos Weeden who filed for unconditional executive clemency for Fred on February 20, 2001. Despite the fact that the Illinois Prisoner Review Board gets requests to hear up to 10,000 clemency appeals at a time, they decided to review Fred's case in Chicago on April 4, 2001.
The International Campaign to Free Fred Hampton Jr. immediately intensified the political pressure on the Board and Governor Ryan calling on them to right a terrible travesty of justice by granting Fred clemency and immediately releasing him back to his family and community. We want to thank everyone who sent a letter of support, e-mailed or called prior to the hearing. It was very clear that the tremendous support flooding in to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board and Chairwoman Anne Taylor had a great political impact on the hearing. It helped them understand that this was a case of a political prisoner who has massive support form people all over the world. At one time during the hearing, board member Victor Brooks asked all Fred's supporters to stand up. The entire room stood up!
The National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement led powerful demonstrations outside the James R. Thompson Center at the busy intersection of Clark and Randolph on the 3rd and the 4th, giving out 5,000 flyers and winning the people to support the clemency appeal. People came to participate in the clemency mobilization form Oakland, California, St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Frederick, Maryland, and of course from the Chicago area.
Testifying on Fred's behalf at the hearing were his mother, Akua Njeri, Congressman Bobby Rush, his attorney Carlos Weeden and Candace Vogler, a philosophy professor at the University of Chicago. Njeri testified that Fred had been home with her and Fred's daughter Kadijah on the day of the incident at 63rd and South Halsted, preparing for a mother's day celebration.
Weeden told the Board that he met with Fred and recommended that Fred not file for clemency based on complete innocence as this is the hardest kind to be granted. However, Fred insisted that the clemency be based on a total pardon based on innocence, as he is innocent of all charges against him.
Bobby Rush was in the Black Panther Party in the 1970s and worked with Fred Hampton Sr. His testimony was powerful in put forward the tremendous work done by Fred's father and the Panthers on behalf of the community. Rush challenged the common media slander that painted the Black Panthers as violent racists. He spoke of how proud he was of Fred Jr's excellent community work even in his teens. They worked together on the campaign to elect Harold Washington as mayor. Rush said that Fred Jr. loves his community and would never have jeopardized African people's safety by throwing a firebomb into a store crowded with people.
Candace Vogler brought out many of the contradictions and discrepancies of the trial itself. She became involved in the work to free Fred Hampton after studying his case, and reviewing the transcripts of his trial. She also exposed that the state had attempted to frame Fred Hampton Jr. for murder and armed robbery prior to the 1992 arrest and arson frame-up. The judge who tried the case questioned whether a robbery had even occurred, and Fred was put forward by the judge as an exemplary citizen in the murder trial. She testified that Fred's fingerprints were not found on the molotov cocktail bottles thrown into the store.
The prosecution made a weak rebuttal that the Board members exposed as totally contradictory and false. For example, the state said that Fred had made two different statements as to his whereabouts on the day of May 9, 1992 during the fire incident. The Board exposed through questioning that neither statement was signed by Fred and were written based on an officer recollection. Vogler had stated that at the murder trial, after it was dismissed, the State's Attorney had said aloud in court, "Fred Hampton, Jr., we'll get you yet!" This statement showed that the state was intent on imprisoning Fred for who he is politically, not based on his committing any crime. At the clemency hearing the prosecution attempted to discredit this statement, saying if it had happened it would have been in the trial transcripts. This was discredited by the Review Board member who stated that it would only be in the transcripts if it had been said during the court procedure, but it could have been stated off the record.
Again, the Board completely discredited the position that the apparent burns on Fred's hands at the time of his arrest proved that he had thrown the molotov cocktails into the store, thus getting burned. Vogler said that Fred had testified at the trial that his fingertips sustained burns from his work as an auto mechanic. Board member Craig Findley said he found it totally unbelievable that Fred could have little burns on his fingers form throwing a crate of exploding molotov cocktails. Either his hands would have been blown off, or at minimum we would have sustained serious burns all over his hands.
The Illinois Prisoner Review Board was overwhelmingly favorable to the testimony brought forward showing that Fred Hampton Jr. was indeed framed by the State for carrying on the work of his father. He was targeted and penalized for organizing and standing up for the national democratic rights of African people and all oppressed communities in the U.S. It was exposed that the attack on Fred is part of the government attack on the entire African community.
The International Campaign to Free Fred Hampton Jr. is calling on all freedom and justice-loving people to continue to work to make the final decision. There is no time frame for this procedure. We urge everyone concerned to write and call Governor Ryan's office to urge him to do the right thing, and grant Fred Hampton Jr. Executive Clemency. Governor Ryan has called for a moratorium of the death penalty. He stated that he doesn't want anyone who is innocent to be in prison in Illinois even for five minutes. We need to hold Ryan to this righteous sentiment. Help him make the right decision by writing, faxing, or calling.
Please contact Governor George Ryan, 207 State House Road, Springfield, IL 62706 Phone: (217) 782-0244 Fax: (217) 524-4049 Email: [email protected]
Please tell him that you won't visit Illinois on vacation or buy the products the state produces until he grants executive clemency and expunges the arrest and conviction for Fred Hampton Jr.
Umar Majeer #81-A1100
Otisville Correctional Facility, P.O.Box 8, Otisville, NY 10963 USA
paroled due to True Democracy's effort
Umar is another case about which I became aware due to my correspondence with another prisoner who was incarcerated about whom I became aware because of the excellent work of Al Lewis on WBAI. Mr. Lewis, formerly Grandpa on The Munsters sitcom, is a prisoner advocate. He requests that people volunteer to write letters to prisoners who have no other contacts so they will receive mail. I volunteered to do that and my knowledge of Umar is as a result of that because he is a fellow prisoner at the same facility in upstate New York as the gentleman with whom I corresponded.
Umar's case is clearly racist motivated. Not only is he African American which I can prove because he sent me a picture of his brother after he had been murdered in North Carolina by two racist young men, but Umar follows Islam. This causes him a double jeopardy and neither fact should cause him any harm.
In the trial which was held in 1981, the assistant district attorney and the defense lawyer perpetuated direct racism and the presiding judge allowed it to go on.
The case involves second degree murder in which Umar Majeer was convicted and appealed the conviction in which he was sentenced from 18 years to life. It is published in "People v. Majeer Cite as 475N.Y.S2d 25 (A.D. 1 Dept. 1984 page 25-27. Excerpts in the interest of time and space will be published in this periodical as follows:
"By February 1980, for more than five years, defendant Umar Majeer had been working as a plumber and maintenance man in the neighborhood located in the area around 145th and 146th Street in Manhattan [Harlem]. He lived at 235 West 146th Street, and he was the building's superintendent. On or about the evening of February 19, 1980, defendant, his girlfriend Mildred Frasier, and another woman named Arnicia Davila went to a bar type lounge in Brooklyn. After spending some time there, the three of them then drove to a Harlem Hotel in which the defendant had a room. When defendant fell asleep, Frasier took $1,000 of defendant's money, which she shared with Davila, and then both women left the Hotel, before the defendant woke up. A few days later, defendant went to Davila's father's glass store, which was situated at 227 West 145th Street, and told Davila's father that Frasier and Davila had taken $1,000 from him, while he was sleeping. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, almost daily, defendant was observed knocking loudly on the entrance door to Davila's apartment; but, Davila did not answer. Her ground floor apartment was in a different part of the same building that contained her father's store.
During this period Collin Parker worked in Davila's father's store, and he had been so employed for some six years. Parker knew the defendant from seeing him around the neighborhood and as a regular customer of the store.
After the store closed, at about 10:00 or 10:30 P.M. on the evening of March 13, 1980, Parker, Davila and another man went to Davila's apartment where the three of them consumed some food and shared a pint bottle of Baccardi rum, mixed with Coca Cola. At a little past midnight, they decided to leave the apartment to obtain some beer.
Parker opened the apartment door, with Davila beside him. As Parker moved into the well lit hallway of the apartment house, he recognized the defendant standing there a few feet away. According to Parker's trial testimony: "He [defendant] said, 'Bitch, do you have my money?' Then he said 'Bitch, I told you I'm going to kill you...' [Davila]put her arms up. [She] walked in front and then he shot...her in the head" [material in brackets added]. Further, Parker testified that, even though Davila collapsed to the ground as a result of that shot, defendant pointed his gun down and fired two more shots into her prone body. Parker testified, defendant turned and walked out of the building. With a few hours thereafter, defendant was arrested and charged with Davila's murder, as a result of Parker's identification and statement.
At trial, the defense was alibi. Supporting the alibi was the testimony of defendant and Frasier, to whom defendant admitted he gave money to, after the death of Davila. They testified that they drove from Harlem to Brooklyn, where they had dinner, went to a lounge for drinks and checked into a Brooklyn Hotel called the Lincoln Plaza because of the hazardous road conditions, that had resulted from the snowfall. Moreover, defendant and Frasier testified that they remained together in this room until they left the hotel between 2:00 and 3:00 A.M. and went to the 145th Street area in Harlem. The defense put into evidence, without objection, the registration card from the Lincoln Plaza that indicated defendant checked in at 10:53 P.M. It does not indicate any checkout time.
The people rebutted with an agreed stipulation. In pertinent part, it stated that, a couple of weeks after the murder, a New York City Police Detective conducted a test drive from the Lincoln Plaza Hotel to the scene of the crime, a distance of 13.8 miles; and that driving at around a speed of 35 miles per hour or less, it took him 30 minutes to complete the trip.
The crime, the murder by shooting of the victim, took place at about 12:30 A.M. on March 14,1980. One eyewitness, who knew the defendant at least casually, identified the defendant as the perpetrator. But that eyewitness, along with the victim and another person, had been drinking rum and coca cola from about 10:00 P.M. in the victim's apartment. After midnight they all decided to go out and get some beer. As they left the apartment they were confronted by a man who in a brief altercation demanded his money of the victim and said that he had told her he was going to kill her, which he thereupon proceeded to do by shooting her her several times. The other witness did not see the gunman nor hear the conversation. Upon the identifying witness informing the police that he knew the defendant and that the victim's father knew the defendant's name, the police ascertained defendant's first name and his address, went to defendants's home and left a card asking that the defendant call them when he got back. A little later that day defendant arrived at the police station voluntarily with his girl friend, where he was identified by the eyewitness.
Defendant consistently claimed that he and his girl friend had been at a Brooklyn hotel at the time of the shooting.
What I find most disturbing about the case is that the defendant's version is supported by a registration card form a hotel at 53 Lincoln Place, Brooklyn, showing that he and another had arrived at the hotel at 10:53 P.M. on March 13, 1980. There appears to be no substantial reason to doubt the accuracy of this registration card. The time between that registration and the shooting on West 146th Street Street in Manhattan seems to me to be so short as to engender the grave misgiving that I have. Presumably the defendant went to the hotel to do something-either to sleep off the effects of drinking or to have a tryst with his girl friend, or both. Even if one does not accept defendant's and his girl friend's version that they spent several hours at the hotel, it seems unlikely that he stayed at the hotel less than say three-quarters of an hour. It was a snowy night. In the period between whenever he left the hotel and the shooting at about 12:30 A.M. defendant would have had to travel in bad driving conditions from the hotel in Brooklyn to the building at 145th Street in Manhattan, where the shooting took place, dispose of the car and drop his girl friend, go to the apartment and shoot the victim, all by about 12:30 A. M. It is physically possible that that is what happened; but I am very doubtful of it."
In analyzing this case so as not to release someone who would murder a human being, it occurs to me that since we know that it was Umar's girl friend who took the money in the first place, why didn't he approach her for the money back? Secondly, why would he have given her more money and then been so angry with Ms. Davila so as to kill her? Thirdly, why would anyone kill someone with a witness there who could identify him since they knew each other? These questions in addition to the fact that no indication was made as to what the weather conditions were when the Detective drove the distance.
I have driven in New York when it has snowed. Despite the fact that snow plows plow the streets, it takes considerably longer to drive than it does when conditions are clear.
Furthermore, after two weeks, it seems illogical to me that someone would kill since they would give up any chance of recovering the money with the person dead. Plus, no witness ever came forward to say that Umar threatened to kill when he was attempting to recover the money. Therefore, I feel confident that Umar Majeer is innocent of the crime as he swears on ALLAH he is.
Naturally, anyone can swear that he is innocent but the decision of Kuperman and Silverman, JJ who dissented saying "I would reverse the conviction and dismiss the indictment."
Please contact Governor George E. Pataki, State Capitol, Albany, NY 12224 Email: [email protected] No fax or phone numbers were available. Please tell the governor to release Umar and provide him the means to return home or you will not visit New York on vacation or buy the products New York produces.
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