[grc] ADV: It Starts With Prisoners

Fri Sep 4 03:43:32 PDT 2015

Bret Grote on the victory of prisoners & jailhouse lawyers in CA

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"From Katrina to Ferguson" (http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia/katrina-ferguson-256-mumia-abu-jamal)
(2:56)
by Mumia Abu-Jamal

"It's Torture in Here Too" (http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/kenneth-hartman/its-torture-here-too-312-kenneth-hartman)
(3:12)
by Kenneth Hartman

"The Nation of Islam Calls for Million Man March..." (http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/kerry-shakaboona-marshall-sci-rockview/nation-islam-calls-million-man-march-demand)
(3:54)
by Kerry "Shakaboona" Marshall

"Life As An Innocent Prisoner" (http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/lorenzo-cat-johnson/life-innocent-prisoner-303-lorenzo-cat-johnson)
(3:03)
by Lorenzo Cat Johnson
Pam Africa of the
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

New York's Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition will be hosting:

911 Report to the Movement on Mumia
September 11th, 6-9pm
All Souls Unitarian Church
1157 Lexington Ave, NYC www.freemumia.com

** We Did It! Major Tillery Out of the Hole
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You did it! Your calls, your voice, and your actions.
In what was intended to be a six month-long  punishment in solitary confinement for advocating that Mumia Abu-Jamal receive immediate medical care, Major Tillery was just released into general population thanks to our collective public pressure and protest.

** Mumia's Legal Fund is Halfway There...
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**
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With a huge thanks to all 376 donors who stepped up to bring Mumia back to health, we've raised $21,028 (http://bit.ly/fight4mumia) together!
Right now, every dollar you give will make it possible for Mumia's legal team, to secure Mumia's constitutional rights to the courts and to medical treatment.
Friends, let's get Mumia's fund to the finish line. Let's get him treatment and bring him back to health.

Please join us in making a gift today. Every dollar matters. (http://bit.ly/fight4mumia)
Dear friend, 
Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center:

"On May 15, 2011, I entered Jules Lobel's office at the Pitt Law School to begin my first legal job, working as his research assistant for the summer. He gave me three assignments, and then, almost as an afterthought, told me he was going to forward me an email about a hunger strike being planned for July 1 in Pelican Bay State Prison in California. He asked if I could figure out a "quick legal strike" that could assist those going on hunger strike without getting bogged down in class action litigation.

Since my first teachers in the law were not lawyers or professors, but incarcerated people fighting for their lives, I did what was obvious to me but virtually inconceivable to other law students: I wrote the men in Pelican Bay organizing the hunger strike. They wrote back, giving me a quick and in-depth education on their situation. It was they who sent two crucial cases (Griffin v. Gomez and Lira v. Cate) where incarcerated litigants at Pelican Bay prevailed on 8th and 14th Amendment claims.

These cases were not available on the fancy electronic databases that law students use. Only hard copies, which is the currency of jailhouse lawyers in any event. These helped Jules convince himself - and then the Center for Constitutional Rights - that it was worthy and necessary to get bogged down in a class action lawsuit to support an unprecedented movement against solitary led by those suffering through hell in the innermost core of state violence.

Before the hunger strike no other prison litigators would touch the case, said the legal precedent was too bad, the courts too antagonistic, the plaintiffs were not sympathetic. It was seen as a quixotic and doomed undertaking.

Today the case settled and the main demands of the hunger strikers were met.

Indefinite solitary confinement based on alleged (and typically bogus) gang affiliation - long a pillar of the California prison system - is over. There are limits to the duration people can be held in solitary. Estimates of 1500-2500 will be released from solitary in the next year, and hundreds have already been let out.

This litigation was led by the plaintiffs - those held in the SHU - from the beginning, not the lawyers, who properly understood their role as carrying out the strategy of those they represented to fight for their release and further their movement. It should be studied."

- Bret Grote, Abolitionist Law Center
Family, friends and organizers at the Press Conference yesterday.
Victories like this don't come around often.

After three prisoner-led hunger strikes across California prisons, a settlement was reached (http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32612-two-years-after-hunger-strike-california-settlement-may-release-2000-prisoners-from-solitary) yesterday ruling that California prisons may no longer hold prisoners for an indefinite amount of time in solitary confinement.
I wanted to share with you the above account from attorney Bret Grote who has worked on this case since the beginning. Yes, the same Bret Grote attorney for the Abolitionist Law Center who (with Robert Boyle Esq. of New York) is leading the legal case to demand treatment for Mumia.
http://bit.ly/fight4mumia
Bring Mumia Back to Health >> (http://bit.ly/fight4mumia)
Luchando por la justicia y la libertad,

Noelle Hanrahan

Noelle Hanrahan
Director

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