GREAT NEWS FROM JAMIE SCOTT!

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2009

GREAT NEWS FROM JAMIE SCOTT!

Jamie Scott of the Scott Sisters was able to call her mother tonight and report that thanks to all of the calls that came into the prison, she was seen by a doctor and is receiving medication. She stated that she was not seriously injured when she fell on the oil that was placed on the shower floor.

Although Jamie was able to receive insulin, she stated that she had been without her blood pressure medicine for several months due to there not being a generic version available that the state would pay for.

She wanted to make certain that each and every person who responded to our urgent calls for assistance knew how much she appreciated the overwhelming response and remarked it was noted by the staff there when she was seen for medical treatment.

Thank you especially from Mrs. Evelyn Rasco, who has felt a tremendous burden relieved by just being able to know that her daughter is not seriously injured, though still in unjust captivity.

Forward ever!

Free Jamie and Gladys Scott ~ TruthSeeker

Jamie and Gladys Scott have been wrongfully convicted for armed robbery and received double life sentences each. No one was murdered or taken to the hospital during this robbery, no one was even injured. The transcripts state that less than 12 dollars was stolen. Witnesses confessed during the trial, that the sheriff coerced and threatened them to lie on the Scott Sisters. That testimony was obviously not taken into consideration. They have been in prison now for 14 years.

The transcripts state that one witness ( a teenager) testified that the sheriff told him he would be sent to Parchman (the notorious Mississippi Prison), to be made out of a woman (raped by men) if he did not lie on the Scott Sisters. He later wrote an affidavit swearing that Jamie and Gladys had absolutely nothing to do with this robbery. There exists, several affidavits which state that The Scott Sisters had nothing to do with this crime. The witnesses received very short sentences in this crime while Jamie and Gladys have completed 14 years of a double life sentence.

Free Jamie and Gladys Scott ~ TruthSeeker

http://www.freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

URGENT UPDATE - JAMIE SCOTT MOVED TO NEW BLDG

9/1/09 -- UPDATE: JAMIE SCOTT has been moved to a new bldg. and placed under even stricter supervision than before, she is not permitted to go anywhere at all, not even church. The Scott Sisters' greatest fear is being separated and the worry right now is that the Deputy Warden is setting the situation up to send Jamie to another prison. We need an attorney who works in the civil rights area to look into what's happening to Jamie right now and your help is urgently needed in getting the word out!

We also continue to need your urgent support, please make those calls and send in your letters today and repost the action alert internet-wide!!

SAMPLE TEXT

Superintendent Margaret Bingham

Central Mississippi Corrections Facility

P.O. Box 88550

Pearl, Mississippi 39208

Dear Superintendent Bingham:

I am writing to urge you to investigate reports of prison guard harassment and intimidation of Jamie Scott #19197 and Gladys Scott #19142 at your facility. Jamie Scott was recently given a charge for which she is not guilty and was thrown into the "hole" for 23 days for the first time in 14 years of incarceration. In addition, Jamie's privileges to attend school, work, and conduct research in the law library have been stripped away.

I am extremely concerned because Jamie is now very depressed and both women have expressed feelings of helplessness at being targeted and threatened by staff.

Please thoroughly investigate what is happening to these women in that facility before they suffer any further, many people are closely following what happens with them worldwide and are very concerned that they not be abused or threatened in any way and that Jamie's privileges be restored.

Respectfully,

(Your Name)

-----------------------------

PLEASE WIDELY FORWARD THE ACTION ALERT, WE NEED TO MAKE A LOUD NOISE TO BE HEARD!!

Contact: Mrs. Evelyn Rasco - rqueenbee2222@yahoo.com

Justice for Robert Jacob Salas

The 2009 Felony Conviction of Detective Anthony Razo Questions his Moral Turpitude and Demands an Audit and Investigation of All His Arrests Leading to Convictions Throughout His Career

For Your Consideration:

In light of the recent news regarding now ex-Detective Anthony Razo, this letter requests an investigation of any convictions obtained by Razo’s arrest reports of his trial testimony. Razo recently pled guilty to one count of Insurance Fraud in order to dismiss his remaining four charges of unlawful false police reports and . Razo swore an oath to serve and protect the citizens of Los Angeles. Razo’s behavior is outrageous and severely questions his moral turpitude enough to, at the very least, warrant further investigation into his past conduct. In particular, this letter requests further investigation of the arrest and conviction of Robert Jacob Salas-CDC # K84625 in 2000. Razo investigated the homicide of which Salas was convicted between 1997 and 2000 and even testified at Salas’ trial. Evidence exists that Razo and other officers influenced the testimony of witnesses to implicate Salas in the homicide. Without the testimony of these few witnesses, the Government‘s case would have collapsed and Salas, an innocent man, would not be in prison. Help us return Robert Salas back to his family where he is needed by demanding a full review of any cases involving this morally corrupt officer. The review should be made by an independent body with prosecutorial discretion and with the full capability and resources such as the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, the State Attorney General’s Office and the United States Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General. How many other falsely accused and convicted people are in prison today due to the reprehensible actions of this one criminal law enforcement officer? He is not worthy of the trust symbolized by the oath taken to uphold the law and by his badge. That he has voluntarily resigned will not cure the injustice done to Robert Jacob Salas and all similarly situated falsely convicted people currently in prison.


The Senate Select Community Committee on California’s Correctional System

( http://www.ssccccs.org )



Peace & Blessings

Please Write, Call and Or E-mail in Support of Jamie Scott

Dear Supporters:
We are in need of your urgent assistance. Because of the continuous exposure that this case has received Jamie Scott #19197 is being constantly harassed by guards and was placed in the “hole” for 23 days. Jamie is now very depressed and on medication which is not a good sign at all. Our personal feelings are that she was set up by guards, lied on and thrown in the “hole” because of her continuous strength and determination to fight for freedom.
In addition, her privileges to attend school, work and conduct research in the law library have been stripped away. Please assist us in contacting the following persons, let them know that the public is watching this case and ask for a thorough investigation into the lies which have caused Jamie Scott #19197 to be harassed, stripped of privileges and thrown into the “hole”

Please call and e-mail the Superintendent of Prisons, The Commissioner of Prisons and the assistant Commissioner, please also cc this e-mail address on the e-mail. (freethescottsisters@gmail.com) so that there are records of your contacts.

Please inform them that the public is watching this case and the great injustice hurled at these innocent ladies.

Please call and write:
Margaret Bingham
Superintendent of CMCF – Central Mississippi Correctional Facitily
P. O. Box 88550 – 3794 Hwy 468 - Pearl, MS 39208
Phone: (601) 932-2880
E-Mail - MBingham@mdoc.state.ms.us

Christopher Epps: Commissioner of Prisons for the State of Mississippi
601-359-5600
CEPPS@mdoc.state.ms.us
723 North President Street
Jackson, MS 39202

Emmit Sparkman – Deputy Commissioner
esparkman@mdoc.state.ms.us

Call:
Governor Haley Barbour
1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150,

Visit WrongfulConvictions at: http://wrongfulconvictions.ning.com

Petition For The Scott Sisters

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2009

Action Committee For Women In Prison - Sponsors Petition For The Scott Sisters

Dear Supporters:

Please assist us in the campaign to freedom for the Scott Sisters by writing US Attorney General Eric Holder. Mr. Holder's office has not responded to our formal complaint(s) and the Civil Rights Division has responded to Mrs. Rasco saying that they cannot assist because the case has passed the statutory limits/deadline of 5 years. Now, this is the untruth. Mrs. Rasco started writing the Civil Rights Division 14 years ago.

Office of the Attorney General - 202-353-1555

Please log into ACWIP and sign this petition.

http://www.change.org/acwip/actions/view/free_the_scott_sisters

POSTED BY NANCY

SF Bayview National Black News Paper

July 8, 2009

Jamie and Gladys Scott: Wrongfully convicted
by Lenore J. Daniels, Ph.D.
Sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott have served 14 years of double life sentences for a robbery of no more than $11 that they did not commit. Their prosecution was in retaliation for their father’s refusal to pay off the sheriff.
“As the social order continues, it devises other ideals of social danger, among them women. In the United States today, there are more than 90,000 women in prisons. Of that number, over 80 percent are mothers, who have left more than 167,000 children behind, living in a tenuous freedom.” – Mumia Abu Jamal, “Jailhouse Lawyers”
In Chicago, James “Hawk” Rasco decides its time to return home, to his native soil – Mississippi. Now, he was returning to Scott County with his family. Rasco’s nephew ran a nightclub – in dry Scott County. The nephew, along with other Black nightclub owners, paid the sheriff in order to sell alcohol. The sheriff was Glenn Warren, otherwise known as the “High White Sheriff.”

Some things do change but only slightly. Years later, an FBI investigation landed Sheriff Warren in a courtroom and ultimately in prison. Rasco’s nephew ends up turning state’s evidence against “High White Sheriff.” James Rasco buys the nightclub after the nephew enters the witness protection program.
And sometimes things tragically remain the same. Enter Deputy Sheriff Marvin Williams – “Black!” Sheriff Williams is angry. He believes Rasco, the new owner of the nightclub, should continue business as usual. Show me the money! James Rasco refuses.
And Williams tells Rasco that he will get him! “I will get you one way or the other, even through your daughters!” is his message.
We have to remember that Frantz Fanon tells us there’s the violence of the perpetrators and there’s the violence of resisters. The violence of the former disrupts human potential while the latter disrupts tyranny motivated by hate. Who was Marvin Williams really? In this narrative, what does he represent?

Time passes.

The Scott sisters stop by a local store. It is Dec. 23, 1993. Jamie, 22, and Gladys, 19, two young mothers, have run out of heating fuel. They drive to the local store in town. But when they exit the store, the car will not start up!
The women decide to leave the car and begin walking home when they hear voices. There are two Black men, cousins, in their 20s, known as the Duckworth men. Gladys recognizes one of them from the chicken plant where she and Jamie work. The Duckworth cousins offer to take the women home. Jamie, however, pays the men $10.
But the ride home is far from pleasant. According to Jamie, one of the men begins touching her. The women exit the car and started walking home. Again, Jamie and Gladys hear a commotion behind them, but they don’t stop.
Jamie and Gladys finally arrive home. Soon, three young men, two brothers and a cousin, known as the Patrick Men, knock at their door. The Patrick Men, 14, 16 and 18 years old, tell the sisters that the two Duckworth men started a fight with them. That’s it.
It’s Christmas Eve. Morning.

There’s a knock at the Scott sisters’ door. It’s Sheriff Marvin Williams. He’s come to arrest Jamie and Gladys!
Sheriff Marvin Williams has a story to tell the court, the residents of Scott County and the media … But he has to work on it!
First, the sisters are charged with conspiracy to rob the Duckworth men of $9-$11, but Sheriff Williams has a little talk with the Duckworth cousins and the Patrick Men. The “victims” – one with three convictions for DWI – point to the Scott sisters. The Patrick Men – one if not two of them with previous run-ins with the law – threatened by Sheriff Williams with time at Parchman prison, where they would “be made out of women” if they didn’t cooperate and single out the Scott sisters, agreed.

It was the Scott sisters! Now, according to Sheriff Williams, the Scott sisters robbed the older men of $200 – at gunpoint! Armed robbery!
The Patrick Men confessed to the robbery, but why let truth get in the way of a good story!
A gun was never located, and the “stolen” wallet was recovered in the streets, according to an affidavit by a trustee of the jail. The wallet “re-appeared” two days later with a photo ID of the “victim” and $60 dollars! This same trustee also claims that the “armed robbery” never happened. Only later, in affidavits, did the “victims” and the Patrick Men confess to being coerced and threatened by Sheriff Marvin Williams.

Jamie and Gladys Scott's mother, Evelyn Rasco, has been fighting alone for their release and exoneration, their father having died of a heart attack, his heart broken that he could not help his daughters. Now volunteer legal analyst Nancy Lockhart is working with her to spread the word so that the power of the people can free the sisters.
But this is a narrative of violence, of vengeance and not of justice.
Family-hired lawyers advised Jamie and Gladys not to testify, and there were several potential witnesses to the character and innocence of the Scott sisters. But only one will do or not! Five witnesses in court told conflicting stories, but all declared that Jamie and Gladys are innocent.

And the judge? Judge Marcus Gordon has a bit of a history, American history. In 1964, three civil rights workers, Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, were found dead. Edgar Ray Killens was found guilty of the murder of these three men – in 2005! Guess who was the judge? Killens, an old KKK organizer, was charged with three counts of manslaughter – not murder – and sentenced to 20 years in prison for each count.
But why bother about this history!

Sheriff Williams has his revenge. The jury deliberates for 36 minutes and the verdict: guilty! Jamie and Gladys both received double life sentences! And the sisters do not possess any criminal record!
Narratives of violence ensnarl people of color and effectively disrupt the lives as well as the well being of women and children.
Five children have grown up without the care and attention of their mothers for the last 14 years. One sister gave birth in prison!
In those 14 years, James Rasco dies of a heart attack. Both Sheriffs Warren and Williams are also dead.
And these Black women? Their safety depends on their silence! They linger in fear.
How many Black women, Black mothers, innocent, linger behind bars in the United States? How many have stories that are invisible, absent from the discourse on incarceration and injustice?

Angela Davis writes, Mumia Abu Jamal recalls, that once communism was no longer “the quintessential enemy” in the U.S., it was replaced “by ideological constructions of crime, drugs, immigration and welfare.” Of course, she writes, “The enemy within is far more dangerous than the enemy without, and a Black enemy within is the most dangerous of all.”
Can you imagine Jamie and Gladys as white women framed by a Black or a white sheriff?

Evelyn Rasco has been fighting for her daughters’ release the last 14 years. Rasco lost her husband and an older daughter who died of congenital heart failure in 2001. This daughter left behind a 5-year-old child. In these last 14 years, Rasco has tried to be the grandmother and the mother of 10 children – including grandchildren of Jamie and Gladys – while sustaining the battle to free her two remaining daughters from prison.
Eleven of those 14 years, Rasco wrote letters to Operation Push / Rainbow Coalition. No response. She writes to Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. asking him to submit a letter to Push / Rainbow. The congressman submits this letter to Nancy Lockhart at Push / Rainbow. Lockhart, working on a masters degree in jurisprudence at Loyola University Chicago at the time, contacted Evelyn Rasco.

Lockhart discovers that Rasco not only wrote letters to Operation Push / Rainbow Coalition without ever receiving a response, but in 1998 and 1999, Jamie and Gladys Scott appealed to the Innocence Project in Mississippi and in New Orleans.
No response.

Jamie and Gladys Scott's children and grandchildren have been in the care of their mother, Evelyn Rasco, all these years. It is way past time to reunite these mothers with their children.
Lockhart contacted the Innocence Project to ask why the organization refuses to respond to the Scotts.
No response.
The ACLU refuses to respond to the case.

No longer with Operation Push / Rainbow Coalition, Nancy Lockhart has dedicated her full attention to the Scott sisters’ case. As a volunteer legal analyst for the Committee to Free the Scott Sisters, Lockhart has worked on the Scott sisters’ case without financial resources for the last four years. For Lockhart, the case represents a wrongful conviction.
Rasco and Lockhart have both written to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. And only recently did Rasco receive a response!
Here’s the response from Steven Harrell, Paralegal Specialist, Criminal section – PHB, 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20530:

“Dear Ms. Rasco:

“This is in response to your letter post marked Feb. 13, 2009, in which you allege that Jamie and Gladys Scott were wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in 1994. You further allege that, in order to obtain this conviction, local law enforcement officers intimidated a witness. We apologize for our delay in responding.
“The Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division is responsible for enforcing federal criminal civil rights statutes. Much of our enforcement activity relates to the investigation and prosecution of deprivations of civil rights under color of law. These matters generally involve allegations of excessive physical force or sexual abuse by law enforcement officers.
“Please note that federal criminal civil rights laws have a five year statute of limitations from the date of the incident. Since the incident in question occurred in 1994, we regret that we are unable to assist you. This is not a judgment on the truth or merit of your complaint; it is simply to inform you that, because the relevant statute of limitations has expired, this office cannot prosecute this case.
“Inasmuch as you feel that Jamie and Gladys Scott were wrongly convicted, you may wish to contact The Innocence Project, a national organization dedicated to the exoneration of the wrongly convicted. You may contact the Innocence Project by sending correspondence to info@innocenceproject.org

“Sincerely,

“Mark J. Kappelhoff, Section Chief, Criminal Section, Civil Rights Division, by Steven Harrell, Paralegal Specialist, Criminal Section”

“Now this is untrue, as Mrs. Rasco started writing the Civil Rights Division 14 years ago,” Lockhart says.
Mrs. Rasco initially started writing the Justice Department in 1994. She has not passed any statutory limits. The response that she has received is an untruth. She has written many times and the previous responses have been, “Your information will be forwarded to the correct department.” She has written the Criminal Division of the Civil Rights Division as well.
Lockhart also contacted Attorney General Eric Holder, and as of the writing of this article, she has not received a response.
She also sent a letter to President Barack Obama. No response.

In October 2008, Nancy Lockhart hears Rev. Al Sharpton’s voice on the radio. She calls in and tells him the Scott sisters’ story. Sharpton says, “That sounds like Troy Davis.” Lockhart reminded him that situation with the Scott Sisters is different. Davis was on Death Row. “Let me give you to my assistant so we can get in touch with you,” Sharpton says. The “assistant” is someone from a consultant firm. Someone will contact her soon.

So Lockhart waits for a call from the National Action Network (NAN). Time passes. Again, Lockhart calls NAN. She is told to contact a Mrs. Davis, and she is told to call at 10 a.m. the next day. “I called every day for two weeks at 10 a.m.” Lockhart sends information to Mrs. Davis, but she never hears from Mrs. Davis again. Months pass. Finally, in April 2009, Lockhart receives a call from NAN or rather the consultant firm, informing her that there is a chapter in Louisiana. Lockhart is given a couple of numbers call.
But Lockhart has to call NAN again. The numbers are useless. “One was a fax number and the other was a disconnected number,” recalls Lockhart. The consultant tells Lockhart that there are other chapters. Which is closest to Mississippi – Savannah, Georgia, or Atlanta, Georgia, Mrs. Davis asks?

Do I need to say that, in the end, Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network are missing in action!
But are we? You do not have to remain silent!

Lockhart: The case of the Scott Sisters was featured along with other important information regarding the Mississippi wrongfully convicted on the May 22, 2009, One Black Man’s View radio program! Just scroll down to “Event Description,” highlight the first item for May 22, 2009, and click the second button on the left to play and listen. So please visit http://blacktalkradio.ning.com/events/one-black-mans-view-5222009?rsvpConfirm=1 and please visit http://www.blogtalkradio.com/justiceforall/2009/04/16/Scott-Sisters-Sentenced-to-Double-Life-No-One-Died-or-Was-Hospitalized and share so that others can understand fully what this case is about!
Next, Nancy Lockhart has provided a sample letter to be sent to Attorney General Eric Holder:

Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

The Honorable Attorney General Holder:

I am writing to request that you investigate the case of Jamie and Gladys Scott. The Scott Sisters were given double life sentences each in October of 1994 for armed robbery in the state of Mississippi. No one was injured or murdered. One witness states that about 11 dollars was netted in the armed robbery. All witnesses and victims of this crime have testified that the Scott Sisters were not involved in the robbery. Witnesses testified that they were coerced and threatened to lie on the Scott Sisters.

A 14-year-old witness testified that he signed a statement which was prepared for him before he entered Deputy Sheriff Marvin Williams’ office. This statement was signed by the 14-year-old without an attorney present. He was told that he would be released from the local jail the next morning if he signed it. He was not released.

This is an egregious wrongful conviction and the Scott Sisters have suffered now 14 years and eight months of double life sentences.

Jamie and Gladys Scott are housed in Pearl, Mississippi. Their ID numbers are Jamie Scott #19197 and Gladys Scott # 19142.

Sincerely,

(Your Name)

Finally, to discuss strategies to organize for the release of Jamie and Gladys Scott, to sign the petition, and to donate to the Committee to Free the Scott Sisters, contact Nancy R. Lockhart, Volunteer Legal Analyst, Committee to Free the Scott Sisters, P.O. Box 389, Green Pond, SC 29446, (641) 715-3900, ext. 99222, FreeTheScottSisters@gmail.com. Read updates at http://www.freethescottsisters.com and http://www.freejamieandgladyscott.blogspot.com/ and sign the petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Free-Jamie-Gladys/index.html.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Lenore Jean Daniels, Ph.D., has been a writer for over 30 years of commentary, resistance criticism and cultural theory, and short stories with a Marxist sensibility to the impact of cultural narrative violence and its antithesis, resistance narratives. With entrenched dedication to justice and equality, she has served as a coordinator of student and community resistance projects that encourage the Black Feminist idea of an equalitarian community and facilitator of student-teacher communities behind the walls of academia for the last 20 years. Dr. Daniels holds a PhD in Modern American Literatures, with a specialty in Cultural Theory (race, gender, class narratives) from Loyola University, Chicago. Contact Dr. Daniels through Black Commentator.

Free Jamie and Gladys Scott

Click poster to enlarge and read

The Poor Are Enslaved In American Prisons

The Poor Are Enslaved In American Prisons

by Nancy Lockhart, M.J. / January 1st, 2009

America turns its head to those who are incarcerated, especially those considered as brutal and thoughtless. The average American believes that the justice system is perfect and would never incarcerate those who are innocent. This line of logic is grossly inconsistent with reality, as thousands of formerly incarcerated inmates have been freed by DNA-evidence only. Our justice system is failing day by day, minute by minute. One wrongful conviction is one-too-many, and numbers are escalating well into the tens of thousands. Adequate legal representation is available to those who are able to pay; those who cannot, however, suffer. Consequently, inadequate legal representation mostly leads to an inevitable unjust verdict.

As a legal analyst, I’ve observed the legal processes in depth over the years, and watched those with money, resources and networks receive justice within a system allegedly designed to serve all. I’ve observed the poor and unknowledgeable suffer, as finances, resources, and networks are very limited or void!

It is our right under the Constitution to petition our courts for justice. What does this say for a Nation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — Inalienable Rights?

Slavery Is Alive and Flourishing In America

Poor people are enslaved in America’s Prison Industrial Complex. Indigent legal representation unfolds as inexperienced, underpaid and overworked lawyers provide inadequate representation to the poor – resulting in wrongful convictions; thus, enslavement to the prison industrial complex increases. The use of felonious, unethical, and often, illiterate witnesses is an increasing vehicle for wrongful convictions. The financially disempowered are the burden barriers for society’s ills, but those with money and corporate networks never experience this enslavement.

As the poor suffer, prosecutors and law enforcement officers are becoming even more corrupt in their policies. America incarcerates more individuals, especially minorities, than any other nation in the world. Wrongful convictions are on the rise and corruption is escalating. Slavery is alive and flourishing in America. In my years of service to the community, I’ve come across two distinct cases that yield inconsistencies from the onset.

The case of Ali Khalid Abdullah is one of them. Ali Khalid Abdullah was released from prison on August 1, 2008 and has had multitudes of problems dealing with a new society, ever since. Ali describes his experience as “being freed from Prison but not free.” Ali served 19 years in prison for taking action against a drug dealer who had molested an 11-year old. How does a government release prisoners with no assistance, financial or social, and expect positive results? My opinion is, they do not. They expect and hope for recidivism as it is the key to maintaining The Prison Industrial Complex.

The other case is that of two sisters, Jamie and Gladys Scott. In 1994, Jamie and Gladys Scott were wrongfully convicted in the state of Mississippi. A corrupt sheriff used coercion, threats, and harassment to convict the Scott Sisters of armed robbery. The case of the Scott sisters is an intriguing one, with transcripts stating that perhaps 9, 10, or 11 dollars was stolen, at most. It’s important to note that no one was murdered or injured. One of the state’s witnesses, a 14 year old, testified that he did not have an attorney present when signing a statement prepared by the sheriff. Jamie and Gladys Scott have served 14 years of double-life sentences, thus far. That’s Double Life Each! The absurdity of their sentencing reaches new heights with the reality that neither of the Scott sisters had prior convictions. Sadly, the cases of Mr. Abdullah and the Scott sisters are becoming an accepted phenomenon in our society.

The Prison Industrial Complex is the 21st century slave master in the minority community, and unless we are made aware and trained to take action, the enslavement will continue to fester more and more rapidly in years to come.

Don’t Wait Until It Happens To You!

For more review the case of Jamie & Gladys Scott

Nancy Lockhart, is a legal representative and community organizer, living in South Carolina. She has worked tirelessly - for no pay - on the case of two Black females illegally charged and sentenced to double life. She can be reached at: nancylockhart@gmail.com. Read other articles by Nancy, or visit Nancy's website.

This article was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 12:15pm and is filed under Anti-slavery, Prisons, Racism.

Black Kids Kicked Out Of Philly Pool For “Changing Its Complexion”

From NBC Philadelphia
More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.
“I heard this lady, she was like, ‘Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?’ She’s like, ‘I’m scared they might do something to my child,’” said camper Dymire Baylor.
The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers’ first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.
“When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool,” Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. “The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.”
The next day the club told the camp director that the camp’s membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.
“I said, ‘The parents don’t want the refund. They want a place for their children to swim,’” camp director Aetha Wright said.

Judge Orders Release of Guantanamo Prisoner After Seven Years, Saying Government Position “Defies Common Sense”

A federal judge has ordered the release of another prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay, thirty-year-old Syrian national Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko. In the year 2000, al-Janko was tortured by al-Qaeda, who accused him of being a Western spy, and he was imprisoned by the Taliban for eighteen months. He was then captured by the United States in 2002 and spent the next seven years in Guantanamo. On Monday, District Court Judge Richard Leon rejected the government’s position that al-Janko had once been a part of al-Qaeda, saying it “defies common sense.” We speak with British journalist Andy Worthington,

Brisenia Flores

Brisenia, who was nine at the time, was murdered in her home by armed members of a right-wing paramilitary group. Right-wing militias, deaths squads and other such paramilitary organizations were relatively common in Latin America during the tumultuous 1980s, and their horrendous crimes and history of cruel human rights abuses are well known and have been extensively documented by human rights groups. What makes Brisenia's murder different isn't just that it ocurred more recently, but rather that it ocurred on American soil, and that the violent paramilitary organization that murdered her while she recoiled and wept, pleading for her life, was an American terrorist organization known as the Minutemen American Defense organization, a group whose founder, Shawna Forde, has well established ties to larger and better known anti-immigrant groups such as the Minutemen and FAIR, the Federation For American Immigration Reform (Forde once served as a spokesperson for FAIR).

It was no random act of violence. Shawna Forde, the suspected mastermind of the home invasion robbery in which Brisenia and her father Raul were killed, is the leader of the vigilante group Minutemen American Defense and has been tied to the national Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Both groups have been labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “hate groups” and have a long record of routinely dehumanizing immigrants and vilifying Latinos.

The problem is bigger than FAIR or any other group. Some members of Congress have been legitimizing these organizations for years—inviting them to testify as “experts”—while the rhetoric coming from these groups has given rise to violence against Latinos, like the killing of Brisenia and Raul Flores. That needs to end now.

I’ve joined Presente.org in demanding that Congress renounce FAIR, the Minutemen, and other anti-immigrant hate groups. Please click below to join me, and ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://presente.org/ref/20856/campaigns/flores

FAIR and the Minutemen groups are regularly quoted in the mainstream media—FAIR more than 500 times in 2008—giving them a megaphone to broadcast their hateful rhetoric: like FAIR executive director Dan Stein’s claim that “illegal aliens are more prone to criminal activity than the rest of the population,” or Minutemen co-founder Jim Gilchrist’s assertion that it is “okay to say ‘rapist,’ ‘robber’ and ‘murderer’” when describing “illegal aliens.”

As vile as their rhetoric is, even more disturbing is when our elected representatives applaud their efforts and parrot their messages. Take Ranking Republican Congressman on the House Immigration Sub-Committee, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a long-time friend of extremist groups, who wrote that a day without immigrants in America would mean “the lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day.” Those debunked claims were then repeated hundreds of times by FAIR and others, creating an echo chamber of racism and hate.

Or take Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has likened immigrants to terrorists and child molesters, as well as taking money from a group with white-supremacist ties.

Elected leaders like these, together with their allies in extremist anti-immigrant groups, create a climate of hatred that leads to violence – as evidenced by a recent string of hate-motivated killings across the country .

Enough is enough. Please join me in holding members of Congress accountable by demanding they stop legitimizing FAIR and the Minutemen. It takes only a moment:

http://presente.org/ref/20856/campaigns/flores

The American political scene has recently been dominated by a dark and dangerous undercurrent of nativist, anti-immigrant demagoguery served up by irresposible propagandists such as CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox New's Bill O'Reilly and race-baiting politicians such as U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo among many, many others.

Do You know Judge Sotomayor?

President Obama hit a home run with his nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court -- and not just because she's the "woman who saved baseball" by ending the strike in 1995, nor simply because she would be the first Latina ever to serve on the high court.

It was a home run because in her three-decade career as a prosecutor, judge, private litigator and law professor, she has time and again earned bipartisan praise as one of America's finest legal minds. And it was the right choice because Judge Sotomayor -- herself born and raised in a South Bronx housing project -- has summed up the American dream in her own incredible story and never once forgotten how the law affects our daily lives.

Now her historic nomination goes to the Senate. I know that process well, and I can tell you that the debate of the coming weeks and months will be shaped by the public response in the next few hours and days. It's critical that the Senate and the public clearly see where the American people stand.

I've followed Judge Sotomayor's remarkable journey for years. I voted for her when President George H.W. Bush nominated her for the District Court in 1992, and I was proud to vote for her again when President Bill Clinton nominated her for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 1998.

Born to a Puerto Rican family, Sotomayor grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx. She was an avid reader from an early age, and was first inspired to pursue a legal career by the Nancy Drew mystery novels. Driven by her mother's belief in the power of education and her own relentless work ethic, she excelled in school. She won a scholarship to Princeton University, graduated summa cum laude, and then went on to attend Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the prestigious Yale Law Journal.

Like President Obama, Sotomayor passed up many more lucrative opportunities after law school to put her degree to work for the public good. She served as an Assistant District Attorney in New York, tackling some of the hardest cases facing the city, including robberies, assaults, murders, police brutality, and child pornography. Her growing reputation for fearlessness and legal brilliance prompted her first nomination to the federal bench, and she's only continued to soar.

If confirmed, she would start with more federal judicial experience than any Justice in a century, more overall judicial experience than any Justice in 70 years, and replace David Souter as the only Justice with firsthand experience as a trial judge. She has participated in over 3,000 panel decisions and authored roughly 400 opinions, expertly handling difficult issues of constitutional law, complicated procedural matters, and lawsuits involving complex business organizations.

In her years on the bench, Judge Sotomayor has earned acclaim from legal scholars and experts from both sides of the aisle for her intellectual toughness, her probing oral questioning, and her ability to issue decisions that hold both factual details and legal doctrines in equal measure. And she's never failed to apply a steady, common-sense analysis of how the law touches our daily lives.

Her story is incredible. Her qualifications are undeniable. And her judgment will serve us all well on the highest court in the land.

None Of Us Are Free

Solomon Burke _ "None Of Us Are FrSolomon Burke




Ron's American World

Supreme Court Justice David Souter Will Retire!

By JESS BRAVIN and EVAN PEREZ
WASHINGTON --
Supreme Court Justice David Souter has disclosed plans to retire, two congressional aides briefed on the decision said, a move that would create the first vacancy on the high court for President Barack Obama to fill.
Justice Souter, 69 years old, has been a reliable member of the court's liberal wing. President Obama likely to select a candidate young enough to serve for decades, bolstering the court's aging liberal faction.

Justice Souter was a little-known New Hampshire jurist when Republican President George H.W. Bush elevated him to the Supreme Court in 1990. Influential New Hampshire Republicans vouched for his credentials, but he soon proved a disappointment to conservatives hungry for a reversal of precedents they opposed.

Joining with Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy -- moderates appointed by President Ronald Reagan -- Justice Souter voted to limit, rather than overturn, Roe v. Wade, the 1973 opinion that recognized abortion rights. Justice Souter was no liberal trailblazer, like the jurist he succeeded, William Brennan. But as the court's center shifted to the right after Justice Thurgood Marshall's 1991 retirement, Justice Souter increasingly found himself on the court's left wing.

In 1992, just two years into his term, Justice Souter provided the fifth vote in a key abortion case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that served notice the court wasn't ready to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision upholding a woman's right to have an abortion.

Justice Souter was again in the majority in a 5-4 decision in 2003 when the high court endorsed the use of race in choosing students for America's top universities and the concept of racial diversity as a compelling national interest.

In recent years, he has almost invariably aligned with Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer on the defining issues, including the executive powers asserted by former President George W. Bush, the constitutionality of executing criminals for crimes short of murder, and the extent government can consider race when seeking to promote diversity.

A Souter retirement comes as little surprise. While justices Stevens, 89, and Ginsburg, 76, are older, both have said they enjoy the work and have more to contribute to the bench. Justice Ginsburg had an operation earlier this year to remove a cancerous tumor from her pancreas, but the court has said the disease was caught early and the surgery was successful.

Justice Souter has complained about life in Washington and even about aspects of the court's work, such as the numbingly technical cases involving applications of pension or benefits law. Earlier this year, he told friends he planned to retire at the end of the present term if Justices Stevens and Ginsburg decided to remain on the court for at least another term. Unlike his fellow justices, he didn't hire law clerks for the term that begins in October, and some members of his staff were inquiring about finding other jobs.

"I don't think it is a big surprise," said Bill Glahn, who once worked for Justice Souter in the New Hampshire attorney general's office and has remained friends with him since. "He's almost 70 years old. At some point, you make a choice as whether you're going to be there forever or whether you want to retire and do some of the other things you want to do, whether it's taking a walk in the morning or reading some books."
To have a new justice in place by the beginning of the court's term in October would mean conducting a Senate confirmation process. Democrats -- along with two independents -- have 59 votes in the Senate and a 60th possibly on the way. They are in a good position to push through any nomination.

The Obama administration hasn't publicly named any choices to fill a high-court vacancy. But possible candidates could include Kathleen Sullivan, 53, a professor and former dean of Stanford Law School; Georgia Chief Justice Leah

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE ONES MOST LIKELY TO BE CHOSEN..., ACCORDING TO RUMORS! WHO DO THINK BE THE NEXT CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SUPREME COURT? I ONLY HAVE THE TOP THREE FEATURED IN VIDEO:

Who will it be? U.S.Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor?(2nd on bottom row)


Will it be Judge Leah Ward Sears? (4th on bottom row)


Will it be Kathleen Sullivan?(3rd on bottom row)

Hey, You Gotta Check your Reciepts!

Check out this video!