Nobel laureates & interfaith leaders appeal for clemency of long-imprisoned elder David Gilbert

Desmond Tutu and the families of Gandhi and King urgently call on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant clemency to the 76-year-old activist, imprisoned for nearly four decades. More here.

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David Gilbert #83-A-6158
Shawangunk Correctional Facility
Post Office Box 700
Wallkill, NY 12589

Bio:

David Gilbert, a longtime anti-racist and anti-imperialist, first became active in the Civil Rights movement in 1961. In 1965, he started the Vietnam Committee at Columbia University; in 1967 he co-authored the first Students for a Democratic Society pamphlet naming the system “imperialism”; and he was active in the Columbia strike of 1968.

He went on to spend a total of 10 years underground, building a clandestine resistance. David has been imprisoned in New York State since 10/20/81, when a unit of the Black Liberation Army along with allied white revolutionaries tried to get funds for the struggle by robbing a Brinks truck. This resulted in a shoot-out in which a Brinks guard and two cop were killed.

David is serving a sentence of 75 years (minimum) to life under New York State’s “felony murder” law, whereby all participants in a robbery, even if they are unarmed and non-shooters, are equally responsible for all deaths that occur. While in prison, David has been a pioneer for peer education on AIDS and has continued to write and advocate against oppression. He’s been involved with the annual Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar since 2001 and has written multiple books including:

Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond
Looking at the U.S. White Working Class Historically
Our Commitment is to Our Communities
No Surrender: Writings From An Anti-Imperialist Political Prisoner