Oral Arguments in Sundiata Acoli’s Appeal Case Can Now be Viewed

If you missed the tremendous oral arguments in Sundiata Acoli’s appeal in NJ Supreme Court on Jan, 31. 2022, you can watch them at https://www.njcourts.gov/public/webcast_archive.html

For more information and what you can do to help, please check out the Bring Sundiata Home Freedom Campaign’s webpage and also follow on social media: https://sundiataacolifc.org/

Political Prisoner Dan Baker now has an online book wish list.

Order books at https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1L3A3PSLOYAY4?ref_=wl_share

Daniel Baker #25765-509
FCI Memphis
P.O. Box 34550
Memphis, TN 38184

Dan Baker is a social justice activist and former army vet. He went AWOL instead of fighting in Iraq, and then took his training to help defend Rojava with the International Freedom Battalion and was featured on VICE. Dan was also active during the George Floyd Rebellion and took part in CHAZ.



He was arrested on January 15th, 2021 after the FBI compiled social media posts related to Trump supporters’ actions on inauguration day to build a criminal case against him. Dan was facing up to 10 years for two counts of transmitting a communication in interstate commerce containing a threat to kidnap or injure. He was sentenced to 44 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release. His legal team is appealing the verdict.

Feb. 19, 2022: 69th Birthday Celebration for Black Panther Political Prisoner Kamau Sadiki

Saturday, February 19, 2022
Black Panther Political Prisoner Kamau Sadiki 69th Birthday Celebration
7 to 9 p.m. EST

Featuring an inspirational evening of speakers, art, music, performances & information.

The Family, Friends & Comrades of Veteran Black Panther Political Prisoner Kamau Sadiki

Invite You to Join:

Dhoruba Bin Wahad ~ Naima Bandele ~ Russell Shoatz III ~ Ashanti Omowale
dequi kioni-sadiki ~ Spiritchild ~ Rev. Dorlimar Lebrón ~ Zayid Muhammad
YahNé Ndgo ~ Sophia Dawson ~ Sadiki “Bro. Shep” Olugbala and
many more Black/New Afrikan Revolutionaries & Anti-Imperialist Allies!

Organized by The International Campaign to Free Kamau Sadiki NOW!

RSVP on Eventbrite. Donations are needed and welcomed:
https://bit.ly/freekamausadiki69

For information:
[email protected] • https://linktr.ee/freekamausadiki

 

NYCABC Political Prisoner updates 2.8.22

Here’s the latest compilation of every other week updates:
https://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/updates-8-feb-2022.pdf

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support
crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of
war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner,
please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to
have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies
sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady
contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

NYC ABC Letter Writing for Daniel Hale

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: Tuesday, February 8th, 2022
WHERE: Your home!
COST: Free

Daniel Hale, with Leila the cat
photo courtesy of standwithdanielhale.org

Hey everyone, it’s that time of the month again! NYC ABC and Page One Collective are back to remind all of you wonderful, exhausted, burnt out people that there are political prisoners! They need our support and friendship! An easy way to provide that is to write letters!

This week we encourage everyone to write to Daniel HaleDaniel Hale is a whistleblower who was indicted for allegedly disclosing classified documents about the U.S. military’s assassination program. On March 31, 2021, he pleaded guilty to a single count under the Espionage Act, and on July 27, 2021, Daniel was sentenced to 45 months in prison.

From The Intercept:

Ahead of his sentencing this week, Hale filed an 11-page handwritten letter to the court detailing the motivations behind his actions. In vivid detail, Hale recalled his own experience locating targets for American drone strikes. By some estimates, U.S. drone operations abroad, conducted by both the military and the CIA, have killed between 9,000 and 17,000 people since 2004, including as many as 2,200 children and multiple U.S. citizens. Those estimates, however, undercount the true cost of remote American warfare — as Hale noted in his letter to the court last week, the U.S. military has a practice of labeling all individuals killed in such operations as “enemies killed in action” unless proven otherwise.

Please take the time to write a letter to Daniel Hale (and share a photo of your completed envelopes with us online):

Daniel Hale #26069-075
USP Marion
P.O. Box 1000
Marion, IL 62959

Sundiata Acoli: Oral Arguments in New Jersey Supreme Court

On January 31st, the New Jersey Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the state’s leading parole case, that of 85-year-old Sundiata Acoli. The oral arguments were recorded and will be released at a later date. Click the link below to view our live-tweeting. The Court will decide if the parole board violated the law by denying Sundiata Acoli’s petition for release.
Read the live tweets.

Sundiata has been imprisoned since 1973. Despite being eligible for parole since 1993, the parole board has denied Sundiata’s petition for release eight times; each time claiming that he was a substantial risk to public safety.

The New Jersey Attorney General argued on behalf of the parole board. In addition to the compelling oral argument given by lead counsel, Bruce Afran, persuasive oral arguments were made by counsel representing three of the seven legal teams that filed amicus briefs last fall to support Sundiata’s release. Four of the seven briefs focus on parole board bias, decision irregularities and judicial oversight. It is believed that Sundiata has received the most supporting amicus briefs in the history of New Jersey.

This could be Sundiata’s last chance for freedom after serving nearly 50 years: his health is declining and deteriorating due to early stage dementia, glaucoma and post-COVID-19 complications.

We are calling for community members nationwide, allied organizations, and institutions to support the release of Sundiata Acoli by signing and sharing the petition demanding New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy release him immediately. Our new goal is 25,000! Sign the petition at https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/bring-sundiata-home

Send a Postcard Bring Sundiata Acoli Home! Send a physical postcard to NJ Governor Phil Murphy. It takes less than 2 minutes to fill out the form and WE will send the postcard in the mail. Click the buttons below and share! #BringSundiataHome SEND A POSTCARD


February events for Dr. Mutulu Shakur

In 2 weeks, on the 36th anniversary of his capture, join the #FreeMutuluNow Campaign for our Black Love in Action for Dr. Mutulu Shakur weekend! We are calling on all those who believe in love, justice & human rights to demand his immediate release.

Kick-off the Black Love in Action for Dr. Mutulu Shakur weekend with our virtual rally on Feb. 11th at 7PM EST. We’re inviting our people to educate, agitate & organize to #FreeMutuluNOW!

Register for all events at https://linktr.ee/FreeMutuluNow or directly at http://bit.ly/BLAWEEKEND

Take Action for Leonard Peltier

Elder Native activist Leonard Peltier’s continued unjust imprisonment while positive for COVID-19 is a death sentence. Demand his immediate release NOW!

On Tuesday, Feb. 8, call the White House hotline: 202-456-1111 to demand Leonard Peltier’s immediate transfer to an outside hospital and immediate release!
11-3 Tues-Thurs (EST)
Message: www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Tweet at Biden: https://twitter.com/POTUS • https://twitter.com/joebiden

Sign the national petition calling for Leonard Peltier’s hospitalization and freedom

White House Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki was unable to answer Huffington Post reporter Jennifer Bendery’s question on the White House response to demands that Leonard Peltier be immediately released. Obviously, President Biden is not communicating with her about what action he will take. This is an urgent situation, so we must take action now!

Be sure to contact Jennifer Psaki on Monday, February 7, 2022 to demand Leonard’s immediate release: Email: [email protected]Twitter = @PressSec

Peltier was convicted of aiding and abetting the killing of two FBI agents during a shootout on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975 while a member of the American Indian Movement. He was captured in Canada on Feb. 6, 1976 and illegally extradited to the U.S. based on false affidavits. Leonard has always maintained his innocence and is the longest-held Native American political prisoner in the United States. His lawyer, former federal judge Kevin Sharp, says Peltier’s case was riddled with misconduct, including witness coercion and withholding of exculpatory evidence. Peltier’s health, age and unfair trial make him the perfect candidate for executive clemency. “The legal remedies are no longer available,” says Sharp on Peltier’s case. “Now it’s time for the [Bureau of Prisons] and the president of the United States to fix this and send him home.”

“The big misconception about this is that Leonard Peltier was convicted of shooting two agents. He was not. They had to drop that, because the evidence they had presented that he had shot two agents was false. It was perjury. It was manufactured. So they had to drop that case and come up with a new theory, and that theory was aiding and abetting. And when Leonard talked about not being able to put on his defense, one of the things that Judge Benson said  — when he excluded the evidence related to the misconduct in the reign of terror, was that the FBI is not on trial here. But once he did that, you have to put all of this in context. That’s why Judge Heaney, who was on the 8th Circuit, who heard Leonard’s appeal — and although he upheld the conviction, later came out himself in favor of commuting this sentence — said the federal government has to take responsibility for what happened here. And absolutely, they do. Context matters. But the lack of evidence that this man killed someone also matters. And so it’s time. We’re now 46 years later. We’ve got a 77-year-old man with multiple health issues, and his tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, saying, ‘We will embrace him. Please send him home to us.’ And that’s what I’m asking the president to do: Send him home.”

Organized by (list in formation): NYC Free Peltier • Jericho Movement • ProLibertad Freedom Campaign

Leonard Peltier Tests Positive For COVID-19

The ailing 77-year-old Native American rights activist has been pleading for help in prison and was never given a coronavirus booster shot.
By Jennifer Bendery
01/28/2022
Huffington Post

Leonard Peltier, the ailing 77-year-old Native American rights activist who has been pleading for help from prison amid coronavirus lockdowns and still hasn’t received a booster shot, has tested positive for COVID-19.

“Today, Leonard tested positive for COVID,” Peltier’s attorney Kevin Sharp told HuffPost late Friday. “We are all very concerned, as is Leonard. He wanted people to know that he sends his love and appreciation for the years everyone has fought for him. And should he make it through this, he intends to continue speaking out for Native rights.”ADVERTISEMENT

Peltier began feeling “like shit” on Thursday and had a “rough night” of painful and persistent coughing, Sharp said. “He told me, ‘I hope this is just a bad cold, but I have never had a cold like this before.’”

Peltier has now been placed in quarantine for 10 days.

Peltier has been in prison for 45 years without any evidence that he committed a crime. The FBI and U.S. Attorney Office charged him with the 1975 murders of two FBI agents during a shootout on a Native American reservation ― something he has long said he didn’t do, even when it meant he could have been paroled if he’d said he did. His trial was riddled with misconduct, and even the U.S. attorney who helped put Peltier in prison decades ago is now pleading with President Joe Biden to grant him clemency because, he says, federal officials never had evidence that he committed a crime.

“Enough is enough. It’s time to send Leonard Peltier home to the care of an appropriate medical facility and the love and support of his family on the Turtle Mountain Reservation,” he said. “His unconstitutional conviction should not turn into a de facto death sentence.”

Peltier told HuffPost last week that his prison facility’s prolonged COVID-19 lockdowns and failure to provide him and other inmates with booster shots has left him ― and likely others ― unbearably isolated and preparing for death. He is particularly vulnerable to COVID given his serious health problems, which include diabetes and an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

“I’m in hell,” he told HuffPost. “Left alone and without attention is like a torture chamber for the sick and old.”

Leonard Peltier, 77, meets the criteria for having his prison sentence commuted, says the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Leonard Peltier, 77, meets the criteria for having his prison sentence commuted, says the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, on Wednesday urged Biden to commute Peltier’s sentence and send him home, given his age, illness and time served.ADVERTISEMENT

“I commend your administration’s commitment to righting past wrongs in our criminal justice system,” Schatz wrote to Biden. “In continuing that work as you consider recommendations for individuals to receive clemency, I write to urge you to grant a commutation of Leonard Peltier’s sentence.”

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the former longtime chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the longest-serving member of the Senate, has also called on Biden to send Peltier home.

A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons did not respond to a request for comment earlier Friday on why Peltier had not been transferred to in-home confinement given his age, declining health and time served.

Elder Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier contracts Covid 19 at USP Coleman 1 as BOP fails to follow CDC Covid Guidelines. ILPDC Demands Covid Release for Leonard Peltier

 For IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 29, 2022

For More Information Contact:
Carol Gokee 715-209-4453; or Jean Roach 605-415-3127: Kevin Sharp 615-415-0797

(COLEMAN, FL) On Friday January 28, 2022, Leonard Peltier tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid 19) virus at the United States Penitentiary at Coleman, FL (USP Coleman 1).

Leonard Peltier (Anishinaabe/Dakota) of the American Indian Movement (AIM)  is an internationally known political prisoner whose release has been called for by scores of Congressional representatives, the Dali-Lama, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and hundreds of luminaries as well of millions of people around the globe. Recently Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) the Pro Tem of the United States Senate joined those calls for Presidential Clemency/Commutation for Leonard Peltier.

Leonard Peltier was unjustly convicted in the deaths of two FBI agents in a June 26, 1975, shootout in Oglala, SD between members of the American Indian Movement, defending the Oglala community and the FBI. Peltier’s two co-defendants were acquitted by reason of self-defense. Peltier, who was later extradited from Canada under questionable circumstances was tried separate. Peltier’s trial was replete with prosecutorial misconduct, falsified testimony, fabricated evidence, even the autopsy presented to the jury was done by an examiner who had never seen the bodies of the two agents. The former US Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, James Reynolds, who supervised the post-trial sentencing and appeals admitted they “shaved a few corners” and “we could not prove Leonard Peltier personally committed any crime on the Pine Ridge Reservation” in his letter to US President Joe Biden calling for Peltier’s release.

 Peltier is a 77-year-old inmate with a host of co-morbidities that should, according to CDC Guidelines, have prioritized him for a Covid Booster Shot. CDC guidelines call for booster shots at seven months, yet 11 months after Peltier received his Covid 19 vaccine, he had not received a booster shot. Visitors to USP Coleman 1 have noted the facility is not mandating vaccines for its guards or staff, Guards and staff were seen both without masks and improperly wearing masks, social distancing was neither encouraged nor enforced and booster shots had not, until recently, been available to any inmate at USP Coleman 1. Both the ILPDC and mutual aid organizations offered to donate N-95 masks for every inmate at Coleman were denied.

The United States Department of Justice, through the Attorney General issued guidelines for Covid Release to Home Confinement for inmates who were elderly and or had compromised immune system or Co-morbidities on March 26th and April 3rd, 2020. Leonard Peltier at 77 years old with a host of comorbidities including diabetes, hypertension, heart condition, and an aortic aneurysm undeniably meets those conditions. Furthermore, his home community on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota continues to request his return to his home community.

Now due to the reckless disregard of the United States Bureau of Prisons in failing to follow CDC Guidelines for Correctional and Detention Facilities (Correctional and Detention Facilities | CDC) has caused Mr. Peltier to face a virus that could end his life.

The ILPDC is demanding the United States Bureau of Prisons follow the guidance provided by the US Justice Department and release Leonard Peltier on Home Confinement to the Turtle Mountain Reservation. The ILPDC believes as former US Attorney James Reynolds wrote to US President Joe Biden, enough is enough. Leonard has suffered in prison for 46 years and now due to the inactions of the facility has caught a deadly virus.

The ILPDC Calls upon our family, relatives, friends, and supporters around the world to pray for Leonard’s health but to also take action by demanding their Senator calls upon the Warden at USP Coleman 1 and the Bureau of Prisons to IMMEDIATELY Release Leonard Peltier to home confinement. While he may currently need medical attention there is no question that his relatives at Turtle Mountain will endeavor to care for Leonard Peltier rather than the wanton indifference, he has been shown at USP Coleman as evidenced by his contracting this pandemic disease.

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