http://www.abahlali.org/node/3424

Yesterday all charges against the Kennedy 6 were dropped just over a year after the men were first arrested.

The basic chronology of events is as follows:

The Kennedy 6 were arrested on a clearly trumped up murder charge on 21 March 2007 after a well known criminal died in police custody. While in custody they were assaulted and an attempt was made, by Senior Superintendent Glen Nayager, to force them to chant anti-Abahlali slogans. They refused.

Court: Mumia Deserves New Hearing But Not New Trial
Kathy Matheson

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday said former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal cannot be executed for murdering a Philadelphia police officer without a new penalty hearing.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Abu-Jamal's conviction should stand, but that he should get a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions. If prosecutors don't want to give him a new death penalty hearing, Abu-Jamal would be sentenced automatically to life in prison.

Dear Friends:
This is an update on the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on Pennsylvania’s death row for over a quarter of a century.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia We continue to await the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. I am in contact with the court, and will alert everyone immediately upon the issuance of a ruling. Oral argument was on May 17, 2007, thus people ask why the court is taking so long. This is a highly complex case involving issues of great constitutional significance and a voluminous amount of material. In three decades of successfully defending people in numerous murder cases involving the death penalty, I have not seen one more complicated.

Jeffrey “Free” Luers Sentence Reduced to 10 Years

This morning at 9:00am in Lane County Circuit Court the re-sentencing hearing for Jeffrey Luers took place in front of Judge Billings. This followed an Oregon court of appeals ruling in February 2007 that Luers original sentence of 22 years 8 months by Judge Lyle Velure was illegal, and the appeals court remanded the case back to Lane County Circuit Court for re-sentencing. Following the appeals court decision, negotiations have resulted in the decision today to reduce Luers sentence to 10 years, bringing his release date to late December 2009.

PA Supreme Court Rejects Mumia Abu-Jamal's PCRA Appeal
By Hans Bennett
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=6184

On Tuesday, February 19, in a ruling unrelated to the pending US Third
Circuit Court decision, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected death row
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal of a 2005 ruling by Philadelphia Court
of Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe, which denied Abu-Jamal’s Post Conviction
Relief Act (PCRA) petition, on grounds that it was not “timely.” (See
reports by The Associated Press and Philadelphia Inquirer)

"Bookin' for Daniel": A Marathon Run for Daniel McGowan

A participant in an organized marathon this summer will run its full 26 miles and 385 yards in order to raise funds and show support for eco-defense prisoner Daniel McGowan. All proceeds from this run will go directly to Daniel McGowan's educational fund. This fund will assist with payment for Daniel's master's degree, which he will complete while serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison.

Daniel McGowan is an environmental and social justice activist from New York City. He was arrested in a multi-state raid against the environmental community that revealed itself to be part of a much larger wave of repression known as the "Green Scare." On June 4, 2007 McGowan was sentenced to seven years in prison for charges of conspiracy and arson. These charges relate to two eco-defense actions that occurred in Oregon in 2001. While Daniel took a guilty plea and accepted responsibility for his own actions, he and three other defendants refused to name names as part of their "global resolution" plea deal. During his sentencing, Daniel was given a "terrorism" enhancement to his sentence, based on his involvement in acts of property destruction which hurt no living being. The National Lawyers Guild has decried this sentencing enhancement as an "unnecessary and excessive government tactic to discourage the exercise of free speech."

Some of you may know the runner, Esther of Portland, Oregon's Eberhardt Press, not only from her publishing efforts, but also from her consistent work around the "Operation Backfire" eco-sabotage cases. In a recent blog entry, Esther states her reasons for training for and participating in the marathon, writing: "I want to communicate to Daniel and his family that we who support him are down for the long haul. Today, tomorrow, after 26 miles or seven years we will continue to struggle for the health of our planet and the freedom of all humans, including our comrades behind bars."

For more details about the "Bookin' for Daniel!" run, or to make a pledge to Daniel McGowan's educational fund as sponsorship for this event, please visit: http://bookinfordaniel.eberhardtpress.org/ Every little bit counts!

Background on Daniel McGowan's case and general support information is available at: http://www.supportdaniel.org/

ABC No Rio writes:

BOOKED! Benefit Celebration and Silent Art Auction
For Books Through Bars

New York, June 22, 2007

FRIDAY JUNE 22 at 7:00pm at ABC No Rio

Books Through Bars sends books and reading material to prisoners nationwide. More information about Books Through Bars can be found at www.abcnorio.org/affiliated/btb.html

In BOOKED!, the current exhibition at ABC No Rio, street artists and grafitti writers were asked to re-imagine books. The “books” to be auctioned include works by get2, gaia, celso, anera, viking, klepto, deeker, az star, superk8, infinity, asbestos, c.damage, luna park, Matt Lock, elbow-toe, ceito atv, Suejin Jo, pufferella, matt siren, windowzoo, plasma slugs, royce bannon, Lisa Paolucci, Abby Goodman, Adam Lawrence, Kelly D. Williams, Pamela Matsuda-Dunn, and Stepanie Brody-Lederman.

Bidding will end at 10:00pm

BOOKED! was curated and organized by AnerA and ELC. Work in the auction can be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/betyourlife/

BOOKED! VIEWING HOURS:

Sundays 1:00 - 3:00pm

Wednesdays & Thursdays 5:00 - 7:00pm

ABC No Rio

156 Rivington Street

(between Clinton & Suffolk)

212.254.3697

http://www.abcnorio.org

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Kennedy Road Hunger Strike in Durban, South Africa

Kennedy Road is a shack settlement in Durban South Africa. Two years ago residents blockade a major road beginning a struggle that now includes close to 40 shack settlements across Durban and nearby towns like Pinetown and Pietermaritzburg. The movement of the shack dwellers', Abahlali baseMjondolo, has faced sustained repression from a rampantly criminal local state. Now key activists have been arrested on trumped up murder charges. This follows a similar pattern of repression in Johannesburg with the Landless People's Movement.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

“The Warrior Wind” Newsletter

The long-overdue third issue of “The Warrior Wind,” a newsletter against our society of confinement, is out now. This issue features a new half-page format and an increased page count. It is available as a .pdf file from the following locations:

Version for reading online: http://www.socialwar.net/.pdf%20files/warriorwind3 .pdf
Version for printing out and photocopy distribution: http://www.socialwar.net/.pdf%20files/warriorwind3 print.pdf

These files will eventually also be hosted at Impassioned Insurrection—www.impassionedinsurrection.info. Please feel free to add the files to your own site, too.

The mid-May newsletter’s 28 pages include: “Operation Backfire: Guilty Justice,” a lengthy article providing updates and analysis on the federal eco-sabotage cases in Oregon and Washington; an update on Auburn arrestee Eric McDavid plus a statement from Sacramento Prisoner Support concerning informant Zachary Jenson; an overview of the “San Francisco Eight” case of former Black Panthers facing murder charges based on torture-extracted confessions; an update on critical hearings for death row journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal; other US news shorts relating to Jeff “Free” Luers, the SHAC 7 and others; updates and documents concerning repression in the U.K., Germany, Italy and Belgium; information about “The Warrior Wind” newsletter project itself; and finally an announcement for the June 9 Day of Solidarity with Jeff “Free” Luers.

We continue to encourage participation in this publishing project, not only through making copies and circulating the newsletter, but also by offering us your feedback and writing for future issues.

As repression increases, we believe that it has become more, not less, important for radicals to raise their voices. “The Warrior Wind” newsletter is one small gesture towards broader efforts of resistance, solidarity, and refusal against a shoddy world system.

For a better world,
TWW Editors

Moorish Religious Leader Charges Police Brutality

A press conference was held at Wallace Catfish Corner (2800 W. Madison St.) Jan. 18 by attorneys Lewis Myers Jr. and Berve M. Power, who represent Sheik Clifford Jackson-Bey, divine minister of The Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc., since 1979.

On Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006, Sheik Jackson-Bey alleges he was brutally attacked by a Chicago police officer during a routine search for one of his sons, for whom the officers allegedly had an arrest warrant.

Attorney Myers introduced Sheik Jackson-Bey as a national leader of the Islamic community. Jackson-Bey made the following statement to the press: "My name is Sheik Clifford Jackson-Bey. I am the National Grand Sheik of the Moorish Science Temple of America. I oversee a number of small temples here and around the United States. Our principles are love, truth, peace, freedom and justice, and we teach basically the art of nationality, the science of nationality and divine creed. Professionally, I am a paralegal. I do murder and narcotics case preparation for criminal defense attorneys."