News and Updates

Lives on the line at Pelican Bay

Solidarity activists rally in support of hunger strikers at Pelican Bay and other California prisons

By: Karen Stewart
Socialist Worker
Monday, July 18, 2011

EIGHTEEN DAYS into a hunger strike that began on July 1, prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison and elsewhere in California are putting their lives on the line to protest cruel prison conditions.

Barbarous Confinement

Op-Ed

Credit: Sungyoon Cho

By: Colin Dayan
The New York Times
Sunday, July 17, 2011

MORE than 1,700 prisoners in California, many of whom are in maximum isolation units, have gone on a hunger strike. The protest began with inmates in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison. How they have managed to communicate with each other is anyone’s guess — but their protest is everyone’s concern. Many of these prisoners have been sent to virtually total isolation and enforced idleness for no crime, not even for alleged infractions of prison regulations.

Randall Adams, 61, Dies; Freed With Help of Film

Credit: Everett Collection

Randall Adams was featured in the film “The Thin Blue Line.”

By: Douglas Martin
The New York Times
Saturday, June 25, 2011

Randall Dale Adams, who spent 12 years in prison before his conviction in the murder of a Dallas police officer was thrown out largely on the basis of evidence uncovered by a filmmaker, died in obscurity in October in Washington Court House, Ohio. He was 61.

Another case could raise tough questions for Gov. Rick Perry

With death row inmate Larry Ray Swearingen, timing of murder is the issue

By: Steve Mills
Chicago Tribune
Saturday, June 25, 2011

As Texas Gov. Rick Perry considers a presidential run, another death penalty case with tough questions about scientific evidence may become an issue. In this case, Perry would decide whether to proceed with the execution.

Larry Ray Swearingen is on death row for the December 1998 kidnapping and murder of Melissa Trotter. At issue is scientific evidence that estimates when Trotter was murdered. That is crucial because she disappeared Dec.

The Haunting of Rick Perry

Credit: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Liz Lynch

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
The New York TImes
Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Should Gov. Rick Perry of Texas enter the 2012 presidential race, he would enjoy a strange and remarkable escort — the irrepressible ghost of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Another travesty of justice in Jena

Credit: New Orleans Indymedia

Caseptla Bailey and Catrina Wallace

By: Alan Maass
Socialist Worker
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Alan Maass reports on the racist vendetta of authorities in a Louisiana town against Black residents who made history with their civil rights struggle for the Jena Six.

THE LOUISIANA town of Jena became known the world over as the site of a latter-day Jim Crow injustice--and as the spark for a huge civil rights struggle in 2007 that saved six young Black men from years in prison on trumped-up charges.

Rick Perry: The presidential candidate dogged by a ghost?

LA Times
Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may want to run for president. So let me reintroduce you a former constituent of his, Cameron Todd Willingham

Perry, who may soon announce his presidential bid, oversaw the 2004 execution of Willingham, a father of three convicted for the apparent arson murder of his young daughters. Problem was, the evidence used to prove Willingham set the fire that killed his children was based on shoddy science and obsolete investigation techniques, facts that were brought to Perry's attention before Willingham's death.

Hundreds demonstrate on Oakland streets for slain BART passenger Oscar Grant

Credit: Mike Koozmin/The Examiner

By: Andrea Koskey
San Francisco Examiner
Sunday, June 12, 2011

Hundreds of protesters took to Oakland’s streets on Sunday to express outrage over the release of ex-BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle from a Los Angles County jail today after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence for the killing of Oscar Grant III.

Police presence was strong as protesters marched 3.5 miles from the Fruitvale BART station to Oakland City Hall.

Jesse Jackson Shows Support for Troy Davis

By: Danielle Wright
BET News
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Jesse Jackson was in Atlanta on Monday to intervene in the case of Troy Davis.

He was joined by State Senator Donzella James (D-College Park) at a news conference to bring attention to the what he says is unfair treatment that Davis has received from the Justice Department and to help reverse Davis’ death sentence.

Davis was sentenced to death after allegedly killing an off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail, in Savannah in 1989. Since the conviction, however, some witnesses have changed their testimony.

Dispatch from Death Row: Saving Troy Davis With a Family’s Love

By: Jen Marlowe
ColorLines
Wednesday, June 1, 2011

“De’Jaun, come over here, I want to talk to you.”

De’Jaun Correia, a slender 13-year-old with thick corn-rows in his hair, sat down next to his uncle Troy

Secondary links