Conference: Lucasville prison uprising re-examined: 20 years on (April 2013)

03/27/2013

 

Three Day Conference Re-Examines 1993 Prison Uprising

What:     Re-Examining Lucasville Conference

When:    Friday, April 19, 7 to 9 pm

             Saturday April 20, 9 am to 10 pm   
         
            Sunday April 21, 9 am to 12 noon
Where:  Columbus State Community College, OHIO
             Location on Campus to Be Determined

Contact: Ben Turk              RedBirdPrisonAbolition@gmail.com
             614 704 4699
Web:    Re-ExaminingLucasville.org

Cost:     Suggested donation, $10-50- no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Three Day Conference Re-Examines 1993 Prison Uprising

Twenty years after one of the longest prison uprisings in US history, legal experts, historians and activists will gather to expose injustices resulting in death sentences for five men and lengthy prison terms for many others. The Re-Examining Lucasville Conference will explore the context in which the uprising occurred and present a comprehensive examination of what happened during the Uprising from April 11-21, 1993 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, Ohio and the legal proceedings that followed. During this eleven day uprising, ten people lost their lives before the prisoners were able to negotiate a peaceful surrender to state authorities. The State of Ohio promptly violated key parts of that agreement and targetted certain prisoners for prosecution.

The event will begin Friday night with the screening of a short documentary film by Derrick Jones, including footage from the uprising and interviews with activists and government officials. This includes an interview with then state prosecutor Daniel Hogan, who admits he does not know and thinks they will never know who actually killed hostage Officer Vallandingham, a crime for which he and other prosecutors sent four men to death row.

Attendees will then hear from some of those men and from others who have been held in solitary confinement since the uprising. Jason Robb, Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Bomani Shakur (also known as Keith Lamar) and Greg Curry will speak from the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) on Friday night.

On Saturday, the conference will dig into a close examination of the uprising. Men who were incarcerated at SOCF in April of 1993 will share their stories. Prominent Ohio lawyers and other experts will unfold the layers of injustice the State of Ohio engaged in to secure convictions following the uprising. Advocates and experts from across the US will connect the Lucasville Uprising with nationwide prison issues. 

- Attorney Mark Donatelli, who represented defendants after the New Mexico prison uprising in 1980, will discuss  the horrendous conditions that preceded the disturbance and contributed to successful plea negotiations.
- Attorney Niki Schwartz, who represented prisoners in concluding a peaceful settlement of the Lucasville uprising, will speak about the prosecution’s failure to abide by some of its most important provisions.
- Attorney Rick Kerger, who represented Siddique Abdullah Hasan in state court until taken off the case by the trial court judge, will speak about the struggle to provide unbiased and effective representation for  individual defendants.

- Attorney Phyllis Crocker, dean at the Cleveland Marshall Law School, chairperson of the 2007 Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Team of the American Bar Association, and currently serving on the task force appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court to examine the death penalty, will describe the changing scene with regard to the death penalty in Ohio.

On Sunday, attendees will participate in an interactive strategy session and will be invited to take action, joining the struggle for the Lucasville Uprising Prisoners. Conference organizers believe that a critical examination of the Lucasville Uprising will expose deeply unjust and inhumane practices that the Ohio prison system continues to engage in today. The Lucasville Uprising Prisoners continue to fight these injustices, and they hope the conference will broaden support, not only for their struggle, but for the struggles of all Ohioans who are targeted by this system.

Media representatives who would like to interview conference organizers or prisoners should contact Ben Turk at 614-704-4699 or insurgent.ben@gmail.com. More information about the uprising, including radio interviews with some of the prisoners can be found online at LucasvilleAmnesty.org.
See full schedule below for details.

RE-EXAMINING LUCASVILLE SCHEDULE  Friday, April 19, 7 to 9:30 p.m., Chairperson, Bob Fitrakis  Welcome Derrick Jones, documentary film, The Great Incarcerator: Part 2, The Shadow of Lucasville Lucasville Uprising Prisoners speak.

Saturday, April 20, 9 to noon, Chairperson, Alice Lynd 9:00 - 9:55 a.m., two skits drawn from transcripts: The Making of a Snitch,” Highway Patrol interview with man who became an informant; “The Death-Qualified Jury,” exclusion of potential jurors 10:00 - 10:55 a.m., Survivors of Lucasville, Conditions at Lucasville before the Uprising 11:00 a.m. - noon, Struggle in the Courts Attorney Vicki Werneke, Capital Habeas Unit, Federal Public Defender, on complicity and obstacles in habeas representation Staughton Lynd, attorney and author of Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising Saturday, April 20, noon to 1 p.m., Lunch, to be provided.

Saturday, April 20, 1 to 3 p.m., Layers of Injustice, Chairperson, Staughton Lynd Attorney Mark Donatelli, represented defendants after New Mexico prison uprising Attorney Niki Schwartz, represented prisoners in Lucasville negotiations Attorney Rick Kerger, represented Hasan in state court until taken off case by trial court judge Dean Phyllis Crocker, Cleveland Marshall Law School, chaired ABA panel on death penalty in Ohio, member of task force appointed by Ohio Supreme Court to examine death penalty.

Saturday, April 20, 3 to 5 p.m., breakout sessions Bonnie Kerness and Ojore Lutalo, art work and video “Sneak Peek” on isolation as a political tool in New Jersey prison Central Ohio Prisoner Advocates (COPA) and Redbird Prison Abolition, current conditions in Ohio prisons Others to be announced Saturday, April 20, 7 to 9:30 p.m. Derrick Jones, documentary film, The Great Incarcerator:  Part 1, Dark Little Secrets Entertainment Open Mic Poetry and Music.

Sunday, April 21, 9 a.m. to 12 noon, Building Support, Chairperson, Ben Turk Noelle Hanrahan, Prison Radio:  Mumia Abu Jamal support campaign Wide-ranging discussion about strategy and possible future actions                                         #   #   #

Deals or No Deals?

Hello everyone, I’d like to take this opportunity to send warm greetings to all of you there. I truly recognize that any number of more pressing issues requires your attention, yet you made a choice to attend this important conference.

Whether you’re a skeptic or already convinced that injustice exists and plays more than the “harmless era” standard applied by courts across the country, those of us seeking your help and support hope that we are providing more than an emotional plea for you to operate with, for if emotion alone would bring justice, every crying eye would be justly rewarded (right?).

All our documents are official from the state courts and in some cases our issue is that these courts know the exculpatory documents would bring into question the riot convictions and the deals given to the inmate conspirators that are commonly called snitches, for the State.

Those of us convicted have consistently asked that if the system requires our life, including how our absence from our parents, children, wives & births & deaths has affected their lives, whether “life” is by a State-scheduled death or death as it comes to an isolated substandard existence, that all available evidence should be examined, I hope you agree?!

Curious to me is, why is it that those of us convicted are more confident in the totality of the evidence than is a judicial system with  far more money, power & resources?

Without being too technical, I’d like to refer everyone to a case: Beckett v. Haviland, 6th Circuit 2003. [see attached below] This case law rules, and is a continuation of court rulings back to the 1970s, the following; briefly the case says:

“When the State’s star witness is given a deal to testify and that deal isn’t disclosed, the only remedy is a new trial.”

When you compare that case law to what my trial transcript reflects on the State’s star witness (Lou Jones) and how members of my jury were concerned about deals possibly being given out as incentive to lie, I think all of you hearing my voice will share that same concern.

Let me be really clear: the State swore during my trial to the judge and jury that no deals were given to anyone. Some of these prisoners were accused and some admit involvement in riot-related crimes, yet none were charged and both prosecutors, knowing that the “no deals”-testimony was false, allowed it to be heard, even swearing themselves that no deals were made, so that the coveted convictions were obtained.

The official records show that these same two prosecutors on Direct Appeal admitted: yes they had given deals. – check here.

Some skeptics have  said to me “Well you have caught other cases since the riot.” I’ve been on supermax-status since the riot and have been faced with relentless oppression and retaliation at the hands of some aggressive prison guards and leaderless administrative supervision all the while being held against my will. It is amazing that I’ve not killed someone for my freedom or for my just dues in court.

Let me point to the fact that before 1993 inside prison I had not been charged with any violent behavior, since 1993 plenty, what changed? What draws such a response from a peaceful person I ask you?!

For those of you who believe in our cause and us, like my dear brah Kunta Kenyatta, I say keep the faith, keep sharing our info with people and taking advantage of current technologies (Ben & Annabelle).

To the activist community in general, you must know it’s always darkest before there is Light, continue to seek the Light of Justice.  At very least comrades, our effort should make it harder for an unjust system to reuse these tactics on anyone else ever again!

Thank you,

Freedom First,

Greg Curry
From Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP)
Gregcurry.org