Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Death Penalty, Human Rights, Iraq War, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Truth to Power
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Troy Anthony Davis Update: 90 Days Stay of Execution
The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a 90-day stay of execution to Troy Davis. On July 16, less than 24 hours before Troy Davis was scheduled to be executed in Georgia, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a stay of execution, to be not longer than 90 days, “for the purpose of evaluating and analyzing” the information submitted to it during the clemency hearing earlier in the day. Act today to ensure that the the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles grants Troy clemency!
Fax your message to: State Board of Pardons & Paroles – 404-651-8502.
Troy Davis was sentenced to death in Georgia, for the murder of a police officer. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimonies that were full of inconsistencies, even at the time of trial. Since then, all but two of the states’ nine non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted their testimony. Many state in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis. Listen to Law and Disorder interview with Troy’s sister Martina Correia.
Vatican Urges Georgia To Spare Inmate
Where is the justice for me? The case of Troy Davis facing execution in Georgia
Dalia Hashad, co-host and Director of Amnesty International’s USA program gives us this update.
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National Lawyers Guild Report: Punishing Protests – Government Tactics That Suppress Free Speech
Co-Host Heidi Boghosian and National Lawyers Guild members publish a powerful report chronicling government tactics employed on city, state and federal levels aimed at suppressing public dissent. The report outlines the hierarchy of government attacks on free speech, from sophisticated data collecting agencies to arresting demonstrators without probable cause. Order yours here $3
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Marjorie Cohn – Cowboy Republic, Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law.
National Lawyers Guild President, legal scholar and co-author of Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice, Marjorie Cohn has written a new book titled, Cowboy Republic, Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law. She provides an in-depth analysis of six significant ways in which the Bush administration has undermined the rule of law in this country. Professor Cohn details the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq; the policy of torture; war crimes; the kangaroo courts of Guantanamo; unconstitutional laws; and the unlawful surveillance of American citizens. Her book contains practical ways to strengthen the rule of law domestically and internationally, including both political and legal remedies.
Guest – Marjorie Cohn – President of the National Lawyers Guild.
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Visit Co-Host Michael Ratner’s Blog – JustLeft.org
Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Surveillance
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Help Stop The Execution of Troy Davis
Troy Davis was sentenced to death in Georgia, for the murder of a police officer. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimonies that were full of inconsistencies, even at the time of trial. Since then, all but two of the states’ nine non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted their testimony. Many state in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis. There is no physical evidence linking Troy Davis to the crime and no murder weapon has ever been found. With his appeals exhausted and courts refusing to consider the recanted testimony, Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed later this month. The only thing that stands between him and execution is the Georgia Parole Board.
Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International said “The Supreme Court decision is proof-positive that justice truly is blind — blind to coerced and recanted testimony, blind to the lack of a murder weapon or physical evidence and blind to the extremely dubious circumstances that led to this man’s conviction. At times there are cases that are emblematic of the dysfunctional application of justice in this country. By refusing to review serious claims of innocence, the Supreme Court has revealed catastrophic flaws in the U.S. death penalty machine.”
The Georgia Parole Board has scheduled Troy Davis to be executed on July 17th at 7pm. The first available day of a schedule window set from July 17-24.
Where is the justice for me? The case of Troy Davis facing execution in Georgia
Guest – Martina Correia, activist and sister of Troy Anthony Davis.
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Drug Policy Reform
Nearly 2.1 million Americans are currently serving time in prison. One out of every six of these inmates is in federal prison on marijuana.-related charges. Astonishingly, according to the laws in 15 U.S. states, one can receive a life sentence for non-violent marijuana infractions.
One out of every six of these inmates is in federal prison on marijuana-related charges.In large cities such as New York law enforcement officers have markedly stepped up their efforts to target low-level drug offenders, mostly for marijuana. Watch dog organizations claim that this is also a means to build a database on inner city youth, data shared and networked globally by several multi-national security agencies. In response to these sentencing disparities and the growing prison population, a drug policy reform movement is gaining momentum says Ethan Nadelman.
Guest – Ethan Nadelman, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance
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Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Truth to Power
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Recently we brought you the voices of activists and attorneys outside the Third Circuit Court in Philadelphia all responding to the oral arguments of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Today we have a chance to talk with lead attorney Robert R. Bryan from San Francisco. As the former chair of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Mr Bryan’s career spans more than 3 decades and has included other highly political cases such as representing leaders of the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee.
Guest – Robert Bryan, lead attorney representing Mumia Abu-Jamal
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We recently broadcasted speeches from the demonstration in New York voicing opposition to the release of admitted former CIA operative, Luis Posada Carriles. He’s accused of being one of the masterminds of a l976 mid-air explosion that demolished a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people. This demonstration was among other protests worldwide including Canada, Mexico, Central and South America.
Meanwhile the Cuban Five remain in prison. Look at photographic evidence here against Luis Posada Carriles / Washington Post Article – Free Ride For A Likely Killer
We hear a riveting speech from Father Luis Barrios, pastor of La Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas
Left Forum; Prisons, Prisoners and Political Prisoners
We hear a speech by J. Soffiyah Elijah at the Left Forum. The panel is titled, Prisons, Prisoners and Political Prisoners and chaired by our own Michael Smith. Soffiyah Elijah serves as Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School.
Left Forum: Iraq, What’s At Stake – Anthony Arnove
We turn now to hear an excerpt of a speech from author Anthony Arnove at the Left Forum this year. The panel is titled Iraq, What’s At Stake. Anthony is the author of Iraq:The Logic of Withdrawal, examining why continuing the occupation is a wildly unrealistic and reckless strategy that makes the world a more dangerous place.
Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Truth to Power
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Habeas Corpus Update – Take Action
Co-hosts Michael Ratner and Dalia Hashad update listeners on recent decisions regarding Guantanamo prisoners and habeas corpus. Dalia Hashad alerts listeners to upcoming event supported by a coalition of civil liberties groups.
War Czar.
Michael Ratner and Dalia Hashad discuss the position of War Czar and what it means regarding the longevity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why Did 3 Generals Refuse This Position?
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Demonstrators Worldwide Protest the Release of Luis Posada Carriles
In Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and across dozens of major cities in the United States, demonstrators worldwide took to the streets to protest the release of admitted former CIA operative, Luis Posada Carriles. He’s accused of being one of the masterminds of a l976 mid-air explosion that demolished a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people. Meanwhile the Cuban Five remain in prison. Look at photographic evidence here against Luis Posada Carriles / Washington Post Article – Free Ride For A Likely Killer
A message from Mumia Abu-Jamal : For over four decades, the US empire has been waging a secret and deadly war against Cuba. They have bombed fields, poisoned grain, hijacked planed, and plotted invasion. They have trained, paid and protected terrorists who have cost the lives of thousands of Cubans and virtually crippled their economy through a seemingly everlasting embargo. The Cuban Five, young men who tried to protect their people from these instances of U.S. state terrorism, who have bombed on one, nor planned to, who poisoned no one, nor planned to, who hurt non one, nor planned to, who merely reported the plotting of crimes against their people, face the full foul fury of the empire’s judiciary for trying to stop crimes. We must all, all of us protest the unjust convictions of Rene Gonzalez, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez and Ramon Labanino.
We hear the voices of activists and lawyers speaking at the New York protest, including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and our own Heidi Boghosian.
Demonstraters Show Support For Mumia Abu-Jamal
Oral arguments were heard by 3 judges last week who will decide the fate of imprisoned former Black Panther and award winning journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Abu-Jamal has been on death row for 25 years after being convicted of killing a police officer following a controversial trial before a predominantly-white jury. The Third Circuit Court heard oral arguments that will rule whether Abu-Jamal gets life in prison, a new trial or execution. Our own Heidi Boghosian was in the courts and the streets with the hundreds of demonstrators. We hear the voices of lawyers and activists Heidi interviewed on that day outside the Third Circuit Court in Philadelphia.
Hip Hop News Update / International Herald Tribune / Crime Scene Photos
Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Guantanamo, Torture, Truth to Power, Uncategorized
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Eric Schlosser on the United States Prison System
We’ve covered in depth on Law and Disorder the US run prison industry abroad, from Guantanamo Bay prison, Cuba, Bagram prison in Afghanistan and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. These are the exports of one of the most highly profitable businesses in the United States. The prison industrial complex in this country has reached record breaking occupancy. Nearly 2.1 million Americans are behind bars, the majority of them nonviolent offenders, they’re usually poor, many have substance abuse problems and many have are mentally ill. This according to exhaustive research by Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser who spoke at Bluestockings Bookstore in New York about his compendium on the American Prison system.
Law and Disorder caught up with Eric during this talk and we listen to the second part of his one hour speech. In his talk he warns our society of the perils of a profit driven penal system and backs his research with well-documented facts and staggering statistics.
Muhammad Salah Case – Update
Hosts talk with Salah’s attorney Michael Deutsch on the latest in the case involving a Palestinian businessman accused of funding Hamas in 1993. His defense argues he was tortured and his confessions coerced.
The government also called to the witness stand former New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Law and Disorder hosts fill in the background of this reporter who was fired from the NY Times for writing numerous stories backing the Bush administration’s war campaign chant, “weapons of mass destruction.” Miller was allowed to witness Israeli agents interviewing Salah in 1993. She testified a month ago that Salah seemed comfortable and that he boasted about Hamas operations.
Guest – Michael Deutsch, Muhammad Salah’s attorney with the People’s Law Office in Chicago.
The Mishandled Lethal Injection of Florida death row inmate Angel Nieves Diaz
Angel Diaz was executed by lethal injection for killing a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago. He was given a rare second does of deadly chemicals as he took more than twice the usual time to succumb. Needles that were supposed to inject drugs in the 55 year old man’s veins were instead pushed through the blood vessels and into the surrounding soft tissue.
The error in Diaz’s execution led Florida Governor Jeb Bush to suspend all executions. Bush still defends the death penalty itself and rejects calls for its abolition. In a separate case, a federal judge extended a moratorium on executions in California, declaring that its method of legal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Those are just the latest challenges to lethal injection, which is the preferred method in 37 states. Missouri’s injection method, similar to California’s was declared unconstitutional last month by a federal judge.
Guest – Kristin Houle with the Amnesty International Program to Abolish the Death Penalty
Lynch Mobs and the Killing State
Lynchings. That word alone is at the root of racism in the United States. Those who may regard lynching as a shameful part of the past need only read the book “From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State” edited by Austin Sarat and Charles Ogletree to realize that state-sanctioned executions are sanitized forms of lynching justified by society.
Professors Charles Ogletree and Austin Sarat have assembled a lucid and intelligent work in which essays from sociologists, historians, criminologists and lawyers weave toegether a social history that starkly reveals how this country’s death penalty is rooted in lynchings.
Racism informs both kinds of killings. The 985 lives lost to official lynchings in the United States since the practice resumed in 1976 symbolize according to one of the book’s contributors, a much broader and enduring culture of American apartheid.
Guest – Austin Sarat, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. His books include Mercy on Trial: What it Means to Stop an Execution.
Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
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Laying the Foundation of a Police State – Part 4 – Iraq
Since the summer of 2004, Law and Disorder has brought Pacifica listeners the voices of activists, authors and attorneys from the front lines.
We’ve examined in a four part radio series, the foundation for what many view as a police state in the United States. In this series we’ve talked with guests about the post 9/11 blueprint of a police state build up and how the nefarious turn to war, the use of torture and the domestic propagation of fear unfolded.
We have examined at length topics such as torture, domestic surveillance, criminalizing dissent, racial profiling, indefinite detentions and the destruction of constitutional rights as vital information to bring an understanding to listeners as to how it happened and where we go from here.
In this fourth part of the series we look at the unjust and illegal war in Iraq.
We believe that taken together, the four-part series chronicle the events, policies and legislation that have shaped a police state in the United States. Law and Disorder calls attention to this emergence by bringing you the voices of strength and opposition from activists, authors and attorneys who are well informed, not silent and standing up against the strangling of democracy.
Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal
Law and Disorder invite Anthony Arnove back to talk more about his book Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, and discuss how is it possible to end the occupation in Iraq. Hosts look at the intentionality of stirring up an unnatural conflict among the Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites and later pull back to discuss the larger picture and draw comparisons to the anti-war movement during the Vietnam conflict.
Guest – Anthony Arnove, author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, He his also the editor, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of a People’s History of the United States (Seven Stories), the long-awaited primary-source companion to A People’s History of the United States.
Active Duty Anti-War Activist
Jonathan Hutto works and lives on a Norfolk, Virginia based aircraft carrier, the Theodore Roosevelt. Hutto strongly opposes the Iraq war. Supported by antiwar military family and veterans organizations, Hutto and a handful of other service members created a Web site called An Appeal for Redress. This site allows active-duty and reserve troops to e-mail their representatives in Congress for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Their message: “Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.” Anti-War Link – Citizen Soldier
The Case of Mohammad Munaf
US citizen Mohammad Munaf has been convicted of a death penalty crime involving his alleged connection with 3 kidnapped Romanian journalists in Iraq. It’s reported that there is little to no evidence against him in this case. Law and Disorder talk with Jonathan Hafetz who with others are trying to make a last ditch effort for appeal to keep Mohammad from being turned over to the Iraqis where it’s likely he will be executed. Originally from Iraq, Munaf immigrated to the United States and became a U.S. citizen in 2000 and in the following year he immigrated to Romania with his wife and three children. . . read more about Mohammad Munaf
Update – The Supreme Court has turned down Mohammad Munaf’s appeal. The US is free to turn Munaf over to the Iraqis where he may be executed.
Guest – Jonathan Hafetz – Associate Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and authored the amicus brief of British and American Habeas Corpus Scholars submitted on behalf of the Guant?namo detainees.
