Fair and Impartial Aggravated Murder
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Spring 2007 This June, the Free Siddique Abdullah Hasan July 9 in Dayton. Contact Sharon Danann for Coalition is kicking off a six-month abolition more information, at [email protected] ++ tour. Contact Saadiqah Hasan if you’d like to On Sept. 26, join thousands of people at the become involved, at: [email protected]. statehouse grounds in Columbus for a rally to ++ Keith Lamar's evidentiary hearing is on end the death penalty. www.acluohio.org Lucasville, The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising: Fair and impartial aggravated murder By Staughton Lynd, The Columbus taken at least a first step toward contemplate the forthcoming presen- Free Press stopping executions. In Illinois, tation of a play, “Lucasville,” in March 28, 2007 California, Florida, Tennessee, New Portsmouth (April 11), Cincinnati On Friday, March 16, Governor Jersey, North Carolina, and (April 14), Toledo (April 15), Strickland denied clemency to Missouri, governors did more than Columbus (April 21), Athens (April Kenneth Biros. Ohio’s governor saw fit to do. And 22), Cleveland (April 28), and Commenting to the Associated Press, this comes in the context that in Youngstown (April 29). Mr. Strickland said he has no inten- recent years Ohio has been second tion of placing a moratorium on capi- only to Texas in the number of Along with Gary L. Anderson of tal punishment in Ohio. He also said, human beings it deliberately put to American Legends Theatre Works, I according to the AP, “that he is open death. am a co-author of the play. Gary is a to new information on the professional theater person matter, but for now is sat- who does a wonderful one- isfied that Ohio has a fair person show about Clarence and impartial system.” Darrow, who saved 102 defendants from being sen- Profile in Lack of tenced to death. Except on Courage opening night in “No person shall purpose- Portsmouth, at each stop ly, and with prior calcula- “Darrow” will be presented tion and design, cause the in the afternoon before death of another . .” “Lucasville” is performed This is the definition of in the evening. “aggravated murder” in section 2903.01 of the After each performance of Ohio Revised Code. Playing the five prisoners in Lucasville are (L-R), Christopher “Lucasville” I will lead a Fidram, Lessley Harmon, Sam Perry, Clyde Holmes and Kunta Kenyatta. discussion with any members An execution is a killing of the audience who are with prior calculation and design. Ohio? Where Clarence Darrow was interested. I will assure folks that the There are approximately 195 men on born (in Kinsman) and John Brown action and dialogue of the play are Ohio’s Death Row. Thus when Mr. grew to manhood (in Hudson)? drawn almost entirely from trial tes- Strickland denied clemency to Mr. Ohio? The red state of the North? As timony, trial exhibits, and affidavits. Biros and, at the same time, appeared if it were not enough to have thrown My wife, attorney Alice Lynd, is to shut the door on a moratorium, the 2004 election to George W. compiling a notebook containing a Ohio missed an opportunity to pre- Bush, the state in which we live now sample of these underlying docu- vent what could amount to as many firmly declines to join the nation- ments. as 195 aggravated murders. wide trend toward abolition of state- Strickland denied clemency to Biros sponsored aggravated murder. Hopefully at least some persons will at a time when other governors, in pose the question, “What can we other states all over the country, have These questions burden the mind as I do?” For them I have a simple peti- please see LUCASVILLE, Page 2 2 Prisonersolidarity.org - Spring 2007 LUCASVILLE, continued from p. 1 tion to Governor Strickland used by document banned slavery north of Southerners expected to give them the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown. the Ohio River. But it was under- control of the national government) stood at the time to be a “Southwest flowed across the Ohio River into The petition says: Ordinance” protecting slavery where southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Dear Governor Strickland: it existed and was expected to Cincinnati became the racist city it We, the undersigned urge you to spread. has been for almost two hundred call for a moratorium on executions years, presently providing one fourth in the State of Ohio. The Northwest Ordinance contained of the men on Ohio’s Death Row. We are opposed to the use of the first national fugitive slave The Indiana towns across the river capital punishment. clause. When it passed, a number of from Louisville, where my father We deeply sympathize with the men abruptly departed New York to grew up, and Alton, Illinois, where families and friends of the victims of carry the news of the Ordinance to antislavery editor Elijah Lovejoy violent crime. We respectfully offer Philadelphia, where the was murdered, became similar that additional death will not heal or Constitutional Convention adopted hotbeds of violence. resolve these tragedies. the identical fugitive slave clause a few days later. Another tradition also took root in The Compromise of 2007 These fugitive slave provisions were these Ohio River towns. Ripley, As an historian, expected to Ohio, halfway between Cincinnati I have had occa- be imple- sion to try to mented. A see LUCASVILLE, Page 7-8 understand few years where slavery, later, when racism, and the President thirst to kill George Spring 2007 Issue come from in Washington Volume 1, Number 2 this country. was in Philadelphia The Prisonersolidarity newsletter Begin with the (then the supplements our Internet publication fact that in May nation’s capi- and listserv. Subscriptions are $6 per 1787, when the tal), a slave year. Constitutional named Ona Contributors: Gary Anderson, Convention assembled in Judge who helped Mrs. Washington James Conway, Staughton Lynd, Philadelphia, twelve men in London to dress her hair and put her clothes Robert Reed. founded the British anti-slavery on, ran away. The Washingtons Staff: Siddique Abdullah Hasan, movement. The movie “Amazing spread the rumor that Ms. Judge had Saadiqah Amatullah Hasan, Laurie Grace” tells the story, albeit from a been seduced by a French sailor. Hoover, Angela Jancius, Kunta topdown point of view. As Thomas There was no French sailor. Ms. Kenyatta, Daniel Sturm. Clarkson and his friends set in Judge ran away on her own, and left Address: Prisonersolidarity.org, P.O. motion the first-hand investigations to posterity the words that she want- Box 422, The Plains, OH 45780, or and petitions to Parliament that ed to be free and wanted to learn email us: prisonersolidarity- caused the British slave trade and how to read and write. [email protected] then slavery in the British West Internet: www.prisonersolidarity.org Indies to be abolished, the great The Father of Our Country wrote to white men of the United States gath- the customs collector in Portsmouth, Submission Guidelines ered for a Constitutional Convention New Hampshire, directing him to Submissions should be no more than that recognized and compromised kidnap Ms. Judge and put her on a 2,000 words. We accept essays, with our peculiar institution. I have ship bound for Virginia. Instead, that poems and artwork on philosophical, called it “the compromise of 1787,” man sent Ms. Judge a note, warning political and social topics that are of preceding the better-known compro- her to get out of town. As far as we importance to you. Please send your mises of 1819 and 1850. know she remained in freedom. contribution to: Prisonersolidarity.org, P.O. Box 422, Meeting in New York that summer, The best explanation for Governor The Plains, OH 45780 or email us: the Continental Congress passed the Strickland’s action is that the tide of prisonersolidarity- so-called Northwest Ordinance. This migration to the Southwest (which [email protected] 3 Prisonersolidarity.org - Spring 2007 Plays about Lucasville riot, Clarence Darrow spotlight death penalty An Interview with Lucasville director, Gary Anderson By Daniel Sturm, The Athens News ment of the five prisoners who were accused of being April 16th, 2007 - “What?" responded one Ohio responsible for this crime. George Skatzes, Siddique University student in disbelief after finding out that Abdullah Hasan, Jason Robb, James Were and Keith Ohio still enforces the death penalty. She was shaken Lamar are all currently on death row and pursuing to hear that, since 2004, Ohio has been the second- appeals. The conviction of these five was based on the highest execution state in the country, following snitch testimonies of other prisoners involved in the riot, Texas. Most of the 195 death-row inmates are now and made without any physical or DNA evidence. Were housed at the supermax prison in Youngstown. A day the right men convicted? The play challenges the audi- before the execution, prisoners are transported to the ence to decide. “death house” at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Called a “Saint of the American Left” by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, the civil rights attorney and his- Ohio places most of its death-row inmates in a fancy torian Staughton Lynd has made it his fight to regulate high-tech prison. The Ohio State Penitentiary, in Ohio’s prisons and abolish the death penalty. He and his Youngstown, was constructed in response to the 1993 wife, Alice, live in a small bungalow in Niles, near Lucasville prison rebellion, for a cost of $85 million. Youngstown. In the 1960s, Lynd was the director of the Aiming to lift the veil between the condemned and the Mississippi Freedom Schools and taught history along- outside world, an Ohio civil rights lawyer and a side Howard Zinn at Spellman College.