Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Free the Lucasville 5

In 1995 five innocent men were sent to death row in connection with the prison uprising in Lucasville, Ohio in 1993.

• Siddique Abdullah Hasan • George Skatzes • Jason Robb • Namir Abdul Mateen, and • Bomani Hondo Shakur (Keith Lamar) were convicted of capital
murder in relation to the deaths of a guard and nine inmates.

Four of the five were actually involved in negotiating a resolution of grievances and ending the uprising. The fifth, Bomani Shakur, was one who simply refused to talk.

None of the Five had any involvement in these killings or the decision to carry them out. Other inmates had their sentences reduced in exchange for perjured testimony, which some of them have now recanted.

When the African-American and specifically the Muslim defendants were on trial,
the prosecution appealed to racism and anti-Islamic prejudice.

They have been in solitary confinement for 13 long years
and their appeals are running out.

YOU CAN REVERSE
THIS TERRIBLE INJUSTICE

Demonstrate Jan. 14

2-4 pm outside the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday.

OSP is a supermax prison located
at 878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd.,
Youngstown, OH.

Four of the Lucasville Five are held
in OSP as well as most of Ohio’s
189 other death row prisoners.

Transportation is being organized
from Cleveland. For bus reservations or more info, call (216) 481-6671
or email pfcenter@sbcglobal.net.

Tell Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio to overturn the convictions of all prisoners with charges related to the Lucasville rebellion.

TELL HIM TO HALT
THE EXECUTIONS
IN OHIO


Write to Gov. Ted Strickland
77 High Street, 30th Floor,
Columbus, Ohio 43215
FAX (614) 728-4819 or
call him at (614) 728-4900.



From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
1963 letter from Birmingham Jail:


“For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation- and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop.

If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”

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