|
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
November 21, 2001
Tariq Ali
Killing
Mr. Biswas
November 20, 2001
Sam Bahour
Plain
Truths About Palestine
Michael Ratner
Moving Toward
a
Police State
November 19, 2001
Edward
Said
Suicidal
Ignorance
November 18, 2001
John Farley
Shame on You,
Chelsea!
Kalpana
Sharma
Flower
Power:
A Blow for Peace
Tony Mauro
The Quirin
Ruling:
FDR's Horrible Precedent for Bush's Terror Courts
C.G. Estabrook
American
Crusades
November 17, 2001
Zoltan Grossman
It Ain't
Over Til It's Over
November 16, 2001
Rick Giombetti
Rep.
McDermott and
the Decay of Liberalism
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Voices
of Muslim Feminists
Mokhiber/Weissman
Kill,
Kill, Kill
November 15, 2001
George
Monbiot
Blasting
Our Way
Toward Peace
Jack McCarthy
Hitchens
Mind-Meld
and Hot Bodies
Steve
Perry
Afghan
Puzzle Palace
RAWA
We Do Not Accept
the Northern Alliance
November 14, 2001
Jensen/Mahajan
The
Press Must Press Harder on Afghanistan
David Vest
The Great Unificator
Harry
Browne
Preventing
Future Terrorism
November 13, 2001
Peter Mahoney
Veteran's
Day, 2001
Rep. Ron
Paul
Expanding
NATO
Is a Bad Idea
November 12, 2001
Robert Jensen
Goodbye to
All That...
Patriotism
Nancy
Oden
My
Day at the Airport
CounterPunch Wire
East Timor
10 Years
After the Massacre
C.G. Estabrook
Instead
of Terror
Alexander Cockburn
Wide World
of Torture
November 11, 2001
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland
Insecurity: The Politics of Terror in America
November 10, 2001
Grover Furr
Seeking an Opposition
to the Afghan War
Bruce
Kyle
Anatomy
of a Green Smear:
Backstabbing Nancy Oden
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
November
21, 2001
The Case of Abu-Ali
Fight for the Salem "Witches"
of Our Generation
By Molly Secours
Several weeks ago in Massachusetts, acting Governor
Jane Swift approved a bill that exonerates the accused witches
hung in 1692 and 1693 during the Salem Witch Trials. The women
were the last of the 20 victims to be cleared by the legislature
since their executions more than three centuries ago. Although
the descendants of the victims are elated, the decision comes
a little too late for the twenty-four men and women who were
hanged, crushed to death or died in prison during the witch-hunt.
All 20 of the guilty verdicts were based
on the testimony of four young girls who decided to wreak havoc
on the community
What have we learned about rushing to
judgment and imposing the death penalty over these last 300-years?
Not as much as we might hope.
According to Rob Warden, Executive Director
for the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University
School of Law, there are at least 46 Innocent Americans currently
on death row. Mr. Warden's studies reveal that erroneous eyewitness
testimony--whether offered in good faith or perjured -is no
doubt the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions in the
U.S. criminal justice system.
The Center on Wrongful Convictions identified
and analyzed 70 cases involving 86 people (84 men and two women)
who had been sentenced to death but legally exonerated based
on strong claims of actual innocence.
The analysis revealed that of the 86
legally exonerated persons, eyewitness testimony played a role
in the convictions of 46 (53.5%). And eyewitness testimony was
the only evidence against 33 defendants (38.4%).
Another prevailing factor in wrongful
convictions is incompetent defense counsel and prosecutorial
misconduct--which often seems to go unnoticed. Unfortunately,
there are countless death penalty cases that sound more like
exaggerated TV movies of the week than actual encounters with
the American justice system.
These horrendous stories include intoxicated
defense attorneys in the courtroom who are jailed for the night
to 'dry out' before giving closing arguments. A husband and
wife defense team in which neither one had tried a death penalty
case before. And in Texas, a defense lawyer literally slept
through most of the trial and had to be awakened when it was
his turn to present evidence.
Is it the reverence we feel for our capital
courts which allows these cases to remain cloistered in anonymity
and thus continue? Perhaps if we met some of the victims of
our court room dramas we would hold the justice system more
accountable.
Meet Abu-Ali Abdhur'Rahman. He is 50
year old African-American Muslim Cherokee. And he is a death
row statistic.
Ali's conviction was based solely on
the statement of one witness, Duvalle Miller--who in fact exchanged
his own 1st degree murder charge for his testimony. This particular
eyewitness was a co-worker of Abu-Ali's who mysteriously disappeared
for an entire year two days after the crime. Only when he was
captured and questioned did Mr. Miller offer his "eye witness"
account which identified Abu- Ali as the murderer. Unlike Miller,
Abu-Ali went to work as usual the morning after the crime.
Abu-Ali was subjected to a revolving
door of incompetent defense lawyers who for various reasons
were unable to give him adequate representation. One in particular
later admitted to having never prepared for his case and called
no witnesses on his behalf at the trial. It was also the egregious
misconduct on the part of the prosecution that played a significant
role in Abu Ali's death sentence.
Due to torturous physical and sexual
abuse throughout childhood and adolescence, Abu-Ali had been
diagnosed with debilitating mental illnesses that were left
untreated for most of his life. These conditions cause him to
black out in times of extreme stress. Hence, Ali does not remember
exactly what happened that night. It was only through hypnosis
that he was able to disclose the events of that evening and
the identity of the real murderer--Duvalle Miller.
Abu-Ali's defense attorneys failed to
learn about his mental disorder, and although the prosecuting
attorney did have prior knowledge of his condition, this information
was never presented at trial.
Also not presented to the jury was crucial
blood evidence proving that Abu-Ali did not commit the murder.
Again the defense attorneys were asleep on the bench while the
prosecutor--who knew about the lack of blood evidence--witheld
the information from both defense counsel and the jury.
This would explain why eight of the jurors
have recently signed affidavits expressing outrage at the failure
of Abu-Ali's defense attorneys to present the crucial evidence.
Several of the jurors stated if they had known the facts they
would never have voted for the death penalty. The state requires
a unanimous vote to obtain a death sentence. If the facts of
this case were presented Abu-Ali would not be sitting on death
row.
In 1998 when Tennessee Federal District
Court Judge Todd Campbell finally heard all the evidence in
Abu-Ali's case, he concluded that the ineptitude of the defense
council alone justified overturning the death penalty sentence.
The Sixth Circuit Court reversed that decision.
In spite of Judge Campbell's decision
and all of the evidence, last month the U.S. Supreme Court denied
Abu-Ali's appeal--which means they will not review the case.
This is a severe blow in a long line
of punches endured by Abu-Ali throughout his life. As a toddler
he was often beaten until his screams were kicked out of him.
Until last month, Abu-Ali held out hope that finally the Supreme
Court would hear his cry for justice. It didn't happen.
Death row inmates are invisible and silent
unless we are determined and committed to seeing and hearing
them.
As unbelievable as this gross negligence
may seem, Abu-Ali's case in not that unusual.
You don't have to march in protests to
be a promoter of justice. Wearing a button with the name of
a death row inmate who has been unjustly sentenced can be a
powerful act. Writing a letter to a state representative or
to the editor of the local paper can be immensely valuable.
The average (mean) time between the arrest
of the defendant and his or her exoneration in the eyewitness
cases is just short of 12 years.
Let's remember all of the men and women
who were wrongly executed by so-called righteous, law-abiding
citizens in Salem Massachusetts. And then let us try to imagine
what 12 unjust years of a death sentence does to the human spirit.
To receive a "don't Kill Abu-Ali"
button or to learn more about Abu-Ali and how you can help,
visit: website: http://www.abu-ali.org,
or write Abu-Ali Fund, PO Box 121754, Nashville TN 37212
Molly Secours
is a writer, videographer and racial dialog facilitator in Nashville
TN. She can be reached at mollmaud@earthlink.net
|