Last Updated: 3/1/04; 1:49:03 AM
Last Updated: 3/1/04; 1:49:03 AM
Governor Phil Bredesen
Governor's Office Tennessee State Capitol Nashville, TN 37243-0001 Dear Gov. Bredesen, I am writing with a request for your mercy on behalf of Abu Ali Abdur Rahman, who is on Tennessee's Death Row. This case, in particular, concerns me, as it should concern anyone, regardless of one's feelings about capital punishment. There are a number of issues that seem to indicate flaws evident in the justice system of Tennessee as it pertains to this case: 1) Abu Ali is an indigent, mentally ill, African-American / Native American man who was a victim of childhood sexual, physical and emotional torture. 2) The only evidence implicating Abu Ali as the assailant was the testimony of his co-defendant who got a six-year deal in exchange for his testimony. The blood evidence, which was never presented to the jury, indicates that Abu-Ali was not the assailant. 3) Abu-Ali's attorney did no investigation and prepared no defense. He was completely ignorant of any of the mitigating evidence in the case, and so the jury never saw any of it. 4) The prosecution lied to and manipulated the jurors. Eight of them have signed affidavits expressing doubts about their verdict. 5) The prosecutors have successfully used legal technicalities to keep the courts from reviewing the case and hearing the complete truth. I was excited by the courage demonstrated by Illinois Gov. George Ryan in his decision to commute all death sentences in his own state. This decision came after review of the justice system with respect to capital punishment. Such a review is long overdue in Tennessee. Perhaps under your tenure, we will experience a repeat of such gubernatorial courage. Thanks for your time. Sincerely, Madeline Althoff Click here for a Word document to send your own letter. No reprieve yet for "the other Matthew" From "The Other Matthew" by Michael Bronski (February 2003) Matthew Limon, a mentally limited teen, was put away for 17 years under Kansas's harsh sodomy laws. ... So how does a consensual blowjob between males — the older of whom has the mental functioning of someone much younger — end with a conviction under one of the harshest state sodomy laws still on the books and a jail sentence of nearly two decades? And how were the courts able to hand down such a draconian sentence, given that Kansas has a "Romeo and Juliet law," which is designed to decriminalize sexual activity between young people? Passed in 1998, that law covers young people under the age of 19 who engage in consensual sexual activity with teens between 14 and 16 years old. Recognizing that there may be developmental differences in the teen years, the law also stipulates that the ages of the sexual partners be less than four years apart. While the law does not legalize this sexual behavior, it greatly reduces the penalties involved in punishing it. When the interaction between Limon and M.A.R. took place, Limon was three years, one month, and a few days older than M.A.R. Well, unfortunately for Limon, Kansas's Romeo and Juliet law is meant to be taken literally. It applies only to Romeos and Juliets, not to Romeos and Mercutios. It was explicitly written to exclude application in cases involving same-sex activity. So Limon was tried as an adult under the state's harsh sodomy law. Specifically, he was charged with engaging in criminal sodomy with a minor. The Kansas sodomy law was written in 1855 (when Kansas was still a territory), but was revised in 1983 to exclude heterosexual activity. ... This blatantly discriminatory sentencing provision does not live up to American standards of equal justice. —Judge Pierron My comments: This just absolutely breaks my heart. This poor boy. Goddess only knows what hell he may be going through in prison. Gods, I hope someone is looking out for him... A mildly mentally retarded young man, essentially a boy himself, sent to prison on a sodomy charge. He may as well be a Jew at Auschwitz. Fucking goddamn bastards who sent him there!!! And now two more have denied him freedom. Man, when they get the bad Karma that's coming to them, well, then I'll probably have pity for them too... But right now I swear I could ring their necks! What kind of monster could do such a thing?! How can they live with themselves? Self-righteous, morally-bankrupt, cold, callous bigots! Apparently things had been looking pretty good for Matthew's case after the US Supreme Court, upon overturning the Texas sodomy law, ordered the Kansas Court of Appeals to review his case. The one compassionate human being among the three on the panel, Judge G. Joseph Pierron Jr. (the dissenter in this week's ruling), last month said to the prosecutor: "I'm just trying to come up with a reason, other than you don't like homosexuals."(!) But unfortunately his voice of reason and fairness was outweighed by the other two (Judges Henry W. Green Jr. and Tom Malone) who essentially upheld the right of the legislature to make discriminatory laws. As Susan Sommer of Lambda Legal put it: "This is an opinion that reflects an archaic set of attitudes about homosexuality that the U.S. Supreme Court completely transcended." Well, hope remains for poor Matthew Limon in the form of the Kansas and US Supreme Courts. If Limon's case makes it to the highest court in the nation, hopefully it will still possess the attitude of reason and fairness that caused it to order this review in the first place... Yet another very good reason to FLUSH BUSH in 2004! On a broader note, all the more infuriating and heart-wrenching and sickening is that Limon is not an exception to the rule. The mentally disabled and the mentally ill are routinely imprisoned in this country, and that is a horrific crime against humanity! Of course I think our entire prison system is fundamentally flawed, grossly ineffective, and conclusively inhumane... But imprisoning a mentally ill or mentally disabled person is the moral equivalent of raping or battering a child: a brutal and senseless use of force against an utterly defenseless human being, one for whom society has the utmost responsibility to protect and care. Every one of these individuals whom we have imprisoned bears witness to our vast failure as a human society. Let's send Green and Malone to prison instead, and give them a swift kick in the ass while we're at it! They should be disbarred on charges of utter failure to display even an ounce of basic humanity... P.S.
George W. Bush
is "a miserable failure on foreign
policy and on the economy and he's got to be replaced."
George Bush Has Got to Go! *** Flush Bush! *** Anyone But Bush in 2004! *** Have you taken a good look at George W. Bush lately? |
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