Panel Discussion: Solitary Confinement and Political Prisoners (Video)

National Lawyers Guild – Solitary Confinement and Political Prisoners: The Use of Prison Isolation in Policing Radical Politics. San Juan, Puerto Rico. October 25, 2013.

Moderator: Bret Grote (Executive Director of the Abolitionist Law Center)

Panelists: Jihad Abdulmumit (Co-chairperson of the National Jericho Movement); Clarissa López Ramos (daughter of Oscar López Rivera); Mumia Abu Jamal by recording (Journalist and Jailhouse Lawyer Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild); Azadeh Zohrabi (Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, and member of legal team representing Pelican Bay prisoners).

Part 1:

Part 2:

Lynne Stewart on the Steady Evisceration of the Right to Counsel

Lynne Stewart is one of the best known peoples’ lawyers in recent history. After a long career fighting against state repression on behalf of her clients, she’s now being held in a federal prison-hospital in Texas, where she is receiving belated treatment for late-stage cancer. Her current illness has been exacerbated by the neglect which generally characterizes medical care for prisoners in America. Despite many calls for compassionate release, the United States continues to insist on keeping her in prison for violating a prison regulation by releasing a press statement for a client, or as the United States calls it, “providing material support to terrorism.”  We urge everyone reading this to sign the petition for compassionate release of Lynne Stewart.

What follows is a statement from Lynne, regarding the continuing rollback of the right to counsel:  Continue reading “Lynne Stewart on the Steady Evisceration of the Right to Counsel”