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Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA PDF

314 Pages·2009·0.82 MB·English
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Preview Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA

PRAISE FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL “Jailhouse Lawyers is a must-read for everyone connected in any fashion to the criminal justice system. It illuminates a dark area seen by few and outlines the legal battles still waged from the ‘hole’ by the semantic warriors who inhabit it. The book plumbs the depth of man’s inhumanity to man by exploring the ongoing legal attack by underground lawyers on an unfair legal system. Death-row prisoner Mumia Abu- Jamal, an award-winning journalist, once again demonstrates his courage in opposing the oppression of prison existence.” —Tony Serra “Like the most powerful critics in our society—Herman Melville . . . to Eugene O’Neil—Mumia Abu-Jamal forces us to grapple with the most fundamental question facing this country: what does it profit a nation to conquer the whole world and lose its soul?” —Cornel West “His voice is vital and strong. . . . The power of his voice is rooted in his defiance of those determined to silence him. Magically, Mumia’s words are clarified, purified by the toxic strata of resistance through which they must penetrate to reach us. Like blues. Like jazz.” —John Edgar Wideman “Brilliant in its specificity and imperative, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s work is about why multitudes of people don’t overcome. It rings so true because he has not overcome.” —LA Weekly “Abu-Jamal offers expert and well-reasoned commentary on the justice system. . . . His writings are dangerous.” —Village Voice “Mumia refuses to allow his spirit to be broken by the forces of injustice; his language glows with an affirming flame.” —Jonathan Kozol “Mumia is a dramatic example of how the criminal justice system can be brought to bear on someone who is African American, articulate, and involved in change in society. The system is threatened by someone like Mumia. A voice as strong and as truthful as his—the repression against him is intensified.” —Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking OTHER BOOKS BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL Live from Death Row Death Blossoms All Things Censored Faith of Our Fathers We Want Freedom PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE U.S.A. Foreword by Angela Y. Davis City Lights Books San Francisco Copyright © 2009 by Mumia Abu-Jamal Foreword © 2009 by Angela Y. Davis All Rights Reserved. Cover design: Pollen Cover photo of Mumia Abu-Jamal © April Saul/ Philadephia Inquirer The cover photograph depicts a holding cell and is not an accurate reflection of the small cell the author has been forced to occupy on death row for the past twenty-seven years. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Abu-Jamal, Mumia. Jailhouse lawyers : prisoners defending prisoners v. the U.S.A. / by Mumia Abu-Jamal ; introduction by Angela Davis. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-87286-469-6 ISBN-10: 0-87286-469-3 1. Legal assistance to prisoners—United States. 2. Prisoners—Legal status, laws, etc—United States. 3. Law —Study and teaching—United States. I. Title. KF337.5.P7A78 2008 344.7303'566—dc22 2008020491 City Lights Books are published at the City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133. www.citylights.com CON TE N TS Acknowledgments 9 Foreword by Angela Y. Davis 1 3 Preface by Selma James Introduction by Mumia Abu-Jamal 1. Learning the Law 35 2. What “the Law” Is 51 3. When Jailhouse Lawyers “Represent” 73 4. What about Street Lawyers? 117 5. The Jailhouse Lawyering of Mayberry 151 6. A Woman’s Work in State Hell 167 7. The Ruiz Effect: How One Jailhouse Lawyer Made Change in Texas 185 8. From “Social Prisoner” to Jailhouse Lawyer to Revolutionary: Ed Mead’s Journey 191 9. Jailhouse Lawyers on Jailhouse Lawyers 205 10. The Best of the Best 217 11. The Worst of the Worst 233 12. The Social Role of Jailhouse Lawyers 243 Afterword 249 Appendix A 255 Appendix B 260 Endnotes 265 Index 279 About the Authors 288 A C K N O W LED G M EN T S This book, like any other, is not a solitary project, although it may seem so, given the domain of the writer. Books have many mothers and fathers, and are often born of the slightest of suggestions offered on the wind. First and foremost, however, one must give credit to those men and women who toil in the dungeons of Babylon as jailhouse lawyers, and who are often tossed into the hole for telling another prisoner how to file a writ or helping someone prepare a complaint. Their work made this work possible. I thank Delbert Africa (who first told me about jailhouse lawyers), Steve Evans, one of the first I ever met, and also express thanks to: Frank Atwood Amber Bray George Rahsaan Brooks-Bey Dejah Browne Roger Buehl Shaka Cinque aka Albert Woodfox Matthew Clarke Margaret Midge DeLuca Jane Dorotik Barry “Running Bear” Gibbs Antoine Graham #203246 Richard Mayberry David M. Reutter Samuel C. Rutherford III Iron Thunderhorse Teresa Torricellas Charles “The Dutchman” Van Dorsten Herman Joshua Wallace Robert Williams Ronald “Chief Justice Fatburger” Williams Ed Mead These are some of the many jailhouse lawyers (even though some have rejected the name) who answered my questions and wrote with passion and purpose out into a silent world. I thank them for their correspondence. There are many jailhouse lawyers who wish to remain anonymous, under the radar, because of their very well- founded fear of repression, the hole, or other means of restraint. I thank them all for being excellent teachers and commend this work to their critique and comment. The contributors/writers/editors of Prison Legal News and its continuing editor (although no longer a prisoner), Paul Wright, also have my thanks. These men and women perform unsung jobs in places where street lawyers fear to tread. Thanks too to Global Women’s Strike and one of its staunchest members, Selma James, who suggested that I do this book and then offered to edit and publish it, sight unseen, even before I had agreed to write it. I am also quite thankful to my American publisher, City Lights Books, and its indefatigable Brooklynite editor, Greg Ruggiero (of Open Media fame), who took collect calls in the late hours of the night and early morn to help craft this work. His and City Lights’ meticulous attention to detail have joined to make this a far better work. The writer is also thankful for the invaluable support of Noelle Hanrahan and several staffers of the Prison Radio (P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA, 94141), for helping make this process a success. Thanks to Frances Goldin, agent extraordinaire, who helped bring this baby home to you, dear reader. My wish is only to tell a story that has never been told before, enriching our understanding of the world’s Prisonhouse of

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“Expert and well-reasoned commentary on the justice system. . . . His writings are dangerous.”—The Village VoiceIn Jailhouse Lawyers, award-winning journalist and death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal presents the stories and reflections of fellow prisoners-turned-advocates who have learned to use
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