Chris Hedges Article on Hasan and the Uprising

Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges has written a great article about Hasan, the Uprising and a revolutionary change in the US prison system for TruthDig.com

[Ed Note: Hedges' paragraph about the Lucasville 5 is unclear and potentially inaccurate.When he says Hasan was sentenced to death along with George, Keith, Namir and Jason it might read like they were sentenced to death for the same killing (of Vallandingham) in fact, LaMar had surrendered days before Vallandingham was killed, Jason, Namir and Hasan were charged with complicity in the killing, not the actual killing (and not even conspiracy to kill). A jury gave George life for the Vallandingham charge but was condemned on other false complicity in murder charges.
Also, we suspect Jason may balk at the statement that he rejected white solidarity. Prisoner allegiences and solidarity are more complex and nuanced than that.
And, this website seeks to consistently reject the Lucasville 5 label, because it leaves out guys who didn't get the death penalty, but were railroaded in even more overt ways, and (because as non-death penalty cases, they don't have court appointed appeal counsel) are possibly more likely to die in captivity than the five. We demand amnesty for all the Lucasville Uprising prisoners. All that said, this is an excellent article and we really appreciate Hedges' meeting with Hasan and writing it.]

We Kill Our Revolutionaries

Posted on Feb 22, 2015

By Chris Hedges

New Picture of Hasan and Bomani Together

Transcript of Oral Arguments.

On Dec 2nd, lawyers argued about whether or not some judges should say it's okay to kill Keith LaMar. We've posted the audio of the arguments, as well as analysis of some experts and non-experts, and Keith's thoughts on the subject.

Now, thanks to prisoner support crews across the country (shout out to Austin ABC, Tucson ABC, Bloomington ABC and Sacramento Prisoner Support) we've got a full transcript of the argument so you can read the desperate weakness of the state's argument for yourself.

Also, this is probably full of misspelled case names. If you know case law better than us and can help correct and maybe even reference the appropriate cases, we'll gladly update and improve it.

AND we may have mixed up which justice said what. Old white guys all sound the same. Sorry. Again, if you think we've got something wrong, email insurgent.ben@gmail.com and i'll fix it.

Find it after the jump.

Lucasville vet: Refusing to snitch on men merely protesting inhumane prison conditions cost me 27 years

From The San Francisco Bay View

December 19, 2014

by Edward Julious
In light of the fact that Blacks here in Amerikkka are continually faced with racism, discrimination and a Jim Crow-style so-called justice system, I am truly invigorated when I read articles like Michelle Alexander’s “You Are True Heroes For Our Time” (December 2013 Bay View).

Edward Julious

I myself feel like, as a people, we do not respond to the call from our own who are being tortured behind enemy lines at the hands of the enemy. Wrong after wrong after wrong has been and still is being committed systematically against Blacks and other people of color in this country. We fight alone and in small groups to no great effect. Our disunity kills us slowly each and every day.
Take my own case for instance. I was involved in an uprising on April 11, 1993, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. I was sentenced across the street from the prison by an all-White jury who made such racist statements as “We shouldn’t be wasting our time” and “They are just a bunch of niggers.”

Lucasville Aftermath Videos Surface

The Huffington Post recently reported that 90 minutes of video has surfaced on YouTube. Shot by correctional officers for politicians and inspectors who could not tour the facility themselves, the footage is basically a tour of the occupied cell block.

The videos include sometimes unfortunate and obliquely racist commentary from the correctional officer shooting it, as well as graphic images of the murder scenes. They also contain footage of graffiti espousing interracial unity and convict solidarity as well as images of the various ways the prisoners defended themselves and prepared for the state's luckily forstalled attack.

Bomani and Hasan have a Conversation on Current Events

Siddique Abdullah Hasan and Keith LaMar (aka Bomani Shakur) have been locked in solitary confinement for over two decades, while they struggle against death sentences wrongfully imposed upon them following the Lucasville Uprising. After years of struggle and repeated hunger strikes, they've recently won the ability to spend their scant hours outside their cells together. From inside the super max, they've been paying close attention to all the fierce and inspiring protests that have exploded against police terrorism. They've typed up a reconstruction of some of their conversations for us, which we're pleased to share with our readers.

--Ben Turk, editor of LucasvilleAmnesty.org

Bomani: So we've been sitting here for the past several weeks watching the fallout of recent police shootings of unarmed Black men, and obviously it's been inspiring to see so many people--Black, White, young and old--come out in a forceful show of solidarity against the powers that be. Tell me, what has been the most powerful impression you've had? And, what kind of connections do you see between the recent shootings and some of the other ills that plague society?

Full Condemned Video Online

The full video of the new Condemned Documentary is now available on YouTube. Please share!