The Injustice Continues: MOVE 9 women denied parole
By Hans Bennett
The Philadelphia Inquirer ( READ FULL ARTICLE ) announced today that the three remaining MOVE 9 women (Debbie Sims Africa, Janet Hollaway Africa and Janine Phillips Africa) were denied parole by the PA Parole Board. The Inquirer quotes parole board spokesperson Leo Dunn as saying that parole had been denied because the three MOVE prisoners had “minimized or denied the ‘nature and circumstances’ of the offense, ‘refused to accept responsibility’ and lacked remorse. He said the fourth reason for the rejections was the ‘negative recommendation’ by the prosecutor.”
The parole board used several of the stipulations that MOVE spokesperson Ramona Africa had predicted that they would try and use to deny parole, including that they "refused to accept responsibility" and lacked remorse.... The unfairness and arguable illegality of this is so obvious, because how can you expect someone to "admit guilt" when they've always said they are innocent? Where does remorse come from if someone is actually innocent?
The “nature and circumstances” stipulation is a blatant re-sentence, since the serious nature of the charges were considered by the judge at the time when he ruled that MOVE should be eligible for parole after 30 years. How can this fairly be used to deny parole?
A further outrage is that the women never even faced weapons charges, unlike the male MOVE 9 prisoners. Because of this, it had been thought by many observers that the women would have a better chance of receiving parole.
Therefore, if this is any indication, it does not look good for the MOVE 9 men, for whom the parole decision is still pending. If supporters want to make a difference and hold the parole board accountable for these blatantly unconstitutional parole stipulations, we must increase public pressure.
This blatantly unfair decision can only serve to validate the argument that the MOVE 9 are indeed “political prisoners”.
At move9parole.blogspot.com there are resources for contacting the parole board. As well as articles, and a new video-series focusing on MOVE 9 parole that feature new interviews with Ramona and Mike Africa Jr. mixed in with archival footage from the recent documentary on MOVE by Cohort Media, narrated by Howard Zinn.
This is an official statement just made by Ramona Africa of MOVE:
MOVE WOMEN DENIED PAROLE!!!
Today, April 22, 2008, MOVE women that survived the August 8, 1978 police attempt to kill off MOVE were denied parole by the Pennsylvania Department of Probation and Parole. The parole board says that MOVE women were denied parole because they minimized or denied the nature and circumstances of the offense; refused to accept responsibility; lacked remorse and because the prosecutors office said MOVE should not be paroled because we act outside the “law”.
In fact, it’s the parole board that is “acting outside the law” by demanding that any inmate (especially those that have maintained their innocence from the very beginning) say that they are guilty when they are not. MOVE is innocent, we ain’t guilty, we ain’t gonna say we’re guilty and the parole board has no authority to demand that we lie and say we’re guilty. That is the height of arrogance when the parole board knows that countless people are convicted in the courts daily, are sent to jail and end up being released after 20, 25, 30 years because they are innocent just like they said they were. Where would any “remorse” come from when you are innocent? Why would anybody take responsibility for a crime that they didn’t commit? Where is the wrong in denying something that you did not do?
It is obvious that these officials are sending a very clear message to the people. The message is that they’re gonna do whatever they want to do and they don’t care about the truth , they don’t care that they’re breaking the very laws that they claim to have MOVE and millions of others in prison for breaking and they don’t even care that people know that they’re the ones that are breaking the law.
Lynn Abraham (the district attorney of Philadelphia that used to be a judge) says that MOVE “acts outside the law” so we should stay in prison? In fact, She acted outside the law when she signed warrants for MOVE in May of 1977 even though the police commissioner said MOVE had committed no crime.
Then mayor, Rizzo, “acted outside the law” on August 8, 1978 when he ordered MOVE HQ., vital evidence in a murder trial, the “scene of the crime” destroyed. The courts “acted outside the law” when they proceeded with the trial after destroying the scene of the crime because when they destroyed the evidence they destroyed the bases for any trial.
Judge Malmed, the trial judge in the August 8th murder trial “acted outside the law” when he sentenced 9 innocent MOVE people to a maximum 900 years in prison for a crime that he could not say or prove that any 1 of the 9 committed, a crime that he admitted publicly that he didn’t have the “faintest idea” who committed. Lynn Abraham “acted outside the law” when she knowingly signed fraudulent warrants for cops to come out and murder innocent MOVE people in May of 1985.
The proof of just how fraudulent those warrants were lie in the fact that every single charge listed in those warrants were dismissed as having no basis, every single charge. Is there any question why MOVE people are so bitter, so full of fight and so motivated to keep revolting against this rotten ass system? JOHN AFRICA has opened our eyes and HE keeps us motivated, keeps us full of fight. They can hurt MOVE because we’re alive, we have feelings, but thanks to JOHN AFRICA they WILL NEVER STOP MOVE!
LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA! LONG LIVE REVOLUTION!
