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Political Prisoner Jalil Muntaqim Update - by Stephen Lendman
A previous article discussed his case, accessed through the following link:
For centuries in America, mass incarceration has been used for social control. In the 1600s, laws distinguished Blacks from Whites. Slavery existed until 1865. After the 13th Amendment abolished it, Blacks, like other people of color, were still denied due process. They still are, victimized by prosecutorial harshness, judicial unfairness, repressive drug laws, get tough on crime policies, guilt by accusation, three strikes and you're out, and poverty preventing a competent defense.
Muntaqim, formerly Anthony Bottom, is one of many thousands of victims, wrongfully imprisoned since 1971 for a crime he didn't commit.
At age 19, he and Albert Nuh Washington were arrested in San Francisco on August 28, 1971, charged with the May 21, 1971 killings of two New York City police officers (Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini). On April 28, 2000, Washington died in prison. In 1973, Herman Bell was also arrested and charged along with Gabriel and Francisco Torres. The two brothers were later acquitted for lack of evidence. Muntaqim, Washington and Bell became known as the New York Three.
After a mistrial, they were convicted in 1975 of first degree murder, weapons possession, and conspiracy despite inconsistent fraudulent evidence, based on perjured testimonies and a deal between prosecutors and a key witness.
The entire process mocked justice. Disclosed COINTELPRO documents named them as Black Liberation Army (BLA) and Black Panther Party (BPP) members. They were targeted to be "neutralized" for their activism against injustice, a war raging today against Muslims and others challenging political and economic unfairness.
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