Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XXV Number 6, June 2017


  UPCOMING EVENTS
  NOTE: NO THURSDAY MEETINGS IN 
JUNE, JULY, OR AUGUST. The Thursday 
planning meetings will resume after summer 
break on September 28.
  Tuesday, July 11, 7:30-9:00 PM. Letter 
writing meeting at Caltech Athenaeum, corner 
of Hill and California in Pasadena. In the 
summer we meet outdoors at the "Rath al 
Fresco," on the lawn next to the building. This 
informal gathering is a great way for 
newcomers to get acquainted with Amnesty.
  Sunday, July 16, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers 
Human Rights Book Discussion Group. This 
month we read the novel "The Incarnations" 
by Susan Baker.

COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi everyone

Finally summer is here-at least weather wise, 
although the official start is next week, June 21.

I just finished our June book, "the Bad-Ass 
Librarians of Timbuktu" by Joshua Hammer-
(with a title like that, I had to read it! ) It was 
exciting, like a thriller, and I read it rapidly.  
Spoiler alert:  the good guys win!

Last weekend Paul, Rob and myself plus an 
LAUSD friend took the Gold Line to Little 
Tokyo to see the George Takei exhibit at the 
Japanese American National Museum.
 Really an interesting display of stuff from his 
childhood, career (Star Trek and more since 
then), and political and civic activism. (I am now 
following him on Facebook!) The exhibition 
closes August 20.  For more info, go to the 
museum website at  http://www.janm.org. 
Their permanent exhibition on the forced 
evacuation of Japanese-Americans on the West 
Coast is also very interesting.

Rob didn't have time to submit an article for 
Security with Human Rights  so I have copied 
and pasted some information from the AIUSA 
website and also included this link to an urgent 
action against the Muslim Ban as well as two 
other actions at:
https://www.amnestyusa.org/take-action/act-
now/

Con Carino, Kathy





Next Rights Readers Meeting

Sunday, July 16,  
6:30 PM

Vroman's Bookstore
695 E Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena

The Incarnations 

by Susan Barker


BOOK REVIEW 
By Carol Birch, Aug 13, 2014, The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/13
/the-incarcations-susan-barker-review


THE INCARNATIONS 
By Susan Barker

"Last week I met a shoeshine boy in Wangfujing, 
who was first made flesh during the Neolithic 
era, when men were cave dwellers and dragged 
their knuckles on the ground."

Suspend your disbelief, flow along with this 
wonderful book, like the crazy traffic flowing 
around Beijing's six ring roads. It is 2008, the 
Olympics are at hand. Taxi driver Wang is 
receiving letters from a mysterious watcher, 
claiming to be the soulmate who has 
accompanied him through the past 1,000 years 
and five previous lives. Wang, a befuddled, 
obscurely depressed man in his early 30s, is 
disturbed enough to go to the police, but is not 
taken seriously. This is because he has a history 
of mental instability, as did his mother, 
Shuxiang, a clever, cynical woman with whom 
he'd shared a stifling and reclusive bond until 
her death (which he heard about at boarding 
school, having been packed off by his father). 
Once a womanising boor, his father is now 
disabled and drooling, in the vicious care of his 
second wife, Lin Hong, an ageing femme fatale 
who once tried to seduce Wang when he was a 
teenager.

Wang, now tired and prematurely balding, has 
put all that behind him and believes himself 
content with his pretty wife and much-loved 
nine-year-old daughter. Into his life of bland 
acceptance the letters drop one by one like 
bombs, telling stories of violence, obsession and 
betrayal, each from a different era of Chinese 
history, from the Tang dynasty to the cultural 
revolution. The book moves effortlessly from 
past to present and back again. In each life, 
Wang and the mysterious letter-writer have 
played out different roles and relationships, 
though soulmate here doesn't imply helpmate, 
and bitter betrayal lies at the heart of each story.

In the first incarnation, Wang is Bitter Root, who 
rapes his idiot sister and thereby begets a 
daughter named Night Coming. Bitter Root is 
castrated and sent away as a eunuch to serve the 
emperor. Night Coming grows up to be married 
off to the son of a wealthy family, only to 
discover on her wedding day that she is to be a 
"spirit bride". The son is dead, the proxy 
bridegroom a cockerel, and she is to join the 
deceased in the world beyond. She runs away, 
however, to look for her father, taking her 
feathered bridegroom with her and killing and 
eating him on the way. "Widowed at the age of 
13," as she drily says. Bitter Root and Night 
Coming transmute into two starving slave boys 
being driven across the Gobi by a Mongol slave-
driver, before becoming concubines in the 
harem of a vile and sadistic emperor with 
"rotting-molars-and-gum-pits-stinking breath". 
The opium wars follow with Wang as a foreign 
devil and his soulmate a Pearl River fisherboy. 
In the final incarnation they are schoolgirls in 
the Anti-capitalist School for Revolutionary 
Girls during the worst excesses of the cultural 
revolution.

What is Wang to make of all this? His stalker, 
clearly highly literate and erudite, proclaims 
their undying bond, but is hardly comforting 
and often threatening: "I pity your poor wife, 
Driver Wang. What's the bond of matrimony 
compared to the bond we have shared for over 
1,000 years? What will happen to her when I 
reappear in your life? What will become of her 
then?"

As each new character appears, the reader 
searches for the identity of the letter writer. 
Could it be old lover Zeng with his dragon 
tattoos and scarred face? Wang's mother 
returned from the dead? Or something 
altogether stranger? It isn't necessary to believe 
in reincarnation to appreciate this book. It may 
all be neurotic fantasy, but as a device for 
forcing the reader to look closely and ponder 
deeply, it works beautifully. The relationships 
are multilayered and troublesome in so many 
ways, and strong as the many bonds are, no one 
seems capable of making anyone else happy. 
What is this drama being played out so intensely 
over so many ages? Where did it begin and 
where will it end? And where does the present 
fit into it all?

Susan Barker (pictured) delivers a masterful 
ending. This would have been a good book if it 
had simply recounted a series of bizarre tales 
and stopped, but a bittersweet final revelation 
poses more questions, reveals deeper 
dimensions and sends the reader back to the 
beginning searching for clues missed the first 
time round.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan Barker grew up in east London. She 
studied philosophy at the University of Leeds 
and creative writing at the University of 
Manchester. She is the author of the novels 
Sayonara Bar (2005) and The Orientalist and the 
Ghost (2008), both published by Doubleday 
(UK) and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

Her third novel The Incarnations (Doubleday, 
July 2014) is about a taxi driver in contemporary 
Beijing and interwoven with tales from the Tang 
Dynasty, the invasion of Genghis Khan, the 
Ming Dynasty, the Opium War, and the Cultural 
Revolution. While writing The Incarnations she 
spent several years living in Beijing, researching 
modern and imperial China.

She has received grants from the Arts Council 
England and the Society of Authors, and has 
been an artist in resident at the Corporation of 
Yaddo, Hawthornden International Writers' 
Retreat and the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. In 
2010- 2012 she was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow 
at Leeds Trinity University.

Follow her on twitter: @SusanKBarker




SECURITY WITH HUMAN 
RIGHTS
Kathy Hansen-Adams


https://www.amnestyusa.org/issues/national-
security/

We all need safety from violence and terrorism, but no 
government should sacrifice people's human rights in the 
name of national security.
Unfortunately, in the United States and beyond, that's 
exactly what's happening - and Amnesty International is 
helping stop it.

THE PROBLEM

On multiple fronts, the United States government is 
violating human rights in the name of national security, 
often in violation of both U.S. law and international law.
*	People have been held for years at the 
Guant‡namo detention camp in Cuba without 
even being charged with a crime. Prisoners have 
been tortured and mistreated, and they are not 
given fair trials.
*	The U.S. has used lethal force, including through 
drone strikes, in several countries, leading to 
civilian deaths. Military operations have exposed 
civilians and U.S. service members to toxins that 
have led to devastating medical conditions.
*	Surveillance and targeting of Muslims - based on 
who they are, not what they've done - has fueled 
harassment, discrimination, and violence.
*	For years, the U.S. government allowed officials to 
torture people through horrific techniques that 
violate U.S. and international law. President 
Trump has vowed to expand the use of torture 
even further in the years ahead.

AMNESTY IN ACTION
Changing lives and policies

Amnesty International helps expose and end national 
security policies that violate human rights. We've secured 
fair treatment for people in individual cases, we've helped 
force the government to release information about its 
activities, and we've played a key role in helping end 
practices that abuse human rights.
*	We're fighting President Trump's Muslim Ban 
and mobilizing grassroots activists to push 
Congress to intervene. 
*	Our research uncovers individual cases of people 
whose human rights are violated by U.S. national 
security policies, and we campaign to secure their 
rights. 
*	We campaign to close Guant‡namo, end unlawful 
strikes that kill civilians, and ensure accountability 
for torture. We mobilize grassroots activists to 
push for federal policies that protect safety and 
human rights together. Take action to demand 
that the Trump Administration and Congress 
protect human rights in national security.

59
Number of people detained at Guantanamo by the 
end of January 2017, a drop from 103 a year earlier.

13,000
Number of people deported under the NSEERS 
program, without being convicted of any crimes, 
before it was dismantled.

132
Number of protests Amnesty International USA held 
in the weeks after President Trump issued his first 
Muslim Ban. 

CASE STUDY
SHAKER AAMIR
Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held at 
Guantanamo Bay for more than 13 years, walks along a 
residential street in London on December 15, 2015. 
(JUSTIN TALLIS /AFP/Getty Images)

In 2002, Shaker Aamer, a U.K. resident and father of 
four, was one of the first people sent to the notorious 
makeshift prison the U.S. started at Guant‡namo Bay, 
Cuba, after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Shaker 
was born in Saudi Arabia; he studied in Georgia and 
Maryland, and he worked as a translator for the U.S. 
Army during the Gulf War.

Shaker always maintained his innocence. He said he 
was subjected to torture for years. He was cleared for 
transfer out of Guant‡namo in 2007, indicating that 
authorities had no plans to charge him - but he was 
not released.

Amnesty International campaigned aggressively for 
Shaker's release for more than a decade - mobilizing 
thousands of people to write letters, directly 
advocating with the U.S. and U.K. governments, and 
working closely with his family and attorneys. 
Finally, in October 2015, Shaker was flown to the 
U.K. and freed. He had been imprisoned for 13 years 
without being charged with a crime.




DEATH PENALTY NEWS
By Stevi Carroll


California Supreme Court and Proposition 66

As we remember, California voters passed 
Proposition 66 this past November.  The day 
after the election Ron Briggs, lifelong 
Republican, former supporter of the death 
penalty, and former member of the El Dorado 
County Board of Supervisors, and the late John 
Van de Kamp, former Attorney General of 
California (1983-1991), filed a challenge to the 
Proposition's constitutionality with the 
California Supreme Court. The Court denied the 
stay until the votes were certified.  Then on 
December the 19th, Mr. Briggs and Mr. Van de 
Kamp filed again, resulting in the stayed 
implementation of the initiative on December 
20.

In early June, the CA Supreme Court held oral 
arguments on the lawsuit.  While initiatives are 
supposed to be only for a single subject, 
Proposition 66 addressed a number of issues. 
These include: 

*	the requirement that all state death 
penalty proceedings are completed in five 
years
*	lawyers without experience in capital 
cases can be forced to take them should a 
backlog of cases occur
*	habeas corpus petitions would be 
transferred from the CA Supreme Court back 
to the sentencing court
*	and the limitation of the sentencing 
court's time for deciding the cases and the 
prisoners' ability to appeal the court's findings.

During the oral argument this month, the 
justices exhibited a lack of questioning about the 
proposition's violation of the single-subject rule.  
Additionally, the justices did not question 
California's lethal injection protocol. Under Prop 
66, oversight of the protocol would go from the 
Administrative Procedure Act, an agency that 
monitors compliance.  The Department of 
Corrections and Rehabilitation would have the 
ability to execute in any manner and with any 
drugs.

On June 9, the LA Times ended an editorial 
saying, "Even if the Supreme Court lets 
Proposition 66 stand, the measure still faces 
other likely challenges. So an already-expensive 
death penalty system will cost taxpayers even 
more as the state is forced to defend it in court. 
The irony here is that the effort to speed up the 
death penalty by shortening appeals could very 
well suffer through a prolonged appeals process 
itself before ultimately being struck down. It 
should be put out of its misery now."

The Court will issue its ruling in September.

For more information about this case, go to 
"Death penalty in California: State Supreme 
Court holds high-stakes hearing Tuesday" at 
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/05/death-
penalty-in-california-state-supreme-court-holds-high-
stakes-hearing-tuesday/

William Morva
July 6 may well be William Morva's last day of 
life. Mr. Morva did in fact murder a hospital 
security guard and a sheriff's deputy. He also 
suffers from delusional disorder.  The jurors for 
his trial were never fully told of the extent of his 
mental illness. They were simply told he had 
'odd beliefs' and did not suffer from delusions. 

Dawn Davison, Mr. Morva's lawyer, says that 
years before he was arrested he's suffered severe 
delusions that included "somatic delusion that 
he had gastrointestinal problems that required 
him to eat raw meat and massive amounts of 
dairy products, ... persecutory delusions, where 
he believed that he was being targeted by the 
local police, who were working with the Bush 
Administration to persecute him, and ... 
grandiose delusions that he had special 
knowledge and powers that he was destined to 
use to save certain indigenous tribes, although it 
wasn't clear what he was saving them from, or 
how he intended to do it. It was around this 
time that he told people he was living in the 
woods, going barefoot in he winter, living off 
the land in preparation for his "mission.""

Mr. Morva's delusions have become so great 
that he has not met with his lawyer in almost 
five years because he's come to believe she is 
working against him. While eight states have 
legislation pending that would bar mentally ill 
people from being executed, the US Supreme 
Court has not ruled on this. (To read more about 
the Supremes and the execution of the mentally 
ill, go to, "Does the U.S. Execute People with 
Mental Illness? It's Complicated" 
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/us/mental-
illness-death-penalty.html?_r=0)

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe can grant 
William Morva clemency because of his mental 
illness. Governor McAuliffe can be reached at 
(804) 786-2211.

In an article by Dr. Frederick J, Frese, dated June 
12, 2017, he discusses his own struggles with 
severe mental illness. Dr. Frese is a professor of 
psychiatry at Northeast Ohio Medical 
University and a former Marine Corps captain 
who was discharged from the military after 
being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. 
His story humanizes severe mental illness as he 
gives thanks for the excellent treatment he 
received. He believes we have a dangerous gap 
in understanding since we are willing to execute 
people who are severely mentally ill who have 
committed crimes "in the throes of their illness." 
He says, "No civilized country should allow this 
to happen." He goes on to ask, "Should we be 
executing individuals for actions they have 
taken when they are detached from reality?" He 
supports the sentence of life without parole.

Perhaps Governor McAuliffe would benefit 
from Dr. Frese's wisdom - and compassion.

To read "A Veteran's Plea: Stop Executing 
People with Severe Mental Illness", go to 
https://medium.com/@fredfrese/a-veterans-plea-
stop-executing-people-with-severe-mental-illness-
5f4520776d0a

I think perhaps Congressman Joseph Kennedy 
III summed up our treatment of our citizens best 
when he said, "The ultimate test of our 
country's character is not the power we give the 
strong, but the strength we give the weak." May 
4, 2017 - comments on the House Floor.

Recent Exonerations
Desmond Ricks - State: MI - Date of 
Exoneration: 6/1/2017
In 1992, Desmond Ricks was sentenced to 30 to 
60 years in prison for murder in Detroit, 
Michigan. He was exonerated in 2017 by 
evidence that the police fabricated ballistics 
evidence and that he was not the gunman

Deshawn Reed - State: CA - Date of Exoneration: 
5/19/2017
In 2014, Deshawn Reed was sentenced to life in 
prison without parole for a double murder in 
Oakland, California. He was exonerated in 2017 
by evidence that identified another man as the 
gunman.


Patrick Prince - State: IL - Date of Exoneration: 
5/16/2017
In 1994, Patrick Prince was sentenced to 60 years 
in prison for murder in Chicago, Illinois. He was 
exonerated in 2017 after evidence showed that a 
detective had physically abused him until he 
falsely confessed and new witnesses identified 
the real killer.

Raynella Dossett Leath State: TN -  Date of 
Exoneration: 5/10/2017
In 2010, Raynella Dossett Leath was sentenced 
to life in prison for murdering her husband in 
Knoxville, Tennessee. She was acquitted at a 
retrial in May 2017 based on evidence that his 
death was a suicide.

Stays of Execution
June
13	William Montgomery 	OH
	Rescheduled for October 18, 2017*
13	Gary Otte			OH 
	Rescheduled for September 13, 2017*
28	Steven Long			TX
	Rescheduled for August 30, 2017

Executions 
May
26	Thomas Arthur 	AL
	Lethal Injection - 3-drug (midazolam)

June
8	Robert Melson		AL
	Lethal Injection - 3-drug (midazolam)

*On May 1, 2017 Governor Kasich issued another 
statement revising the schedule for nine upcoming 
executions. This revised schedule was in response to 
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit's order 
setting a briefing schedule for the Court's en 
banc rehearing of the state's appeal of a federal 
magistrate judge's order issuing a preliminary 
injunction barring Ohio from carrying out 3-drug 
executions using midazolam or any execution using a 
paralytic agent or potassium chloride.



PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
Narges Mohammadi
By Joyce Wolf


Searching on social media for recent news about 
Narges, I learned that she was taken to the 
hospital for emergency surgery on May 29. 
Here's the Facebook post:

Center for Human Rights in Iran
May 30 at 9:06am  
Prominent imprisoned human rights activist 
Narges Mohammadi underwent surgery to stop 
severe abnormal uterine bleeding on May 29, 
according to the Center for Defenders of Human 
Rights. The hospital's chief physician recommended 
Mohammadi remain under observation in the 
hospital until the bleeding ceases and she has fully 
recovered from the operation.

But apparently she was sent back to prison and 
not allowed to recover in the hospital:
Free Narges @UnitedForNarges Jun 3
Another violation of BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS. 
Narges Mohammadi sent back2 prison directly 
after surgery #FreeNarges #Iran

We'll try to find more information and put 
together an action for Narges for our July letter -
writing.


GROUP 22 JUNE LETTER COUNT
Urgent Actions          36

Amnesty International Group 22
The Caltech Y
Mail Code C1-128
Pasadena, CA 91125
www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com

Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on 
preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, 
freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the 
context of its work to promote all human rights.