Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XXVII Number 8, August 2019
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, September 10, 7:30-9:00 PM. Letter
Writing meeting at the Caltech Athenaeum,
corner of Hill and California in Pasadena. (In
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, September 15, 6:30 PM. Rights
Readers Human Rights Book Discussion
Group. For September we read "American
Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into
the Business of Punishment" by Shane Bauer.
Thursday, September 26, 7:30 PM. Monthly
Meeting. We meet at the Caltech Y, Tyson
House, 505 S. Wilson Ave., Pasadena.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hello All,
This past week school started for LAUSD and
other districts. It has been pretty crazy and I'm
still trying to get used to getting up earlier after
flaking of all summer, lol. Those of you who
don't get the summer off are thinking "world's
smallest violin!", but it wasn't that long ago that
we didn't get paid during the summer until
November and I had to work at least 6 weeks or
the whole summer at the year-round schools to
make ends meet! It was good to see nurse
friends at opening day meeting Monday and my
colleagues from the Visually Impaired Program
the rest of the week. This is my last year as I
plan to retire June 2020. As of that time, I will
have given the district 32-plus years of my life!!
The Western Regional Conference for this year
will be held in Seattle at the University of
Washington (or "U Dub" as Seattle natives like
my cousins call it!) The dates are Saturday
November 9th and Sunday November 10th.
Early bird rates are available until 11:59pm EST
September 30 and online registration closes
11:59 PM EST 10-28-19.
Amnesty doesn't have the agenda on their
website yet but one can keep checking at
amnestyusa.org and click on "regional
conferences" at the top, then select western
regional conference.
Protests in Hong Kong against the proposed
extradition law (all prisoners to be tried in
mainland China) continue. Amnesty has made
statements to the press and sent a letter to Mike
Pompeo expressing concern over use of violent
tactics by Hong Kong police (despite the
protests being largely peaceful)and the
extradition bill itself. There are press releases,
and actions on the AI website. Some are older
but there are plenty regarding the 2019 protests.
As far as I know, our government hasn't taken a
stand either for or against the protests and the
issues involved.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=+ho
ng+kong+protests&sort=relevance
Con carino,
Kathy
Next Rights Readers Meeting
Sunday, Sep. 15
6:30 PM
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena
American Prison
by Shane Bauer
REVIEWS
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/book
s/553182/american-prison-by-shane-bauer/
A ground-breaking and brave inside reckoning
with the nexus of prison and profit in America:
in one Louisiana prison and over the course of
our country's history.
In 2014, Shane Bauer was hired for $9 an hour to
work as an entry-level prison guard at a private
prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. An award-
winning investigative journalist, he used his real
name; there was no meaningful background
check. Four months later, his employment came
to an abrupt end. But he had seen enough, and
in short order he wrote an exposŽ about his
experiences that won a National Magazine
Award and became the most-read feature in the
history of the magazine Mother Jones. Still, there
was much more that he needed to say. In
American Prison, Bauer weaves a much deeper
reckoning with his experiences together with a
thoroughly researched history of for-profit
prisons in America from their origins in the
decades before the Civil War. For, as he soon
realized, we can't understand the cruelty of our
current system and its place in the larger story
of mass incarceration without understanding
where it came from. Private prisons became
entrenched in the South as part of a systemic
effort to keep the African-American labor force
in place in the aftermath of slavery, and the
echoes of these shameful origins are with us
still.
The private prison system is deliberately
unaccountable to public scrutiny. Private
prisons are not incentivized to tend to the health
of their inmates, or to feed them well, or to
attract and retain a highly-trained prison staff.
Though Bauer befriends some of his colleagues
and sympathizes with their plight, the chronic
dysfunction of their lives only adds to the
prison's sense of chaos. To his horror, Bauer
finds himself becoming crueler and more
aggressive the longer he works in the prison,
and he is far from alone.
A blistering indictment of the private prison
system, and the powerful forces that drive it,
American Prison is a necessary human
document about the true face of justice in
America.
"American Prison is both the remarkable story of a
journalist who spent four months working as a
corrections officer, and a horrifying exposŽ of how
prisoners were treated by a corporation that profited
from them. . . . It's Bauer's investigative chops,
though, that make American Prison so essential. He
dedicated his time at Winn to talking with prisoners
and guards, who were unaware that he was a
journalist . . . Based on his first-hand experience and
these conversations, he paints a damning picture of
prisoner mistreatment and under-staffing at the
prison, where morale among the incarcerated and the
employees was poor. The stories he tells are deeply
sad and consistently infuriating . . . An enraging,
necessary look at the private prison system, and a
convincing clarion call for prison reform." -
NPR.org
"Riveting . . . Bauer himself was held in an [Iranian]
prison for two years, so he knows what it feels like to
be on the inside, yet he brings to the text a
journalist's purview and draws a direct line between
American slavery, the founders of the prison
corporations and the job he is hired to do. In a
fascinating tightrope walk, Bauer shows that, in this
so-called industry, the financial bottom line comes at
a high human cost." -Oprah.com
"A penetrating exposŽ on the cruelty and mind-
bending corruption of privately run prisons across
the United States . . . Nearly every page of this tale
contains examples of shocking inhumanity . . . A
potent, necessary broadside against incarceration in
the U.S." -Kirkus, starred review
Book trailer for American Prison
https://youtu.be/eykrYVwya0s
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Bauer
Bauer grew up in Onamia, Minnesota[2] and he
is a graduate of the University of California,
Berkeley.[3]
In July 2009, Bauer and two companions (Joshua
Fattal and Sarah Shourd) were arrested by
Iranian border guards after straying into Iran
while hiking in northern Iraq near the Iranian
border. The three Americans were held in prison
in Iran on bogus espionage charges for more
than two years before their release in September
2011. They subsequently co-authored a memoir
of their experience (A Sliver of Light), as well as
the cover story ("Kidnapped by Iran") for the
March-April 2014 issue of Mother Jones
magazine.
Bauer has worked as a foreign correspondent,
reporting from Iraq, Sudan, Chad, Syria,
Lebanon, and Yemen. His work has appeared in
The Nation,[4] Salon.com,[5] the Los Angeles
Times,[6] and the Christian Science
Monitor.[7][8]
In 2015 he worked as an undercover journalist
for Mother Jones while employed for six months
as a prison guard at the Winn Correctional
Center, a private prison in Winn Parish,
Louisiana managed by the Corrections
Corporation of America (now known as
CoreCivic).[9]
DEATH PENALTY NEWS
By Stevi Carroll
Federal Death Penalty
US Attorney General William Barr must be
feeling pretty frisky since he's been at work for
the Trump administration since February 14,
2019. On July 25, 2019, AG Barr informed the
Federal Bureau of Prisons to include executions
in its basket of punishments. He told the prisons
bureau to schedule five inmates for execution.
As always, we in Amnesty International do not
condone the crimes these people are convicted
of committing, but we do question the use of the
death penalty. As Bryan Stevenson executive
director of the Equal Justice Initiative says, "The
death penalty is not about whether people
deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The
real question of capital punishment in this
country is, 'Do we deserve to kill?'"
Exonerations
Christopher Tapp - State: ID
- Date of Exoneration: 7/17/2019
After giving a false confession, Christopher
Tapp was convicted in 1998 for the rape and
murder of Angie Dodge in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
He was exonerated in 2019 after a DNA sample
from the crime scene was matched to the actual
attacker.
Chester Hollman III - State: PA
- Date of Exoneration: 7/30/2019
In 1993, Chester Hollman III was sentenced to
life in prison without parole for murder in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was exonerated
in 2019 based on evidence that two witnesses
admitting they lied at his trial and police and
prosecutors withheld evidence of other suspects.
John Miller - State: PA
- Date of Exoneration: 7/31/2019
In 1998, John Miller was sentenced to life in
prison without parole for a robbery and murder
in Philadelphia in 1993. He was exonerated 2019
because the witnesses against him admitted
they falsely implicated Miller in the crime.
Stays of Executions
July
10 Kareen M Jackson OH
Reprieve granted by Gov. Mike DeWine on
March 7, 2019, and execution rescheduled for
January 16, 2020
16 William Rivera PA
Legally premature death warrant. Stay granted
by the US District Court of the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania on June 6, 2019, to permit
Rivera to pursue federal habeas corpus review
to which all state prisoners are entitled as a
matter of law.
31 Ruben Gutierrez TX
Warrant withdrawn. New Death warrant issued
rescheduling execution for October 30, 2019
August
14 Gregory Lott OH
Reprieve granted by Gov. Mike DeWine on
March 7, 2019, and execution rescheduled for
March 12, 2020.
15 Dexter Johnson TX
Stay granted by the US Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit on August 14, 2019
19 Jason Reeves LA
Legally premature death warrant. Stay granted
by the US District Court in Louisiana on August
9, 2019, to permit Reeves to pursue federal
habeas corpus review to which all state
prisoners are entitled as a matter of law.
Executions
August
15 Stephen Michael West TN
Electrocution (3rd in TN since Nov)
Years from sentence to execution - 32
21 Larry Swearingen TX
Lethal Injection 1-drug: Pentobarbital
Years from sentence to execution - 19
22 Gary Bowles FL
Lethal Injection 3- drug: Etomidate
Years from sentence to execution - 23
SECURITY WITH HUMAN RIGHTS
By Robert Adams
CRITICISM OF ISRAELI GOVERNMENT'S
POLICIES ARE FREE SPEECH, NOT ANTI-
SEMITISM
08/15/2019
Responding to Prime Minister of Israel,
Benjamin Netanyahu, and minister of Interior
Arye Deri, denying entrance to two U.S.
members of Congress and U.S. President Donald
Trump's tweets referring to the members of
Congress as anti-semitic, Amnesty International
Israel and Amnesty International USA issued
the following statement:
Molly Malekar, Amnesty International Israel's
director said:
"The Israeli government allows free entry to world
leaders accused of gross violations of human rights,
war crimes, and crimes against humanity, such as
Myanmar's generals and Duterte of the Philippines,
proudly embracing leaders identified with
supporting neo-Nazi and anti-semitic groups such as
Hungary's Orb‡n or Brazil's Bolsenaro, but
automatically calls anti-semitic anyone who dare
criticize it.
"Israel bars entry on the basis of political views to
those who critique it. Criticizing Israel's policies isn't
violence."
Philippe Nassif, the advocacy director for the
Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty
International USA said:
"Donald Trump continues a pattern of divisive
rhetoric that inflicts great harm on those standing up
for their basic rights. Free speech is a basic human
right. Opposition to a government's policies or
abhorrence to grave human rights abuses is neither
anti-semitism nor a hatred towards a country or its
people. We expect all people who support human
rights to stand up and speak out against abuses,
wherever they occur."
Amnesty International Israel and Amnesty
International USA have been calling for an end
to illegal settlements, an end to unjustly
detaining Palestinian activists including
children, and for respect for the rights to
freedom of movement and expression in Israel
and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Background
The "anti-boycott law" of 2011, formally known
as the Law for Prevention of Damage to State of
Israel through Boycott, makes it a civil wrong to
call for a boycott of any entity because of its
affiliation to Israel or to a territory under its
control, including entities operating in illegal
settlements in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories. A 2017 amendment to the Entry to
Israel Law prohibits granting an entry visa to
Israel (and therefore to the Occupied Palestinian
Territories which are under Israeli control) to
anyone who knowingly published, or operates
within an organization who knowingly
published, a call for a boycott as defined under
the 2011 law. Both the Law for Prevention of
Damage to State of Israel through Boycott of
2011 and the 2017 amendment to the Entry to
Israel Law contravene Israel's obligations under
international human rights law.
Amnesty International does not take a view on
the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
campaign and has never called for or endorsed
specific boycotts. It is up to individuals and
organizations to determine which peaceful
strategies to use in furtherance of human rights.
Advocating for boycotts, divestment and
sanctions is a form of free expression that must
be protected. Advocates of boycotts should be
allowed to express their views freely and take
forward their campaigns without harassment,
threats of prosecution or criminalization, or
other measures that violate the right to freedom
of expression.
GROUP 22 AUGUST LETTER COUNT
UAs 18
POC Narges Mohammadi 13
POC Gao Zhisheng 19
Total 50
PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE
Narges Mohammadi
and Gao Zhisheng
By Joyce Wolf
Thanks to Group 22 Co-coordinator Kathy for
organizing letter-writing efforts for both our
group's adopted prisoners of conscience.
Nineteen letters for Gao might set a monthly
record for us. And thirteen letters for Narges is
not too shabby either! A special thank-you also
to group member Candy for her generous
contribution towards postage to mail all our
letters.
I have not been able to find any updates about
Narges Mohammadi since last month's
newsletter. As always, you can check Twitter
#FreeNarges. You can find a selection of
inspirational quotes from Narges at
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Narges_Mohammadi
Here are some sample quotes:
"As a human rights defender, like millions of
Iranians, I hate the death penalty; I despise
discrimination and injustice against women; I protest
against the imprisonment and torture of political and
civil rights activists in solitary confinement; and I
will not be silent in the face of human rights
violations."
"Thoughts and dreams don't die. Belief in freedom
and justice does not perish with imprisonment,
torture or even death and tyranny do not prevail
over freedom, even when they rely on the power of
the state."
Narges is a brave woman and she can really
write!
It's been two years now with no word on the
whereabouts or status of Gao Zhisheng since he
was "disappeared" in August 2017. Amnesty has
marked this sad anniversary with the
publication of an article about Gao, written by
his friend and fellow activist Teng Biao:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/08
/bravest-lawyer-china-gao-zhisheng/
Here is an excerpt from the above article:
"The Bravest Lawyer in China" - Gao Zhisheng
By Teng Biao - Legal scholar and friend of Gao
Zhisheng
13 August 2019, 07:55 UTC
Gao Zhisheng is a prominent human rights lawyer in
China. Over the years, he has been persecuted,
kidnapped and sentenced to prison. In August 2017,
he went missing again and has not been seen since.
In 2004, I noticed an open letter to the National
People's Congress calling attention to the issue of
Falun Gong, a religious group in China. By then,
practitioners of Falun Gong had been subjected to
large-scale persecutions for five years, but nobody
dared to speak up for them. It was very courageous
for a lawyer to openly speak about the issue, so I took
note of his name: Gao Zhisheng.
The human rights movement in China was just
beginning to take off. Active human rights lawyers
totaled no more than 20 people. I was eager to meet
Gao and was lucky to be able to do so within a few
weeks of the open letter. He was tall, spirited and
features that radiated with health. I remembered him
to be friendly and humorous, and his laughter
echoed throughout the room. Nothing angered him
more than injustice. We chatted late into the night
and, very soon after, began working on human rights
cases together.
The first case was that of Cai Zhuohua, a pastor at a
house church in Beijing who, together with members
of his family, was arrested for operating an illegal
business after printing multiple copies of the Bible. It
was the first time I witnessed Gao's grace and
eloquence in court. The court disrespected the lawful
right of Cai's mother to observe the hearing, and Gao
denounced the judge with fervent conviction. After
that, Gao and I would often attend services at house
churches in Beijing and he even got baptized later.
Another case we took on was the case of Shaanxi Oil.
At the time, one of the lawyers on the case, Zhu
Jiuhu, was arrested and imprisoned at the Shaanxi
Yulin Detention Centre. We went to represent him
and took pictures at the entrance before we left. Not
long after, more than a dozen armed policemen
rushed towards us and interrogated us for taking
those pictures. They thought they could frighten us,
but we were experienced in such interrogation and
firmly rebutted them. After that, Gao lamented, "If
this is how they treat lawyers in suits, can you
imagine what they'd do to the people living around
here?"
On the way back, we stopped by Gao's home in
Jiaxian and squatted in the courtyard eating noodles.
I will never forget his cave home, his taciturn brother
and the dry and barren land that surrounded us.
Amnesty International Group 22
The Caltech Y
Mail Code C1-128
Pasadena, CA 91125
www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/
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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.