|
Victory: Judge’s Decision Ends Nearly 7 Year Fight
to Exonerate the “Dallas 6” Prisoner Whistleblowers
(21 March 2017)
In a
victory for the last remaining “Dallas 6” defendant Carrington
Keys, on Monday March 13 Judge Lesa Gelb sentenced him to no
extra prison time. Mr. Keys had been facing 6 felony counts of
aggravated harassment by a prisoner. The Judge ruled that Mr.
Keys was only guilty of lesser charges of disorderly conduct and
sentenced him to 4-8 months, concurrent with his current
sentence. (Mr. Keys waived his right to a jury trial and
withdrew two motions he had filed to dismiss and quash the
charges.) With this ruling, none of the Dallas 6 have been found
guilty of riot or of (in Mr. Key’s case) aggravated harassment
in the 2010 incident in which six African American prisoners at
SCI Dallas staged a peaceful protest and were viciously beaten
by guards in response. See background on case below.
On
Tuesday, there were misleading headlines and articles in the
Luzerne County Times Leader and Citizens Voice saying that Mr.
Keyes was found guilty of slinging feces. He was not. He was
found not guilty of aggravated harassment which was based on the
allegation that he threw feces. He was found guilty of the
lesser offense of disorderly conduct, which does not include in
its terms that he threw anything. The family states they are
requesting a retraction of these “alternative facts.”
Carrington Keys
said, “It was important that we fight this case to send a
message of inspiration to other prisoners who are falsely
accused. There are far too many people who have been pressured
by a system to plead guilty to false allegations due to the fear
of the consequences of what may occur if found guilty by a
jury. Secondly it was important to stand up for all prisoners
in solitary confinement, all people of color and all oppressed
people who have been singled out by tyrants in this government.
In the beginning we were all charged with riot and in the end it
was only one Dallas 6 found guilty of riot – Anthony Kelly, who
plead guilty in the very beginning so he could go home (he had
maxed out). More of us in the Dallas 6 came out unaffected by
any punishment imposed as a result of misdemeanors and two were
exonerated after years of fighting. In the beginning, I was
charged with riot and six felony counts of aggravated
harassment. In the end I came out with a disorderly conduct, a
misdemeanor conviction. That is the result of standing up for
myself, and the support from my mother and all other people who
rallied together for justice. It may not be everything that I
wanted but, hey, this is the price that men pay for standing up
to an injustice system. All power to the people!”
Shandre Delaney, Mr. Keys’ mother and coordinator of the Justice
for the Dallas 6 Campaign,
said, "My son is happy that it’s over, but it’s bittersweet.
He blew the whistle on torture he witnessed by prison guards and
for that he was dragged through court for almost seven years.
It is an outrage. The guilty ones are the guards who abused
their power and the racist justice system that covered for them.
As his mother along with supporters we intend to continue to
fight for the rest of the prisoners trapped in this torturous
system. I just got some letters from prisoners at SCI Dallas,
and there was another coerced suicide, just like the case of
Matthew Bullock which sparked the men to take action in 2010. So
we take this victory to the next level now.” Read
Shandre Delaney’s recent article on truth-out.org:
Revolutionary Love: Fighting Prison Injustice From Both Sides of
the Wall
Attorney Michael Wiseman,
who acted as Mr. Keys’ standby counsel at this proceeding, and
during the first trial that resulted in a hung jury and
dismissal of the riot charges, was pleased with the result:
“In comparison with the brutality and inhumanity of the
conditions under which Mr. Keys and his fellow prisoners were
held in solitary, it is hard to see how Mr. Keys violated the
law. Nonetheless, we are pleased that he was not convicted of
any felony counts, and, most important, that the outcome will
not result in any additional prison time for him.”
“We
are very pleased that at least partial justice has finally come
for this courageous man, and his tireless mother who has
organized support for him all these long years,”
said Phoebe Jones of the Justice for the Dallas 6 Support
Campaign and Global Women’s Strike. “But who will be held
responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of
taxpayers’ money this trial has wasted going after these
innocent men, instead of investigating the abuse they brought to
light? And what about the money and resources spent by family
members and supporters in fighting for justice in this case?
What about the emotional and mental stress suffered by these
prisoner whistleblowers and their families? The prison guards
and prison officials must be held accountable for what they did
and continue to do.”
Fifteen supporters and a documentary film team were present in
court to hear the good news. Shandre Delaney added, “I want
to thank all the loyal supporters who came out to the hearings
over so many years, got the word out, put us up in their homes,
invited me speak to their congregations and synagogues and at
rallies, signed the petitions and made calls to the prisons when
they retaliated against the men. It was the families, the
supporters and mainly the grit of the men themselves that led to
this victory."
Background
Who are the Dallas 6?
On April 29, 2010 six courageous African American prisoner
whistleblowers held in solitary confinement at SCI Dallas staged
a peaceful protest against the widespread abuse, violence and
torture by guards against Black, Latino and white prisoners
which they had documented and took a stand against. The abuse
they documented included: beatings; mental abuse; foreign
objects in food such glass, metal, feces, spit, semen and urine;
mail and legal document tampering; deprivation of human contact;
withholding medication; starvation and cutting off water; and
coerced suicide. When they covered their cell doors and
windows in protest, prison authorities responded by viciously
beating them in so-called “cell extractions” and four months
later charging them with “rioting” after the official complaints
they had filed were publicized. |
|
Justice for the
Dallas 6 Support Campaign:
Abolitionist Law Center; Fight for Lifers West; Germantown
Friends Meeting Mass Incarceration Working Group; Global Women’s
Strike & Women of Color@GWS; Human Rights Coalition – Fed Up;
Human Rights Coalition – Phila; Marcellus Shale Earth First;
Mishkan Shalom New Jim Crow Study-Action Group; Payday men’s
network; Peacehome Campaigns; Shalefield Organizing Committee.
Endorsements:
Art for Justice;
Brandywine Peace Community; California Families Against Solitary
Confinement (CFASC); The Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC);
Decarcerate PA; Defending Dissent Foundation; Every Mother is a
Working Mother Network; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS
– UK; Green Party of Philadelphia (GPOP); Human Rights Defense
Center – Lake Worth, Florida; Jewish Voice For Peace -
Philadelphia; People’s Opposition to War Imperialism and Racism
(POWIR) – Hollywood, Florida; Philadelphia Coalition for REAL
Justice; San Francisco Bay View newspaper; Sin Barras – Without
(Prison) Bars – Santa Cruz; T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human
Rights; WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh; Welfare Warriors; Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) –
Philadelphia. Individual Endorsements: Pam Africa,
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal;
Patrice Armstead, Building People’s Power and Coalition
Demanding Reinstatement of Dr. Monteiro; Malik Aziz, Founder,
Men United for a Better Philadelphia and Chairman, National
Exhoodus Council; Pastor Antoinette Johnson, King Solomon
Baptist Church; Dr. Anthony Monteiro; Rev. Bob Moore, Executive
Director, Coalition for Peace Action (for id purposes only);
Margaret Prescod, host of “Sojourner Truth” on Pacifica Radio;
Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of African American Studies
& History, Temple University; Dr. Cornel West, Princeton
University; Dr. Carla Willard, Africana Studies Program,
Franklin & Marshall College. Partnering with: AFSC
Prison Watch. |