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January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Al-Qaeda
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
January
22, 2002
Brendan
Cooney
Moby-Dick
and the Hunt
for Osama bin Laden
Rick Giombetti
Progressive
Pols for Enron?
Judith
Resnik
Invading
the Courts?
Kevin
Alexander Gray
The
Crisis in Black Leadership
January
21, 2002
Marjorie
Cohn
Will
Walker's Words
Be Used Against Him?
Ahmad
Faruqui
MLK
Jr. and the Palestinians
January
19. 2002
Jordan
Green
Enron
Stole Our Future
January
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
The
Enron Model
Walt Brasch
Enron
at the White House
CounterPunch
Wire
Human
Rights Groups Says Guantanamo Prisoners Must
Be Treated as POWs
January
17, 2002
Gideon
Levy
Bulldozing
Rafah
Uri Avnery
That
Weapons Shipment
January
16, 2002
John Chuckman
The
Angel and the Pretzel
Lawrence
McGuire
Subverting
the
Geneva Convention
Kathy
Kelly
An
Open Letter to
Richard Perle on Iraq
January
15, 2002
George
Monbiot
Greenpeace,
Lord Melchett
and the Business of Betrayal
Jack McCarthy
Follow
the Pretzel
William
Blum
Atta
and the Times:
Follow the Changing Story
Edward
Said
Emerging
Alternatives
in Palestine
January
14, 2002
David
Vest
Open
Bag. Eat Pretzels.
Patrick
Cockburn
Collapse
of Georgia
Ignored by the World
Mokhiber/Weissman
Enron's
Accountants:
When In Doubt, Shred It
January
13, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
Why
We Kill People
January
12, 2002
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Forbidden
Truths
January
11, 2002
Lee Balllinger/Dave
Marsh
Neil
Young's Duet with Ashcroft
January
10, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Bush,
Enron, UNOCAL
and the Taliban
St. Clair/Cockburn
Greenpeace
to Greenwash?
Hans von
Sponek
Iraq:
Is There an Alternative
to Military Action?
Jim Lobe
Israeli
Human Rights Group Assails Army
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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January
23, 2002
Stacking the Deck:
Racism
Plus Prosecutorial Misconduct Equals April Execution Date for
Death Row Inmate
By Molly Secours
Some people are born victims. As in the case of
Abu-Ali Abdhur Rahman who, beginning at age three, was a victim
of extremely violent and horrific sexual and physical abuse at
the hands of his parents. Often times he would be hung and locked
in a closet with torture devices attached to his genitals and
beaten until he could no longer cry.
The irony cuts deep. I first learned
of Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman's debauched trial and possible execution
the same week my niece asked me to be her birthing coach. Reveling
in the excitement of greeting a new life, I am also struck by
the randomness of birth and how one's family, race and class
is clearly the luck of the draw.
After reading the transcripts of his
trial, it seems Abdur'Rahman drew a bad hand. As an innocent
child who endured atrocious acts of sexual and physical violence,
Abu-Ali's early years served as a precursor for the unfairness
he later endured by the criminal justice system.
Recently I discussed the troublesome
particulars with a friend who is compassionate, middle-class,
professional and white. She was interested in the case but curious
why anyone might suspect this man had been treated unjustly.
We discussed the racial makeup of the judges, counsel and jury
(mostly white) as well as the substantial prosecutorial misconduct
and the revolving door of inept counsel throughout Abdur'Rahman's
trial. And I shared his story.
Before Abdur'Rahman was born, his mother
left three of his half-siblings to die in the woods. A cab driver
rescued the siblings who were then dispersed into various foster
homes. Although not abandoned, Abu-Ali is, and has always been,
a throw-away child. And now the State of Tennessee would like
to dispose of him too.
At 18, he was convicted of a robbery
charge in an altercation instigated by a racial slur and was
sent to a juvenile reform facility. Diagnosed with a borderline
personality disorder and post-traumatic stress syndrome, he never
received treatment. While incarcerated Abdur'Rahman mortally
wounded an inmate who orchestrated brutal gang rapes against
him. Charged with 2nd degree murder, his trial lasted one day
with no appeal. His inept counsel never mentioned his sexually
abusive childhood, mental illness or the repeated rapes in prison.
After being released on parole in 1984,
Abdur'Rahman lived in Chicago while working with the Quakers
developing programs for underprivileged children in the Cabrini
Green Projects. During that time and the time he lived in Nashville
until the murder charge in 1996, he lived an exemplary life with
a perfect employment record.
After moving to Nashville Abdur'Rahman
was recruited by his employer/mentor Alan Boyd to join the Southeastern
Gospel Ministry (SGM), a paramilitary organization. Dedicated
to removing negative influences from the Black Community, one
of the groups first missions to intimidate a drug dealer turned
fatal. Abdur'Rahman was not alone at the crime scene. The man
with him (an SGM member and co-worker) disappeared two days after
the murder and was apprehended by the authorities a year later.
With incompetent counsel and 11 white
jurors, Abdur'Rahman received the death penalty after two hours
of deliberation.
Abdur'Rahman's case was so bungled and
mishandled that it took attorneys Bill Redick and Bradley MacLean
years to unravel the criminal negligence of his legal representation.
After reviewing the facts, five prominent constitutional-law
scholars, joined the U.S. Supreme Court appeal to overturn the
death penalty verdict. It wasn't enough. Although the current
record demonstrates the facts of Abdur'Rahman's case have never
been heard before a jury, the state of Tennessee intends to kill
him.
Reading through the court transcripts
many questions arise:
- How did a jury convict a man with no
physical evidence linking him to the crime?
- How was Abdur'Rahman's conviction based
solely on the statement of the only other person present at the
crime scene--a man exchanging a 1st degree murder charge for
his testimony?
- Why did his attorneys fail to learn
about and present to the jury his documented mental disorder--an
illness that causes blackouts during moments of stress?
- Why did John Zimmerman, the state's
prosecutor, and Abdur'Rahman's defense counsel fail to present
crucial blood evidence to the jury demonstrating he was not the
murderer?
- Why have eight of the jurors signed
sworn affidavits stating they should have heard about the lack
of blood evidence and the defendants history of mental illness
before making a life or death decision.
After briefing my associate, I then asked
her a few questions. Did she think it possible for a mentally
impaired, Afrcian American/Cherokee/Muslim to receive a fair
trial in a criminal justice system comprised of predominately
middle-upper class whites? Does the system work better for us
rather than economically disadvantaged non-whites? And considering
statistics that indicate non-whites (and poor whites) receive
harsher sentences for lesser crimes than middle-upper class whites,
I asked if it were possible that the death penalty was designed
to dispose of "undesireables"--those without economic
resources?
She stared at me as if I had asked if
she believed God was a card-carrying atheist living in Beverly
Hills. She couldn't imagine that anyone in the U.S. wouldn't
receive all the same rights guaranteed by the founding fathers.
Really? Even when the slave-owning founding fathers didn1t include
non-whites (or non land-owning whites) when tossing around the
idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--or the right
to a fair trial?
She said it was too painful to think
that race and class could negatively influence judges and juries
in their decisions to administer the death penalty. Or that a
Muslim name might alter a sentence in light of September 11th.
She vowed to have complete faith in the system--until minutes
later when she confessed she had never seriously contemplated
the issue because it doesn't really affect her. I appreciated
her honesty.
When our conversation ended she said
what many whites say when confronted with the disquieting issues
surrounding race, class and the death penalty. She said that
"playing the race card" is dangerous and unfair. But
what about knowing the deck is stacked and pretending not to
notice? Isn't that more dangerous and unfair when a human life
is at stake?
Last week my precious nephew arrived into this world greeted
by two loving parents who will no doubt cherish him and protect
him throughout his life. He is one of the lucky ones.
Abu-Ali however, has never been as lucky.
Yesterday the State of Tennessee granted him an execution date
of April 10th.
To learn more about Abu-Ali's life visit
Abu-Ali.org or to
write Abu-Ali Fund, PO Box 121754, Nashville TN 37212 or
Molly Secours
is a writer, activist, videographer in Nashville TN. She can
be reached at mollmaud@earthlink.net
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