3828561099?profile=originalBrief History and Case Background

On May 21, 1971, two New York City police officers were fatally shot. This shooting occurred within the context of two major national trends: the growth of Black revolutionary groups such as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and later its armed wing, the Black Liberation Army; and at the same time, the FBI operation under Director J. Edgar Hoover with the cooperation of the Nixon administration, to destroy leaders and membership of both mainstream civil rights and militant Black organizations.

This counterintelligence operation, called COINTELPRO, targeted Black leaders by infiltrating the Black Liberation Movement, framing members of the movement for crimes, and even murdering them to get them off the streets and out of contact with the community. The shooting of these two police officers also came immediately after the infamous trial of the Panther 21, a case in NYC against twenty-one members of the Black Panther Party charged with planning “terrorist” acts. After a nearly two-year trial, all 21 defendants were acquitted.

On May 26, 1971, only five days after the crime, FBI Director Hoover was called to a secret meeting at the White House with President Richard Nixon, John Erlichman, the Domestic Advisor to the President, and members of the “Watergate break-in plumbers.” They discussed this case and established that the FBI would solve the crime under the code name NEWKILL, or New York killings. It is believed that the FBI and the White House conspired to frame Black Panthers for the killings in this meeting.

On August 28, 1971, three months after the killings, Jalil A. Muntaqim (Anthony Bottom) and Albert Nuh Washington (transitioned to the ancestors in 2001) were arrested in San Francisco during an armed confrontation with police. They, along with three other Black Panthers, were subsequently charged in the NEWKILL shootings. The first trial against the New York 5 ended in a hung jury in favor of acquittal. In the second trial in 1975, two of the Panthers were acquitted and three, including Jalil, were convicted of second-degree murder, weapons possession and conspiracy.


The entire White House/FBI/NEWKILL investigation and involvement was withheld from the defense during both trials by the prosecution. In 1983, the New York 3 submitted a petition to the trial judge to obtain a new trial based upon exculpatory FBI documentation that had been discovered via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

By October 1985, the trial judge denied both the motion for a new trial and the motion to recuse himself. Four months later, the appellate court reaffirmed the lower court’s decision without a hearing.

Part of the motion for a new trial was based on FBI ballistics evidence withheld from the defense. The FBI had determined that the weapon Jalil was convicted of using in the commission of the crime was not the murder weapon. Four months after the 1983 petition for a new trial was filed with the Court, all ballistics evidence from the case was removed from the evidence locker and destroyed, preventing the weapon from being retested. To this day, nobody knows who ordered the ballistics evidence destroyed.

In 1992, the New York 3 had an evidentiary hearing in the Federal District Court reviewing the issue of perjured testimony by the NYPD ballistics expert and prosecutorial misconduct in withholding from the defense exculpatory materials pertaining to the extent of FBI/White House involvement in the case under NEWKILL. The federal district court judge decided that the NYPD did in fact commit perjury, but that the perjury was “harmless error.”

PAROLE CAMPAIGN

Jalil has been to the parole board seven times since 2002, when he first became eligible for parole. The parole board denied him release each time, stating: “To grant your release at this time would so deprecate the seriousness of your crime as to undermine respect for the law, and your release to supervision is not compatible with the welfare of society.”


Jalil’s release on parole has been supported by activists, academics and community leaders from across the country and around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the family of one of the victims. The political nature of his conviction has prevented parole commissioners from giving fair and impartial consideration to his release, despite the overwhelming community support.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

During the 41+ years of his imprisonment, Jalil has accomplished the following: Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, Certificate of Architectural Drafting, Certificate of Computer Literacy.

He established many programs, such as the first Men’s Group for therapeutic training
in the NY State prison system, an African/Black Studies program, a computer literacy class, a Sociology class and a poetry class. He has received two commendations for preventing prison riots. He has raised money for the children’s fund, was office manager of the computer lab and a teacher’s aide for GED classes.


Jalil is also the recipient of several certificates for rehabilitation programming, and is a published author, poet, educator and blogger. As a human rights advocate, he had the first U.S. prisoners national petition heard and recorded by a Special Committee at the United Nations on U.S. prisons and the existence of U.S. political prisoners. He has litigated several civil rights complaints on behalf of prisoners. In 2000, Essence magazine featured an article on father-daughter relationships. The article, entitled “Daddy Says,” quoted Jalil stressing the importance of maintaining these relations even during incarceration.


Jalil has been in prison since the age of 19 and is now 62 years old.

IT’S TIME TO BRING JALIL A. MUNTAQIM HOME!

Join the campaign to bring Jalil home:

Educate your family, friends, co-workers and members of your faith-based community about Jalil and the campaign for his freedom;

Get people to sign the online petition for Jalil’s release on parole:  https://www.change.org/petitions/tina-m-stanford-free-jalil# or download a printed one and encourage people to sign it;

Organize a meeting on Jalil’s parole campaign at your home, school, union hall, faith-based institution, local coffee shop, etc.;

Post information about Jalil and other political prisoners on your Facebook page;

Send emails and Twitter messages to your friends/followers calling for parole for Jalil and other political prisoners;

Let your elected representatives know that freedom for Jalil and other political prisoners is one of the issues you are concerned about. The addresses of all elected officials from the President to the City Council are available on the internet;

Put up a poster/picture in your home/windows of Jalil and other political prisoners;


To learn more about Jalil check his website: www.freejalil.com. His blogs are also on his website: www.freejalil.com/blog.html. Also check jerichony.org for updates.

Write to Jalil:

Anthony Jalil Bottom #77A4283
Attica Correctional Facility, P.O. Box 149, Attica, New York 14011-0149

New York City Jericho Amnesty Movement
nycjericho@gmail.com • www.jerichony.org
718-325-4407 • 718-512-5008

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