PP Ruchell Cinque Magee Hearing Scheduled!-gctid29438

[nattyreb]

Ruchell is the longest held PP that we know of, the sole survivor of the Black August rebellion!
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PLEASE SUPPORT!

via: Michael Novick
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Please forward widely:

I have recently received several communications from Ruchell Cinque Magee, #A92051
3A5-142, CSP; PO Box 3461, Corcoran CA 93212. He writes:

Greetings,
One thing in this political prisoner's plight sticks out for public understanding:

"Jury acquittal by twelve showing all over the trial records."

A member of your publication may appear for the Parole Hearing at Corcoran prison,
if interested, July 24, 2008. You may also write a letter to the Board. Guideline
enclosed. Write the way you see fit.

I have asked the jury foremen Mr. Suares to write to the Board, and confirm the
jurors' acquittal, and counter the haters' twisted versions and phony information
opposing to my release.

Strange how the haters can come up with photos of the August 7, 1970 tragedy in
Marin County, but they cannot find the Los Angeles trial court records; they cannot
recognize the jury acquittal in the trial court records of 1973.

Now based on twisted versions, and photos, the haters (Peter Flores, deputy CA
Attorney General and others) paint a caricature of me being a threat to the public
if released from prison. Anyone who conceals a jury acquittal proves (themselves)
a threat to the people.

The acquittal issue stands before three different courts, including the Parole Board.

As show by the Writ of Prohibition filed with the Second Appellate Court (copy recently
sent to you), the haters fear to disclose the Los Angeles trial court records, even when
ordered by the court as far back as 1971.

Case is moving on.

In struggle,
Ruchell Cinque Magee

Guideline (written by R. Cinque M.):

Commissioners, Board of Parole Hearing
California State Prison - Corcoran
Lifer Desk
PO Box 8800
Corcoran CA 93212-8800

Re: CDC #A92051, Ruchell Cinque Magee
Hearing: July 24, 2008

Dear Commission:

The undersigned has an interest in the Ruchell Cinque Magee hearing.
This publisher has been following the Ruchell Cinque Magee case for years.
Letters by the Deputy Attorney General and others have been read, and their
opposing R. Cinque's release proves to be absolutely unreasonable.

[Note: The Deputy AG sent a letter with a photo of the August 1970
Marin County courthouse slave rebellion and massacre, of which Cinque
was the sole survivor. LAPD Chief Bratton sent a gratuitous letter opposing
parole for Magee.]

R. Cinque has been 47 years in the California state prison for kidnap, and we
know of no other person in the United States being in prison for 47 years for
kidnap.

If heard in open court, Ruchell Cinque would long ago have been released
from jail, because the convictions against him violate every law on the  books.
This office has possession of the pending Application for Clearance before the
US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, entitled:
Ruchell Cinque Magee, and in support of Jury Acquittal, vs. Senator Orrin Hatch,
Bob Dole and others.

All evidence under oath reflects jury acquittal, and R. Cinque in prison on a 1970
kidnap count, after 12 jurors of San Francisco County found him not guilty of
violating Penal Code 209.

Members of this publishing office have been asked by R. Cinque M. to ask permission
to attend the Hearing scheduled for July 24, 2008. We are informed that R. Cinque
has called upon Jury Foreman Mr. Bernard J. Suares to write to this Board and
confirm the jurors' acquittal as to 'kidnap' charged by indictment in 1970.

Those opposing R. Cinque's release are committing a crime by using photos and
information to deface the jury acquittal. The conviction by the Santa Clara County
Superior Court is challenged as being a Double Jeopardy prosecution, in violation of
the Fifth and 14th Amendments.

Some evidence of R. Cinque's false imprisonment has reached millions of people,
all over the world. Many people are interested in his case, and many believe he is
the victim of hate crime frame-ups by individuals who lie, and who entertain themselves
by corrupting other people's lives while manipulating the criminal justice system.

Anybody with a badge who ignores or tries to hide jury acquittal, and who keep people
in prison by use of false evidence, are criminals themselves who should be locked up
for life.

R. Cinque is no threat to the public and he has (already) proved his innocence before
twelve jurors in San Francisco County. Photos of the August 7, 1970 tragedy and
twisted visions do not outweigh the jury acquittal in fact or in law, not in the world of
intelligent people with eyes to see the acquittal.

The Board is in a position to release Mr. R. Cinque Magee, his release being required
under Penal Code 1170.2 (Determined Sentence Law), as he has served approximately
47 years in the California State Prison.

[Note from MN: Cinque was first imprisoned (falsely) in a case where a co-defendant's guilty
plea was used as evidence against him. It was this original conviction and the police,
prosecutorial and judicial corruption that he was protesting when he agreed to join
the Marin slave rebellion in 1970, in order to attract media attention to his case and the
violations of rights in the criminal justice system.--MN]

He is almost 70 years of age. He has knowledge which could help to turn around the lives
of millions of young people going in the wrong directions. Anybody who has survived 47
years or more in prison and still has their sanity, knows something about being a survivor.

The undersigned urges this Board's members to release R. Cinque Magee. Give back his
freedom.

Magee also wrote separately:

If interested in attending the Parole Board hearing scheduled at Corcoran State Prison on
July 24, 2008, write a brief letter to:

Warden D. Adams
Corcoran State Prison
4001 King Avenue
Corcoran CA 93212

He enclosed letters from Deputy AG Peter E. Flores, Jr. writing for Edmund G. (Gerry)
Brown Jr., Attorney General, opposing his release, which included photos of the Marin
County courthouse incident. There was also a letter from William Bratton, chief of the
LAPD, opposing parole, and citing Magee's original (false) conviction. Bratton says,
"It is the Department's position to adamantly oppose the release of this inmate back
to the community. Magee should remain segregated from society." A third letter from
the Marin County DA, Edward S. Berberian says, "Magee has fraudulantly attempted
to portray himself as some kind of 'political prisoner.' In fact, Magee is nothing more
than a sociopathic, common career criminal. He has no conscience and he will forever
be a menace to the public."

As R. Cinque M. wrote: "You know the business. Everybody in office with some power
hates Magee. Magee is the only prisoner 47 years confined for kidnap. Why?"

I will not be able to attend the Parole Board hearing, but I am writing to the Board
in the interest of his release. "Turning the Tide" was already going to press when I
got this material from Magee, so I was not able to include it in the paper, so I am
posting it to comrades to urge to write on his behalf and to see if anybody in closer
proximity to Corcoran wants to try to attend.

--Michael Novick
Anti-Racist Action-LA/People Against Racist Terror
Jericho Amnesty Coalition LA

[nattyreb]

Ruchell Cinque Magee
and the August 7th Courthouse Slave Rebellion

By Kiilu Nyasha

"Slavery 400 years ago, slavery today, it's the same but with a new name".-- Ruchell Cinque Magee

I first met Ruchell Cinque Magee in the holding cell of the Marin County courthouse in the Summer of 1971. I found him to be soft-spoken, warm and a gentleman in typically Southern tradition. We've been in correspondence pretty much ever since.

I had just returned to California from New Haven, Connecticut, where I had worked as an organizer and a member of the legal defense team of three Black Panthers, including Party Chairman Bobby Seale, on trial for murder and conspiracy. The second trial resulted in a true people's victory, May 24, 1971. We had kept the New Haven courtroom jam-packed throughout the joint trial of Seale and Ericka Huggins that resulted in a hung jury. But the obviously racist judge had to dismiss it due to the enormous publicity and state expense incurred due to huge crowds and tight security.

In my correspondence with George Jackson, author of the bestseller, Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson, he had advised me to seek a press card in order to visit him at San Quentin. In so doing, I wound up working for The Sun Reporter, a local Black newspaper (byline Pat Gallyot), and covering the pretrial hearings of Angela Davis and Magee.

Already familiar with courtroom injustice, racism and bias against Black defendants witnessed in two capital trials, it didn't come as a surprise that Ruchell was getting a raw deal in the Marin Courtroom where he was frequently removed for outbursts of sheer frustration.

By 1971, Ruchell was an astute jailhouse lawyer. He was responsible for the release and protection of a myriad of prisoners benefiting from his extensive knowledge of law, which he used to prepare writs, appeals and lawsuits for himself and many others behind walls.

Now Ruchell was fighting for all he was worth for the right to represent himself against charges of murder, conspiracy to murder, kidnap, and conspiracy to aid the escape of state prisoners.

Although critically wounded on August 7, 1970, Magee was the sole survivor among the four brave Black men who conducted the courthouse slave rebellion, leaving him to be charged with everything they could throw at him.

"All right gentlemen, hold it right there.we're taking over!" Armed to the teeth, Jonathan Jackson, 17, George's, younger brother, had raided the Marin Courtroom and tossed guns to prisoners William Christmas and James McClain, who in turn invited Ruchell to join them. Ru seized the hour spontaneously as they attempted to escape by taking a judge, assistant district attorney and three jurors as hostages in that audacious move to expose to the public the brutally racist prison conditions and free the Soledad Brothers (John Clutchette, Fleeta Drumgo, and George Jackson).

McClain was on trial for assaulting a guard in the wake of Black prisoner Fred Billingsley's murder by prison officials in San Quentin in February, 1970. With only four months before a parole hearing, Magee had appeared in the courtroom to testify for McClain.

The four revolutionaries successfully commandeered the group to the waiting van and were about to pull out of the parking lot when Marin County Police and San Quentin guards opened fire. When the shooting stopped, Judge Harold Haley, Jackson, Christmas, and McClain lay dead; Magee was unconscious (See photo)and seriously wounded as was the prosecutor. A juror suffered a minor injury.

In a chain of events leading to August 7, on January 13, 1970, a month before the Billingsley slaughter, a tower guard at Soledad State Prison had shot and killed three Black captives on the yard, leaving them unattended to bleed to death: Cleveland Edwards, "Sweet Jugs" Miller, and the venerable revolutionary leader, W. L. Nolen, all active resisters in the Black Liberation Movement behind the walls. Others included George Jackson, Jeffrey Gauldin (Khatari), Hugo L.A. Pinell (Yogi Bear), Steve Simmons (Kumasi), Howard Tole, and the late Warren Wells.

After the common verdict of "justifiable homicide" was returned and the killer guard exonerated at Soledad, another white-racist guard was beaten and thrown from a tier to his death. Three prisoners, Fleeta Drumgo, John Clutchette, and Jackson were charged with his murder precipitating the case of The Soledad Brothers and a campaign to free them led by college professor and avowed Communist, Angela Davis, and Jonathan Jackson.

Magee had already spent at least seven years studying law and deluging the courts with petitions and lawsuits to contest his own illegal conviction in two fraudulent trials. As he put it, the judicial system "used fraud to hide fraud" in his second case after the first conviction was overturned on an appeal based on a falsified transcript. His strategy, therefore, centered on proving that he was a slave, denied his constitutional rights and held involuntarily. Therefore, he had the legal right to escape slavery as established in the case of the Kmtyw slave, Cinque, who had escaped the slave ship, Armistad, and won freedom in a Connecticut trial. Thus, Magee had to first prove he'd been illegally and unjustly incarcerated for over seven years. He also wanted the case moved to the Federal Courts and the right to represent himself.

Moreover, Magee wanted to conduct a trial that would bring to light the racist and brutal oppression of Black prisoners throughout the State. "My fight is to expose the entire system, judicial and prison system, a system of slavery. This will cause benefit not just to myself but to all those who at this time are being criminally oppressed or enslaved by this system."

On the other hand, Angela Davis, his co-defendant, charged with buying the guns used in the raid, conspiracy, etc., was innocent of any wrongdoing because the gun purchases were perfectly legal and she was not part of the original plan. Davis' lawyers wanted an expedient trial to prove her innocence on trumped up charges. This conflict in strategy resulted in the trials being separated. Davis was acquitted of all charges and released in June of 1972.

Ruchell fought on alone, losing much of the support attending the Davis trial. After dismissing five attorneys and five judges, he won the right to defend himself. The murder charges had been dropped, and Magee faced two kidnap charges. He was ultimately convicted of PC 207, simple kidnap, but the more serious charge of PC 209, kidnap for purposes of extortion, resulted in a disputed verdict. According to one of the juror's sworn affidavit, the jury voted for acquittal on the PC 209 and Magee continues to this day to challenge the denial and cover-up of that acquittal.

Ruchell is currently on the mainline of Corcoran State Prison doing his 46th year locked up in California gulags - many of those years spent in solitary confinement under tortuous conditions! In spite of having committed no physical assaults or murders. Is that not political?

Write him at: Ruchell Magee # A92051, 3A2-131 Box 3471 , C.S.P. Corcoran, CA 93212