From the desk of Baba Zayid Muhammad
Ä turtle cannot go forward unless he
first sticks his neck out…”
Malcolm X
September
23, 2015
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PEOPLE’S
ATTORNEY LIZ FINK DIES!
A legend among American ‘Radical’
lawyers, and a quintessential New Yorker, Liz Fink has passed away.
Fink passed away on Tuesday evening
September 22nd.
Mentored by the late William
Kunstler, Fink was a gladiator in the ring for people’s causes.
She
is probably best known for her representation of the ‘Attica Brothers,’
survivors of the vicious state repression of the Attica Uprising.
In 1971, from September 9 to
September 14th, prisoners at upstate Attica New York took over that
facility to demand the end of cruel and abusive treatment by prison guards and
its administration. Well organized, very disciplined and incredibly eloquent,
the uprising’s leaders went to great pains to take good care of the prison
officials who they held hostage to demonstrate the humanitarian essence of
their concerns. It drew media attention from all over the world with its humane
and eloquent character.
However, NY Governor Nelson
Rockefeller, an aspirant for the 1972 presidential election, decided that the
uprising was getting too much good press and that he was getting too much bad
press. He then ordered the military
assault on the nonviolent uprising that resulted in 38 deaths and legions of
prisoners being seriously injured. The brutality of the assault is also well
documented as many prisoners, especially the participants in the uprising, were
stripped naked, lined up and savagely beaten after the facility was re-secured.
It was this graphic abuse that
brought a class action lawsuit against the State of New York that put Fink in
the forefront of critical legal human rights battles in the Black Liberation
Movement. Fink stayed with the case and fought tirelessly for their justice
until the courts granted the surviving victims a 12 million dollar settlement.
“The Attica Rebellion truly needs to
be appreciated in the most serious terms,” said Zayid Muhammad of the Malcolm X
Commemoration Committee.
“Not only did it trigger key reforms
in prisons throughout the country, including educational and training
opportunities and the hiring of Black and Latino prison guards, it was an
amazing display of the humanity of the Black man in America from the lowest
position in this prison nation.
“When those men, when they finally
needed someone to speak for them and what they faced, they were ferociously
represented by the incredible Liz Fink,” he finished emphatically.
In addition to the Ohio 7 case, Fink
and Bob Boyle also represented Black Panther legend Dhoruba Bin Wahad. Bin
Wahad, one of the few Panther political prisoners to secure to his release from
the COINTELPRO convictions facing so many of his comrades, said bluntly and
greatly pained that "ïf it wasn’t for Liz Fink, I would have never been
released."
She also negotiated a shorter prison
for another people’s lawyer Lynne Stewart, when Stewart was charged with aiding
the “terror activity” of her client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman from Egypt.
She also negotiated the transfer of political prisoner Sylvia Baraldini back to
her native Italy whereupon Baraldini was ultimately released.
Most recently, she secured the acquittal of a Jordanian college student, Osama
Awadallah, from 9/11 terrorism charges. The prosecutor in the case was so
enraged by Fink’s trademark ferocious defense of her client, he personally
charged her with “jeopardizing the republic” in the middle of the case.
Fink laughed and mocked that she would like “that one on my
tombstone."
©2015
Free All Political Prisoners!
www.jerichony.org
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