Political prisoners in the United States

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Throughout its history and into the present, the United States has held alleged political prisoners, people whose detention is based substantially on political motives.

Prominent US political prisoners have included anti-war socialists, civil rights movement activists, conscientious objectors, and war on terrorism detainees.

"Political prisoner" is an inherently vague term which is most commonly applied to people persecuted for their political beliefs or for their "threat" to the government.[1]

Imprisonment for mere expression of political beliefs is rare in the modern United States, because free speech and free expression are well-established in law.[2] This was not always the case. For example, the Smith Act (1940) allowed trial and imprisonment of dozens of Communist Party USA leaders for advocating the overthrow of the United States government. This prosecution was only halted by Yates v. United States (1957).

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International argue that, despite these speech protections, US federal and state governments have repeatedly targeted people affiliated with dissident movements for "neutralization" by applying much harsher sentences for real or "framed" crimes, such as during COINTELPRO.

The US has recognized conscientious objection to military service since its founding.[3] However, the US only recognizes blanket objection to all wars, and does not recognize objection to specific wars, which is included in the UDHR's "right to refuse to kill".[4] Many prisoners have been objectors to specific wars (such as World War I, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, or the Iraq War).

Scope

A 1989 pamphlet titled "Face Reality" from Freedom Now! features the faces of 48 alleged political prisoners[5]

There are no systematic estimates of the present or past scope of political prisoners in the United States. The number of political prisoners cannot be precisely determined.[6] However, Jane Taubner wrote in 1992 that "most of the individuals and organizations investigating the existence of political prisoners in the United States agree that there are a minimum of over 100 political prisoners in America".[6]

During a July 1978 interview with French newspaper Le Matin de Paris, Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young caused controversy when he said: "We still have hundreds of people that I would categorize as political prisoners in our prisons. Maybe even thousands, depending on how you categorize them."[7][8]

In 1988, Peggy Halsey, a senior member of the United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministries,[a] wrote about inmates of the High Security Unit in FMC Lexington and claimed that "over 100 other inmates are recognized as political prisoners by their respective movements for social change".[6][9]

In 1990, various left-wing groups supported the Freedom Now! coalition[b] and organized a "Special International Tribunal" (or "1990 Tribunal")[c] on political prisoners in the US. The 1990 tribunal was inspired by the 1951 We Charge Genocide petition and modeled on the 1966 Russell Tribunal on Vietnam.[5] Freedom Now! alleged that there are "more than 100 people locked up in U.S. prisons because of their political actions or beliefs".[6][10] The 1990 Tribunal reached the verdict that political people "have been subjected to disproportionately lengthy prison sentences and to torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment within the U.S. prison system."[11]

Left-wing groups have often argued that mass incarceration in the United States itself represents a form of political imprisonment, given that the "convict class" overwhelmingly come from working class and other marginalized backgrounds. This view was especially popular in some radical prison populations in the 1970s.[12]: 152 

Early notable alleged political prisoners

The concepts of "political prisoner" and "prisoner of conscience" were underdeveloped until the post-World War II era, which saw the creation of intergovernmental and international human rights groups like the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (1946) and Amnesty International (1961). The prisoners below were arrested before or during this era:

Silent Sentinels picketing the White House
Debs speaking in Canton, Ohio, in 1918, before his arrest for sedition
  • Eugene Debs (imprisoned 1919–1921), an anti-war socialist, was convicted of 10 counts of sedition. On September 18, 1918, he was sentenced to ten years in prison and life disenfranchisement.[14][15] On April 13, 1919, Debs was imprisoned; protests of his imprisonment lead to the May Day riots of 1919. While in prison, he ran for president in the 1920 election, receiving 919,799 votes (3.4 percent) the highest number of votes for a Socialist Party presidential candidate in the United States.[16] On May Day 1919, protests of Debs's imprisonment led to the Cleveland May Day riots of 1919, after which the Socialist Party offices in Cleveland were looted and burned.
  • Sacco and Vanzetti (imprisoned 1921–1927), both anarchists, were convicted and executed for murdering two people during an armed robbery. Kathlyn Gay includes them in a list of "political prisoners" and quotes Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis as saying "their trial and appeals were permeated by prejudice against foreigners and hostility toward unorthodox political views".[13]
  • Angelo Herndon (imprisoned 1933–1937), an African-American labor organizer and member of the American Communist Party, was convicted of insurrection after leading a large peaceful demonstration of unemployed black and white workers in Atlanta.[17] The day after the demonstration, Angelo was arrested and was found in possession of communist publications. Fulton County Prosecutor John Hudson charged Angelo with "inciting an insurrection" under an 1861 slave statue that made the possession or distribution of seditious literature punishable by death. Hudson proclaimed that Herndon's trial was also a trial "of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky and Kerensky, and every white person who believes that black and white should unite for the purpose of setting-up a Nigger Soviet Republic in the Black Belt". An all white jury found Angelo guilty and was sentenced to 18–20 years.[18] Angelo won an appeal and was released on bail in December 1934. The Georgia Supreme Court later upheld the original conviction and he had to return to prison in October 1935. In April 1937, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and ruled in favor of Angelo in a 5–4 decision, striking down the Georgia insurrection for violation of the First Amendment.[19]
  • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (imprisoned 1951–1953), spies for the Soviet Union, were the first Americans to be executed for espionage. Gay includes them in a list of political prisoners, in part because of their excessive sentence: "No other convicted spy — not even Rudolph Abel, the Soviet Union's chief spymaster in the United States — was executed by the United States during the entire Cold War".[13]
King was arrested in 1963 for protesting the treatment of black people in Birmingham.[20]

Prisoners highlighted by Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an INGO founded to oppose violations of human rights. Amnesty International has named the following people and groups as prisoners of conscience or political prisoners in the United States:

Painting of Martin Sostre by Jerry Ross[29]
  • Martin Sostre (imprisoned 1967–1976) was arrested at his bookstore for "narcotics, riot, arson, and assault", later proven to be fabricated as part of COINTELPRO.[30] Amnesty International wrote that Sostre "was falsely implicated because of his political activities".[31] Sostre's bookstore promoted Black nationalism, internationalism, and anarchism.
  • Imari Obadele (imprisoned 1973–1978), as part of the RNA 11, was convicted of conspiracy to assault a federal agent.[32] Amnesty International wrote that it "appears that the real reason for Mr Obadele's imprisonment is his political activity as leader of a black independence movement".[33]
  • The Wilmington Ten[d] (imprisoned 1976–1980) were convicted of arson and conspiracy for the firebombing of a white-owned business.[34][35] Amnesty International adopted the Ten because they were "denied a fair trial",[36] because "their prosecutions were politically motivated and that their convictions were the result of false testimony".[33]
  • Charlotte Three[e] (imprisoned 1977–1979) were convicted of arson of a white-owned business.[35][37] Amnesty International adopted the Three for the same reasons as the Wilmington Ten.[33]
  • US military conscientious objectors to the Gulf War: By September 1991, Amnesty International had adopted 25 prisoners of conscience who conscientiously objected to the Gulf War.[38] In their 1995 report, Amnesty gave the full number as 30 prisoners of conscience.[2] In particular, Amnesty International named George Morse (imprisoned 1991–1992)[39] and Yolanda Huet-Vaughn (imprisoned 1991–1992).[40]
Ehren Watada in uniform, before his OTH discharge for refusing to deploy to Operation Iraqi Freedom[41]

Amnesty International has identified multiple American conscientious objectors to the Iraq War who have either been imprisoned or are seeking refuge, notably in Canada, for their resistance. These individuals include:

Amnesty International has highlighted the following people and groups as recipients of extensive inhumane treatment and/or wrongful or "framed" convictions, who may be considered political prisoners:

  • Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt (imprisoned 1972–1997), a prominent member of the Black Panther Party, was convicted of murder (now vacated).[54] In 1995, Amnesty International argued that evidence came to light after the trial that "Pratt had been targeted for 'neutralization' by COINTELPRO and suggested there had been misconduct by the FBI and state police in the prosecution of the case".[2]
  • The Angola Three[f] were convicted of robbery and/or bank robbery, sent to Angola prison. While in prison, the Angola Three became prominent Black Panther Party members. They were later convicted of prison murders[55] and faced near-continuous solitary confinement for decades, in the "longest period of solitary confinement in American prison history".[56][57][58]
  • Mumia Abu-Jamal (imprisoned 1981–present): Though Amnesty International concluded that his conviction proceedings violated the "minimum international standards that govern fair trial procedures and the use of the death penalty", but they did not describe Abu-Jamal as a political prisoner.[59] In August 1999, when Abu-Jamal began giving radio commentary live on Pacifica Network's Democracy Now! radio news, prison staff severed the connecting wires of his telephone in mid-performance.[60] The World Socialist Web Site described Abu-Jamal as a "political prisoner".[61]
  • Gary Tyler (imprisoned 1975–2016) was convicted of first-degree murder as a sixteen-year old, despite no physical evidence.[62] In 1994, Amnesty International highlighted several major inconsistencies in the police investigation and ineffective assistance of counsel.[63] In 2007, Amnesty International said Tyler's trial was "fundamentally unfair".[64]
  • Food Not Bombs: Amnesty International never formally named Keith McHenry or Robert Kahn as prisoners of conscience. However, in 1994, AI noted that "the law may have been used to harass and arrest these individuals because their activities" of "distributing free food to poor and homeless people and disseminating literature" are "unpopular with the City administration".[65] In 1996, AI suggested that Kahn "may be a prisoner of conscience".[66]
  • Mazen Al-Najjar (imprisoned 1997–2000), on the basis of secret evidence, was detained indefinitely on suspicions of links to Palestinian terrorist groups.[67] If Al-Najjar was "being held purely for his non-violent political sympathies and background, then he would be considered a prisoner of conscience".[68]

Prisoners considered by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WAGD) is a United Nations body which examines alleged cases of arbitrary imprisonment. Arbitrary imprisonment is substantially broader than political imprisonment, as it also includes all cases where non-arbitrary legal processes failed for non-political reasons. The WAGD has considered the detention of the following individuals to be arbitrary on multiple categories:

FBI wanted poster for Leonard Peltier[69]
  • Leonard Peltier (imprisoned 1977–2025) was convicted on two counts of murder of FBI agents during a shootout on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.[70] Amnesty International explicitly does not call Peltier a prisoner of conscience, but "believes that political factors may have influenced the way in which the case was prosecuted".[71] In 2005, the WAGD found that the "deprivation of Mr. Leonard Peltier is not arbitrary",[72] but in 2022 reversed that decision and found that Peltier's imprisonment was arbitrary on Category III (unfair trial) and Category V (discrimination) grounds.[73] Peltier was a prominent member of the American Indian Movement.
  • Marcos Antonio Aguilar-Rodríguez (imprisoned 2011–2017) fled El Salvador to the United States in 2001, where he sought asylum. He was arrested for speeding, but was ultimately placed in custody of ICE, who sought to deport him.[74] The WAGD found that Aguilar-Rodríguez's imprisonment was arbitrary on Category II (human rights), Category IV (prolonged custody of migrants), and Category V (discrimination).[75]
  • Fernando Aguirre-Urbina (imprisoned 2012–2019) was brought to the United States as an undocumented minor at age 3. He pled guilty to intent to distribute meth and marijuana, served 8 months, and was released to ICE detention for 7 years.[76] The WAGD found that Aguirre-Urbina's detention was arbitrary under all five categories.[77]
Oil pollution in Lago Agrio, November 2007
Oil pollution in Lago Agrio, November 2007, which Donziger described in 1993 as "what honestly looked like an apocalyptic disaster"[78]
  • Steven Donziger (imprisoned 2019–2022): Donziger, who had pursued a series of legal cases against Chevron Corporation, was placed under house arrest for contempt of court.[79] The WAGD found that Donziger's house arrest was arbitrary on Category I (no legal basis), Category III (unfair trial), and Category V (discrimination).[80]
  • The Cuban Five[g] (imprisoned 2001–2014) were convicted of espionage on Cuban-American groups for the government of Cuba. The WAGD found that their imprisonment was arbitrary on Category III (unfair trial), due to extended solitary confinement (17 months), limited access to evidence (under CIPA), and biased jury selection (anti-Cuban-government sentiment in Miami).[81]
  • Benamar Benatta (imprisoned 2001–2006) is a refugee from Algeria whose status was revoked soon after the September 11 attacks.[82] Despite having been cleared of suspicions of terrorist activities by the FBI, Benatta was held in detention for nearly five years.[82] The WAGD said that Benatta's treatment "could be described as torture" and found that his detention was arbitrary on Category I (no legal basis) and Category III (unfair trial).[83]
  • Humberto Álvarez Machaín (imprisoned 1990–1992) was accused of participating in the drug cartel-linked torture of Kiki Camarena and abducted to the United States. Alvarez Machaín was acquitted in 1992.[84] The WAGD found that Alvarez Machaín's imprisonment was arbitrary on Category I (no legal basis).[85] Álvarez Machaín's abduction eventually led to the 1992 Supreme Court decision United States v. Alvarez-Machain.

Later notable alleged political prisoners

Because the term "political prisoner" is vague, there is disagreement on who should be included by that term.[1] The people below prominently described themselves (or were described by other prominent people) as political prisoners:

27 soldiers at Presidio stockades "mutiny" in sit-down protest to protest the murder of one of their own
  • Presidio 27 (mostly imprisoned 1968–1970), conscripted soldiers during the Vietnam War, were convicted of mutiny for their sit-down protest after the killing of another stockade prisoner by military police. In 1968, three prisoners fled to Canada. One, Keith Mather, was caught and imprisoned from 1980 to 1985. His lawyer called him "the last prisoner of conscience from the Vietnam War".[86]
  • Fred Hampton (imprisoned 1969), a local chairman of the Black Panther Party, was convicted of assaulting a Good Humor ice cream van driver, stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars, and giving them to kids on the street.[87][88] In a memoir, Frank B. Wilderson III places this incident in the context of COINTELPRO efforts to disrupt the Black Panthers of Chicago by the "leveling of trumped-up charges".[89] In 1969, Hampton was killed in his sleep by Cook County police officers. Civil rights activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark, styled as "The Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police", alleged that the Chicago police had killed Hampton without justification or provocation and had violated the Panthers' constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure.[90] "The Commission" further alleged that the Chicago Police Department had imposed a summary punishment on the Panthers.[91]
  • Angela Davis (imprisoned 1970–1972): Davis, a Marxist and activist, assisted the Soledad brothers, three inmates who were accused of killing a prison guard at Soledad Prison,[92] in purchasing several of the firearms they would use in the attack, and was found to have been corresponding with one of the inmates involved.[93][94] Since California considers "all persons concerned in the commission of a crime, ... whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid and abet in its commission, ... are principals in any crime so committed", Davis was charged with "aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the death of Judge Harold Haley", and Marin County Superior Court Judge Peter Allen Smith issued a warrant for her arrest. On August 18, four days after the warrant was issued, the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover listed Davis on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List.[95] Soon after, Davis became a fugitive and fled California, but FBI Agents found her on October 13, 1970.[96]
  • Richard Wershe Jr. (imprisoned 1987–2021) was an FBI informant who was convicted of possession of over 650 grams of cocaine.[97] The film White Boy describes Wershe as a "political prisoner" who received harsh sentences for informing on several Detroit representatives.[98][99]
  • Lyndon LaRouche (imprisoned 1988–1994): LaRouche was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.[100] LaRouche's attorney called the conviction politically motivated, while the judge in question said the idea that LaRouche's organization was a sufficient threat to warrant this "just defies human experience."[100] The LaRouche movement, which mixes far-left and far-right rhetoric, and which The New York Times calls "cult-like",[101] has claimed that LaRouche is a political prisoner and appealed to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights for relief;[102] the WAGD did not consider his case.
Chelsea Manning said she gave WikiLeaks video of the "Collateral Murder" July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike in early 2010.[103][104]

See also

Endnotes

References

External links

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