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Brian Carmichael, HIV+ gay man facing 3 Strikes
Dear Friends,
We are circulating a flyer and a letter for supportive organizations and individuals to sign on to concerning Brian Carmichael who is going to be sentenced on Friday, June 29 in San Jose Superior Court for the dual crimes of being a former prisoner with many tattoos and HIV+. Police prejudice and over-reaction to both of these \"conditions\" led to his current situation.
Please read the flyer carefully. If you have further questions, you can go to the following website: http://hometown.aol.com/setBrianfree/myhomepage/business.html for background on Brian and his case.
We will also gladly fax you information about his past advocacy on behalf of prisoners with HIV/AIDS.
Brian may join Greg Smith as another political prisoner of the U.S. government war against people living with HIV/AIDS.
The second document attached and cut and pasted is a consensus letter. You are welcome to send your own (if you think this one needs changing). However, we are trying to collect an impressive number of signatories and signatures to present to the judge prior next week\'s sentencing.
It is critical that the judge see this case in a political context and know that Brian does in fact have a great deal of community support. We are merely asking that the judge reduce Brian\'s charges to a misdemeanor and sentence him to time served.
If you have questions about Brian\'s case, please feel free to call the HIV in Prison Committee at (510) 665-1935. Or between June 20-22, you can reach Beth Feinberg at work (415) 293-6343.
If you have friends, members or coworkers in the Bay area, please let them know about the rally and press conference that will take place on Friday, June 29, 12:30 p.m. outside the courthouse (see flyer for details).
Thank you again. Your support could really make a difference for Brian! Please respond to hipcomm [at] excite.com with your name and organization.
Kevin Weaver
for the HIV in Prison Committee of California Prison Focus
website: http://www.prisons.org/hivin.htm
hipcomm [at] excite.com
FLYER:
STOP THE RAILROADING
OF BRIAN CARMICHAEL
Fight AIDSphobia
& Three Strikes
BRIAN CARMICHAEL, former prisoner, AIDS activist and gay political organizer, is facing sentencing on a three-strikes charge (27-to-life) in San Jose Superior Court on Friday, June 29, for being HIV-positive and a heavily tattooed former prisoner.
Brian, who was instrumental in fighting for the lives of HIV+ men prisoners at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville in the early 90\'s (even before he found out he was positive), is now facing the fight of his life. Your support can make a difference.
Almost a year ago, Brian was on a plane to San Jose, accompanying his seriously debilitated brother who was in urgent need of medical care. One passenger got into an argument with Brian and tried to take away his seat alongside his brother. Harsh words were exchanged but no one was hurt. Brian was very protective of his brother throughout the trip. When Brian and his brother landed in San Jose, Brian was ordered onto the jetway by the local police. When Brian tried to give his brother\'s medicine to his sister who was waiting nearby, he was rammed into the wall with his legs kicked out from under him. Despite his assurances that he was not resisting, police roughly arrested him and took him to a nearby hospital for a drug test (which came back negative). He was told by officers that he was facing a misdemeanor offense.
Until they found out! Brian told the doctor at the hospital that he was HIV+. An hour later, police restrained Brian, drew his blood and tested him for HIV. This forced testing was done without a judge\'s order and was in violation of California law. One of the cops then claimed that Brian had exposed him to his blood and the Santa Clara District Attorney\'s Office charged Brian with assault causing great bodily injury or death. Brian was booked on $1 million bail! Even though the \"injured\" cop could not show any injury or broken skin, Brian was eventually convicted of \"battery\" which as a felony charge could add up to Brian\'s third strike and send him back to prison for life. The judge could reduce his charge to a misdemeanor and release him immediately.
Come to the Rally and Sentencing Hearing!
FRIDAY, JUNE 29, Santa Clara County Hall of Justice
190/200 West Hedding Street, San Jose
12:30 PM, Rally and press conference out front to support Brian Carmichael
1:30 PM, Pack Judge Alden Danner\'s Court, Department 40
SEND A LETTER TO THE JUDGE
Brian Carmichael has more than done his time. The prison system hates him for his untiring advocacy on behalf of prisoners with HIV/AIDS. Come to court and demand his release!
For information call: HIV in Prison Committee of California Prison Focus, (510) 665-1935.
http://hometown.aol.com/setBrianfree/myhomepage/business.html (for background on case).
SIGN ONTO THE FOLLOWING LETTER:
Honorable Alden E. Danner
Santa Clara County Superior Court
191 North First Street
San Jose, CA 95113
Re: Case No. CC 084203, People v. Brian Carmichael
Dear Judge Danner:
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, are concerned about allegations of serious civil rights violations and possible police prejudice resulting in the case against Brian Carmichael, who comes before you for sentencing on Friday, June 29. We ask that you reduce Mr. Carmichael\'s battery charge to a misdemeanor and sentence him to time served.
Mr. Carmichael has spent nearly a year in the San Jose Jail for an incident which should have warranted no more than a traffic ticket. The charges against Mr. Carmichael which began as misdemeanor obstruction charges escalated to felony ones after Mr. Carmichael self-disclosed to a hospital doctor that he was HIV+. He then had his civil rights violated when he was forcibly tested for HIV at the San Jose Police Station without a judge\'s order. This act stands in violation of the current California Health and Safety Code Sections 121060-121065.
Many of us first learned about Brian Carmichael in the early 1990s when HIV+ male prisoners at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville were fighting for better health care. Mr. Carmichael, as a prisoner, was a leader of that pioneer effort to save the lives of prisoners with HIV/AIDS.
Over the past several years, the California Department of Corrections has come under serious criticism for its substandard medical treatment of prisoners with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses. We do not believe that Mr. Carmichael\'s current offense warrants his return to a prison system that will invariably provide substandard and life-threatening medical care.
For all of the above reasons and in the name of justice, we ask that you not sentence Mr. Carmichael under three strikes law. Instead, we urge you to reduce his current charge to a misdemeanor offense and sentence him to time-served.
Sincerely for justice,
Name:
Organization
For more information:
http://www.prisons.org/hivin.htm
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IMC Network
We're meeting between 11 and 11:30 AM on Beale Street, between Bryant and Folsom. We are in Section J, and contingent #162. Although seperate, we will be joining up with the International Action Center.
See you there!
What Brian did in his past was settled when he did his time. That's the law, like it or not. Unfortunately, many folks are prejudiced against ex-cons, something they're going to have to deal with because one in twelve people in this country have been incarcerated at some point in thier lives.
At one point, this bloodthirsty, punitive, hateful society will collapse in on itself. What are you doing to change that?
If anyone still wants to help with the case, we need you to show up in San Jose on Friday! Thank you!
Kevin
4:13 PM, Monday, July 2
Brian's trial from Friday was carried over until today due to the length of the trial. Many people, including Brian's family, friends, and loved ones, showed up in force both days.
The courtroom burst into tears when the Judge released his verdict of "misdemeanor" with an additional year of jail time with possible release after 8 months!!!!!!
It's not what we were hoping for. After all, he's been locked up for at least that long already, but it beats serving the rest of his life in prison.
Finally! Finally, Brian can get back on track with his life. He's lived through such tragic circumstances already and a third strike would've been the equivalent of a death sentence.
His case underlines the sheer ignorance and injustice the mandatory 3 strikes law is. I just hope that we can come together in this state and have the damn thing repealed...
Destroy AIDSphobia and Discrimination!
Destroy Mandatory Minimums and Three Strikes!
Kevin
A splash of justice
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Alden E. Danner did the right thing on Monday when he reduced the felony battery conviction of gay, HIV-positive prison rights activist Brian Patrick Carmichael to a misdemeanor. As a result, instead of facing 27 years to life for what would have been his third-strike felony, Carmichael was sentenced to one year in jail (with time off for good behavior, he will be eligible for release in about eight months).
Carmichael's case, which began last September, was never really about the alleged injury suffered by a San Jose police officer, but rather, about HIV. Carmichael was facing lesser charges after an incident at San Jose International Airport [see story, page 1] until another police officer overheard Carmichael tell an attending physician of his HIV status. "When you tell someone you're HIV-positive, I've always been taught that's the responsible thing to do," Carmichael told the court at his sentencing hearing on Monday. At the moment when Carmichael revealed his HIV status, however, all hell broke loose; and suddenly, he was facing a third-strike felony and the possibility of life in prison. Bail was set at $1 million, and Carmichael was assigned a lackluster public defender who did nothing in his defense at his January trial.
Instead, the defense attorney called Carmichael to the stand and didn't ask him any questions; he had Carmichael remove his shirt so that the judge could see all of his tattoos. Carmichael was convicted because of his appearance and background. You could call it tattoo-profiling, because, arguably, the inference was that the tattoos made it appear that he was predisposed to commit crimes.
Carmichael has not had an easy life and, yes, he has been in prison for a good portion of it. During that time, however, Carmichael was instrumental in bringing the plight of HIV-positive prisoners to the attention of state legislators and other politicians, and his efforts resulted in changes at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville to improve the lives of HIV-positive prisoners at that institution.
Since his discharge from parole in early 1999, Carmichael had been getting his life together, yet all of that changed last September when he was transporting his gravely ill brother across the country.
Dan Mayfield, Carmichael's new defense attorney, correctly brought up the HIV issues during his arguments on Monday. In fact, he argued that since Carmichael's first AIDS test was illegally obtained, everything brought up in regards to AIDS that was gained from that first test was illegal. (A second, legal test was carried out several weeks after his arrest.)
Carmichael's case shows how AIDSphobia is alive and well in the criminal justice system after 20 years of the epidemic and decades of education. The police officers flipped out when they learned of Carmichael's status and the case veered out of control.
This case also shows that the application of the three-strikes law can be flawed. If the police officer was injured, it's not clear that Carmichael caused the injury. That, combined with the HIV issues, resulted in a felony charge that in most other instances probably would have been a misdemeanor. Yet he faced life in prison simply for his past convictions for which he has already served time.
Carmichael's many supporters - including prison activists, AIDS activists, and the American Civil Liberties Union - worked hard to get him legal help when he needed it most, and it paid off with the judge's decision to reduce the felony. While we would have liked to see him sentenced to time served, we are relieved that he won't be spending the rest of his life in prison.