Feature Archives

On August 17, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a hearing on the innocence claim of death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis. For years, courts have shown little interest in establishing Troy Davis' innocence, asserting that it was legally irrelevant as he had exhausted his appeals. But now Supreme Court justices have declared that “The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing.”

Michael Steinberg writes about August 11th: "Protesters gathered at 5 p.m. in front of the Honduran Consulate to protest the coup that removed elected President Manual Zelaya, and called for an end to repression in Honduras and the return of Zelaya to office. Zelaya was seized at gunpoint in his pajamas during the early hours of June 28 and forced onto a plane that flew him to Costa Rica. Honduran General Romeo Vasquez, who ordered this action, is a two time graduate of the notorious School of the Americas..."

Statement From The Chicano Mexicano Prison Project: "Once again, major violence between Raza and African prisoners has erupted within the United States Concentration Camp (Prison) System, this time at Chino California State Prison. Beginning at 8:20 PM, on Saturday evening (Aug. 8), African and Raza (Latino) prisoners, in the most brutal fashion, slashing, cutting, hitting each other with anything that could get their hands on, battled against each other for more than 11 hours. Over 200 hundred were hurt, several were critically injured with severe head injuries or stab wounds."

Michael and Stephanie Williams report that they were brutalized by the Albany police department on June 5th in front of their children. Michael was tasered multiple times and Stephanie was searched under her clothing by a male officer. A rally was held at the Albany City Council meeting on August 5th in support of the family. Michael Williams has a preliminary hearing on Monday, August 10th, for charges related to the Albany police claim that he threatened them.

Leonard Peltier, a sixty-four-year-old activist and political prisoner being held at the Lewisburg prison in Pennsylvania, who was illegally extradited from Canada, tried in a sham trial, and has been denied justice for over thirty-three years, had a parole hearing on July 28th. The results have not yet been announced.

Boston Woodard, a frequent contributor to Indybay, is in solitary confinement because of an article he wrote, which displeased the staff and warden at Solano State Prison. Boston's article, "Rogue Prison Staff: Breaking all the Rules," published on Indybay in April, describes in detail the threats and intimidation taking place at Solano - the filing of false disciplinary charges, mail tampering, verbal threats, etc.

On Saturday, August 1st, an Oakland police officer shot and killed carpenter and handyman Brownie Polk at a liquor store in East Oakland. Police claim he was threatening people, but employees and other witnesses have contradicted the police account, saying they didn’t call the police and Polk was carrying his work tools and was trying to walk out of the store when he was shot.