This appeal was originally posted on the website of ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Baltimore. Party for Socialism and Liberation is a memberof the ANSWER Coalition.
Dear supporter,
Your help is needed to support political prisoner Marshall
Eddie Conway for his upcoming parole hearing on November 1. We urge you
to send a fax to the Maryland Parole Commission immediately using our free online system or call them at 1-877-241-5428. Continue reading to learn more about other ways you can take action.
Marshall Eddie Conway is a former Baltimore
Black Panther and one of the longest incarcerated political prisoners
in the United States. In 1970, he was falsely arrested, charged and
convicted of murdering a police officer. Conway was working for the
U.S. Postal Service and on the job at the time the murder took place,
but federal agents used several informants and infiltrators to frame
members of the local Panther chapter and other members nationwide. At
the age of twenty-four, he was sentenced to life plus thirty years in
jail for a crime he did not commit and has never been given a fair
trial.
Conway,
like many other revolutionaries and activists at the time, was
systematically and illegally targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO (Counter
Intelligence Program) as part of a blanket operation designed to smash
the growing current of dissent surrounding the imperialist wars on Vietnam and Southeast Asia,
massive poverty, and unemployment. Numerous grassroots organizations
were infiltrated and disrupted, and community programs like the Black
Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children Program, deemed by FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover to be “the greatest threat to the internal
security of the United States,” were targeted for repression with an aim
to dismantle their work and the advancements they made for their
communities.
Since
his incarceration, Eddie has remained vigilant in the fight for his
freedom and continued activism, dedicating his time to prison labor
organizing and prison rights groups. He has played a leading role in
establishing several self-rehabilitation and educational programs for
prisoners, but despite his exceptional conduct and being considered a
model prisoner, Conway has continuously been denied parole.
Show Eddie your support for his Nov. 1 parole hearing!
On November 1, the parole board at the Maryland Parole Commission
will be evaluating Eddie Conway’s case. There are several ways you can
get involved to support him before the hearing. (Please send a copies of
faxes and letters to Eddie Conway for his records).
- Send a fax to the Maryland Parole Commission using our free online system
- Make a phone call to 1-877-241-5428
- Send a letter in the mail before Wed., Oct. 26 to:
Maryland Parole Commission Eddie Conway #116469
6776 Reisterstown Road, Suite 307 P.O. Box 534
Baltimore, MD 21215AND
Eddie Conway #116469
P.O. Box 534
Jessup, MD 20794
To learn about past local actions in support of Eddie Conway, click here.
To learn more about the case, visit FreeEddieConway.org
To sign a petition for Eddie Conway visit http://www.change.org/petitions/chair-maryland-parole-commission-parole-political-prisoner-eddie-conway
