Title: Veronza Bowers Held Hostage by Federal Prison System!

Time Frame: 1 Month

Plan of Action: Specific action requests include the concrete support of Bro. Bowers’ legal defense team; the concrete support of Bro. Bowers himself; and to substantially increase the level of involvement of freedom-loving people globally in spreading the word about this despicable travesty.

Purpose of Action: Support Veronza Bowers, Jr. who remains in prison 18 months past the expiration of a 30-year sentence he has already completed.

Scheduled for mandatory parole on April 7, 2004, Veronza Bowers, Jr. was a model prisoner that prison officials showered with praise in the past. Mandatory parole is a requirement by statute after a prisoner has completed his full sentence if there is a record of positive institutional and if one cannot consider the inmate a “threat to society” upon release. Four different Parole Examiners, as well as the U.S. Parole Commission (USPC) itself, the most powerful parole authority in the nation, agreed that Mr. Bowers has complied with these prerequisites. In spite of this, just minutes before his April 7th release, the USPC rescinded his parole at the request of a law enforcement lobby group known as the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which claimed to have evidence that Bowers had violated prison rules.

At a subsequent hearing, the court dismissed FOP claims as unsubstantiated and a new parole date was set. The FOP then lobbied the U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, to intervene and, as a result, Mr. Bowers has languished in prison over 18 months past his scheduled release date.

Mr. Bowers’ conviction occurred during the FBI’s infamous COINTELPROoperations, which used covert and illegal actions to eradicate civil rights, political and peace organizations. On October 6th, 2005 the five members of the U.S. Parole Commission met at the request of the U.S. Attorney General. They upheld the U.S. Attorney General’s request to deny Veronza Bowers parole and to keep him indefinitely in prison.

Like filthy, disease-carrying cockroaches, this system prefers to do its dirt under cover of darkness. Like in countless other situations, it has been the voices and actions of righteous people that freed those incarcerated unjustly by shining light on their dirty work.

TOGETHER, we can help force the U.S. Parole Commission and the federal prison system honor its obligation to let Veronza Bowers go free.

Acknowledgements:
Veronza Bowers Legal Defense www.veronza.org
The Jericho Movement www.thejerichomovement.com
The Freedom Archives www.freedomarchives.org.

For information offline, please contact
Rhonda Jones (1-480-460-9232) or
Maynard Garfield (1-828-462-0249).