ACLU of Maryland E-Newsletter – 2.20.09
1. Free Speech: Senators Mikulski and Feingold Seek Info from Federal Agencies about Political Spying
2. Free Speech II: ACLU-MD Defends Right of Homeowner to Display Political Lawn Sign
3. Death Penalty: ACLU-MD Commends Governor's Strong Stand
4. Kudos! ACLU-MD’s David Rocah Recognized as an ‘Influential Marylander’
5. Monday! ACLU-MD Cosponsors Panel Discussion of “Maryland’s Mockingbird Case”
6. National News: ACLU Opposes DOJ Efforts To Throw Out Case Challenging Illegal Detention Of Guantánamo Prisoner
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1. Free Speech: Senators Mikulski and Feingold Seek Info from Federal Agencies about Political Spying
It was revealed this week that the Department of Homeland Security shared intelligence information with the Maryland State Police regarding at least one activist group, The DC Anti-War Network. The MSP previously testified to the General Assembly that the only federal entity with which they shared information about the political activists was the Washington/Baltimore High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program (HIDTA).
Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) sent a letter last week to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano requesting she reexamine the agency’s files to determine how DHS obtained information about DAWN and why it was disseminated to the MSP. The senators also wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller asking them to clarify previous responses indicating that the MSP had not "nominated" any of the ACLU's clients to one federal list of suspected terrorists. The senators pointed out that the responses did not address a majority of the questions they previously posed, and expressed skepticism that the DOJ and FBI could have been unaware of what the MSP was doing.
“The ACLU is grateful to Senators Mikulski and Feingold for their leadership on this issue, and for their continuing efforts to obtain complete and accurate information about the extent to which information from MSP was shared with federal agencies, and the extent to which federal agencies were themselves complicit in improper surveillance of peaceful political activists,” said David Rocah, staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland.
Go online to read the letters:
http://www.aclu-md.org/Index%20content/NoSpying/NoSpying.html
2. Free Speech II: ACLU-MD Defends Right of Homeowner to Display Political Lawn Sign
The ACLU of Maryland has sent a letter to the Washington County Board of Elections and the State Board of Elections about an incident during the 2008 Election in which a resident of Sharpsburg had the political signs in his own yard torn down by an election judge because his home was within 100 feet of a polling place.
The letter seeks to clarify the law regarding the display of lawn signs on private property, even within the established 100 foot electioneering buffer. We contend that Mr. Paul Thompson Jr. enjoys the right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments — equally with all over private residents — to display political signs on his own private property.
Go online to read the letter:
http://www.aclu-md.org/aPress/Attachments/Thompsonletter.pdf
3. Death Penalty: ACLU-MD Commends Governor's Strong Stand
The ACLU of Maryland is pleased to commend Governor Martin O'Malley for taking the lead on the effort to repeal the death penalty in Maryland. The Governor this week testified with eloquence and compassion for repeal of Maryland's system of capital punishment before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee of the General Assembly. He brought with him an all-star panel of state leaders in the call for abolition.
The ACLU of Maryland was proud to stand with the Governor and amongst the many groups and individuals testifying for repeal this week. Read more on the campaign for repeal.
4. Kudos! ACLU-MD’s David Rocah Recognized as an ‘Influential Marylander’
We are excited to announce that ACLU of Maryland’s staff attorney, David Rocah, has been selected as one of the “Influential Marylanders for 2009” by the editorial staff at The Daily Record. Rocah is the lead attorney on our political spying case against the Maryland State Police, as well as litigation against illegal arrests by the Baltimore City Police Department and many other important cases. He and his fellow honorees will be recognized at a special celebration on April 22.
Go online to learn more:
http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=10691&type=UTTM
5. Monday! ACLU-MD Cosponsors Panel Discussion of “Maryland’s Mockingbird Case”
In the 1960’s, three African-American defendants were convicted of raping a young white girl in Spencerville, MD and sentenced to death. After many years of legal appeals and community pleas for racial justice, the three men were exonerated. Listen to firsthand accounts of how the case went from Montgomery County Circuit Court to the U.S. Supreme Court.
WHAT: A panel discussion commemorating the historic Giles-Johnson case -- “Maryland’s Mockingbird Case.”
WHO: Judge Andrew Sonner; Angela Jordan Davis, American University Law School Professor; and others.
WHEN: Monday, Feb. 23 from 5-7 PM
WHERE: The Red Brick Courthouse, 29 Courthouse Square, Rockville, MD
Co-sponsored by the NAACP of Montgomery County, Montgomery County Historical Society, Maryland Hispanic Bar Association, J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association, Juvenile Section of the Montgomery County Bar Association, Criminal Law Section of the Montgomery County Bar Association, County Executive’s Advisory Group on African American Affairs, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Citizens Against State Executions, Montgomery County ACLU Chapter, and the ACLU of Maryland.
This event is free.
E-mail sljoseph14@aol.com for more information.
6. National News: ACLU Opposes DOJ Efforts To Throw Out Case Challenging Illegal Detention Of Guantánamo Prisoner
The ACLU filed a motion this week opposing the Justice Department's move to dismiss or delay a challenge to the unlawful detention of Mohammed Jawad, a Guantánamo prisoner who has been held in U.S. custody since he was a teenager. Despite President Obama's executive order halting military commission proceedings, the government is moving forward with a last-minute effort by the Bush administration to deny Jawad his right to challenge his detention in federal court until after the commissions case against him is complete.
"Mr. Jawad's case is the epitome of everything that's wrong with the military commissions because his detention and prosecution were based on a confession that was tortured out of him. For the government to try to use the unconstitutional commissions as an excuse for delaying federal court habeas review of Mr. Jawad's case makes no sense," said Hina Shamsi, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project.
Jawad, now about 23, has been in U.S. custody since he was captured at the age of 16 or 17 and is one of two Guantánamo prisoners the United States is prosecuting for acts allegedly committed when they were children. He is accused of throwing a hand grenade at two U.S. service members and their interpreter in Afghanistan. Jawad's former military commission prosecutor, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, submitted a 14-page statement in support of the ACLU's habeas corpus challenge stating that the flaws in the commission system make it impossible "to harbor the remotest hope that justice is an achievable goal." Lt. Col. Vandeveld's statement describes other torture Jawad suffered in U.S. custody.
Go online to read the entire story:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/38760prs20090218.html