The 2255 Petition of Marilyn Buck and myself has been denied.

We raised the post conviction petition on the grounds that:
1. The government failed to disclose evidence favorable to petitioners.
2. The government used perjured trial testimony in obtaining petitioners’ convictions.
The failure on the part of the government to disclose favorable evidence is so directly connected to the Counter Intelligence Program and its files and agents. An evidentiary hearing and disclosure would have shown the impact on our movement and organization. They have again rallied the judiciary and fascists into one objective to prevent this hearing from happening.

On the one hand, Judge Haight preferred in his decision to deny our motion. “The political climate of the time, of which Director Hoover was a catalyst in what was far from his finest hour, brought Federal and local forces together for surveillance and intelligence gathering purposes.” The judge chose to overlook the very specifics of the historical connections between the political history and organizations to which Marilyn Buck and I belonged which had already been established beyond contradiction were targets of illegal and criminal activity.

In fact, during the course of our trial my rights were violated to a criminal degree by COINTELPRO as a matter of law by the same Judge Haight.

The ruling by Judge Haight was that there was no evidence presented by appellants that BOSS, an intelligence division of the NYC police department, and the Joint Terrorist Task Force (which was made up of NYPD intelligence personnel and FBI agents) did not have an ongoing working cooperation of information sharing and intelligence gathering on individuals and events surrounding our case and movement as presented in court. Assata Shakur was wanted primarily for acts charged in NYC. All of her bank robbery trials, of which she was acquitted, took place based on BOSS and FBI investigations. Brother Abdul Majid was wanted for a gun battle with two NYC police in Queens when he was listed as the primary suspect in the Brinks case with which we were charged in 1981. That standing alone shows the cross pollination. If Assata Shakur was liberated what police intelligence would have the logical interest in theory and in fact? This was not the only evidence presented to the court.

A BOSS intelligence agent who had infiltrated the RNA, the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners, the Black Panther Party, among others – introduced an affidavit into the proceedings. The same agent who was assigned to me and the informer Tyrone Rison, who had worked with Mtayari Shabaka Sundiata and Abdul Majid. His affidavit stated for a fact that he had prepared over 500 reports on our activities and that during the course of the trial and investigation that his superior had requested an unsigned analysis of Dr. Mutulu Shakur to assist in the trial and ongoing investigation.
The court’s original ruling for the government to turn over those files was mysteriously reversed, but with the agent’s affidavit an evidentiary hearing would have been proper and legal. This would have been a means of getting to the truth of the government’s failure to meets its obligation to disclose evidence within its possession that was favorable to the defense. We are not sure of the specific rationale for the court’s fear of pursuing the truth. But, we will continue to expose the connection between the Counter Intelligence Program and our movement.

Let me take this opportunity to praise the dynamic work of our legal team, Jonathan Lubell, Michael Warren, Jill Elijah, Evelyn Warren, Watani Tyehimba, and the continued support of Family and Friends of Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, December 12th Movement, NAFFLA, and various anti-imperialist forces.

As stated before, we will continue this struggle to the next legal level on appeal. We will establish a record that will outline for history the particular repression of PP’s and POWs within the US legal system, requiring our movement to evaluate and participate in whatever benefits international law will provide for our situation as political prisoners and prisoners of war.

I implore you. We must prevent the vicious murder of Brother Mumia! We must prevent it at all costs!

Much love and respect. We are not dispirited. In fact, we are empowered by our resistance!

Aim high and go all out
Stiff Resistance
Dr. Mutulu Shakur