Move Update – Parole Hearing

In April 2008 the MOVE 9 were denied parole despite us doing 30 years in prison and being highly recommended for release by the prison administrations. The parole board claim their reasons for denying us parole is, we didn’t take responsibility for the crime by not admitting guilt. They want people to think that if we had said we were guilty, we would have been paroled. It’s a lie! The parole board never had any intentions of releasing us, but they had to give some reason to try to justify it.

Move didn’t kill nobody and this government knows it. Police reports stated that Ramp was shot in the back of the neck while facing our house and the bullet travelled downward. Move was in the basement below street level making it impossible for Move to have been the ones who shot Ramp. Judge Maimed admitted publicly after convicting us that he didn’t know who shot the cop. But the Parole Board is demanding we say we’re guilty, take responsibility for a crime we didn’t commit and the courts never proved we committed. We were tried, convicted and sentenced to 30-100 years for 3rd degree murder, now the Parole Board has tried, convicted and sentenced us again for something that’s not even a crime- it’s not a crime to say you’re innocent.
The Parole Board is supposed to judge you should be released from prison or not. We not a threat to the community and deserve officials feel we are guilty or not, they spending 30 years of our lives in prison. on your conduct, use that to determine if you have an honest, clean record that shows we are to be released from prison, and whether these have made us pay for that conviction by

The Parole Board asked how can we say we’re innocent when we were found guilty by a judge. There are thousands of innocent people in prison. Judges make wrong, unfair and prejudicial decisions. Their opinions have caused innocent people to suffer in prison and caused many innocent people to lose their lives. Judges are human, they’re not infallible, they are not God! Yet the Parole Board upholds the judges decisions like they are always right by denying people parole because they refuse to say they’re guilty- or for not showing remorse, like they’re saying about MOVE; only to find out 10, 20 years later that these people were innocent and had to be released.

There were 12 adults in the basement when the police attacked us on 8/8/78. We were all arrested, given the same charges, but 3 people were released when they said they were not Move members. The judge sent 9 innocent people to prison for what the judge claim one of us is guilty of, overlooking the 3 other people in the basement of the Move house, when the cop was shot, who were tried separately from the 9 of us. Put the judge said everybody in the basement of the Move house when the cop was shot is guilty- meaning that 12 people should be in prison for murder instead of 9, according to the judge. Malmed’s own statement and the release of the other 3 people who were in the basement that day proves that the Move 9 ain’t in prison for committing a crime. We’re in prison and being kept in prison because we are Move members committed to JOHN AFRICA.

Judge Maimed stated in an article a few days after he sentenced us that “Move members have said they are a family so I sentenced them as a family”, but we were being tried for murder not being a family. Sending us to prison for being a family is a contradiction of the charges, which is like trying a person for a rape they did not commit and finding them guilty of arson when they are innocent of arson and rape.

Phila. officials know Move didn’t kill nobody but they want us to say we’re guilty to clear their bloody reputation. They murdered 11 of our family members May 13, 1985, because our family was pushing for an honest investigation into our case. Even though they were found guilty of murder not one cop or official spent a day in prison. This horrendous act of injustice have caused people around the world to be outraged. It has drawn people to the Move 9’s case and they see that we were railroaded and imprisoned unjustly – and now this example with the Parole Board crystallizes that injustice even more.

Move people are innocent and it is our innocence, our consistent example of loyalty, commitment, family that have gained Move world wide support. It’s our consistent example that has people who were once critical of Move, now questioning this government. We have been denied parole because we maintain our innocence. Phila. officials and cops admitted to murdering 11 Move people 5 of our children and not one of these cops or officials have ever apologized, shown any remorse and they continue to minimize their crime. Every year on May 13th, when the murder of our family is remembered, Phila. officials, namely D.A. Lynn Abraham who opposed our being paroled, says to people, “it’s time to move on”, well when are they going to apply that to Move. Thirty years is enough – Move should be released from prison and let us move on. That is the solution to the unrest in Phila. between Move and the city.

The racist apartheid government of South Africa released Nelson Mendela after 27 years in prison. Even though the stand Nelson Mendela took against apartheid was seen as illegal, the U.S. government applauded his release, criticized and condemned the apartheid government of South Africa for the murder and unjust jailing of the people of South Africa but the U.S. government is committing the same crimes against Move- beating, shooting, bombing Move people since 1972, and keeping us in prison because we are Move Members. This is not just a Move issue this is an issue of injustice. If people let this government continue to do this to Move, the government will do the same thing to you, your children and all of those you love.

To Quote JOHN AFRICA

WHEN A PERSON SEND INNOCENT PEOPLE TO PRISON, THOSE WHO THINK THIS VIOLATION STOP WITH THE VICTIM ARE AS MUCH A PRISONER OF THE TYRANT AS THOSE BEHIND THE PRISON WALL, WHEN AN INNOCENT PERSON IS SENT TO PRISON LIKE GUILTY THE PRINCIPLE OF INNOCENCE IS UNDER ATTACK AND THE INNOCENCE OF ALL THE INNOCENT IS ASSAULTED, AN INNOCENT EXAMPLE IS A FREE EXAMPLE, THOSE WHO ARE SILENT ABOUT THE CONDITION OF THE INNOCENT IS SILENT ABOUT THE POSITION OF FREEDOM, WHEN INNOCENCE IS JAILED IT AIN’T JUST JOHN BROWN THAT IS JAILED, FREEDOM IS JAILED BECAUSE FREEDOM DOES NOT STOP WITH JOHN BROWN NO MORE THAN INNOCENCE STOP WITH JOHN BROWN’S MOTHER – END QUOTE, LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA!

REMEMBER THE FIGHT THE MOVE ORGANIZATION IS WAGING IN THE COURTS AND PRISONS IS FOR YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS TOO, THE DRUGS, THE BEATINGS, THE RAPE OF MEN AND WOMEN BY PRISCN OFFICIALS AND INMATES EXIST, THE MENTAL CRUELTY PRISONERS HAVE TO ENDURE EXIST, AND UNLESS YOU ARE RICH YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT IMMUNED TO THESE CONDITIONS… JOHN AFRICA

For more information, check out www.onamove.com

The MOVE Organization
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
(610)499-0979
onamovellja@aol.com

Debbie Sims Africa #006307
Janet Holloway Africa #006308
Janine Phillips Africa #006309
SCI-Cambridge Springs
451 Fullerton Ave
Cambridge Springs, PA
USA 16403-1238

Michael Davis Africa #AM-4973
Charles Sims Africa #AM-4975
SCI-Graterford
P.O. Box 244
Graterford, PA
USA 19426

William Phillips Africa #AM-4984
Delbert Orr Africa #AM-4985
SCI-Dallas
1000 Follies Rd.
Dallas, PA
USA 18612

Edward Goodman Africa #AM-4974
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA
USA 17932

Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA
USA 15370