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From the Executive Director

From the Executive Director
Jennifer Meeropol is the granddaughter of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and the daughter of RFC Founder, Robert Meeropol.  Jenn became the Executive Director of the RFC on September 1, 2013.  Prior posts on this page were written by Robert (unless otherwise noted), and represent his opinions, which are not necessarily shared by the RFC.
 
 

2011 ushered in a new era of activism; although from the mainstream media’s perspective the wave of global protest didn’t crash upon our nation’s shores until the fall. Perhaps at the RFC we should have been aware of its impending arrival, because we noted an uptick in new applications starting at the beginning of the year. We weren’t swamped with requests from the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement in 2011 because it was still in its infancy when our fall application deadline passed in early October.

The case of Private Bradley Manning, accused of being the source of Wikileaks’ massive outing of “secret” United States diplomatic information, is back in the news. He is now in the midst of a procedural hearing (technically called an Article 32 hearing) to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to hold a Court Martial (see www.bradleymanning.org for additional information).

The case of Private Bradley Manning, accused of being the source of Wikileaks’ massive outing of “secret” United States diplomatic information virtually disappeared from the mainstream media during the last few months. My Google search earlier this week produced just two articles in alternative newspapers that even mentioned his name during the past month. That changed today, however, because after 18 months in detention, a military court is holding a hearing to determine whether Bradley Manning should face a Court Martial.

On December 9th, Mumia Abu-Jamal, arguably the world’s most famous death row prisoner, will have been incarcerated for 30 years. As I’ve written here before, I’ve read the entire transcript of Mumia’s trial, and am convinced that it was unfair and that Mumia should be freed. I feel well qualified to make this determination because while serving two one-year judicial clerkships for the Justices of the Massachusetts Appeals Court it was my job to read trial transcripts and judge the fairness of those trials.