Mark Curtis denied parole until he admits "guilt'

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SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1992 7 committee coordinator Clay Mahan (r.)

Frame-up victim Mark Curtis, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, continues to languish in a jail in lowa under a 25-year sentence for attempted burglary. He is also serving a concurrent term of 10 years for attempted rape, part of the same frame-up.

In November 1991 the Iowa State Board of Parole denied him parole on the Catch-22 grounds that he maintains his innocence. Until and unless he says he is guilty and enrolls in a prison-run behavior modification program he won't get parole according to the Board in spite of the fact he is a model prisoner.

The Parole Board's real aim is to silence Curtis's defense campaign, which has gained impressive support in the unions and elsewhere. The Parole Board, in short, is trying to blackmail Curtis into admitting he was guilty.

Curtis told the Board he was willing to go through any program that did not entail his admitting he was guilty.

Curtis was arrested on March 4, 1988. Earlier in the day he spoke out at a public protest meeting in defense of 17 Mexican and Salvadoran coworkers. They had been arrested by U.S. Immigration police during a raid at the Swift/Montfort meat-processing plant where Curtis worked.

Cops took Curtis to a room in the police station where they stripped and cuffed him and beat him unmercifully. It took 15 stitches to close a gash over his eye. He suffered a "blowout" fracture, where the bone is broken from the inside by intense swelling in the eye socket and was bruised from head to toe. As they beat him, the cops jeered that Curtis loved the "Mexicans as well as the coloreds."

Curtis was then subjected to a police campaign to turn him from the victim into the criminal. When his defense campaign got going, supporters of the police mounted a counter-campaign of slander and misinformation.

He was taken through a trial rigged against him, and denied his right to present crucial evidence on his own behalf, including concerning his political and union activity that was clearly the motivation behind the cops' drive to get him.

He was convicted on the testimony of a cop who had previously been suspended from the police force for lying and brutality in another case.

The wide support for Curtis's right to be released on parole was obvious when Parole Board member Barbara Binnie stated to Curtis, "You have attempted to make this case a political circus," referring to the stacks of mail the Board received demanding Curtis's release.

"You'll have plenty of opportunity Ito appeal], " she gloated, "since we have you until 2001."

At that date, Curtis will have served half his sentence and would be released unless he is convicted of infractions while in prison.

As a parting shot, Binnie jeered, 'if you win your appeal [of the Board's ruling] let us know."

In a separate action, Curtis is suing the cops for the beating he took. The suit was heard before a judge at the end of November, and a decision is pending.

To get more information and to help gain new support, contact the defense committee at Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311.