Support needed for Romaine 'Chip' Fitzgerald

[Moorbey]

Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald needs our support. Please write and fax demanding his medical transfer and critically needed treatment!
From: Bruce Richard <BruceR@1199.org>

Dear Friend and Family,

Attached is a letter demanding emergency medical treatment for an ex-Panther that I believe most of you are familiar with. I am requesting that you sign off on this and fax it to 212-261-2455 or if you could authorize me to sign off for you. The plan is to send a large number of these letters in to the prison demanding that treatment is provided. Your prompt attention to this matter would be much appreciated. The fax letter is below.
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Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, born and raised in Compton, California, joined the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party in early 1969 as a teenager who had just been released from the California Youth Authority. In September of that year, as a dedicated member of the Party, Chip was arrested in connection with a police shoot-out and tried for assault on police and related charges, including the murder of a security guard. He was sentenced to death.

Ultimately, his sentence was commuted to life with parole. He has been in prison for nearly 40 years now.

Chip’s dedication to the cause of the liberation of black and all oppressed people has not wavered through all the years of his brutal incarceration. Free Romaine ?Chip? Fitzgerald
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Via Facsimile 760-337-7950

Warden Domingo Uribe, Jr.
Centinela State Prison
Imperial, California

Re: Immediate Medical Treatment and Transfer Romaine Fitzgerald*B27527


Dear Warden Uribe:

This is a demand that you immediately provide Romaine Fitzgerald the emergency medical treatment he needs and transfer him to a proper medical facility for care. Your denial of this urgent treatment and care is a blatant denial of his Constitutional rights, for which the California prison system has already been reprimanded by the Order of the federal district court.

Mr. Fitzgerald, who has been incarcerated for 40 years and is now 60 years old, has made a request for a medical transfer numerous times because he is suffering extreme spinal pain and is partially paralyzed, arising from a stroke he experienced in 1998. Indeed, over three years ago, prison doctors recommended corrective surgery, and, recently your own doctors supported that recommendation. Every day his condition worsens on account of the barbaric conditions under which you presently house him in your administrative segregation unit. The report of Dr. Marie Branch, based upon her examination of Mr. Fitzgerald in July of this year, confirms that the metal bed, extreme isolation and denial of proper exercise and denial of a neck support or even a pillow in that unit exacerbate his deteriorating condition. Indeed, I believe if you continue to refuse to provide Mr. Fitzgerald proper treatment, he will soon suffer permanent paralysis.

The Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald is prepared to pay for any and all costs related to the services of a private doctor to treat Mr. Fitzgerald. The Honorable Thelton E. Henderson, District Court Judge, and his appointed Receiver, J. Clark Kelso, are copied on this letter to alert them of these serious concerns and encourage them to closely monitor your response.

Very truly yours,

Name ________________________

Address _______________________

Telephone/Email _________________

cc: J. Clark Kelso, Receiver, California Prison Health Care Services
Matthew Cate, Secretary, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
The Honorable Thelton E. Henderson, Judge, United States District Court
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, State of California
Prison Law Office, San Quentin, California



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