Dr. Mutulu Shakur. The Struggle to Free a New Afrikan

[XXPANTHAXX]

Dr. Mutulu Shakur. The Struggle to Free a New Afrikan
Mutulu Shakur | Home Page

Date of Birth: August 8, 1950
Nationality: New Afrikan
Incarcerated at: Atlanta, GA

Dr. Mutulu Shakur is a New Afrikan (Black) man whose primary work has been in the area of health. He is a doctor of acupuncture and was a co-founder and director of two institutions devoted to improving health care in the Black community.

Mutulu Shakur was born on August 8, 1950, in Baltimore, Maryland as Jeral Wayne Williams. At age 7 he moved to Jamaica, Queens, New York City with his mother and younger sister. Shakur's political and social consciousness began to develop early in his life. His mother suffered not only from being Black and female, but was also blind. These elements constituted Shakur's first confrontation with the state, while assisting his mother to negotiate through the maze that made up the social service system. Through this experience Shakur learned that the system did not operate in the interests of Black people and that Black people must control the institutions that affect their lives.

Since the age 16, Dr. Shakur has been a part of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. As a part of this movement Dr. Shakur has been a target of the illegal Counterintelligence Program carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (COINTELPRO). This was a secret police strategy used in the U.S. starting in the 1960's to destroy/neutralize progressive and revolutionary organizations. It is believed that Dr. Shakur's resistance to this program led to his arrest and trial.

During the late sixties Dr. Shakur was also politically active and worked with the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), a Black Nationalist group which struggled for Black self-determination and socialist change in America. He was also a member of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika which endorsed the founding of an independent New Afrikan (Black) Republic and the establishment of an independent Black state in the southern U.S. Dr Shakur also worked very closely with the Black Panther Party supporting his brother Lummumba Shakur and Zayid.

In 1970 Dr. Shakur was employed by the Lincoln Detox (detoxification) Community (addiction treatment) Program as a political education instructor. His role evolved to include counseling and treatment of withdrawal symptoms with acupuncture. Dr. Shakur became certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in the State of California in 1976. Eventually he became the Program's Assistant Director and remained associated with the program until 1978.

From 1978 to 1982, Dr. Shakur was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAAANA) and the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture. Where, at Lincoln, Dr. Shakur had managed a detox program recognized as the largest and most effective of its kind by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Acupuncture Research Society and the World Academic Society of Acupuncture, at BAAANA he continued his remarkable work and also treated thousands of poor and elderly patients who would otherwise have no access to treatment of this type. Many community leaders, political activists, lawyers and doctors were served by BAAANA and over one hundred medical students were trained in the discipline of acupuncture.

By the late 1970's Dr. Shakur's work in acupuncture and drug detoxification was both nationally and internationally known and he was invited to address members of the medical community around the world. Dr. Shakur lectured on his work at many medical conferences, and was invited to the People's Republic of China. In addition in his work for the Charles Cobb Commission for Racial Justice for the National Council of Churches he developed their anti-drug program.

Dr. Shakur has furthermore been a dedicated worker and champion in the struggle against political imprisonment and political convictions of Black Activists in America. He was the founding member of the National Committee to Free Political Prisoners. He has been a leader in the struggle against the illegal U.S. and local American law enforcement programs designed to destroy the Black movement in America and has worked to expose and to stop the secret American war against its Black colony.

Through his political work, Dr. Shakur has been associated with the Committee to Defend Herman Ferguson, a Black activist and educator charged with conspiracy in the RAM conspiracy case of the 1960's; the National Task Force for COINTELPRO Litigation and Research, which researched and initiated suits against the FBI and American law enforcement agencies for criminal acts, spying and counter-insurgency warfare tactics; and the National Conference of Black Lawyers. He has also endorsed support for the legal defense of political prisoners and prisoners of war, including Imari Obadele, Ph.D., Rev. Ben Chavis, Geronimo (Pratt) JiJaga of the Black Panther Party, and Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli of the Black Liberation Army.

In March 1982, Dr. Shakur and 10 others were indicted by a federal grand jury under a set of U.S. conspiracy laws called "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization" (RICO) laws. These conspiracy laws were ostensibly developed to aid the government in its prosecution of organized crime figures; however, they have been used with varying degrees of success against revolutionary organizations. Dr. Shakur was charged with conspiracy and participation in a clandestine paramilitary unit that carried out actual and attempted expropriations from several banks. Eight (8) incidents were alleged to have occurred between December 1976 to October 1981. In addition he was charged with participation in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur, who is now in exile in Cuba. (the question of Dr. Shakur being charged with participation when in fact they alleged he masterminded her escape creates the true fact of cointelpro).

After 5 years underground, Dr. Shakur was arrested on February 12, 1986.

Dr. Shakur is the father of six children. His son Tupac was assassinated in 1996. He has solid evidence that it was a continuation of COINTELPRO. The F.B.I., the Federal Bureau of Prisons with law enforcement made every effort to keep him separated from his son Tupac.

LEGAL CASE: Basic Facts:

Arrested: February 12, 1986

Charges:
Conspiracy to aid bank expropriation, Dr. Shakur was charged under the U. S. conspiracy laws known as "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization" or 'RICO' laws (8 counts). The U.S. government alleged that Mutulu's political associates constituted a racketeering enterprise. Aiding in the escape of Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard)

Jurisdiction:
U.S. Federal Court

Disposition:
Conviction on all counts - 60 years imprisonment.

Case Status:
Fighting a parole board decision of another parole hearing in 15 years; filed a 2241 habus corpus motion, pending judicial decision in 11th circuit.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

1. Evidence, which was illegally seized, was allowed to be presented by the prosecuting attorney.
2. Explosives were allowed to be presented in evidence despite the fact that there were no bombings charged against Dr. Shakur.
3. A sitting juror was re-admitted after confessing to having discussed the case outside the jury room with an embittered x-juror which is a human rights violation.
4. Despite the juror's admission of having discussed the case outside the jury room, the judge refused a thorough inquiry.
5. Evidence used to convict Dr. Shakur was seized from the alleged home of Marilyn Buck. There was no proof to link Dr. Shakur to the evidence used against him.
6. The U.S. government presented testimony of a paid informant who claimed to have participated in the actions for which Dr. Shakur was indicted. Tyrone Rison received $110,000 in material benefits and a reduced sentence for his testimony. He is presently released from prison.
7. Dr. Shakur submitted a Prisoner of War petition stating the nature of the charges against him coupled with his years of resistance to political oppression required that his case be heard before an international court. The judge denied the motion.
8. The Court allowed prosecutor to put before the jury Dr. Shakur's Prisoner of War (P.O.W.) claim without allowing Dr. Shakur to present any evidence and without the Judge instructing the jury as to the law.
9. In his sentencing statement Judge Charles Haight conceded that Dr. Shakur was illegally targeted by the FBI's Counterintelligence Program.

The Criminal Charges
In reference to discussing Mutulu Shakur's criminal case, three matters tell the real story:

1. For years before the indictment Dr. Shakur was a target of the F.B.I. and other police agencies, and was Subject to their illegal acts as he exercised his constitutional rights as an activist in the Black movement. Thus the trial judge found that

"Dr. Shakur while exercising constitutional liberties was illegally pursued by federal law enforcement officers."

and further:

"the rights of Dr. Shakur ... were violated by the COINTELPRO program."

The COINTELPRO program was a program initiated by the F.B.I. to neutralize leaders of the Black movement.
2. The government tried desperately to get hard evidence of Dr. Shakur committing a crime - but there was none. The government's case consisted of 115 witnesses and 532 exhibits. It utilized its technical and scientific resources in an effort to obtain evidence against Dr. Shakur, including electronic telephone interceptions, electronic eavesdropping at premises, fingerprint searches and hair and blood analyses. It conducted searches of no less than twelve premises, examining and analyzing everything and anything in those premises. The result of all this vast governmental search for evidence was a striking absence of any evidence at trial connecting Dr. Shakur with the charged criminal conduct:
* No evidence from any electronic telephone interceptions;

* No evidence from any electronic eavesdropping at premises;

* No evidence of any fingerprint of appellant Shakur on any weapon represented by the government to be involved in any of the charged crimes;

* No evidence of any fingerprint of appellant Shakur at any crime scene;

* No evidence of any fingerprint of appellant Shakur on any immovable object at any house alleged to have, been used by the charged criminal enterprise;

* No evidence of any hair of appellant Shakur at any crime scene;

* No evidence of any fingerprint or hair of appellant Shakur on any vehicle alleged to have been used by the charged criminal enterprise;

* No eyewitness identification of appellant Shakur at any crime scene by any third party;

* No evidence indicating ownership or possession by appellant Shakur of any weapon represented by the government to be involved in any of the charged crimes.

In fact, the government's case rested upon one witness, Tyron Rison, who, the government conceded murdered a guard at a Bronx bank robbery, and whose deal with the government resulted in his release from prison after six years in jail.
3. The political context of the charges and trial was admitted by everyone. The prosecutor told the jury it was "political views which motivated" the charged acts. The Court of Appeals, which affirmed Dr. Shakur's conviction, described him as participating in a group “organized in the mid-1970s to further its conception of the Black struggle in America.” Yet, the political context was ruled irrelevant in determining what the prosecution against Dr. Shakur was really aimed at or what Dr. Shakur was really about while being accused of criminal acts.

To write to Mutulu use the regular address:
Mutulu Shakur #83205-012
601 McDonough Blvd SE
Atlanta, GA 30315

Family and Friends of Mutulu Shakur
P.O. Box 3171
NY, NY 10027
(212) 631-1078
MutuluShakur@hotmail.com