Sean Swain’s support team has retained Bob Fitrakis, a well-known activist lawyer, journalist and professor to help with Sean’s various legal troubles.
We’ve also created a legal fund to cover the expenses. Bob is willing to work with Sean at a reduced rate, but the more money we can raise, the more he can do to help Sean out. Sean has been pretty thoroughly fucked over by those he not-so-affectionately refers to as “the fascist fuckweasels” so Bob has got his work laid out for him, and so do those of us willing to raise funds for Sean.
Issue 1: Sean’s original conviction. Sean is serving a life bid for defending himself against an intruder who broke into his home and threatened him. The intruder happened to be related to the clerk of courts. Naturally, Sean didn’t get anything like a fair trial, his self-defense argument was not accepted and he got the book thrown at him. He has appealed the court’s decision, with assistance of a public defender, the appellate court found in his favor and remanded the case to the original court, with specific instructions for re-trial. The court failed to follow these instructions, and found against Sean again. Sean is currently arguing that their decision is thus void. He hasn’t had access to his legal documents for years, but just recently received them and is working on the next stages of this case, so even though it’s been 20 years, Sean is excited to now finally be able to move on his original conviction.
Issue 2: The Twelve Monkeys, The Rules Infraction Board, and religious discrimination. So, apparently some people callin themselves The Army of the 12 Monkeys got some sort of wild at ManCI. The prison administrators have tried to peg it all on everyone’s favorite anarchist muckraker, Sean Swain, who was at the time writing some pretty inflamatory stuff criticizing JPay and the further privitization of Ohio’s prison system. The Rules Infraction Board were unable to find any actual evidence linking Sean to the sabotage or propaganda, so instead they just said he was an “ideological match” and found him guilty. There’s no evidence that The Army of the 12 Monkeys are anarchists, or that the “investigator” who made this match has any clue what Sean’s ideology is. Sean has been appealed this decision at every level and been denied. They have held him in local control (solitary confinement) since September 19th. They are planning to transfer him to Ohio State Penitentiary, the super-max. For his ideology. Fortunately, Sean’s ideology is actually a state sanctioned religous practice. Sean has received approval for a religious exception for his deeply held beleif in Neolithic Indiginism. He beleives we were all created by a benevolent force that does not wish us to live in hierarchical structures. His anarchism is rooted in this beleif, and the warden at ManCI has approved his religion and granted him an exception to practice this religion. So, Sean and Bob are going to sue ManCI and the ODRC for religious discrimination and persecution.
Issue 3: Adult Parole Authority Hijinx. Sean was up for parole in September 2011. He hired a lawyer to help him prepare for his heaing. The prison officials decided to flop him without having a hearing, inviting Sean, or his lawyer. This violates the APA’s rules. Sean’s lawyer said she would fight this decision, but didn’t. Now Sean and Bob are going to take it up.
Issue 4: Wrongful imprisonment lawsuit. If Sean can prove that his original conviction is void, then he’s been incarcerated wrongfully since his appeal, and is entitled to a fair chunk of recompense.
Issue 5: Human Rights Claims. Sean has a civil rights lawsuit against the US through the Organization of American States (OAS). In this action, Sean argues that the constitution of the state of Ohio violates the Treaty of Greenville, and thus Ohio does not exist and cannot legitimately hold him, or anyone else captive. The OAS has given the US until Dec 23rd to answer Sean’s claims. Bob finds this interesting, but will focus his attention on the original conviction and the 12 Monkeys / religious discrimination cases. Much much more on this can be found on dropbox.
