Victory: Judge’s Decision Ends Nearly 7 Year Fight
to Exonerate the “Dallas 6” Prisoner Whistleblowers

(21 March 2017)

In a victory for the last remaining “Dallas 6” defendant Carrington Keys, on Monday March 13 Judge Lesa Gelb sentenced him to no extra prison time.  Mr. Keys had been facing 6 felony counts of aggravated harassment by a prisoner. The Judge ruled that Mr. Keys was only guilty of lesser charges of disorderly conduct and sentenced him to 4-8 months, concurrent with his current sentence. (Mr. Keys waived his right to a jury trial and withdrew two motions he had filed to dismiss and quash the charges.) With this ruling, none of the Dallas 6 have been found guilty of riot or of (in Mr. Key’s case) aggravated harassment in the 2010 incident in which six African American prisoners at SCI Dallas staged a peaceful protest and were viciously beaten by guards in response. See background on case below.

On Tuesday, there were misleading headlines and articles in the Luzerne County Times Leader and Citizens Voice saying that Mr. Keyes was found guilty of slinging feces.  He was not.  He was found not guilty of aggravated harassment which was based on the allegation that he threw feces.  He was found guilty of the lesser offense of disorderly conduct, which does not include in its terms that he threw anything. The family states they are requesting a retraction of these “alternative facts.”

Carrington Keys said, “It was important that we fight this case to send a message of inspiration to other prisoners who are falsely accused.  There are far too many people who have been pressured by a system to plead guilty to false allegations due to the fear of the consequences of what may occur if found guilty by a jury.  Secondly it was important to stand up for all prisoners in solitary confinement, all people of color and all oppressed people who have been singled out by tyrants in this government.  In the beginning we were all charged with riot and in the end it was only one Dallas 6 found guilty of riot – Anthony Kelly, who plead guilty in the very beginning so he could go home (he had maxed out).  More of us in the Dallas 6 came out unaffected by any punishment imposed as a result of misdemeanors and two were exonerated after years of fighting. In the beginning, I was charged with riot and six felony counts of aggravated harassment.  In the end I came out with a disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor conviction.  That is the result of standing up for myself, and the support from my mother and all other people who rallied together for justice.  It may not be everything that I wanted but, hey, this is the price that men pay for standing up to an injustice system.  All power to the people!”

 

Shandre Delaney, Mr. Keys’ mother and coordinator of the Justice for the Dallas 6 Campaign, said, "My son is happy that it’s over, but it’s bittersweet. He blew the whistle on torture he witnessed by prison guards and for that he was dragged through court for almost seven years.  It is an outrage.  The guilty ones are the guards who abused their power and the racist justice system that covered for them. As his mother along with supporters we intend to continue to fight for the rest of the prisoners trapped in this torturous system.  I just got some letters from prisoners at SCI Dallas, and there was another coerced suicide, just like the case of Matthew Bullock which sparked the men to take action in 2010. So we take this victory to the next level now.”  Read Shandre Delaney’s recent article on truth-out.org: Revolutionary Love: Fighting Prison Injustice From Both Sides of the Wall

Attorney Michael Wiseman, who acted as Mr. Keys’ standby counsel at this proceeding, and during the first trial that resulted in a hung jury and dismissal of the riot charges, was pleased with the result: “In comparison with the brutality and inhumanity of the conditions under which Mr. Keys and his fellow prisoners were held in solitary, it is hard to see how Mr. Keys violated the law.  Nonetheless, we are pleased that he was not convicted of any felony counts, and, most important, that the outcome will not result in any additional prison time for him.”

“We are very pleased that at least partial justice has finally come for this courageous man, and his tireless mother who has organized support for him all these long years,” said Phoebe Jones of the Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign and Global Women’s Strike. “But who will be held responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money this trial has wasted going after these innocent men, instead of investigating the abuse they brought to light?  And what about the money and resources spent by family members and supporters in fighting for justice in this case? What about the emotional and mental stress suffered by these prisoner whistleblowers and their families? The prison guards and prison officials must be held accountable for what they did and continue to do.”

Fifteen supporters and a documentary film team were present in court to hear the good news. Shandre Delaney added, “I want to thank all the loyal supporters who came out to the hearings over so many years, got the word out, put us up in their homes, invited me speak to their congregations and synagogues and at rallies, signed the petitions and made calls to the prisons when they retaliated against the men. It was the families, the supporters and mainly the grit of the men themselves that led to this victory."

Background

Who are the Dallas 6?  On April 29, 2010 six courageous African American prisoner whistleblowers held in solitary confinement at SCI Dallas staged a peaceful protest against the widespread abuse, violence and torture by guards against Black, Latino and white prisoners which they had documented and took a stand against. The abuse they documented included: beatings; mental abuse; foreign objects in food such glass, metal, feces, spit, semen and urine; mail and legal document tampering; deprivation of human contact; withholding medication; starvation and cutting off water; and coerced suicide.  When they covered their cell doors and windows in protest, prison authorities responded by viciously beating them in so-called “cell extractions” and four months later charging them with “rioting” after the official complaints they had filed were publicized.

Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign: Abolitionist Law Center; Fight for Lifers West; Germantown Friends Meeting Mass Incarceration Working Group; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS; Human Rights Coalition – Fed Up; Human Rights Coalition – Phila; Marcellus Shale Earth First; Mishkan Shalom New Jim Crow Study-Action Group; Payday men’s network; Peacehome Campaigns; Shalefield Organizing Committee. 

Endorsements: Art for Justice; Brandywine Peace Community; California Families Against Solitary Confinement (CFASC); The Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC); Decarcerate PA; Defending Dissent Foundation; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network; Global Women’s Strike & Women of Color@GWS – UK; Green Party of Philadelphia (GPOP); Human Rights Defense Center – Lake Worth, Florida; Jewish Voice For Peace - Philadelphia; People’s Opposition to War Imperialism and Racism (POWIR) – Hollywood, Florida; Philadelphia Coalition for REAL Justice; San Francisco Bay View newspaper; Sin Barras – Without (Prison) Bars – Santa Cruz; T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh; Welfare Warriors; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) – Philadelphia.  Individual Endorsements: Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Patrice Armstead, Building People’s Power and Coalition Demanding Reinstatement of Dr. Monteiro; Malik Aziz, Founder, Men United for a Better Philadelphia and Chairman, National Exhoodus Council; Pastor Antoinette Johnson, King Solomon Baptist Church; Dr. Anthony Monteiro; Rev. Bob Moore, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action (for id purposes only); Margaret Prescod, host of “Sojourner Truth” on Pacifica Radio; Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of African American Studies & History, Temple University; Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University; Dr. Carla Willard, Africana Studies Program, Franklin & Marshall College.  Partnering with: AFSC Prison Watch.

Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign sd4hrc@gmail.com  412-403-6101

Global Women’s Strike  philly@globalwomenstrike.net 215-848-1120

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