BY NORTON SANDLER
DES MOINES, Iowa - On October 17, Barbara Binnie, vice
chair of the Iowa State Board of Parole, informed William
Kutmus, attorney for political activist Mark Curtis, that
the board had decided to grant Curtis a hearing this year on
his application for parole. This is the first time in three
years that Iowa parole officials have agreed to meet with
Curtis.
The hearing will be held November 21 at the Iowa State Penitentiary, where Curtis is imprisoned.
Curtis has been incarcerated since 1988, when he was framed by Des Moines police on charges of rape and burglary while defending 17 co-workers at the Monfort (formerly Swift) meatpacking company. The "Swift 17," from Mexico and El Salvador, had been seized in an immigration raid on the plant. Curtis was beaten in the city jail by cops who called him a "Mexican lover, just like you love those coloreds."
Three years ago, the Iowa legislature adopted a new parole law that abolished prisoners' right to a parole hearing each year. In 1993 and 1994 the board refused to meet with Curtis, even though he met the requirements for release on parole under Iowa law.
At the November 21 parole hearing, Curtis will be allowed to argue in front the board why he should be freed. Kutmus will also be able to make a presentation imploring the board to grant Curtis his release.
John Studer, coordinator of the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, said in an October 18 press statement, "The Board's decision to meet with Mark registers progress in the fight to secure his release. Up until now, the Board repeatedly raised new obstacles to his fight for freedom. As each year passed, these efforts have become rawer, more transparent, and have made it clearer that the treatment of Curtis and his continuing imprisonment are a product of political prejudice. More and more people are asking, `Why is Mark Curtis still in prison?' "
Studer said the length of time served - 85 months, or more than 7 years - along with other factors contributed to the parole board's decision to grant Curtis a hearing this time. He noted that 298 Curtis supporters from around the world have written the board urging his release. About 75 percent of these letters are from the United States. "The letters have had an impact on the Board; they show that this case is not going to go away and that important new support for Curtis is steadily being assembled."
In September, a delegation of more than 20 trade unionists, political activists, local clergy, a farmer, former neighbors of Curtis, and other defense committee backers met with members of the parole board and delivered letters urging he be freed. At that time they delivered 163 letters, most from the United States. Included also were 5,000 letters from landless Brazilian peasants who had demonstrated in July at the U.S. embassy in Brasilia around Curtis's case. When the delegation arrived at the parole board office, they were met by television news crews from Des Moines area stations. An article on the meeting, entitled "World watches inmate in Iowa," was published in the September 8 Des Moines Register, the area's only daily paper.
On the day the parole board decided to grant Curtis a hearing, his supporters delivered another 126 letters urging his release. In the few hours since they were delivered, Studer reported that seven more letters have come over the defense committee's fax machine.
"I am joining the other hundreds of individuals, friends, and union activists in making a personal plea that you FREE MARK CURTIS NOW!," stated Sixto Medina, recording secretary of United Auto Workers Local 664 in Tarrytown, New York, in one of the recent letters.
Another factor contributing to the Board's decision to meet with Curtis, according to Studer, "is the climate in the country where millions today are dubious about the veracity of the testimony of cops who railroad thousands in the U.S. to prison every year."
Curtis's supporters have already begun to assemble a delegation to attend the parole hearing on his behalf. In addition to his attorney, Kutmus, the delegation will be led by Frankie Travis, a "road warrior" locked out by A.E. Staley in Decatur, Illinois; working farmer Larry Ginter from Rhodes, Iowa; Kitty Loepker, a steelworker in Granite City, Illinois; defense committee officers John Studer and Hazel Zimmerman; and Kate Kaku, Curtis's wife. In previous years, prison authorities have limited those able to attend to nine participants.
In a letter faxed out October 18, the defense committee askes supporters of Curtis to use the time between now and the hearing to gather some additional letters urging the board to grant Curtis his parole.
"We want to take the opportunity this hearing offers to continue to win support," Studer said. He urged Curtis backers to give attention to collecting "a handful of letters from each area that can help in having an impact on what the board decides five weeks from now.
"Most important," said Studer, "are letters that focus on why Mark Curtis should be paroled, and that don't attempt to retry his case.
For more information, or to send a letter to the Iowa Parole Board on Curtis's behalf, write the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311; or phone (515) 246-1695.