BY JOHN STUDER
DES MOINES, Iowa - Activists in the Mark Curtis Defense Committee here are working with the imprisoned unionist this week to finalize plans for his November 21 meeting with the Iowa State Board of Parole.
Curtis, a former packinghouse worker and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party, has spent the last seven years in state prison on frame-up charges of rape and burglary. He was arrested, framed, and beaten by Des Moines cops while participating in a public campaign to win freedom for 17 Mexican and Salvadoran co-workers from the Monfort packing company who had been seized in an immigration raid.
For the last three years Curtis had been denied a hearing by the parole board. Under a new state law that took effect in 1993, hearings are only granted if the board determines there is a reason to believe some action on a prisoner's parole request is warranted.
This year, pressure mounted on Iowa authorities from the amount of time Curtis has served, which has led more and more people to question the motives of prison officials for keeping him behind bars. Curtis supporters have stepped up their efforts to make his fight for freedom a public issue. His request for a parole hearing has been covered by all three major television stations in central Iowa, as well as the Des Moines Register.
Under the regulations at the Iowa State Penitentiary, Curtis is entitled to have nine people attend his hearing to demonstrate public support for his release. Already approved by prison authorities are Curtis's mother Jane; his wife Kate Kaku; Nick Castle, a filmmaker and director who is flying in from Los Angeles; Frankie Travis, a member of the United Paperworkers International Union locked out by A.E. Staley in Decatur, Illinois; Kitty Loepker, a steelworker at Granite City Steel outside St. Louis; and John Studer and Hazel Zimmerman, coordinator and secretary- treasurer of the defense committee from Des Moines. In addition, Curtis's attorney, William Kutmus, has received approval from the prison to attend.
Curtis supporters have also taken steps to concretize arrangements for Curtis when he is freed, to further bolster his case for parole. Curtis has requested to be released to Illinois, where his wife lives and works as a steelworker.
On November 9, William Taylor, president of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 7-507 in Chicago, wrote the board to explain his efforts to help secure a job there for the imprisoned unionist on his release.
"I am still requesting parole for Mr. Curtis," Taylor wrote the board. "Also, I have spoken to some companies whose workers are represented by this union. I explained the Mark Curtis incident, and asked if they would be willing to interview Mr. Curtis for employment. This local will work to help Mr. Curtis secure employment and become a productive citizen."
Chris Naper, a Chicago-area lawyer, has initiated contact with the Illinois Department of Corrections about Curtis being paroled there. Illinois and Iowa are both member states of a national "Compact," which allows prisoners in one state to be paroled to another.
Hundreds of unionists, farmers, students, political activists, supporters of democratic rights, and former co- workers and neighbors of Curtis have written to the board to indicate their strong support for his release.
Letters keep coming in
On November 13, defense committee volunteers gathered
together the mail and faxes sent to them over the Veterans
Day weekend for delivery to the board, a total of 24
letters. In addition to the letters, $200 in donations came
in the mail.
"I am writing to urge you to grant parole and freedom to Mark Curtis immediately," faxed Joyce Milgaard, a member of the board of directors of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, a group founded by Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in Canada. "My son, David Milgaard, spent nearly 23 years in a Saskatchewan prison for a crime he did not commit."
David Milgaard, who sent a letter to the board on Curtis's behalf earlier this fall, won his freedom when the Supreme Court of Canada threw out his conviction in 1993 after a nationwide outcry.
"I am familiar with the case of Mark Curtis and I believe an injustice has taken place," she added. "With regard to your deliberations, I ask that you do not discriminate against Mark Curtis because he maintains his innocence, which is his God-given right to do.
"In my son's case, he could have been released on parole many years earlier but was refused each time because he maintained his innocence. Mark Curtis faces the same situation. He has been in prison for more than seven years for a conviction that would have seen others released before now. He meets all the criteria for a parole candidate. Please do not add to the injustice; please grant him his request immediately."
Support grows in Iowa
"I am writing in support of parole for Mark Curtis,"
wrote Jon Torgerson, chair of the Department of Philosophy
and Religion at Drake University, in one of many letters
that have come from the Des Moines area. "I believe he has
paid his debt to society and should be given the
opportunity to prove himself. That he has a job offer and
has worked through various organizations such as the NAACP
also supports the claim that now is the time to parole Mark
Curtis."
"In light of so many recent criminal cases that have recently been overturned, we ask that you take action now on his case," wrote Charles W. Dahm, pastor of the St. Pius V Parish in Chicago. "Too many are required to serve sentences for crimes they did not commit."
"I am writing to urge that the Board grant parole to Mr. Mark Curtis #805338 at his upcoming hearing," wrote David W. Campbell, Secretary-Treasurer of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 1-675 in Carson, California. "Mr. Curtis has many years' experience as a trade union and social activist and I believe the interests of society could best be served by his release."
"I'm writing to commend your actions in granting a parole hearing for Mark Curtis," wrote Dr. Nancy Winitzky, an associate professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. "I encourage you to continue this positive action by releasing Curtis as soon as possible. It is unclear to me why he is still in prison, given the circumstances of his case, the amount of time he has already served, and his behavior as an inmate."
"In fact, if you don't want him in Iowa," Winitzky added, "send him to Utah. We could use someone of his energy, compassion, and intelligence here."
"I strongly urge you to grant Mr. Curtis his parole request at the upcoming hearing," faxed Judy Greenspan, project director of the HIV/AIDS in Prison Project, administered in the Diocese of Oakland, California, by Catholic Charities of the East Bay. "Mr. Curtis has served 85 months. While he has been within his parole guidelines for the past three years, he has not until now been granted a parole hearing. Mr. Curtis is a well-respected political activist and unionist. He has served as an advocate for other prisoners during his period of incarceration."
Volunteers help on fundraising
Efforts to raise much needed funds have also stepped up
in the office, to help meet the expenses of organizing the
delegation to attend Curtis's parole hearing and the rest
of the expanded defense effort.
Horace Kerr, a supporter from Denver, Colorado, took a few days off work to drive to Des Moines and volunteer his help. He worked with Barbara Bowman, a committee member, to make fundraising calls. In one afternoon, Kerr got pledges of over $700 from three supporters.
The defense committee has scheduled a public meeting for 7:00 p.m. the night of November 21 for members of the delegation attending the parole hearing to report back on the results. The meeting is scheduled for the Forest Avenue Library, the public library in Des Moines's Black community.
The committee is planning to deliver the last batch of letters it receives to the parole board members attending Curtis's hearing.
Letters urging parole for Curtis addressed to the Iowa State Board of Parole can be mailed to the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311, or faxed to the committee at (515) 243-9869. Tel: (515) 246- 1695.