SEVERED FINGERS

MAILED IN PROTEST

(Her Say)--Two women Incarcerated in an Ohio men's penitentiary in Columbus have threatened to cut off their fingers if they are not allowed by the U.S. State Department to renounce their citizenship. The two women, Shirley Keller and Cindy Freeman, have reportedly joined with twleve male prisoners in Ohio to demand that they be allowed to give up their U.S. citizenship as part of the Helsinki agreements on human rights. (See WSW, Oct., 1977, page 9.)

The fourteen prisoners have charged that they are being forced to live in subhuman prison conditions and that they are political prisoners.

Two male inmates at the Lucasville prison voluntarily cut off a finger each in recent weeks and mailed them to selected government officials in Washington as part of the protest. One of the fingers reached the State Department in Washington last month. One amputated finger, destined for U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell, reportedly was appre hended in a prison mailroom by Lucasville officials.

The fourteen inmates have indicated that they will continue to chop off their fingers and mall them out until their request to renounce their American citi. zenship is granted by the government. The State Department insists that citizenship can only be given up in the diplomatic offices of a foreign government, and not on U.S. soll.

In the meantime, the Justice Department says it is sending two lawyers from the Civil Rights Division to find out if the prisoners' civil rights have been violated, and to "persuade them against further mutilation."'

Baum Risks Jail in Racism Fight

(New York (LNS)--Jeanne Baum, a Native American woman well known for her fights against racist education (See WSW, Nov. 1977), is facing continued appeals and possible imprisonment following the latest defeat for her case in court.

On January 23, an all-white, male panel of judges at the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court sustained Baum's 1976 conviction on charges of being an "unfit mother." That convictlon stemmed from her refusal to send her daughter, Siba, back to a Long Island, New York Junior high school where she had been the victim of her teacher's racist slurs. The appellate court ruling in late January ordered that Baum send Siba back to the school or face the loss of custody of her daughter.

Baum's fight began in 1975 when one of Siba's teachers criticized a paper she had submitted, writ ing on it "Indians got what they deserved." When Siba challenged the criticism in class, the teacher elaborated on her remarks, asserting that Indians were "lazy," should get off reservations, and should be ashamed of the "atrocities" they had allegedly committed,

After unsuccessfully seeking support from the school principal, the Board of Education, the school superintendent, the local Human Rights Commls. sion, the teachers' union, and churches, Baum re. moved Siba from school. The school district leaders responded by charging Baum In Family Court with withholding Siba from school "without just cause or valid reason." In May, 1976, the Suffolk County Family Court convicted Baum of ''neglect''.

Baum has vowed not to return Siba to school until the school administrators take punitive and remedial

BAIL SET FOR JOAN LITTLE

New York (LNS)--Joan Little, who is currently fighting extradition to North Carolina from New York City, recently won a court battle for bail. On January 25, the Appellate Division of the Scond Judiciary Department accepted a ball application and set ball at $50,000,

At Little's first extradition hearing on January 6, Judge Cornellus O'Brien turned down a ball application submitted by Little's lawyer, William Kunstler, and then adjourned the hearings for 30 days. Little has been imprisoned on Rikers Island since her arrest as a fugitive on December 7, almost two months after she fled a North Carolina jail.

This fall during her last parole hearing, Little was charged with having "unauthorized material'' --a tape cassette--and "unauthorized use of mater ial-using a towel to cover her dresser,

Outside the courthouse on January 6, 40 activists carrying signs and chanting "Free Joan Little" demonstrated in support of her fight to remain in New York. Supporters have also initiated a petition drive urging that New York Governor Hugh Carey deny North Carolina's "brutal and unusual request." A decision on an application for her extradition back to North Carolina is expected early this month,

At the hearing, Kunstler requested that Little be released on ball on the grounds that she faced neither the death penalty nor life imprisonment. Little, before her escape, was serving a 7 to 10 year sentence stemming from her alleged involvement In the theft of $200 worth of clothes from a mobil home in Washington, North Carolina. Despite the fact that she had no prior conviction, Little was given the maximum sentence, of which she has already served four years.

Little has stated that she would "rather die than go back to North Carolina," where she has been the target of constant harassment since she won national attention and support by killing a white jall guard who tried to rape her,

"There is no way she can be treated fairly here," Jerry Paul, Little's lawyer in North Carolína, told LNS in a telephone conversation after the hearing. "They have tried to frame her before."

Paul then went on to describe several Instances in which prison officials had manufactured or des. troyed evidence relating to Little's parole applica. tions: Rebecca Ranson, a former dramatics teacher at the prison, has signed an affidavit stating that she was fired from her job after she refused to comply with a 'superior's request that she testify that Little stole pair of scissors and a tape recorder from her. And another inmate who works in the prison office has told Paul that she saw one of the officials remove part of Little's file before her parole hearing.

action against the teacher's remarks. She has charged that the school authorities' "ignoring racist behavior was tantamount to endorsing it." However, this was overlooked in both earlier court decisions.

In the latest decision, the appeals court judges also Ignored Baum's repeated efforts to appeal to school authorities, and insisted that she did not move through the proper channels. As an example of the school's "reasonableness," they cited a promise made by the school principal to invite a Native American speaker to the school. They ig nored the fact that the invitation, which was made at Baum's suggestion, was withdrawn the next day. To this day, no Native American speakers have appeared at the school, according to Jeanne Baum Defense Committee member Annie Stein.

For the past two years, Siba and Jeanne Baum, who is a muscular dystrophy victim confined to a wheelchair, have been living on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Montana, where they went fearing that New York State authorities would try to put Siba in a foster home or a state youth facility.

Sibo plans to remain in hiding, and Baurn says she will defy the order to return her to New York and to the school. As a result, she faced contempt of court charges in New York on February 5, which could lead to Imprisonment.

"The Appellate Court decision is an outrageous one," Baum stated in a press release after it was announced, "directed not at me but at any parent who would protest racist teaching." Baurn's attorney, William Kunstler, is filing an appeal of the latest decision.

Contributions to the Jeanne Baum Defense Committee can be sent, c/o A. Stein, 400 Central Park West, New York, New York 11025.

Filipina nurses Leonora Perez (left) and Filipina Narciso at Ann Arbor, Mich. press conference Feb. I after U.S. Attorney announced that all frameup charges of poisoning against them had been dropped.

AMOROUS JUDGE JAILED

(Her Say) The Supreme Court last week decided to take a closer look at the case of an Alabama judge convicted of soliciting sex from women scheduled to be tried in his court,

Judge Thomas McDonald was convicted on bribery charges after a Huntsville, Alabarna Jury heard testimony from Myra Braidfoot. Braidfoot testifled that the judge asked her for sexual favors and promised to "maybe take care" of the charges against her, if she would meet him in a nearby motel. Four other witnesses also told the court the judge had asked them for sex in exchange for more lenlent treatment in court.

The amorous judge argued that no "bribery" took place, because Braidfoot never showed up at the motel to pay him off.

The Supreme Court, however, didn't buy that defense. It let stand lower court rulings which upheld Judge McDonald's three-year jail sentence for bribery.

February, 1978/What She Wantsy page 3 BA