An Injury to One Is An Injury to All

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December 2003    

Hostos College Student Leader Still Faces Jail for Holding Protest Sign

Mistrial Declared in Frame-Up of Miguel Malo

Miguel Malo defense demo, 25.09.03
Demonstrators at Bronx Criminal Court, September 25. (Photo: Sue Kellogg)

DECEMBER 10 – Today in Bronx Criminal Court, where the trial of Hostos Community College student leader Miguel Malo has been under way for the last week and a half, defense attorney Ronald McGuire moved for a mistrial due to ineffectiveness of counsel for the defendant. “It would be a travesty for this trial to continue until Miguel has competent counsel,” Mr. McGuire said. He added, “I put my client’s interest ahead of my professional pride.” With Miguel Malo’s agreement, Judge Robert Torres granted the motion.

A spokesman for CUNY Action to Defend Miguel Malo said, “The entire trial has been a travesty, rigged from the beginning to prevent an adequate defense for Miguel due to endless obstacles raised by an overtly biased judge and a system guaranteed to produce injustice for immigrants, oppressed minorities, poor and working people.” 

“Behind the problems faced by the legal defense were the court’s rulings which barred Miguel from raising the right to free speech, which is at the core of his defense. The judge refused to allow several key witnesses to be heard, repeatedly refused to admit evidence, and on at least a hundred different occasions prevented the defense counsel from asking questions of the witnesses who were allowed,” the defense committee stressed. 

Judge Torres told the court that “despite appearances, I have tried to have a fair trial.” The appearances convincingly proved otherwise throughout the frame-up trial. The courtroom today was infested with menacing police. When Miguel Malo was asked for a statement, he responded that his defense had been prevented from presenting evidence and witnesses to testify to the state of Hostos. Thereupon the judge cut him off, as he had done endless times with Mr. McGuire. This case is about the police-state conditions at Hostos College, which has been on lockdown since 2001. In several demonstrations in front of the court, Malo’s defenders carried signs saying, “CUNY Is Not a Prison.”

The persecution of Miguel Malo has been an abomination from Day One. He is on trial for having dared to hold up a sign protesting cuts of bilingual and English-as-a-second-language courses at Hostos College in August 2001. He faces several assault charges and up to a year in prison if convicted, yet the fact is that Miguel was assaulted by several CUNY “peace officers” while he was standing peacefully with a sign talking with students. Witnesses to the arrest testified yesterday that the police threw Miguel to the ground, put a knee in his back while handcuffing him. Photographs of his back taken minutes after he was released from police custody showed welts covering his entire back.

CUNY Action to Defend Miguel Malo has organized demonstrations at the court in his support and attended the trial throughout. Many thanks are due to the students and faculty who have come out to defend Miguel, along with support from unions and socialist groups. Efforts should now be redoubled to demand that the trumped-up charges against Miguel Malo be immediately dropped. 

Miguel Malo is innocent, the racist capitalist injustice system is guilty.

See also:

Defend Miguel Malo! (November 2003) 
Day One of Miguel Malo Trial
 (1 December 2003) 

Day Two of Miguel Malo Trial
 (2 December 2003) 
Day Three of Miguel Malo Trial  (3 December 2003) 
Day Four of Miguel Malo Trial  (4 December 2003) 
Day Five of Miguel Malo Trial  (5 December 2003) 
Day Six of Miguel Malo Trial  (8 December 2003) 
Day Seven of Miguel Malo Trial  (9 December 2003)


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