It's so rare we have an opportunity to totally transform another person's life.
        This Yuletide I invite you to spend  66 cents, plus 10 compassionate minutes or less, and help achieve justice for Susan Rosenberg. Susan's life-story and denial of parole was featured on the CBS TV program "Sixty Minutes" last Sunday. At the bottom of this email, you can read more about the injustice being done to this woman of conscience. If we want peace, we must work for Justice. Please act NOW
on behalf of justice for Susan. Here is what your are requested to do:
        1) 33 cents-Simply print, sign and mail the following clemency request to President Clinton.
        2) 33 cents-Mail a duplicate copy of your letter to: Rosenberg Campaign, 78 Bank St.#6, NYC, NY 10014.

        Sincerest thanks to you for your gift of compassion on Susan's behalf.
        In Peace,
        Freeman Allan - Founder: Sacred Source/JBL Statues

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President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Clinton:

        Susan Rosenberg has been denied parole by the US Parole Commission based on charges for which she was never tried and never convicted.  Even though Susan has never harmed or killed anyone, and even though her codefendant was paroled in 1997, she has been ordered to remain in prison for at least 15 more years before her eligibility for parole will be reconsidered.
        Susan Rosenberg has already spent more than 15 years in federal prison for the possession of weapons and explosives -- an offense that would ordinarily carry a 5-year prison term.  She has accepted
responsibility and apologized for her past criminal conduct, and she has been fully punished for it.  She has already served 7 years longer than the most punitive reading of her case would dictate under the federal sentencing guidelines.
        Susan Rosenberg's continuing incarceration challenges our understanding of fairness and rehabilitation and it serves no meaningful purpose, especially because she has so much to offer the larger
community.
        I urge you to correct the injustice of Susan's imprisonment by granting her request for executive clemency and a commutation of her sentence.

        Respectfully,
        Signature___________________________________________________
        Name_______________________________________________________
        Address______________________________________________________
        City_______________________________________State_____
        Zip_________


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                THE CASE OF SUSAN ROSENBERG - AN APPEAL FOR CLEMENCY

        Susan Rosenberg, who was raised on Manhattan's Upper West Side as the only child of politically progressive Jewish parents, was a visible activist in the Black and Puerto Rican liberation movements and the anti-Vietnam War movement until her arrest in 1984 for the possession of weapons, explosives, and false identification. Together with her codefendant, Timothy Blunk, she was sentenced
a year later in a New Jersey federal court to 58 years for an offense that at the time would have carried a 5-year prison term.  Susan and Tim were not charged with using weapons and explosives, nor with harming or killing anyone.  But, like many radical activists of their generation, they believed that their illegal actions were morally justified in their effort to "resist US government oppression" at home and abroad.
        When US District Court Judge Frederick Lacy gave Susan and Tim a sentence that was 16 times the national average for possessory offenses and 2 times the average for 1st degree murder, he cited their political ideology as the basis for his decision.
        Shortly after her conviction on the weapons charges, the government dismissed conspiracy charges against Susan arising out of the notorious 1981 Brinks robbery in Nyack, New York.  Although Susan had
been politically associated with some of the individuals charged in the Brinks case, she has always maintained her innocence of any involvement in the criminal activities related to it.  These charges against her, based on flimsy evidence supported by two ultimately discredited informants, were dropped over her objection in 1985.
        However in 1998, the US Parole Commission refused to grant Susan parole on the basis of the unproven conspiracy allegations stemming from the Brinks case.  The Commission argued that it was entitled to treat her as guilty of the dismissed Brinks charges, even though she had been
denied the opportunity to go to trial to prove her innocence.
        In a flagrant violation of her due process rights, Susan was ordered to remain in prison for at least 15 more years.  The Parole Commission acted at the request of the same prosecutor's office that refused to take Susan to trial, despite her objection, in 1985.  It did so after receiving a "summary" of the flawed and discredited "evidence" that the US government had deemed unworthy of testing before a jury more
than 14 years ago.
        Susan was denied parole even though her codefendant, Timothy Blunk, who received the same sentence, had already been granted parole in March 1997.  And she was denied parole in spite of the fact that the Susan Rosenberg who appeared before the Parole Commission in 1998 was a very different person from the one sentenced in 1985.
        Susan's political views have undergone a profound change during her 15 years in prison. Even the Commission found that she had made a "genuine change" from the "self-styled revolutionary" arrested in 1984, and concluded that she is "fully rehabilitated, repudiates violence, and poses no risk to society if released."  Her application for parole was supported by several members of Congress, lawyers and legal scholars, ministers, rabbis, and academics, as well as by federal prison officials who have worked with Susan and observed her on a daily basis.
        The chief psychologist at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution where Susan is incarcerated, told the Parole Commission that "in his 14 years of prison work, he has never regarded a prisoner as
highly as he does Susan Rosenberg," that she possesses a "high level of character and commitment" and is "a perfect example of one who has truly changed."
        The Parole Commission was also aware of Susan's education, including the development of an innovative and highly praised curriculum that is now used throughout the Bureau of Prisons.  She has obtained a master's degree in literature from Antioch University, and has received numerous writing awards from PEN for her poetry, essays, and fiction. By requiring Susan to serve 15 more years in prison, the Parole Commission has in essence found her guilty of crimes for which she was never tried,
never convicted, and for which she bears no responsibility.
        If this denial of due process were occurring inside some distant totalitarian regime, it would be troubling, but not surprising.  That Susan's continued imprisonment without trial is taking place in the
United States is profoundly disturbing, especially because there appears to be no legal recourse available to correct this injustice.
        For example, the examiner at Susan's parole hearing conceded that making her serve added time in prison for the dismissed Brinks charges was "unfair" because she had no chance to "show (her) innocence" before the Parole Board, as she would have been able to do in a courtroom.  But this unfairness did not prevent the Parole Commission from imposing its 15-year "sentence."
        In May, Judge Charles Haight of the southern District Court of New York, acknowledging the "powerful evaluations of professionals in the field" regarding Susan's "redemption" in prison, called the timing, nature, and consequences of the prosecutor's conduct in "Susan's case "troublesome."  And yet he could find no legal basis to sanction the government for insisting that the Parole Commission punish Susan for untried crimes.
        The Commission's decision raises serious due process and fairness issues.  Under federal sentencing guidelines in effect when Susan was incarcerated, the range for her offence was 57 to 71 months. Today the range is 78 to 97 moths.  Susan has already served 187 months in prison --7 years longer than the most punitive reading of her case would dictate under the guidelines.
        Certainly the maximum penalty for their joint New Jersey charges was set in March 1997, when Timothy Blunk was released on parole, in spite of his more serious criminal history and involvement in a prison escape attempt.  Nevertheless, Susan has been told that she must remain in prison because of the untried and unproven New York charges.  The examiner at Susan's parole hearing stated that, if these charges had not been under consideration, he would have recommended her release in July 1998.
        Susan's continuing incarceration is deeply problematic because it is grossly out of proportion to her crime.  As recently as July 1999, Jose Solis Jordan received a 51-month sentence, after being convicted
and prosecuted in Chicago for conspiring to place explosives at a Marine recruiting center -- charges far more serious than those of which Susan was convicted. Other prisoners convicted of actually using explosives have received lesser sentences.  Even many of those who were convicted in the Brinks conspiracy case, including one who confessed to murder, were released from prison years ago.
        The US government has argued that granting Susan parole would "depreciate the seriousness of the offense."  Setting aside the fact that the government chose not to try Susan for the offence that it is
now invoking to keep her in prison, she has been fully punished for her illegal actions.  Susan has accepted responsibility and apologized for her past criminal conduct, and she has paid a substantial price for it. She has been incarcerated for almost 16 years, 5 of which were spent in the harshest conditions.
        For nearly 2 years she was confined to the infamous High Security Unit in Lexington, Kentucky -- an "experimental" underground small group isolation wing that was condemned by Amnesty International,
the ACLU National Prison Project, and numerous human rights and religious organizations.  In July 1998, federal Judge Barrington Parker ruled that the Bureau of Prisons and the Justice Department had
unlawfully designated Susan and other prisoners to the Lexington High Security Unit based on their political associations and personal beliefs.  The prison was subsequently closed down.
        Susan's continued incarceration serves no meaningful purpose, particularly because she has so much to offer the larger community.  The chaplain at the Danbury Prison has characterized Susan as a "strong advocate for peaceful conflict resolution and unity."  Danbury's chief psychologist has relied on Susan to help other inmates make the difficult adjustment to prison life and has praised her for her
extraordinary educational work. Rabbi Rolando Matalon has offered Susan full-time employment as coordinator of Social Action and Community Service Projects at Congregation B'Nai Jeshurun in New York City.
        In the words of Washington University Law Professor Jane Aiken, "Susan Rosenberg will make a positive contribution to the world if she is allowed to join it.  She has already demonstrated her position from within the walls.  Taxpayers should not have to continue to bear the burden of incarcerating someone who has as much to offer our society as Susan does.  It is long past the time for this talented woman to be released.
        While she was in prison, Susan's father died of cancer.  Her mother, now in her 80's, suffers from diabetes, crippling arthritis, and heart problems.  Earlier this year, Susan found herself confronting
another difficult personal challenge, when a biopsy performed at the Danbury Hospital revealed that she has lobular carcinoma in situ -- a type of breast cancer that requires intensive monitoring and careful
follow-up treatment, which she is unlikely to receive in prison.
        Susan Rosenberg's case has profound implications for our system of justice and our understanding of fair play and rehabilitation. Having all but exhausted the legal remedies available to her, Susan has
petitioned President Clinton for executive clemency and a commutation of her sentenced.  We ask you to join with the many distinguished members of the community who support her clemency request and who believe that freeing Susan Rosenberg is a matter of national conscience.