African Liberation Month
African Liberation MonthBy Alton H. Maddox, Jr. Background
May 25 is African Liberation Day and, by extension, May is African Liberation Month. This month includes the birthdays of Sonny Carson and Malcolm X. It also includes the illegal suspension of Alton Maddox from the practice of law. On May 20 Councilman Charles Barron will introduce a resolution in the New York City Council demanding compensation for the Central Park 6 for their wrongful convictions. In the United States, the driving force behind the authorship of the U.S. Constitution was the Illuminati, a secret society formed on May 1, 1776. Eleven years later, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia. It was a secret meeting which spanned approximately five months. When the Constitution was completed, it had constitutionalized the enslavement of persons of African ancestry. Malcolm X His name was Malcolm Little and he was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a Garveyite and preacher from Reynolds, GA, who was assassinated in Michigan by white supremacists. While his father was the victim, his mother was the target. White intelligence concluded that the Little family had to be destroyed. This was no accident. Malcolm had seven siblings. The assassination of his father was only the beginning. His seven siblings would all be sent to foster homes after his mother was committed to a mental institution. The separation of the children from their mother ended up destroying the entire family. This is like chopping off the head to destroy the family. Malcolm's formal education ended in the eighth grade. This public school education was designed to lead to mentacide. His eighth grade teacher had advised him that a Negro had no future with his mind. Malcolm sought to become a lawyer. His white teacher advised him that carpentry was his best bet. This is the paradigm for the prison-industrial complex. Public schools are holding pens. Black children are indoctrinated with Negro inferiority. There is a loss of identify since there is no reference to history and culture in public schools. Like a tree without roots, a person without history and culture can be easily moved. Most Black students are unequipped with cultural and historical roots. A lesson can be learned from the mental development of Malcolm X. Self-study is the foundation. It started in a Massachusetts prison. His basic book was the dictionary. Interestingly, the key to critical thinking is the comprehension and use of words. The mastery of a language starts with a dictionary. There is a correlation of his life with that of Marcus Garvey who was a printer. Thus, he had a love affair with words. If Malcolm had remained in public schools and, afterwards, attended college and a law school, he would have probably become an assimilationist. Instead, he started an apprenticeship under the tutelage of Hon. Elijah Muhammad. A third grade dropout would teach an eighth grade dropout. It is wisdom rather than college degrees that reign supreme. Malcolm X became a master communicator and debater putting learned white men both in England and the United States to shame. With critical thinking at his side, he was a prophet. His words and logic have been ripe for all seasons. Abubadika "Sonny" Carson Born in South Carolina in 1929, Sonny Carson was reared in Brooklyn. Struggle characterized his life. Early in life, he was a member of CORE. He would later form other organizations like Committee to Honor Black Heroes and Black Men's Movement Against Crack. In 1989, he supported David Dinkins for mayor of New York City. When there was a high-profile and complex, legal case in New York, Carson would always lean on Alton Maddox to represent the interests of the Black community. With respect to Howard Beach and Tawana Brawley, Carson strenuously urged Maddox to provide pro bono representation on both cases. This is the respect that Carson had for Maddox. Maddox would return the favor when the state threatened to prosecute Carson for his political activities. His politics had also become the dominant reason for New York City refusing to name a limited area of Gates Avenue in Brooklyn after him. In a city where whites are a distinct minority, they still enjoy minority rule. Central Park 6 Persons who were MIA in 1989 now insist that the group which is entitled to compensation should be referred to as the "Central Park 5." This group of victims includes Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Kharey Wise. Steven Lopez is excluded because he pled guilty after the other five had been convicted in jury trials. The common thread between the five young men and Lopez is that all were falsely arrested surrounding the rape of Patricia Meili. The other thread that connected them is the claim of "wilding" on April 19, 1989. Lopez would have been tried last because of a Bruton problem. A defendant cannot be tried with any co-defendant if any admission made by a defendant implicates a co-defendant. The implicated defendant is denied the right of confrontation if the trial judge refuses to grant severance. This poses a Sixth Amendment problem. In the criminal law, there is the doctrine of the fruit of the poisonous tree. If the tree is tainted, the fruit is also tainted. Thus a criminal conviction cannot rest on a false arrest. Any subsequent guilty plea is void. The state must not profit from its wrongdoing. The state should have dismissed Lopez's guilty plea along with the five wrongful convictions. The five young men had also made admissions which emulate guilty pleas. Unfortunately, no attorney was present to assist Lopez to navigate this judicial maze. Alton Maddox Amid his representation of Al Sharpton, Alton Maddox was urged by the Brooklyn Grievance Committee to reveal attorney-client confidences so that they could be given to New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams who was maliciously prosecuting Sharpton on a 67-count indictment in Manhattan Supreme Court. Maddox refused to take the bait citing the attorney-client privilege. Since this privilege is personal to the client, only the client can waive the privilege. Sharpton could have waived the privilege but New York never asked him to. A waiver was not in Sharpton's self-interest. Thus, Maddox was framed. Without according him due process of law, Maddox was summarily suspended from the practice of law indefinitely on May 21, 1990. This was a Catch-22 situation. Maddox had to choose between becoming a snitch or a martyr. Maddox chose the latter. If Maddox had chosen the former, it would have not only been illegal but it would have negatively affected the reputation of Black lawyers.
May 25 is African Liberation Day and, by extension, May is African Liberation Month. This month includes the birthdays of Sonny Carson and Malcolm X. It also includes the illegal suspension of Alton Maddox from the practice of law. On May 20 Councilman Charles Barron will introduce a resolution in the New York City Council demanding compensation for the Central Park 6 for their wrongful convictions. In the United States, the driving force behind the authorship of the U.S. Constitution was the Illuminati, a secret society formed on May 1, 1776. Eleven years later, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia. It was a secret meeting which spanned approximately five months. When the Constitution was completed, it had constitutionalized the enslavement of persons of African ancestry. Malcolm X His name was Malcolm Little and he was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a Garveyite and preacher from Reynolds, GA, who was assassinated in Michigan by white supremacists. While his father was the victim, his mother was the target. White intelligence concluded that the Little family had to be destroyed. This was no accident. Malcolm had seven siblings. The assassination of his father was only the beginning. His seven siblings would all be sent to foster homes after his mother was committed to a mental institution. The separation of the children from their mother ended up destroying the entire family. This is like chopping off the head to destroy the family. Malcolm's formal education ended in the eighth grade. This public school education was designed to lead to mentacide. His eighth grade teacher had advised him that a Negro had no future with his mind. Malcolm sought to become a lawyer. His white teacher advised him that carpentry was his best bet. This is the paradigm for the prison-industrial complex. Public schools are holding pens. Black children are indoctrinated with Negro inferiority. There is a loss of identify since there is no reference to history and culture in public schools. Like a tree without roots, a person without history and culture can be easily moved. Most Black students are unequipped with cultural and historical roots. A lesson can be learned from the mental development of Malcolm X. Self-study is the foundation. It started in a Massachusetts prison. His basic book was the dictionary. Interestingly, the key to critical thinking is the comprehension and use of words. The mastery of a language starts with a dictionary. There is a correlation of his life with that of Marcus Garvey who was a printer. Thus, he had a love affair with words. If Malcolm had remained in public schools and, afterwards, attended college and a law school, he would have probably become an assimilationist. Instead, he started an apprenticeship under the tutelage of Hon. Elijah Muhammad. A third grade dropout would teach an eighth grade dropout. It is wisdom rather than college degrees that reign supreme. Malcolm X became a master communicator and debater putting learned white men both in England and the United States to shame. With critical thinking at his side, he was a prophet. His words and logic have been ripe for all seasons. Abubadika "Sonny" Carson Born in South Carolina in 1929, Sonny Carson was reared in Brooklyn. Struggle characterized his life. Early in life, he was a member of CORE. He would later form other organizations like Committee to Honor Black Heroes and Black Men's Movement Against Crack. In 1989, he supported David Dinkins for mayor of New York City. When there was a high-profile and complex, legal case in New York, Carson would always lean on Alton Maddox to represent the interests of the Black community. With respect to Howard Beach and Tawana Brawley, Carson strenuously urged Maddox to provide pro bono representation on both cases. This is the respect that Carson had for Maddox. Maddox would return the favor when the state threatened to prosecute Carson for his political activities. His politics had also become the dominant reason for New York City refusing to name a limited area of Gates Avenue in Brooklyn after him. In a city where whites are a distinct minority, they still enjoy minority rule. Central Park 6 Persons who were MIA in 1989 now insist that the group which is entitled to compensation should be referred to as the "Central Park 5." This group of victims includes Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Kharey Wise. Steven Lopez is excluded because he pled guilty after the other five had been convicted in jury trials. The common thread between the five young men and Lopez is that all were falsely arrested surrounding the rape of Patricia Meili. The other thread that connected them is the claim of "wilding" on April 19, 1989. Lopez would have been tried last because of a Bruton problem. A defendant cannot be tried with any co-defendant if any admission made by a defendant implicates a co-defendant. The implicated defendant is denied the right of confrontation if the trial judge refuses to grant severance. This poses a Sixth Amendment problem. In the criminal law, there is the doctrine of the fruit of the poisonous tree. If the tree is tainted, the fruit is also tainted. Thus a criminal conviction cannot rest on a false arrest. Any subsequent guilty plea is void. The state must not profit from its wrongdoing. The state should have dismissed Lopez's guilty plea along with the five wrongful convictions. The five young men had also made admissions which emulate guilty pleas. Unfortunately, no attorney was present to assist Lopez to navigate this judicial maze. Alton Maddox Amid his representation of Al Sharpton, Alton Maddox was urged by the Brooklyn Grievance Committee to reveal attorney-client confidences so that they could be given to New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams who was maliciously prosecuting Sharpton on a 67-count indictment in Manhattan Supreme Court. Maddox refused to take the bait citing the attorney-client privilege. Since this privilege is personal to the client, only the client can waive the privilege. Sharpton could have waived the privilege but New York never asked him to. A waiver was not in Sharpton's self-interest. Thus, Maddox was framed. Without according him due process of law, Maddox was summarily suspended from the practice of law indefinitely on May 21, 1990. This was a Catch-22 situation. Maddox had to choose between becoming a snitch or a martyr. Maddox chose the latter. If Maddox had chosen the former, it would have not only been illegal but it would have negatively affected the reputation of Black lawyers.
posted by Attorney Alton Maddox at 1:11 PM
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