Prisoner railroaded, abused by system

Aaron Isby

CONTACT:
Aaron Isby #892219
Legal Defense Fund for Freedom
PO Box 557, MCC
Westville, IN 46391-0557

October 12, 1990, four hundred and ninety-eight years (498) after the European Settler Christopher Columbus landed on the Americas to begin his conquest and annihilation of the Indians, the Government employees of the State of Indiana, and the Indiana Reformatory in Pendleton, Indiana, conspired to commit havoc upon Aaron Isby. David Miller was working as a counselor, assigned to the Disciplinary Segregation unit (aka D/S unit) at the reformatory. As a counselor Miller's job responsibilities included making rounds and contacting the prisoners in the D/S unit in order to relay their requests to the authorities, to perform copying and notary services, and generally be a liaison between a prisoner and the prison system. While Miller was engaging in his duties on the date in question in the early morning hours on the D/S unit, he approached the cell Isby was confined to. At this time Isby began to inquire about legal papers he had given to Miller two weeks prior to the day in question to notarize, and he did not understand why his legal papers were being intentionally delayed. the counselor became real belligerent and irritable, telling Isby, "You fucking nigger punk, you don't tell me how to do my job!" Due to this provocative statement, Isby reached through the cell bars and swung his hand, unsettling the helmet the counselor wore, but never touched his physical person. As a result of this, the escorting officer sprayed an entire can of pepper gas on Isby, which blinded him. Counselor Miller and the escorting officer left the D/S unit to inform the unit manager of the incident.

Several hours later, ten (10) members of the cell extraction team entered the D/S unit dressed in stab proof vests, helmets with face shields, fingerless gloves, knee and elbow protectors, a K-9 dog, 300 to 400 pound pressure fire hose and pepper gas; the team together weighed over a ton; (this is the brute force that the neo-nazis used against a twenty-year old blackman at the time in question who is 5' 11" tall and only weighed 177 pounds, to remove him from his assigned cell). The cell extraction members then proceeded to Isby's cell with the force described, once reaching their destination, the door to the cell was opened and officer Darby with a K-9 dog entered to attack (Isby was still suffering from blurry vision from the pepper gas previously sprayed on him earlier that day and could not see clearly). The neo-nazis rushed in the cell; pulling Darby and the dog from the cell; they then proceeded to subdue Isby (Isby was afraid for his life and knew that these racists was going to cause him bodily harm; the Reformatory has a long history of murdering and brutalizing black male prisoners). So, he was forced to defend himself; the cell extraction team was backed out of the cell; the door to the cell was immediately shut! Lieutenant David Abel then began spraying large amounts of pepper gas into Isby's cell; the fire hose was then used on Isby for ten (10) consecutive minutes; Isby was then handcuffed and dragged from the cell.

Isby was then charged with two counts of attempted murder, one for Darby and Layne and battery on Miller, in the Madison County Circuit Court in Anderson, Indiana. Isby was subsequently tried before an all white jury (there was not one black person in the entire jury venire), and even though the law states that people selected for jury service must be picked from fair cross-sections of the communities, this was not the situation in Isby's case. Most jurors selected for his trial were from Elwood and Pendleton, which it is well known that no blacks live in these towns. It was known to the neo-colonialist prosecutor that an all white jury was not going to be impartial in weighing the evidence (especially when a blackman before them was accused on hurting a whiteman); it was clear that the state had intentionally refused to select blacks to serve as jurors from the black communities in Isby's trial, because they were afraid that black jurors would show sympathy toward Isby and not convict him; Isby's defense counsel make no objections to this injustice and just sat in silence allowing the state to persecute Isby before an all white jury.

Isby's defense counsel then attempted to tender an instruction to the trial court on the defense of self-defense, but it was refused. Evidence at trial showed that Isby was gassed, called a "nigger punk," prior to the cell extraction team entering the D/S unit, and thereafter a K-9 dog was sent into Isby's cell coupled with additional gassing, fire hose and a ten (10) member extraction team; further, crucial evidence at trial showed that a key witness of Isby, who was a range porter on the D/S unit at the time and period in question, overheard several neo-nazi prison guards two days prior to the incident, premeditatedly discussing how they were going to hurt Isby. After the judge and prosecutor found out what the said witness was going to testify about before the trial jury they refused to subpoena Isby's witness to trial; which was an attempt to hide this crucial evidence from the jury; it is a high possibility that if they jurors would have known that the neo-nazi guards premiditatedly talking about hurting Isby and in fact instigated the whole ordeal, they might have changed their verdict to not guilty.

In Indiana a person is entitled to defend himself "if he is violently assaulted, without fault on his part, in a place he has a right to be; is entitled to defend himself. If the circumstances caused the person to believe that he was in danger of great bodily harm or of losing his life, then he may be entitled to repel force by force to any extent which is reasonably necessary. Under such circumstances, a person is not required to retreat. if he believes that he can only defend himself by taking the life of his assailant, then he may make use of a deadly weapon if its use is reasonably necessary in the reasonable defense of himself" (A.I.C. 35-41-3-2). Provocation is also against the law in Indiana (A.I.C. 35-42-2-3) which is truly evident in Isby's case. The jury was also showed a video tape of the guards using their brute force against Isby; even though the evidence showed that the neo-nazi guards were the aggressors, the trial court refused to allow the self-defense instructions.

The State's illegal conduct continued; the prosecutor during the trial was allowed to admit into evidence a "metal object" which he claimed was the knife Isby used; no evidentiary foundation was laid by the prosecutor to establish the admissibility of the "metal object"; further, the "metal object" was never produced by the state on Isby's pre-trial discovery. The State then allowed a reformatory guard who was in uniform and testifying for them, stand before Isby's jury with the "metal object" and a picture of the guard Layne, which he stabbed at the picture several times. State witness David Miller was allowed to testify to prior bad acts and uncharged misconduct by Isby before the jury, which was irrelevant to the charges Isby was accused of. The evidence submitted by the State was either inadmissible or irrelevant to the crime, and should have been suppressed; the prosecutor knew the evidence he used to convict Isby was inadmissible and that his reason for placing it before the jury was to deliberately prejudice the jury against Isby; this was an evidentiary harpoon.

Isby's defense counsel refused to contest this illegality of the prosecutor. The judge then read final attempted murder instructions to the jury, that included elements of felony-murder outlined in A.I.C. 35-42-1-1(2). By including the definition of felony-murder in the instructions this permitted the jury to convict Isby of attempted felony murder, a non-existent crime in Indiana, nor did this non-existent crime require the state to prove the requisite elements of attempted murder, "specific intent." Indiana courts have consistently held this to be a fundamental error, because said confuses the jury, by forcing them to be faced with two inconsistent and contradictory theories of law regarding an essential element of attempted murder. Isby's trial lasted from July 9 through July 21, 1992; he was found guilty. Isby's defense counsel and appellate counsel knew the elements of felony-murder were included in the jury instructions, but they never contested said error, the appellate counsel who represented Isby never even alleged ineffective assistance of the trial counsel in the appellant brief; he wouldn't even respond to Isby's letters or accept any collect calls from Isby; it took two years for Isby's appellant counsel to initiate his direct appeal; the act and omissions of Isby's trial and appellate counsel were incompetent and deliberate.

On Isby's appeal, his conviction was affirmed on April 6, 1995, by the Indiana Court of Appeals in an unpublished opinion. The Court of Appeals opinion, they claimed the jury was properly instructed on the elements of attempted murder, but they ignored the instructions included the definition of felony-murder which was apparent on the record before them. But, Holland v. State, 609 N.E.2d 429 (Ind. App 1993), the Indiana Appeals Court, which is an identical case as Isby, took it upon themselves (even though the counsel never argued the issue with the felony-murder elements included in the attempted murder instructions) to pin-point the felony-murder definition included in Holland's instructions and reversed and vacated his conviction and sentence' Holland was a whiteman. Isby, a blackman, was denied equal protection under the laws on Indiana and this country and didn't receive the same relief as Holland; these types of racist injustices are a common occurrence with the Indiana judicial system, "Detain the blackman and let the whiteman free." The Indiana Court of Appeals even claimed in their opinion that Isby was the aggressor! It is obvious this decision was drenched in the racist sickness of white patriarchy instead of the laws of this land.

The conspiracy to prevent Isby from obtaining his freedom from the chains of the beast continues to no avail. In July of 1995, the Indiana Court of Appeals ordered Susan K. Carpenter, the state public defender located in Indianapolis, to deliver a copy of Isby's trial transcripts to him within 90 days; the said public defender Susan Carpenter is refusing to comply with the order of the Court, and it is believed that the Governor Evan Bayh, and his state agents who are employed with the Indiana Department of Colonialism (IDOC) are conspiring with the public defender Susan Carpenter to deny Isby his trial transcripts to hinder his efforts of attacking his conviction. Isby has filed lawsuits against Carpenter, Bayh, and numbers of prison employees, and has consistently struggled to expose the human rights and genocidal crimes occurring at this maximum control complex (MCC), and has never desisted his demand for human rights; because of this the agents of repression (State agents) are conspiring and retaliating against Isby; every statement Isby makes in opposition to his keepers (prison system) or the system, whether orally of written communication, the espionage agents of the State record and send it to Even Bayh and the criminal court Isby was convicted in. Bayh is attacking me solely because I choose not to settle on the Taifa v. Bayh class action suit and Isby v. Wright, and because I dare exercise my freedom of speech, this evil racist is using his government position to harass, retaliate, and conspire against me; he's even interfering with my efforts to obtain my trial transcripts. This is what people call a professional and intelligent politician?

Isby continues to be victimized because of who he is and what he stands for; Isby has been a true brother in the struggle. In October of 1991, Isby was one of the brothers who stood in the forefront in the longest hunger strike in U.S. history, which lasted 37 days, forcing the state of Indiana to obtain a court order to force feed him. The strike was a collective protest to call attention to the human rights abuses occurring within the MCC in Westville. Isby's love for the struggle of black self-determination, self-love, unity and peace continues. Isby calls upon all Brothers and Sisters in the struggle, regardless of race, creed, or color, who are against the injustices Isby has and is continuing to suffer to aid and assist him by contributing financial support to enable him to hire an attorney to attach his conviction and liberate himself. Anyone who has a typewriter or word processor and is willing to help Isby spread the word, please contact him at the address below.

For information and to support Isby's legal defense, send contributions (check or money order) to:

Aaron Isby #892219
Legal Defense Fund for Freedom
PO Box 557, MCC
Westville, IN 46391-0557