[Ppnews] From Family & Friends of Daniel McGowan

[Political Prisoner News]

    Spring update <http://supportdaniel.org/blog/?p=48>

by Jenny on March 16th, 2013
http://supportdaniel.org/blog/?p=48

Dear friends,

It has been some time before we sent out a proper update about Daniel. 
The last 3 months have been busy with helping Daniel adjust to life 
outside of prison. We wanted to thank everyone for the supportive emails 
we have received since December. Not only has Daniel seen and read all 
of them but we are all appreciative of the support that people have 
continued to show him since 2005.

*How is Daniel doing since release?*

This is the question we get the most and its a tough one for a few 
reasons. We want to protect Daniel's privacy and his desire to move 
forward but he also wants people to know he is doing well. As you may 
know, Daniel is working for  a law firm in NYC and started two days 
after he got to the halfway house. He is working full-time, seeing his 
wife Jenny, family and friends on weekends and counting the days until 
he comes home for good. He is not doing media interviews  nor can he 
attend public speaking events at the moment. We will continue to share 
emails sent to friendsofdanielmcg at yahoo.com with Daniel.

*Is Daniel still in custody? What's the deal with the halfway house?*

Daniel was released from prison on December 11, 2012 and is serving the 
last 6 months of his sentence at a halfway house in New York. Because he 
is in BoP custody and still serving is sentence, his activity is limited 
to work, home and medical appointments. He cannot get unannounced 
visitors or calls at the halfway house. Unfortunately, Daniel was denied 
home detention, which would have allowed him to come home month ago and 
report to the halfway house weekly. There was little reason given other 
than that it relates to Daniel's charges. The Bureau of Prisons 
continues to punish Daniel and ignore his complete lack of disciplinary 
violations. Thankfully on June 5th his sentence ends and he starts a 
three year term of supervised released (probation).

*What ever happened with Daniel's lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons?*

We have had a number of small victories in the /Aref v Holder/ 
<http://ccrjustice.org//cmu>/ / lawsuit that Daniel is a plaintiff on. 
This is the lawsuit filed in April 2010 against the Department of 
Justice and BoP for designating Daniel (and other prisoners) to a 
Communication Management Unit (CMU) <http://www.ccrjustice.org/cmu>. 
  [The suit's defendants are  Attorney General Eric Holder; Charles 
Samuels, Director of the BOP; D. Scott Dodrill, Assistant Director of 
the Correctional Programs Division of the BOP and Leslie Smith, head of 
the BOP's Counter Terrorism Unit].

In the last few months, we were granted the right  to file an amended 
complaint charging that the BoP retaliated against Daniel for his 
Constitutionally-protected political activism and speech. It was 
confirmed through the viewing of previously-secret documents in the 
legal discovery process that Daniel's political speech was the rationale 
for sending Daniel to a CMU two separate times (a total of 47 months).  
You can read the amended complaint here. 
<http://ccrjustice.org/files/First%20Amended%20Complaint%20with%20Exhibits%20-%20Redacted.pdf>

A few weeks ago, Daniel won an order denying a /summary judgment/ motion 
filed by defendants over a year ago that argued that he had only 
complained to the facility that the transfer violated his  
constitutional  rights and did not specify that it was retaliatory. Our 
lawyers countered that Daniel's administrative complaint was more than 
adequate.  Nearly 16 months later the Court agreed, denying the motion 
<http://supportdaniel.org/files/sumjuddenial.pdf> for summary judgment.

In February, the defendants filed yet /another/ motion to dismiss (read 
here <http://supportdaniel.org/files/motiontodismiss2013.pdf>) which 
reiterates the same arguments they raised in the last motion to dismiss. 
In this one, they released  redacted memos written by /Counter Terrorist 
Unit/ staff regarding Daniel's placement in the CMU. Theses are very 
interesting and contrary to the written rationale given to Daniel for 
CMU placement. You can read them below.

Motion to Dismiss Exhibit 3 
<http://supportdaniel.org/files/motiontodismissex3.pdf>:   March 27, 
2008, Memo of Leslie Smith, Chief, CTU

Motion to Dismiss Exhibit 5 
<http://supportdaniel.org/files/motiontodismissex5.pdf>:   March 22, 
2010, Memo of Leslie Smith, Chief, CTU

Motion to Dismiss Exhibit 4 
<http://supportdaniel.org/files/motiontodismissex4.pdf>:   February 1, 
2011 Memo of Leslie Smith, Chief, CTU

Next up, we will be filing a response to the defendants' Motion to 
Dismiss the week of March 18, 2013. Big thanks to our lawyers and the 
staff at  the Center for Constitutional Rights 
<https://twitter.com/theccr> for their efforts with this lawsuit.  You 
can download the latest two-page CMU flyer here. 
<http://www.ccrjustice.org/files/CCR_CMU_Factsheet_March2013.pdf>

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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