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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5>Fred Muhammad Burton PCRA Court
Hearing<br>
July 10th 9AM<br>
Superior Court of PA<br>
530 Walnut St 17th Floor<br>
Philadelphia, Pa<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2> <br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5>Show your support for one of
Philly's Political Prisoners by attending Muhammad's court hearings!<br>
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<br>
Frederick Burton is an innocent man who has diligently attempted to prove
his innocence to the courts for the past 37 years. Prior to his
incarceration, Fred worked for a phone company, was a well respected
member of his community and his wife was preparing to have twins, his
third and fourth child. In 1970, Fred was accused and then convicted of
participating in the planning of the murder of Philadelphia police
officers. While the plan was allegedly to blow up a police station, what
occurred was that a police officer was shot and killed allegedly by
members of a radical group called "the Revolutionaries."<br>
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Only one witness, Marie Williams, who was the wife of co-defendant and
primary actor, Hugh Williams, testified as to the relationship between,
Fred and "the Revolutionaries." Fred was not accused of being
at the scene of the crime. At Fred's trial, Marie Williams was compelled
by order of the court to testify. Ms. Williams inculpated Fred by
testifying that on one occasion, she had heard someone in her basement, a
floor below her, say, "Let's off some pigs." She did not accuse
Fred of making those statements. She only testified to Fred's presence at
that meeting. Ms. Williams also testified that beside the one meeting,
she had no knowledge of the content of the meetings. The Commonwealth
intentionally struck every African-American from the active jury. The all
white jury unanimously convicted Fred after being purposefully misled by
the Commonwealth and Marie Williams.<br>
<br>
The testimony of the Commonwealth's star witness, Marie Williams, was
marred by contradiction. Marie Williams initially claimed Fifth Amendment
at the first two of three preliminary hearings and refused to testify. At
Fred's third preliminary hearing, Marie Williams completely exonerated
Fred. she testified that she had no knowledge of "the
Revolutionaries" or of Fred's involvement with that group. After the
third preliminary, the case was held for trial. Marie Williams was then
subjected to a closed immunity hearing and compelled to testify at
trial.<br>
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While searching through records that his family had obtained, Fred came
across several items of exculpatory evidence: 1) the transcript of Marie
Williams' previously undisclosed immunity hearing, 2) the two alleged
original statements by Marie Williams given to the police after the
murder, and 3) a pretrial letter authored and signed by Marie Williams to
the prosecutor. This letter was submitted as evidence in the immunity
hearing. It stated that the prosecutor and the police were intimidating
Marie Williams and forcing her to lie in court. Most importantly, the
same letter stated Marie Williams has no knowledge that Fred Burton
participated in any meetings or crimes.<br>
<br>
In September 2003, Fred brought a pro se Post Conviction Petition to
vindicate his rights based on the newly discovered documents along with
essential documents from the record that prove the occurrence of a fraud
on the court, a gross miscarriage of justice and his innocence. The
petition was delayed because the Commonwealth refused to disclose the
third preliminary hearing transcript, of which the Commonwealth possessed
the sole copy, both before and after the trial.<br>
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The present PCRA trail court has refused to address any substantive
claims of Fred Burton. The court found without a hearing that Fred
"neither plead let alone proved any exception to the 42 PA C.S. 9545
time bar." The court held that it had no jurisdiction pursuant to
the 42 PA C.S. 9545 time bar.<br>
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In early 2007, Fred's lawyer filed a new PCRA brief to the Court of
Appeals and recently the court ruled that it will schedule a hearing for
oral arguments on July 10th.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b>contact: Ethel
Burton 215-869-4410<br><br>
<br><br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
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