<html>
<body>
<font size=3><b>SUPPORT CLEMENCY FOR JUDY CLARK<br><br>
From Pam Fadem<br><br>
</b>Judy Clark is an activist with a long history in the social movements
of the 1960s and 1970s, and is an old and dear friend of mine. She was
arrested in October 1981 and convicted of felony murder for her
involvement in the armed robbery of a Brinks truck that left Brinks guard
Peter Paige and two police officers, Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady,
dead. Judy was not accused of being one of the shooters. <br><br>
Now 60 years old, and in the 29th year of her 75-year-to-life sentence,
Judy is profoundly remorseful and has spent the last 25 years coming to
terms with her past. She says, "While my life is fueled by a
hope-filled commitment to repair, I never forget that the lives lost on
October 20 cannot be redeemed. I will always live with sorrow, shame, and
regret for my role in their deaths."<br><br>
Judy has exhausted all possible legal remedies. With Gov. Paterson
officially <i>not </i>running for a second term, this is an important
time to get a LOT of letters to him in support of a clemency petition.
Even if you do not know her personally, you can see from what is in the
sample letter below, as well as in Judy?s poem, that she is a women
committed to building, contributing to and caring for community wherever
she is living.<br><br>
<b>PLEASE TAKE 15 MINUTES AND WRITE YOUR LETTER TODAY. </b>Letters should
be addressed to Gov. Paterson but sent directly to Judy's lawyer, Leon
Friedman<b>. For more info</b>: Amy March
(<a href="mailto:amymarch@mac.com">amymarch@mac.com</a>), Suzanne Kessler
(<a href="mailto:suzannekessler2004@yahoo.com">
suzannekessler2004@yahoo.com</a>), or Agnes Burke
(<a href="mailto:burke.agnes@gmail.com">burke.agnes@gmail.com</a>).
<br><br>
Also Check out
<a href="http://www.judithclark.org/">www.judithclark.org</a>, where you
can read some of Judy's writings and get to know more about who she
is.<br><br>
Thanks,<br>
Pam Fadem (member of CCWP)<br><br>
<b>ADDRESS YOUR LETTER TO NY Gov Paterson, BUT MAIL YOUR LETTER
TO:<br><br>
Leon Friedman, Esq.<br>
PO Box 544<br>
Radio City Station<br>
New York, NY 10101-0544<br><br>
A Poem by Judy Clark:<br><br>
If these walls could talk<br><br>
</b>If these walls could talk<br>
they might remind me<br>
that I put myself in their<br>
harsh embrace<br>
that my years of tears<br>
cannot wash away<br>
the sorrows<br>
of three widows and<br>
nine fatherless children<br><br>
If these walls could talk<br>
they might shout<br>
Wake up!<br><br>
There is no going back<br>
This is no place for<br>
sorry sorries<br>
Your job is to live the change<br>
your sorries demand<br>
Be a new way. Be a light.<br><br>
If these walls could talk<br>
they would say<br>
Even walls<br>
must one day<br>
crumble<br>
open up to the<br>
star filled sky<br>
an open road<br>
new horizons<br>
It is time.<br><br>
Judith Clark 1/09<br><br>
<b>SAMPLE LETTER<br><br>
</b>Governor David A. Paterson<br>
State Capitol<br>
Albany, NY 12224<br><br>
Dear Governor:<br><br>
I am writing to support the clemency petition of Judy Clark, # 08627-054.
Incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Ms. Clark is now in
her 29th year of a 75 years to life term.<br><br>
Ms. Clark has used these years in prison to change her own life and to
contribute to the community both inside and outside of prison. She earned
a BA in Behavioral Sciences in 1990 and a Masters Degree in Psychology in
1993. Since that time, she's been on the staff of the Nursery Program,
where Judy has taught pre-natal Parenting classes for pregnant women and
has been a mentor and role model to the nursery mothers who live with
their babies on a special unit in the prison.<br><br>
During the 1980s, to address the impact of the AIDS epidemic at Bedford
Hills, Judy co-founded the groundbreaking AIDS Counseling and Education
program (ACE), an organization so effective it has been replicated at
prisons across the country. She was co-editor of <i>Breaking the Walls of
Silence: AIDS and Women in a New York State Maximum Security Prison</i>
(Overlook Hardcover 1998). Judy also helped to rebuild a prison college
program when public funding for it was eliminated in the 1990s; more than
100 women have been awarded Associate's or Bachelor's degrees in the past
ten years. Judy continues to be an ongoing informal adviser to many of
those students.<br><br>
Judy lives in a special volunteer unit with inmates who participate in
the <i>Puppies Behind Bars</i> program. They raise and train puppies to
become guide dogs for the blind, explosive detection dogs for law
enforcement agencies, and service dogs for disabled people?primarily
veterans. She is currently raising her seventh puppy.<br><br>
Judy's poetry has been published in numerous journals and <i>The New
Yorker</i>, she won the 1995 PEN Prison Poetry Writing Award, and her
scholarly essays have appeared in such journals as <i>The Prison
Journal</i>, <i>Zero to Three</i>, and <i>The Women's Passover Companion:
Women's Reflections on the Festival of Freedom</i>. For the past four
years, Judy, who was raised in the tradition of radical secular Judaism,
has immersed herself in religious studies and Clinical Pastoral Education
and she has just completed certification as a Chaplain. <br><br>
Perhaps her most significant accomplishment is that despite
incarceration, Judy has been a warm, loving and influential mother to her
now 29-year-old daughter, Harriet, a graduate of Stuyvesant High School,
Stanford University, and the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Neither mother nor
daughter has taken their relationship for granted.<br><br>
Judy Clark is a "fit subject for mercy," the requirement for
clemency. She takes full responsibility for her role in the deaths of
Peter Paige, Edward O?Grady and Waverly Brown, and she lives every day
regretting her participation in this senseless action. She has shown by
her work over the past 25 years that she is an extraordinary woman. Her
accomplishments, her model behavior, her efforts on behalf of other
inmates, her spiritual and personal growth, her remorse, and the fact
that she has spent more than 28 years in prison, are all reasons why Judy
Clark justly deserves clemency.<br><br>
Sincerely,<br><br>
Cc: Leon Friedman, Esq.<br><br>
PO Box 544<br>
Radio City Station<br>
New York, NY 10101-0544<br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<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>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>