Title: GMP urges Clinton to release Puerto Rican prisoners
Date: August 26, 1999
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
99a-58
INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) The general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has appealed to President Clinton for greater leniency in his offer of clemency to 15 Puerto Rican independence activists.
Aug. 11 Clinton offered immediate release to 11 of the prisoners on the condition they sign pledges "renouncing the use or threatened use of violence for any purpose" and agreeing to avoid contact with the other convicted activists. According to the U.S. Justice Department, the president also agreed to reduce the sentences of two other members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) and cancel the unpaid balances of fines imposed on three more. One man has already completed his 15- year prison term.
The activists were sentenced to prison on conviction of crimes committed between 1974 and 1983. The charges included seditious conspiracy and possession of unregistered firearms. Their prison terms ranged from 35 to 90 years.
According to the Associated Press, U.S. law enforcement officials attribute to FALN 130 bomb attacks on U.S. civilian and military targets over nine years. Six people were killed and dozens were injured in attacks attributed to FALN, but none of those offered clemency was involved in attacks that killed people.
Hamm's letter held up President Clinton's admission that the activists' sentences were "excessive and harsh." The GMP reminded Clinton that in 1994, the FALN activists issued a collective statement expressing their intent to integrate themselves into "... the legal political processes of their communities" and a willingness to "participate in a truly democratic, inclusive process to resolve the status of Puerto Rico."
Hamm called for "total freedom" for all 15 who remain in prison instead of a conditional parole offered to only the 11. "Please, Mr. President, do not delay this act of justice for 15 Puerto Ricans that have already paid with what are probably the most productive years of their life and set them free," the GMP appealed.
Among the 11 offered clemency were Alejandrina Torres, the wife of United Church of Christ minister, the Rev. Jose Alberto Torres. She is serving a 35-year prison term. Her stepson, Carlos Alberto Torres is serving a 78-year term. He is not among those offered conditional clemency.
As of the last week in August, the prisoners and their lawyers had not decided whether to accept President Clinton's conditional offers.
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