On Monday, Oct. 21, Cuban Five attorney Bill Norris, representing Ramón Labañino, filed a new legal document, a supplementary motion adding to the extensive record in support of the Habeas Corpus appeal for Labañino. Its arguments apply to the three remaining Cuban Five members still appealing.

One Cuban Five member – Fernando González – chose to abandon his Habeas Corpus appeal, in order not to delay his Feb. 2014 release from prison. If he were to continue his legal appeals, his return home to Cuba could be delayed for months or years.

The new motion highlights the trial judge’s own concern during the Five’s trial, that, in her own words, she could not protect the jury from adverse publicity. On February 16, 2001, Judge Joan Lenard ssued an Opinion and Memorandum of Law in response to Gerardo Hernández’s motion seeking enforcement of the gag order on trial witnesses and the media.

The new Supplementary Motion quotes Judge Joan Lenard, who stated during trial, on February 16, 2001: “…the Court finds, however, that not even the most emphatic instruction or the most searching voir dire question can shield the jurors from banner headlines or ex parte statements and conduct by witnesses or counsel that would undoubtedly receive extensive coverage. Since the trial began, this case has been the daily bread for the local press and media.”

Neither the judge nor the defense during trial knew that many of those “banner headlines” were written by journalists secretly paid as U.S. government employees.

Norris’s motion reminding all trial parties of the judge’s own Legal Opinions and Court Orders strongly contradicts the U.S. prosecutors’ contention that the judge’s instructions to the unsequestered jury – not to read or watch the news when they went home each night for seven months – were sufficient to protect the jury from the media.

As the legal evidence builds, the resounding demand for the immediate freedom of the Cuban Five must be accompanied by constant mobilization, forums, actions in the streets, lobbying, and building support every day until victory is won.

Click here to download the new legal document 

and Philadelphia, PA 

In Chapel Hill, NC today (Thursday Oct. 24) there are two forums that have been previously announced. A noon forum features Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law, and William Norris, the trial and appeals attorney for Ramón Labañino, who filed the court brief described above. At 6 pm, a second forum with an expanded panel features actor and Cuban Five supporter Danny Glover, Louis Pérez, Jr., the director of the Institute for the study of the Americas at UNC, Deborah Weissman, a Professor of law at UNC, and Gloria La Riva of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. See below for details.

In Philadelphia, PA on Monday (Oct. 28) an evening forum will be held at Temple University. That forum features:

• Richard Klugh, a criminal defense attorney in Miami, has represented the Cuban Five at trial, on appeal (where he argued before the court of appeals on three occasions, including obtaining the original reversal of the convictions, and sentence reductions for three of the Five), and now in the habeas corpus proceedings, where he is co-counsel for Gerardo Hernández and Antonio Guerrero. A 1980 graduate of Harvard Law School, Klugh founded the appellate department for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Miami after serving as a federal judicial law clerk..
• Linn Washington Jr., an award-winning journalist, Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at Temple University, and organizer of the forum. Washington specializes in analytical/investigative coverage of social justice/criminal justice issues, the news media and the law with particular emphasis on reporting that examines race/class-based injustices.
• Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, which has spearheaded the investigation of the U.S. government’s secret payments to Miami journalists during the Five’s trial which form the basis for the recent court filings on behalf of the Five.
• Eugene Puryear, a Howard University student and author of the new book, “Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in the United States,” has served as an organizer around the issues of police brutality, prisoners’ rights and abuses in the U.S. criminal justice system, as well as opposition to U.S. wars and occupations.

Details of the forums:

• Chapel Hill, NC
  Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013
  12 noon
  University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Law School, Room 4085
  Download the flyer
• Chapel Hill, NC
  Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013
  6-8 pm
  The Institute for the Study of the Americas, FedEx Global Education Center * Nelson Mandela Auditorium * 301 Pittsboro St., UNC – Chapel Hill
  Download the flyer
• Philadelphia, PA
  Monday, Oct. 28, 2013
  6-8 pm
  Atrium Annenberg Hall Temple University School of Media and Communications 2020 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia
  Download the flyer