Everyone should be aware that anything that you write prisoners – and especially prison officials – may have a direct impact on the prisoner.
Please do not write Carswell prison regarding Marie Mason’s food situation.
She wants everyone to know that she is vegan and can buy extra food through the commissary. If you would like to help her out, make a donation (which is used partly to buy vegan food) – but please do not write the prison.
The new Marie Mason t-shirts are now available for order online or by mail. Designed by Just Seeds artist Erik Ruin, the shirts are available in black or brown for $18ppd in the US/Canada/Mexico ($20ppd everywhere else)
Bulk rates are available for June 11th or other benefit events.
Also, if you look to the right, you can also see that there is a new Facebook page. We encourage folks to sign up either to the FB page or to the listserve to get updates about Marie’s situation which do not appear on the main website.
www.june11.org
International Day of Solidarity for Marie Mason and Eric McDavid!
June 11th began as an international day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoner Jeff “Free” Luers in 2004. At the time, Jeff was serving 22+ years. Infuriated by the environmental devastation he saw occurring on a global scale, Free torched three SUVs at a car dealership in Eugene, OR. The sentence imposed on him was meant to send a clear message to others who were angered by capitalism’s continued war on the Earth’s ecosystems – and to those who were willing to take action to put a stop to it. Free is, after all, not alone in his concerns about climate change, fossil fuels, pollution and genetically modified organisms.
After years of struggle, Jeff and his legal team won a reduction in his sentence and he was released from prison in December 2009. But in the years intervening Jeff’s arrest and release, the FBI had carried out a series of indictments and arrests in an attempt to devastate the radical environmental and anarchist communities. Two of the people caught up in this maelstrom of repression were Eric McDavid and Marie Mason.
Eric McDavid was arrested in January 2006 after being entrapped by a paid government informant – “Anna” – and was charged with a single count of conspiracy. Eric – who never carried out any actions and was accused of what amounts to “thought crime” – refused to cooperate with the state and took his case to trial. After a trial fraught with errors, the jury convicted Eric. He was subsequently sentenced to almost 20 years in prison. More information on Eric’s case can be found at www.supporteric.org
Marie Mason was arrested in March 2008 after her former partner – Frank Ambrose – turned informant for the FBI. Facing a life sentence if she went to trial, Marie accepted a plea bargain in September 2008, admitting her involvement in the burning of an office connected to GMO research and the destruction of a piece of logging equipment. At her sentencing in February the following year, she received a sentence of almost 22 years. More information on Marie’s case can be found at www.supportmariemason.org
Marie and Eric now share the unfortunate distinction of having the longest standing sentences of any environmental prisoners in the United States.
Please join us in an International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners Marie Mason and Eric McDavid on June 11th. This is a time to remember our friends who are in prison – who are continuing their struggles on the inside. This is a time to continue and strengthen the very work for which Eric and Marie are now serving so much time – to struggle against capitalism, ecological devastation, and the ever more diffuse forms of control in this prison society.
Free Marie and Eric!
Free all prisoners!
Please be in touch:
june11thsolidarity@gmail.com
www.june11.org
Unfortunately, it seems that numerous letters and packages which have been mailed to Marie Mason have never arrived. They have neither been returned to the senders, nor officially refused by the prison (Carswell has denied that this disruption has been on their side). This seems to be a repeat of what happened at one time at Waseca prison, where Mason was held before her transfer.
If you have written Mason and are not sure if she has received your communication, please contact us.
Additionally, Carswell has refused every single request to visit Mason in prison, with the sole exception of her direct family. This attempt to isolate Mason is even more draconian than what happened to Green Scare prisoners like Daniel McGowan when he was held in a CMU (Communications Management Unit); even then he was allowed visitors who were not relatives.
Marie Mason’s birthday is coming up in a couple weeks on January 26; she will turn 49 this year.
Please send her a card – or better yet, host a letter-writing night and send her a bunch of cards!
Two different Marie Mason flyers now available as PDFs:
Our one-page handout can be downloaded here.
Supporters in the midwest have produced a double-sided, folded flyer, which can be downloaded here.
If you are planning a Marie Mason or Green Scare benefit, please contact us beforehand and we will be happy to provide you with materials and merchandise such as t-shirts, posters, buttons and a variety of printed matter about Mason and the Green Scare.
The ruling of Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, denying Marie Mason’s appeal, can be downloaded here.
We found out this morning (December 16, 2010) Marie Mason’s appeal for a re-sentencing has been denied by a federal appeals court.
Coming immediately after fellow Green Scare prisoner Eric McDavid’s appeals have been exhausted, it is just another sign that the Obama administration will be not be changing Bush-era policies regarding the witch hunts against environmental and animal rights activists.
Mason’s family will be deciding on the next course of action. In the meantime, we ask all supporters to drop her a line in prison to boost her spirits.
Marie Mason #04672-061
FMC Carswell
Federal Medical Center
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127
* * * * *
Marie Mason is serving almost 22 years for two acts of environmentally-motivated property destruction in which no one was harmed. This is the longest current sentence of any of the Green Scare prisoners. (The Green Scare is the name given to the recent prosecution of eco-saboteurs and animal liberation activists, in which the government has labeled them as “terrorists” and sought huge sentences.) Mason was turned in by her then-husband, Frank Ambrose, who had secretly spied on activists for years and then filed for divorce the day she was arrested. Mason eventually pled guilty to 14 actions: 13 were claimed by the Earth Liberation Front and one by the Animal Liberation Front. At her sentencing, the judge said she had “violated the marketplace of ideas” and gave her an even longer sentence than the plea bargain stipulated. In August 2010, Mason was transferred to a special wing of Carswell prison, where numerous political prisoners are held and communications are tightly monitored.
For more information, see www.supportmariemason.org
Marie Mason’s lawyer is set to appear in court in Cincinnati today for the first step in the appeal for a re-sentencing. The court can either grant the appeal (at which point it will go to another judge for re-sentencing), or deny it. It may take weeks or months to get a ruling on this first step.
Mason is currently serving the longest sentence of any US activist imprisoned for environmentally-motivated property destruction. She is serving 21 years and 10 months for two acts of property destruction in which no one was harmed.
