Revolutionary greetings. My name is Shaka Shakur. I’m a New African political prisoner being held in Virginia per interstate compact. I’m originally from Gary, Indiana, and I’m gonna call this piece “A Call To Harvest.” Basically, for those that — a lot of people know me — and I mostly push, you know, the New African Independence Movement politics or just revolutionary politics in general, but here I want to talk about my case a little bit, and I’m trying to get people to become more interested in my case outside of just doing the documentary screenings and what have you. I also promote the book. I recently published a book called Manifestations of Thought: When the Dragon Comes, through 1804 Publishers, but you can also order through shakashakur.org as well.
I’m on my 24th year in prison. I start my 25th year in January for allegedly attempted murder of a Gary, Indiana cop; wrongfully convicted, when in actuality and all simplified, a police car got shot up during a mental crisis, moment of cris after my 18-year-old son had been murdered, and I had to get out there and look into his case and whatnot. I didn’t receive a fair trial. I didn’t receive proper representation in terms of counsel. I was railroaded, and I was given 63 years total, 25 years, I mean 38 years for the attempted murder that was enhanced by 25 years for being a habitual offender on third strike, with the second strike being 16 years in between the first strike and a very low level for class D felony, which ultimately received an extra 25 years for.
I’m 59 years old. I’ll be 60 years old next month. I’ve been doing time, unfortunately, since I was 16 years old, made it over to juvenile court for attempted robbery. So basically, I’ve been incarcerated, fighting the system, and banging with the system my whole life, unfortunately. During my trial, I took a temporary insanity plea, mental defect, etc. Basically, due to my many tours through supermax control unit in prison, solitary confinement, and that whole torture process, in which even on this being here, I served 13 years consecutively in the SHU, in the supermax control unit in the prison. Not for violence or any of that, but for being political, being an organizer, and based on my history as an organizer and as a political prisoner.
So, what we’re doing, we’re trying to push people and get people organized to demand and call for a new trial and get people to look into the intricacies of my case; the prosecutorial misconduct, the ineffectiveness of counsel, dismissing and stolen physical evidence, the forensic stuff that doesn’t support the narrative, and the fact that I’ve been in prison almost 25 years on a non-murder case where nobody was seriously injured; on a case where the alleged victim left the crime, left the scene of the crime, the superior officer in a vehicle for 15 to 20 minutes, only to return to the crime, to the scene. You can go to shakasakura.org or the New African Freedom Campaign on Instagram and learn more about this case. Power to the people. Free to land. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
