Judith Alice Clark
Judy Clark was a 1960s American radical activist, battling both the Vietnam War and racism. She is currently in prison for her participation in a failed robbery of a Brinks truck in 1981, during which a guard and two police officers were killed[1].
Clark was born on November 23, 1949. She grew up in a Jewish family with her older brother and parents, Ruth Clark and Joe Clark[2]. Her parents were members of the American Communist Party for many years. As an infant Clark lived in the Soviet Union from 1950 to 1953. After the family returned home to the U.S, her parents withdrew from the Communist Party.
In 1965 Judith Clark joined Students for a Democratic Society, (SDS) in New York. She later joined the staff of frequent SDS venue, New Left Notes. In 1969, SDS divided into several factions, and Weatherman was born. Clark was a member of Weather and took part in the 1969 "Days of Rage" in Chicago and the preceding organizational actions, for which she was arrested in December, 1970 and convicted of felonious mob actions[3]. After her release, Clark continued to support the movement as an above ground ally.
Clark, along with former Weather members David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, formed the May 19 Communist Organization (M-19CO), which joined forces with the remnants of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), a radical and violent group that was an offshoot of the Black Panthers. On October 20, 1981 Clark took part in a Brinks armored truck robbery in Nyack, New York. During the robbery Peter Paige, a Brink's guard, was killed. The group escaped from the scene with 1.6 million, but a witness saw the group change cars and notified the police. Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady, both police officers, were killed during a gun battle that ensued. Clark was arrested and accused of being the get-away driver. Gilbert and Boudin were also arrested.
When tried for her involvement in this robbery, Clark was not represented by counsel; she instead chose to represent herself. She refused to participate in the proceedings, absenting herself from the courtroom for almost the entire trial. Both Gilbert and Clark were convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to three consecutive 25-year-to-life sentences. Clark was transferred to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women (Bedford)[2].
At the time of her arrest Clark was thirty-one years old, and a mother of an eleven month old baby girl. A friend, who was facing a three year prison sentence for refusing to testify before the grand jury, assumed responsibility for Clark's daughter's care. Clark's parents sued her in Surrogate Court for custody of the little girl, and won. Ruth and Joe Clark brought Clark's daughter to visit her in prison.
In September 1985, letters implicating Clark in a possible escape plan were found. She was charged with conspiracy to escape and sentenced to two years in solitary confinement in the Special Housing Unit (SHU)[2].
After returning to Bedford Hills, Clark returned to college at Mercy College Bedford. She also began doing AIDS-related work. Kathy Boudin and Clark developed an AIDS Counseling and Education (ACE) program in prison[2]. The program was designed to counsel inmates trying to cope with AIDS. Clark and Boudin were among the inmates at Bedford Hills featured in a 2003 documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You about a writing workshop in the prison led by playwright and activist Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues. Unlike Clark or Gilbert, Boudin was able to obtain a plea bargain and was paroled in 2003. Both Clark and Boudin have published articles on ACE in Social Justice and The Columbia Journal of Gender and Law (1991). The articles have also been cited in a 1990 U.S Department of Justice Report on AIDS in prison.
Clark earned her Bachelor's degree in 1990 from Mercy Bedford College and gave the valedictorian address. In 1993 Clark earned her master's of Psychology from a graduate program of Vermont College of Norwich University. She began working at Bedford Hills Children's center facilitating pre-natal and parenting classes. She was later removed from that role due to security concerns[2].
Clark has published work in many literacy journals including The New Yorker, The Prison Journal and in anthologies of prison writing, including Doing Time and Hauling Up the Morning: Writings & Art by Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the U.S.. She has also won several awards for her poetry in the annual PEN prison writing contest[2].
Clark petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that she should be granted a new trial because the judge in her original trial granted her requests to dismiss her attorney and represent herself. This writ was initially granted by the district court on September, 2006, but on January 3, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a unanimous decision, reversed the district court's judgment granting a new trial. The Second Circuit panel noted that she chose to represent herself and defaulted any claim by failing to appeal until after the time for appeals had expired. Clark will be eligible for parole in 2056[1].
References
- ^ a b http://www.judithclark.org/about.functions.php?view=about
- ^ a b c d e f http://www.judithclark.org/pdf/JC_Affidavit_12-11-02.pdf
- ^ United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. “The Weather Underground Report of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Ninety-Fourth Congress First Session”, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975)
External links
- http://www.judithclark.org
- Jacobs, Ron. The Way The Wind Blew - A History Of The Weather Underground. Verso, 1997 (ISBN 1-85984-167-8)
- What I Want My Words To Do To You, PBS, premeried December 16, 2003