Information disseminated via email through League of Women Voters, Prince William Unit, Prince William County, VA.

(With thanks to Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt.)

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

Lucy Burns
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
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They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

Dora Lewis
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

Woodrow Wilson and his cronies tried to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. The doctor refused. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

If for no other reason, vote out of respect for ANY of those who have suffered for our rights to do so.

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By Razia Ahmed

When I was listening to Jimmy Dennis sitting behind a glass barrier describe his incarceration, in my mind I started planning all the things I'd do to help him get his life back.

Woe to me, ten days have gone by and I haven't even sent out an email telling my friends about Jimmy and ask them to help him, if they can. Any detectives out there?

JIMMY DENNIS

Ever since i have known Tonya she has been talking about an innocent man on death row. I was sympathetic and signed the petition for a new trial. It wasn't until last Tuesday when Tonya, Monica and I came face to face with Jimmy and for six hrs listened to him recount his incarceration for last 19 years that the gravity of the situation sunk in.

In 1992 jimmy was convicted of a murder he did not commit. Tonya spent a year and half reading the transcript of the proceedings of jimmy's trial and created a website.

You can do your own research and find out for yourself. but please help Jimmy get his life back.

• sign the petition, tell your friends to do the same
• get on the email list
• visit him in in prison
• do some detective work - interview people in philadelphia area that jimmy thinks will help his case
• do a documentary
• create your own website
• visit the existing websites
• video petition

On October 22, 1991 at about 1:50 pm in the afternoon, high school students Chedell Williams and Zahra Howard were climbing the steps the enter the Fern Rock Subway Station in north Philadelphia. They were approached by two men who blocked their way up the stairs. One man demanded earrings at which point the girls ran away from them back down the stairs. One man chased Chedell into the street where he ripped the earrings from her ears and shot her in the neck, killing her. The two men then ran up the street and jumped in a car driven by a third man, and sped off.

There were dozens of eyewitnesses to the crime which happened on a bright afternoon, and many of them had a view of the perpetrators in the few seconds that it took for the crime to take place. In addition, a couple of eyewitnesses were able to partially describe the make, model, and color of the car and also provide a few digits in the license plate number. Unfortunately the car was never identified or found.

As the investigation continued, the police heard rumors in the projects that Jimmy Dennis was the one who killed Chedell Williams. Jimmy Dennis maintained his innocence from day one, and when he became aware of rumors he went to the police station to straighten out the matter. The Police told him he wasn't a suspect. However, they continued to gather evidence and later arrested and charged him with murder. Jimmy, unwilling to make any deals, was tried and convicted of murder and sentenced with the death penalty. There have been no charges filed for the crimes committed by the two other men involved the crime.

Why is Jimmy innocent?

• The only evidence tying Jimmy to the crime is the eyewitness stranger identification of three eyewitnesses, two of whom were unsure and another who only saw the perpetrator for a "second". More importantly, these eyewitnesses and others all gave physical descriptions of the perpetrator that are much taller and heavier than Jimmy. It's much more likely they identified the wrong person than it is their descriptions were off by as much as they were. Other witnesses said Jimmy was NOT the perpetrator or chose someone other than Jimmy in the line-ups.

• Several family members, friends, and acquantainces support Jimmy's alibi that he was riding a bus to a different part of town at the time of the crime.

• There is no physical evidence tying Jimmy to the murder.

• The stolen earrings were never found, and Jimmy was not involved in the robbery of the same earrings a few months prior.

• The gun was never found, and no gun has ever found been found in Jimmy's possession.

• The getaway car was never found or linked to Jimmy in any way. Jimmy has never owned a car and does not have a license.

• Jimmy had no motive as he and his singing group were about to sign a record contract.

http://www.jimmydennis.org/petition.html

http://www.jimmydennis.org/contactus.html