an update on scott and carrie

Below is more information on Scott DeMuth and Carrie Feldman. I received the below email from Schoalrs for Academic Justice. It has information on Scott’s and Carrie’s cases, along with what you can do to help their causes:

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Dear supporters of Scott DeMuth:
Thank you so much to all of you who have signed the petition in support of Scott DeMuth, a Minnesota activist and graduate student facing bogus conspiracy charges under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) for his community organizing and social research. Thanks to your work, Scott has received an outpouring of support from people around the world with over 1500 signatures on the petition (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freescottdemuth/), including positive responses from associations like Sociologists for Women in Society and the Collective Behavior and Social Movements section of the American Sociological Association.

Scott is out of jail and back in school after an appeals court denied the prosecutor’s motion to jail him until trial. But the fight is only beginning, as Scott is facing bogus conspiracy charges under the AETA (http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com/about-the-aeta/), and his colleague Carrie Feldman (http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com/about/) is still in jail on contempt of court for likewise refusing to testify in front of the Davenport grand jury (http://grandjuryresistance.org/grandjuries.html). Carrie is not a student; she is a member of the activist community Scott is a part of and was also hauled before the federal prosecutor. We will need all of your support to protect academic freedom and free speech to free Carrie and get Scott’s charges dropped (read all about it in Scott’s own statement http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/statement-from-scott-demuth/#more-174).

2. Urgent call for Legal Funds
Last week Scott succeeded in finding an excellent attorney, Michael Deutsch from the People’s Law Office in Chicago. A brief bio is available here: http://www.peopleslawoffice.com/bio/3/.

This is great news, but it also means that we need to raise a $10,000 retainer by Wednesday, January 13 (as well as legal fees further down the line). If you’ve been thinking about making a donation to Scott and Carrie’s defense fund at some point, or about putting together a fundraiser, the need is greatest now. Scott’s charge is absurd, but the federal government is quite capable of securing false convictions, and he needs an experienced and committed attorney in order to fight this battle and win. If we’re not able to raise this initial sum, it will be a serious setback in the progress of Scott’s case and support for both him and Carrie Feldman.

Send Carrie Feldman a letter or some books and keep her spirits up
Carolyn Feldman; Washington; County Jail; 2185 Lexington Blvd.; PO Box 6; Washington, IA 52353.

Donations can be made in two ways:
1) Click on the Paypal button on the right side of the screen here. at http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com

2) Or by writing a check to “Coldsnap Legal Collective” with “EWOK!” in the memo line, and mailing it to:
EWOK! c/o Coldsnap
PO Box 50514
Minneapolis, MN 55405
(If you mail a check, please email us at ewok@riseup.net and let us know to expect it.)
Please donate, and please spread this plea far and wide. If you need help setting up a fundraiser, contact Friends of Scott and Carrie at ewok@riseup.net.

3. Action Items:

a. Statements of support
Take a few minutes to write an original statement of support from your organization or as an individual and send it to the above address. You can also record your statement on video. Statements will be posted on the forthcoming scholars for academic justice website. Send statements to to: scholarsforacademicjustice@gmail.com

b. Letters to the Editor
This story has garnered much media attention in the academic and popular press, including an article about research ethics Inside Higher Ed (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/12/04/demuth). You can also write a letter to the editor of your newspaper or comment on recent news stories; see below.