[Martin Sostre trial
Subtitle: articles, correspondence, and press releases]
Published: 1968
Language: eng
Number of pages: 51
Subjects: Imprisonment; African Americans; Civil rights
Description: On July 14, 1967, police raided Martin Sostre’s bookstore in Buffalo, NY and accused him of selling $15 worth of heroin. They arrested Sostre on narcotics, riot, arson and assault charges. He was convicted, largely on the testimony of Arto Williams, a drug addict who had had charges pending against him at the time of the raid, and Mr. Sostre was sentenced to 30 to 40 years on the drug charge. Six years later, Mr. Williams recanted his testimony and said he had lied to help the police in return for leniency in his own case. However, Mr. Sostre was denied a new trial and the United States Supreme Court in 1974 refused to hear the case. He remained in prison until his sentence was commuted in 1975 by Governor Hugh Carey due to political pressure from Amnesty International and dozens of Martin Sostre Defense Committees throughout the country.
Table of contents: title: Sostre back in solitary; Another chance for a new trial (10/4/74); title: What was the crime of Martin Sostre? Frame-Up : the imprisonment of Martin Sostre, a film by the Pacific St. Film Collective (10/4/74); title: Martin Sostre denied justice .. again (3/15/74); title: The Courts of New York State continued their persecution of Martin Sostre (10/31/73); title: Martin Sostre beaten again: State threatens life imprisonment (7/14/73); title: Martin Sostre was arraigned today … on three counts of alleged 2nd Degree Assault against Clinton Prison Guards (7-6-73); title: Martin Sostre beaten again: assaulted by sixteen prison guards (12/3/73); title: And who cares about political prisoners today? : [poster] (n.d.); title: Free Martin Sostre Week : demonstrate, pack the courtroom! Picket outside rally! (n.d.); title: MARTIN SOSTRE DEFENSE COMMITTEE:; title: Letter from Sharon Fischer to Joe Shaver re:donation (4/2/74); title: Letter from Jeanette Merrill, secretary, Martin Sostre Defense Committee, to Joe Shaver re:donation (1/11/70; 2 pages); title: Letter from Jeanette Merrill, secretary, Martin Sostre Defense Committee re: request for financial support (12/8/69 ; 2 pages); title: Letter from Jeanette Merrill, secretary, Martin Sostre Defense Committee, to Joe Shaver re:update and request for financial support (8/26/69; 2 pages); title: Letter from Jeanette Merrill, secretary, Martin Sostre Defense Committee, to Joe Shaver re:donation (1/14/69); title: Youth Against War & Fascism : [letter asking for raising funds for Sostre’s defense] / KeyMartin (12/7/68); title: CORRESPONDENCE:; title: Another Round Won in the Long, Protracted Struggle to Free Martin Sostre (8/14/69); title: Co-defendant Geraldine Robinson sentenced today by County Court Judge Ernest Colucci (9/14/69); title: PRESS RELEASES:; title: An American prisoner of conscience : the saga of Martin Sostre / Arthur Dobrin (The Progressive, May 1980, pp. 35-39); title: Sostre’s ordeal (Rights, Jan/Mar 1976 ; p. 4); title: State ordered to answer issues in Sostre appeal (Buffalo Evening News (9/10/74, page 74); title: Martin Sostre tells of prison harrassment; [Deposition of James Sullivan, aka Henry Purcell on verso] / Derrick Morrison (The Militant, 5/3/74); title: Arto Williams swears he, Amico, Gristmacher framed Sostre : affidavit (Undercurrent, 1970?); title: Sostre loses bid to upset conviction (Courier Express (Buffalo, N.Y.), 3/16/74); title: Fr. Berrigan says causes still abound (Courier Express (Buffalo, N.Y.), 12/14/73); title: Letter clearing Sostre held up for four months / Gene Tournour (Daily World, 2/22/74, page 9); title: Martin Sostre describes 14 months in solitary cell / Gene Tournour (Daily World, 1/22/74, page 3); title: Martin Sostre beaten again in Clinton / International notes (The Match (Tucson, Ariz.) Jan. 1974); title: Sostre dehumanized in prison after he allegedly was framed / Linda Moskowitz (The Spectrum (State University of New York at Buffalo), 12/10/73, page 5); title: Frame-up? Sostre still in jail for drugs / Linda Moskowitz (The Spectrum (State University of New York at Buffalo), 12/12/73, page 4); title: Amerikan Injustice / Buffalo Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (Opinion (SUNY Buffalo Law School; 11/20/73); title: Sostre beaten before courtroom appearance (Buffalo Rainy Day Sun, 11/1-14/73); title: Williams’ testimony absolves Martin Sostre (Buffalo Rainy Day Sun , vol. 1, no. 9, 6/2-23/73); title: Sostre’s term reduced by 6-10 years (Buffalo Evening News, 11/1/73) with: Sostre’s sentence reduced / Greg Faherty (Courier Express (Buffalo, N.Y.), 11/1/73); title: Amnesty Int’l backs Sostre / Derrick Morrison (The Militant, 10/12/73) with: Sostre asks court to bar beatings / Daily World (10/5/73); title: ARTICLES:; title: Gristmacher, Scibran indicted in drug case; both plead innocent / Jackie Tasch (Buffalo Evening News, 6/29/73, page 35 with: Heroin theft charges laid to Gristmacher and Scibran / Greg Faherty (Courier Express (Buffalo, N.Y.), 6/29/73); title: Sostre plans Sept. court appeal, 5 years after trial (Courier Express (Buffalo, N.Y.), 6/16/73); title: Jailed Sostre sues state for $70,000 (Courier Express (Buffalo, N.Y.), 6/12/73); title: Sostre was allegedly framed, witness recants / Janis Cromer (The Spectrum (State University of New York at Buffalo), 6/8/73); title: Sostre still jailed despite witness / Stephen Torgoff (Guardian, 8/16/72, page 3); title: Sostre shifted to Auburn prison / Phillip Bonosky (Daily World, 8/11/72); title: Up against the bench / Joe Heath (Opinion (SUNY Buffalo Law School; 5/4/72); title: Martin Sostre: one man’s drive for prisoner’s rights / Randy Tennen (The Commentator, 11/17/71, page 4 and 11); title: Martin Sostre: report from prison (Undercurrent, 1970?, page 3); title: The voice of Black Liberation : editorial / Martin Sostre (Black News: Buffalo’s Black Revolutionary newspaper, vol. 1, no. 2 (Mar. 1970, [4] pages; title: Sostre turns tables in kangaroo court (The Old Mole (Cambridge, Mass.) no. 27, 11/ 21-12/4, 1969); title: The gadfly / Mark Schneider (The Spectrum (State University of New York at Buffalo), vol. 19:no.10, 10/15/68; title: N.A.A.C.P. counsel and staff resign: protest failure to reinstate ousted legal associate / Robert E. Dallos (10/29/1968; mentions Joan Franklin, Sostre’s NAACP lawyer); title: Sostre case / Robert L. Carter, General Counsel, NAACP (Boston Globe, 9/19/68, morning edition); title: The case of Martin Sostre / Gerald J. Gross (New York Review of Books, 3/23/72); title: Martin Sostre (reprint from Chicago Anarchist Black Cross, Aug. 1973); title: Martin Sostre brutalized; facing life sentence for opposing Rockefeller’s dehumanizing policies : [letter from Martin Sostre to Chief Judge Kaufman] (broadside, 1973)