ZOA October 5, 2004

ZOA Action Alert

The Zionist Organization of America

Jacob & Libby Goodman ZOA House Phone: 212-481-1500

4 East 34th St. New York, NY 10016 Fax: 212-481-1515

e-mail: email@zoa.org Web Site: www.zoa.org

To: ZOA Executive Directors

ZOA Regional Leaders

Friends of Israel Around the U.S.

From: Lori Lowenthal Marcus, President, Greater Philadelphia District, ZOA

Morton A. Klein, ZOA National President

Nearly twenty years ago, Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life in prison for passing classified information to an American ally, Israel. Pollard is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for that crime. The only one. A typical sentence for that offense is two to four years.

And that is not the only irregularity in Pollards case. Pollard was sentenced following a plea bargain in which he followed the rules outlined by the prosecutors, but which the prosecutors violated. He was condemned to live out his life in prison under circumstances that violated his plea agreement.

Yet a third way in which Pollards case is conspicuously anomalous: Pollards prosecutors engaged in serious misconduct. These constitutional violations severely prejudiced Mr. Pollard, and resulted in his life sentence, according to former United States District Court Judge George N. Leighton.

Finally, and of most immediate concern, Pollards attorneys, both of whom have TOP SECRET level security clearances, have been repeatedly denied access to the classified portions of his court docket. Without access to the docket, his lawyers are deprived of the ability to submit an effective clemency petition for Pollard.

Through these four significant, glaring aberrations, Jonathan Pollard has been abused by our American legal system.

In addition to these procedural and substantive violations, Pollard received grossly ineffective assistance from his sentencing counsel. For example, his lawyer failed to file a simple one-page Notice of Appeal from his life sentence. This is an important basis upon which Pollards current lawyers are seeking redress, for which there is a long history of legal precedents.

At the fulcrum of our system is the guarantee that all who engage in the legal process will be treated equitably and fairly. That guarantee, that contract of fair treatment, has been withheld from Jonathan Pollard for nearly twenty long years.

It is your obligation, as Americans, as people who demand a balanced, moral legal system, to seek justice for Jonathan Pollard.

Take a moment of your life to ask President Bush to reduce Jonathan Pollards sentence to time already served:

President George Bush

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C. 20500

Ph: 202-456-1111

Fax: 202-456-2461

e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov

And then take one more minute of your life just think of Jonathans last twenty years and ask your U.S. Senators and Representatives to exert moral pressure on Attorney General John Ashcroft to extend to Pollards attorneys their right of access to their clients court documents. You can do this by simply going to: http://www.jonathanpollard.org/send_letters.htm

The directions for you to help correct this wrong are provided there by Pollards lawyers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2004 and is filed under action.