The Colorado attorney has fought for prisoners held at Gitmo and sought justice for Elijah McClain.
Mari Newman is an activist, mother and warrior. You need to be when you’re a gay, Jewish, left-wing attorney going into Cuba’s Guantanamo prison in the mid-2000s to defend Muslim men accused of taking part in 9/11. For half a decade, they’d been held by the U.S. government without legal rights or judicial review. A small group of American attorneys, including Newman, volunteered to go to Gitmo at their law firms’ expense and represent the men pro bono.
What was happening involved carrying out the systematic torture of prisoners, sexual and otherwise, in ways she won’t talk about more than fifteen years later. She did all she could to help the incarcerated men — from formal legal work to bringing in Middle Eastern food and other client favorites, like baba ganoush, Flamin' Hot Cheetos and frozen cream puffs.
“I wanted to create change,” she says, “and I felt I could do it more effectively in the United States. I didn’t want to be that American woman going around another country telling people what to do, without the cultural literacy to understand the bigger picture. The law felt like the right tool to accomplish my goals here at home.” Courtesy of Mari Newman
Decades later, Newman would give the same talk to a tormented young woman who’d recently failed to pass the Colorado bar. Newman flew to Yemen, her clients’ homeland, to get to know their relatives; the meetings were heart-wrenching. The sister of one client was so grateful for her work that she gave Newman a dress from her closet as a thank-you gift. Younger siblings and cousins sat on her lap and laughed at her efforts to speak to them in Arabic. By now, Newman had a child of her own; while she worked in Yemen, her partner finished potty-training their daughter.
For more than a decade, Newman and her team returned to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base over and over again to meet with their clients. They read briefs, filed motions and sifted through the limited classified documents they were allowed to read in a “secure” facility outside of Washington, D.C. And they learned of the “Black Sites” around the world where the U.S. was using more extreme forms of torture.
As with many of her other cases, though, Newman was working for more than money. She and the rest of the legal team had not only proved that Booker died because of a chokehold and the use of a stun gun; they also uncovered evidence that Denver sheriffs had deleted surveillance video and even destroyed the taser that had contributed to his death.
After enduring anti-gay discrimination as a law clerk, Newman was more determined than ever to change the system. She served on Denver's Commission for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights for over a decade, working with both Mayor Wellington Webb and Mayor John Hickenlooper. In the late 1990s, she helped draft the language adding LGBTQ protections to the state’s anti-discrimination laws; she testified at the Colorado Legislature every year for seven years until it passed.
Newman is reluctant to talk about Elijah's parents, but when she does, it reveals the personal toll that the case took on her and everyone involved. “The legal process is very hard on victims," she says."It’s highly invasive of their personal lives. In Elijah’s case, Aurora asked a lot of intrusive questions about his background and upbringing. You spend so much time with people and do your best to support them and protect their privacy.
One of her favorite quotes is from MLK: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it tends towards justice.” That's a saying she repeats frequently, to combat discouragement over the fact that those in power persist in violating people’s civil rights. The law also made it easier to hold police officers criminally accountable for using excessive force, which ultimately helped enable the prosecution of those responsible for killing Elijah McClain. It requires officers, such as those who stood by during the attacks on Marvin Booker and Michael Marshall, to intervene.
Norge Siste Nytt, Norge Overskrifter
Similar News:Du kan også lese nyheter som ligner på denne som vi har samlet inn fra andre nyhetskilder.
Build a Raspberry Pi-Powered Aurora Detecting Camera for Under $300Builder Frank Prins has designed a Raspberry Pi-powered camera that can detect auroras and alert people that they're visible.
Les mer »
Influx of Mauritanians Surprises the Aurora Migrant Response Network'I'm talking hundreds of Mauritanians were standing outside our door here. We had no clue what language they spoke. We tried to speak Spanish. And all we heard was Pulaar, Pulaar, Pulaar.'
Les mer »
Suspect flees police before causing major three-vehicle crash on Aurora AveThe Seattle Police Department (SPD) is investigating a major crash along Aurora Ave. N after a driver was attempting to escape police.
Les mer »
Pair of brush fires put out after threatening Anadarko Petroleum plant in AuroraClaire Lavezzorio is a reporter at KMGH Denver7 in Denver, Colorado.
Les mer »
STEVE and other aurora-like glows perplex scientists with their complex physicsNew views of STEVE from citizen scientists keep raising questions about the atmospheric light show — but computer models may offer some answers.
Les mer »
Shooting on Aurora leaves man in serious conditionSeattle police are investigating an overnight shooting that left a man in serious condition.
Les mer »