POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AMERICA

(by Jeff Jackson)

The following contains excerpts from a letter by Yorie Von Kahl requesting letters on his behalf to his parole commission. Hopefully, many of you have viewed the documentary DEATH & TAXES by now and will know the details of the federal governments persecution of Gordon Kahl and his family. For those who don't know, Yorie Kahl and Scott Faul, were involved in a roadblock shoot-out with federal officers on February 13th, 1983. They did not shoot any of the officers who were killed or wounded that day, but they were put on trial, and many believe, railroaded into two 25 year to life sentences because they didn't put their guns down when being shot at by plain clothes agents. Yorie was the first person shot and was hit with a total of four shotgun blasts in the stomach. He miraculously lived, although he lost his right kidney and gall bladder, part of his liver and they cut out several feet of his intestines.

Agents testified in court that he woke up at 3 A.M. (coming off of heavy anesthesia) following this surgery and confessed to having fired the first shot. The judge allowed this contrived confession (Yorie wouldn't have known if there was a herd of cattle in his hospital room at that time) as evidence in the trial. The judge (a personal friend of one of the dead marshals) also excluded a written confession from Gordon Kahl, who admitted he had done all of the killing and wounding of officers, while protecting his family and friends from what he thought was a death squad attack.

Yorie and Scott are "Political Prisoners" because they have both served far in excess of the normal time limits set within the federal prison guidelines for prisoners serving similar sentences. According to those guidelines Yorie and Scott should have been paroled over two years ago.

Yorie Kahl states in an open letter to concerned citizens:

"Some of you know that I will be going to the parole board again in early 1995. This will be my sixth time...To date there has been no indication that there exists any intention among the rulers of 'wickedness in high places' EVER to release me, although the last hearing I had was 'interesting'----to say the least.

At my parole hearing of 1990, Jack McLamb (the retired training officer of the Phoenix Police Department) attended and attempted to explain the extraordinary circumstances surrounding our case. As a professional police officer, he attempted to show that the fault of the deaths and injuries had to be laid predominantly, if not exclusively, upon the U.S. Marshals, who violated every rule of arrest procedure taught in police academies throughout the U.S. To say the parole board members were uninterested is a gross understatement....

"What I am asking you to do is to write a letter on my behalf to the U.S. Parole Commission...I urge you to write vigorous letters --- nothing 'wimpy.' A former counsel for the parole commission recently told me: 'Guys like you who are really not criminals rarely get paroled, while rapists and the lowest scum are paroled regularly.'

In your letters to the Parole Commission, I suggest you complain about the obvious unfairness of the trial; the fact that so many government personnel were friends and/or fraternal brothers to the deceased marshals; raise the issue of the wide-spread slander by the news media that influenced the jury. [The Chief Judge of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, in his dissenting opinion on our appeal, stated: 'The record amply demonstrates the defendants did not and could not receive a fair trial in the District of North Dakota.' -U.S. v. Faul, 748 F.2d 1204 (1984.]

Please appeal to the Parole Commission, if not on my behalf, then on your behalf. Be firm. Let them know enough is enough. Theoretically, this is YOUR COUNTRY and they are YOUR EMPLOYEES. You can write to them at: Mr. Edward Reilly, Chairman, U.S. Parole Commission, 5550 Friendship Blvd., Chevy Chase, MD 20815 [Re: Yorie Von Kahl, Prisoner #04565-059 (A-3)] Send a duplicate and ask them to put it in my file. Also send a letter to your congressmen and insist on his doing SOMETHING---at least put him 'on notice.'"

Yorie is in the position where his parole board demands in exchange for his freedom that he betray the memory of his father and confess to his keepers that the government had the right to harass, hunt down and kill his father. To gain his freedom Yorie needs the help of an informed public.

To order DEATH & TAXES (on VHS/113 minutes) send $29.95 + $3 S&H to COUNTRY PEOPLE PRODUCTIONS, 2554 Lincoln Blvd., Box 456, Venice, CA 90291 or to order with MC/VISA call 1-800--BURY-IRS (287-9477)