It’s a holiday greeting, but not one everyone will welcome.
One thing is pretty much a sure bet: The families of Donald Sager and Stanley Sierakowski sure as heck won’t want to hear it. On April 24, 1970, Sager and Sierakowski were two Baltimore police officers who answered a call for a domestic dispute in the 1200 block of Myrtle Avenue. Less than an hour after they received the call, both officers were shot. Sierakowski was wounded, but Sager died in his patrol car.
Three men were arrested, charged and convicted of the crime. Jack Ivory Johnson and James Edward Powell were found hiding near the scene. Marshall “Eddie” Conway was arrested later. All three were members of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party, not exactly a “friend of the cop” outfit. (Former Panthers might add, with a wealth of justification, that no police department anywhere in the United States could ever be called a “friend of the Negro” outfit. If they were, the Panthers may never have been born.)
The “season’s greetings” message came earlier this week from Conway, sent via Gary Gillespie, the director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Baltimore Urban Peace Program. I’ll quote a small portion of it with full apologies to the Sager and Sierakowski families, and then tell why Conway’s message MUST be heard.
The thrust of Conway’s message was to give his supporters — there are quite a few of them, as well as supporters of Sager and Sierakowski who want Conway to remain in prison — an update on efforts to free him. He thanked his supporters for their continued support. Then he hit the nail on the head about why he’s served 39 years of a life sentence.
“Many of Maryland’s lifers, including myself, would have been paroled years ago if not for the state’s draconian policies toward its citizens who are serving life sentences,” Conway wrote. “In my case, we hope to help change that situation.”
Some full disclosure is in order. Last year I did a Fathers’ Day column for another paper about the relationship between Conway and his son Ron. I also interviewed Ron Conway earlier this year for a story I wrote for the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies.
Some might accuse me of being biased in favor of the Conway family, and claim I’m one of those buying into his claims of innocence. I don’t honestly know whether Conway is guilty or innocent. I do know I don’t trust “Saul of Tarsus” epiphanies that occur behind prison walls.
That’s what happened in Conway’s case. It was Johnson who fingered Conway as one of the triggermen. Johnson later claimed police coerced his account and dummied up when it came time to testify at Conway’s trial.
About the same time, Michigan prison inmate Charles Reynolds had his “Saul of Tarsus” epiphany. He was in a Maryland lockup shortly after Conway was arrested, and just happened to remember that Conway told him, a complete stranger, critical information about the crime that could lead to his conviction.
Boo Boo The Fool wouldn’t even have believed Reynolds, but a Baltimore jury did, during a time when federal, state and local law enforcement officers were carrying out acts every bit as — if not more — illegal than those the Panthers were accused of.
And let’s not forget: Some people died because of some of those illegal actions. But not one of those law enforcement officers has spent so much as one second behind bars. Oh, Congress held hearings about the abuses and condemned them, but we have a classic double standard.
For the law enforcement officers who committed illegal acts, it’s a “let bygones be bygones” approach. For the Eddie Conways of the country, it’s throw ’em under the jail for the rest of their lives.
If you think I’m saying that Conway should be pardoned because of the abuses of the FBI’s COINTELPRO and similar state and local law enforcement efforts, then give yourself some points for perception. Conway didn’t say that and perhaps couldn’t say that in his message.
But I sure as hell can, and the holiday season seems a perfect time to do it. Have a Merry Christmas.
And write to Gov. Martin O’Malley about that pardon for Conway.
Gregory Kane is a columnist who has been writing about Baltimore and Maryland for more than 15 years. Look for his columns in the editorial section every Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at [email protected].
