Los Angeles, November 30 – Human Rights Alert (NGO) and Joseph Zernik, PhD, requested Tikkun’s Rabbi Michael Lerner’s opinion on a question, which Rabbi Lerner was believed could and should address:

Should the Los Angeles Jewish community consider it part of its duties and responsibilities to initiate actions for the release of the Los Angeles Rampart-FIPs (Falsely Imprisoned Persons) - mostly black and latinos - victims of conduct of the Los Angeles, California courts?

The Los Angeles Jewish community is vastly over-represented among judges and attorneys in Los Angeles, and the ongoing imprisonment of the Rampart-FIPs is contrary to Jewish values and the historic commitment of the Jewish community to Civil Rights in the United States.

The basic facts in the matter were established over a decade ago during the Rampart scandal investigation (1998-2000) and through a series of investigative committee reports that followed: [1]

· The number of the Rampart-FIPs is unknown, but was estimated at many thousands [2].

· The Rampart-FIPs are mostly black and latinos.

· Prof Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California, Irvine Law School, a renowned Jewish constitutional scholar found the matter sufficiently important that he initiated his own independent investigation of the matter and published his report, stating: "This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted." (2001) [3]

· Prof David Burcham, then Dean of Loyola Los Angeles Law School wrote: "...judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit."

· The Rampart-FIPs were falsely convicted and sentenced to long prison terms through framing of evidence, through extraction of confessions under torture, and through fraud on the courts.

· Regardless, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies have refused to release the victims to this date.

· The case was described as the largest court corruption scandal in the history of the US.

· The Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006) documented that release of the Rampart FIPs is opposed by judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court under claims that it would lead to 'collapse of the justice system' [4] - an argument that defies logic and any sense of decency.

Rabbi Lerner had previously responded on a question posed by Human Rights Alert, affirming the ethical duties of Bet Tzedek (The House of Justice) and the Los Angeles Jewish Federation in an unrelated matter.

Posing questions to leading rabbis of the day is a traditional form of Jewish discourse, going back some 1,500 years.

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Human Rights Alert (NGO) is dedicated to discovering, archiving, and disseminating evidence of Human Rights violations by the justice systems of the State of California and the United States in Los Angeles, California, and beyond. Special emphasis is given to the unique role of computerized case management systems in the precipitous deterioration of integrity of the justice system.

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http://www.scribd.com/Human_Rights_Alert

http://inproperinla.blogspot.com/

http://human-rights-alert.blogspot.com/

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LINKS:

[1] 09-12-17 Rampart-FIPs (Falsely Imprisoned Persons) - Review

http :// www.scribd.com/doc/24729660/

[2] Rampart False Imprisonments - PBS Frontline (2001), in: Frontline series: LAPD Blues

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24901612/

[3] Chemerinsky, E: The Rampart Scandal and the Criminal Justice System in Los Angeles County, Guild Practitioner57:121 (2001)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/27433920/

[4] Burcham, DW and Fisk, CL: Policing the Justice System, in: Symposium, The Rampart Scandal: Policing the Criminal Justice System, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 34:537 (2001)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/29043589/

[5] United Nations Human Rights Council Staff Report, as part of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Human Rights in the United States (2010)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/

WHAT DID THE LAPD BLUE RIBBON REVIEW PANEL REPORT (2006) SAY ABOUT THE RAMPART-FIPs? [4]

* Innocent people remain in prison.

* ...the LA Superior Court and the DA office, the two other parts of the justice system that the Blue Panel Report recommends must be investigated relative to the integrity of the system, have not produced any response that we know of...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902306/

WHAT DID PROF ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LAW SCHOOL, SAY ABOUT THE RAMPART-FIPs? [2]

* This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/274339/

WHAT DID PROF DAVID BURCHAM, DEAN, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL, LA SAY ABOUT THE RAMPART FIPs? [3]

* ...judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/29043589/

WHAT DID THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL STAFF REPORT SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA? [5]

* ...corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/

WHAT DID THE LATE WILLIAM BRENNAN JR SAY ABOUT HABEAS CORPUS?

* The basic principle of the Great Writ of habeas corpus is that, in a civilized society... if the imprisonment cannot be shown to conform with the fundamental requirements of law, the individual is entitled to his immediate release.

Fay v Noia (1963)