Legacy Justice Institute

Nkechi Taifa, Esq.

President & Founder
5735 27th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20015

February 8, 2011

The Honorable Harold H. Koh

Legal Advisor
U.S. Department of State

Re: Respect of the UPR Process and Adopt UN UPR Recommendation

To Release U.S. Political Prisoners

Dear Dean Koh:

As head of the Office of the Legal Advisor to the U.S. Department of State, I humbly request that you urge
the Obama Administration to respect the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process and adopt the United
Nation’s UPR recommendation to release U.S. political prisoners. Your Office enjoys a longstanding
reputation as a major influence on the development of international legal norms, and it is my hope that you
will use your influence to seek justice for persons who have been incarcerated, some for four decades.
Although the U.S. government denies that it holds any political prisoners, the role that the FBI’s once
secret Counter-Intelligence (COINTELPRO) operations have played in the arrests, trials and convictions of
these long-held prisoners indicates otherwise.

I serve as Senior Policy Analyst for the Open Society Foundations and Open Society Policy Center,
focusing on issues of criminal justice and racial equality. I also convene the Justice Roundtable, a network
of advocacy groups advancing progressive federal criminal justice reform in Washington. I am an
appointed Commissioner on the District of Columbia Commission on Human Rights and have served on
the boards of scores of public interest and legal organizations. Throughout my career I have raised the
visibility of issues involving unequal justice, and spoken extensively on issues of civil/human rights, and
criminal and civil justice reform, before the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, The District
of Columbia City Council, and the American Bar Association’s Justice Kennedy Commission. I write at
this time in my capacity as President and Founder of the Legacy Justice Institute (LJI), a public policy,
research, and educational think tank which helps to inform and shape the national discourse on targeted
justice issues that disproportionately impact people of color and the poor. The LJI conducts research,
produces policy analyses and facilitates public education dialogue using historical framework to critically
analyze cutting edge justice issues, particularly those at the intersection of race and justice.

I have been involved in the legal representation as well public education work involving political prisoners
in the United States and the role played by the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program over the past 30 years,
and was a key participant in the proceedings of a Congressional Black Caucus Issue Briefing, “Human
Rights in the United States; The Unfinished Story of Cointelpro, on September 14, 2000. That briefing
highlighted the findings from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which investigated the activities
of the FBI during the 60’s and 70’s. The Senate Church Committee stated, “COINTELPRO is the FBI
acronym for a series of covert programs directed against domestic groups. Many of these techniques would
be intolerable in a democratic society even if all the targets had been engaged in violent activity,” but
COINTELPRO, the Senate committee stated, went far beyond that. The bureau conducted a sophisticated
vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and
association, allegedly to protect the national security and deter violence.

In calling for United States’ deference to the UPR process, I incorporate by reference the UPR Political
Prisoner Report, submitted by the U.S. Human Rights Network, as well as the submission to the United
Nations Universal Periodic Review, 9th Session, on Political Prisoners in the United States of America,
submitted by the National Conference of Black Lawyers and The Malcolm X Center for Self
Determination.

On behalf of the Legacy Justice Institute, I urge you to respect the Universal Periodic Review Process and
adopt the United Nations UPR Recommendation to Release U.S. Political Prisoners (Recommendations
Numbers 92.153 and 92.154). In particular, it is my hope that President Obama will use his presidential
power to grant clemency and commute the sentences to time served of those who are Cointelpro-era
political activists held in federal custody. I also urge that President Obama direct U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder and the U.S. Department of Justice to review the convictions of all Cointelpro/Civil Rights era
activists in federal or state custody to identify and address civil and human rights violations perpetrated.
Finally, it is pertinent that the Obama Administration create a national Truth and Reconciliation
Commission for the release and compensation of all Cointelpro/Civil Rights Era activists in federal or state
custody.

In closing, The Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review submitted over
230 recommendations for consideration. It is my understanding that you have promised that “all
recommendations will be considered and taken back to branches for consideration before March 2011.”
The Legacy Justice Institute is confident that you will seriously consider the recommendation involving
prisoners whose status raises unresolved issues from the Civil Rights Era, involving an agency of the U.S.
government that was investigated by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which
characterized the Cointelpro as an illegal and unconstitutional abuse of power by the FBI. The Institute
stands ready to assist you should you desire any clarification or further material on the critical issue we
have highlighted above.

Respectfully submitted,
/s/
Nkechi Taifa, President and Founder
Legacy Justice Institute