Judith Alice Clark (born November 23, 1949) is an American far-left radical activist, formerly a member of the Weather Underground and the May 19th Communist Organization. Clark was arrested driving a getaway car from the October 1981 Brink's robbery in Nanuet, New York. A security guard was killed in the robbery, and two Nyack, New York police officers were shot and killed after stopping another of the getaway vehicles. Clark was tried and convicted on three counts of felony murder for her role. She was sentenced to the maximum allowable penalty: imprisonment for a total term of 75 years to life, which she served at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York.

In December 2016, following extensive public and legal support, Governor Andrew Cuomo commuted her sentence to 35 years to life, making her eligible for parole.[1] She was denied parole in April 2017, but granted parole on April 17, 2019, after 37 years in prison.[1] Clark was released on May 10, 2019.

Early life

Judith Alice Clark was born in November 9, 1943, in New York City.[2]: 24–25  Her parents were the researcher Ruth Clark and journalist Joe. They were members of the American Communist Party and moved to the Soviet Union in 1950 with Clark and her brother Andy. Joe Clark worked as foreign editor of the Daily Worker newspaper until the family returned to Brooklyn, New York City, in 1953, living in Bensonhurst and then Flatbush. By the late 1950, her parents had withdrawn from the Communist Party, disillusioned by events such as the Soviet repression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.[2]: 24–25 [3] Her mother pursued a career working for a polling firm and pioneered the exit poll; her father co-founded the American Left magazine Dissent.[2]: 26 [3]

Clark attended the Midwood High School in Brooklyn and as her parents moved towards anti-communism, she retained an interest in Left-wing politics. In 1967, she took up studies at the University of Chicago, where she joined Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).[2]: 26 [4] After she and other students occupied a university building in 1969 as protest in support of a sociology professor who had been refused tenure, Clark was expelled from the university. Her father asked Saul Bellow to appeal to the university president, Edward H. Levi who maintained she had to leave. She then joined the Weather Underground, which emerged from SDS.[2]: 26–27 [4]

Weather Underground

Clark participated in the Days of Rage in Chicago in 1969. She was arrested alongside other activists including Kathy Boudin and went underground to evade the charges against her. The following year, the FBI apprehended her in a movie theater in Manhattan. After serving her sentence,[upper-alpha 1] Clark lived in Chicago at West 97th Street; she worked at a bookshop and joined the May 19th Communist Organization.[4][3]

Two months after her release, there was a prison uprising at Attica. In its wake, Clark was one of the founders of The Midnight Special, a newspaper affiliated with the National Lawyers Guild. Clark was also a member of the Women's Bail Fund and worked in support of political prisoners.[5]

When the May 19th Communist Organization ("M19CO") was founded in 1976, Clark became a member, continuing her work as someone who visited political prisoners.[6] She was a named petitioner in the lawsuit Clark v. U.S.A., which challenged the FBI's Cointelpro Program. That suit was eventually settled in the plaintiffs' favor.

Ultimately, M19CO became a violent remnant of the dwindling "anti-imperialist" movement, and Clark became isolated from society at large.[2][7]

Brink's robbery

On October 20, 1981, a group comprising a half dozen members of the Black Liberation Army, supported by members of M19CO and Weather Underground fugitives, referring to themselves as "The Family," robbed a Brink's armored truck of $1.6 million at the Nanuet Mall in Nanuet, New York. Their later-stated objective was to raise funds to help establish a "New Afrikan" nation for black people in the U.S. South.[8] The M19CO members, including Clark, served as getaway and switchcar drivers.[9][10] During the robbery, Peter Paige, a Brink's guard, was killed and guard Joseph Trombino was seriously injured.[10] As the robbers fled the scene, the U-Haul van in which most of the robbers had hidden was stopped by a police barricade. Two Nyack police officers, Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady, were killed during the ensuing gun battle.[10]

Clark was the driver of a backup getaway car, a Honda, into which Samuel Brown, AKA Solomon Bouines, one of the robbers and David Gilbert jumped after the gun battle at the U-Haul. After a car chase, which resulted in the crash of the Honda, Clark reached for a loaded weapon that Samuel Brown had dropped. Also arrested nearby was Kathy Boudin. Boudin later pleaded guilty, served 22 years in prison, and was released on parole.[11]

Prosecution and conviction

Clark was charged with three counts of felony murder and was tried together with David Gilbert and Kuwasi Balagoon. They refused to be represented by counsel; instead, they declared themselves to be prisoners of war and decided to represent themselves. When the three defendants refused to comply with court decorum, they were banned from the courtroom and placed in cells in the basement; the trial was piped in over a speaker system. No standby counsel was appointed to represent the defendants. All three were convicted of all charges, and each was sentenced to three consecutive 25-year-to-life sentences. Boudin, who was represented by counsel, entered a negotiated plea of guilty to a single count of felony murder and received a sentence of 20 years to life.

Incarceration

Clark was incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York.

In September 1985, letters implicating Clark in a possible escape plan were found. She was charged with conspiracy to escape and sentenced to two years in solitary confinement in the Special Housing Unit (SHU).[12] In SHU, Clark began a process of self-reflection, which ultimately led to her renouncing her status as a "political prisoner".[13] Clark publicly apologized for her role in the Brink's robbery in March 2002.[14]

Clark participated in a number of writing groups, including one led for twelve years by poet Hettie Jones.[12][15] Clark was among the inmates at Bedford Hills featured in the 2003 documentary What I Want My Words to Do to You.[16]

While in prison, Clark also obtained a bachelor's degree and a master's degree,[17] developed an AIDS education program, trained service dogs, and counseled incarcerated mothers.[18]

Habeas corpus petition

In 2006, a United States District Court granted Clark a writ of habeas corpus, reversing her conviction on the grounds that she was deprived of her Sixth Amendment right to counsel.[19] The court ruled: "During the prosecutor's opening statement and during the government's entire direct case against defendants, which spanned at least seven trial days, no one was present in the courtroom to represent Clark's interests. Clark was without assistance of counsel for her defense, in clear abrogation of her Sixth Amendment right to counsel."[19]

However, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the district court's decision on the grounds that Clark had procedurally defaulted on her claim by not raising it on direct appeal before the state court, and had knowingly and intelligently waived her Sixth Amendment rights by choosing to represent herself.[20]

Clemency

Represented by attorney Sara Bennett, Clark petitioned Governor Paterson for clemency in 2010. More than 900 people wrote letters in support of her petition, including: Robert Dennison, the former chairperson of parole under Governor Pataki; Elaine Lord, the superintendent of Bedford Hills for the first 22 years of Clark's incarceration; and Frank Olivier, a corrections officer of 23 years who grew up with one of the deceased as a role model.[21]

Lord wrote to the governor, "I watched her change into one of the most perceptive, thoughtful, helpful and profound human beings that I have ever known, either inside or outside of a prison." Dennison wrote that she was "the most worthy candidate for clemency that I’ve ever seen."[22]

Clark, represented by Michael Cardozo, again applied for clemency, and in December 2016, Governor Andrew Cuomo commuted her sentence to 35 years to life. When granting clemency, the governor said Clark had made "exceptional strides in self-development".[23]

Parole

The commutation of her sentence to 35 years to life in December 2016 made Clark eligible for parole.[23] She was denied parole in April 2017.[24] According to the Parole Board, Clark was "still a symbol of violent and terroristic crime".[24] More than 10,000 New Yorkers submitted their signatures in opposition to parole for Clark.[17]

In her next application, despite opposition from conservative lawmakers,[17] law enforcement groups, and prosecutors[18] Clark was granted parole in a split decision[25] on April 17, 2019[26] and was released from prison on May 10, 2019.[27] Clark's supporters had "bombarded the State Parole Board with pleas for her release".[17]

Judith Alice Clark and Kathy Boudin were models for "Cathy" in David Mamet's play The Anarchist.[28] Additionally, Clark was the inspiration for the role of Hannah, performed by Dame Harriet Walter in the 2016 Donmar Warehouse production of Shakespeare's The Tempest.[29]

Selected works

  • Clark, Judy; Boudin, Kathy (1990). "Community of Women Organize Themselves to Cope with the AIDS Crisis: A Case Study from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility". Social Justice. 17 (2 (40)): 90–109. ISSN 1043-1578. JSTOR 29766543.
  • Fine, M.; Torre, M.E; Boudin, K.; Bowen, I.; Clark, J.; Hylton, D.; Martinez, M.; Missy; Rivera, M.; Roberts, R.A.; Smart, P.; Upegui, D. (2003). "Participatory action research: Within and beyond bars". In Camic, P.; Rhodes, J.E.; Yardley, L. (eds.). Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and design. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. pp. 173–198.

Notes

  1. ↑ The New York Times reported her sentence as 18 months in 1983[4] and 9 months in 2012.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Nicole Chavez; Jason Carroll; Sonia Moghe (2019-04-18). "Former activist Judy Clark granted parole after nearly 40 years in prison over armored truck robbery". CNN. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rosenau, William (2019). Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol: The Explosive Story of M19, America's First Female Terrorist Group. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5011-7013-3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Robbins, Tom (12 January 2012). "Judith Clark's Radical Transformation". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Montgomery, Paul L. (22 October 1981). "Two women in Brink's case identified with Weathermen from start in '69". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  5. ↑ Max Elbaum, Revolution in the Air, Verso (2002)
  6. ↑ Dan Berger, The Hidden 1970s, Rutgers University Press (2010)
  7. ↑ G. Zwerman and P. Steinhoff, "When Activists Ask for Trouble," Repression and Resistance, University of Minnesota (2004); G. Zwerman, P. Steinhoff, and D. della Porta, "Disappearing Social Movements," Mobilization 5:1 (2000)
  8. ↑ Castellucci, John (1986). Big Dance: The Untold Story of Weatherman Kathy Boudin and the Terrorist Family That Committed the Brink's Robbery Murders. New York: Dodd Mead. ISBN 0396087132.
  9. ↑ See People v. Brown, 525 N.Y.S.2d 618, 620 (N.Y. App. Div. 2d Dep't 1988) (saying the shooters were "as many as six armed men")
  10. 1 2 3 "Rockland Officials to Cuomo: Don't Free Brinks Robbery Getaway Driver". December 2, 2014. Archived from the original on October 2, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Ex-Weather Underground Member Kathy Boudin Granted Parole". Democracy Now!. August 21, 2003. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  12. 1 2 "Judy Clark Affidavit" (PDF). Judithclark.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  13. ↑ Fortune News; Rockland Journal; accessed September 10, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Brinks convict in 2002: 'I am deeply sorry'". lohud.com. Archived from the original on 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  15. ↑ "New School Faculty Page for Hettie Jones". Newschool.edu. Archived from the original on 19 March 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  16. ↑ What I Want My Words To Do To You Archived 2017-09-10 at the Wayback Machine, POV, PBS, premiered December 16, 2003
  17. 1 2 3 4 Churchill, Chris (April 17, 2019). "An 'overwhelmed' Judith Clark is granted parole". Times Union. Archived from the original on September 24, 2019. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  18. 1 2 "Judith Clark, getaway driver in deadly Brink's heist, granted parole in New York". NBC News. 17 April 2019. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  19. 1 2 "FindLaw's United States Second Circuit case and opinions". Findlaw. Archived from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  20. ↑ "Clark v. Perez, 510 F.3d 382 – CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Archived from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  21. ↑ "Judith Clark's Radical Transformation" Archived 2017-09-11 at the Wayback Machine, New York Times Magazine, January 15, 2012.
  22. ↑ Letters of Support Archived 2012-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, Judithclark.org; accessed September 10, 2017.
  23. 1 2 Rosenberg, Eli (2016-12-30). "Cuomo Commutes Sentence of Judith Clark, Driver in Deadly Brink's Robbery". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  24. 1 2 Dwyer, Jim (2017-05-03). "'I Want to Live It Out,' Says Brink's Heist Driver After Denied Parole". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  25. ↑ Brum, Robert. "Brinks robbery: Read the Judith Clark parole decision". lohud.com. Archived from the original on 2019-07-08. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  26. ↑ Gold, Michael (2019-04-17). "Judith Clark, Getaway Driver in Deadly Brink's Heist in 1981, Is Granted Parole". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2019-04-17. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  27. ↑ Rosenberg, Eli (December 30, 2016). "Cuomo Commutes Sentence of Judith Clark, Driver in Deadly Brink's Robbery". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  28. ↑ Lahr, John (December 10, 2012). "Rough Justice". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on October 1, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  29. ↑ "The Gender's the Thing: Harriet Walter Plays Shakespeare's Heroes as Heroines". The New York Times. September 10, 2017. Archived from the original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.

Further reading

  • Jacobs, Ron (1997). The Way The Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. New York: Verso. ISBN 1859841678.
  • Gilbert, David (2012) Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond. Oakland: PM Press. ISBN 9781604863192.
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