Marshall Eddie Conway
Exonerate Eddie Conway!
What Happened to Eddie Conway?
Marshall Eddie Conway was born in Baltimore in 1946. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam before returning to Baltimore, where he worked as a night clerk at the post office. Following the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eddie joined the Black Panther Party (BPP). Under his leadership, the Baltimore BPP chapter provided vital services and education to the community. However, in 1970, Eddie was framed for the killing of a Baltimore police officer and sentenced to life imprisonment. He continued to organize, educate, and advocate for prisoners while incarcerated for almost 44 years. After his conviction was overturned in 2014, Eddie returned to the community, where he hosted “Rattling the Bars,” on the Real News Network and continued working in the community until his death in 2023.
Why Was He Targeted?
Unknown to Eddie, the founder of Baltimore BPP chapter, Warren Hart, was an FBI operative and its membership was heavily infiltrated. In 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had declared the Black Panther Party to be the “greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” By 1969, the FBI’s war on the BPP was at its height and the Baltimore Police Department’s Red Squad was working closely with the FBI. Eddie became a prime target because, by the time he was arrested, he was not only an incredibly effective leader of the Baltimore BPP chapter, but had exposed Hart, exposed other infiltrators, and undermined the FBI’s plans to destroy the chapter. (Hart was purged and subsequently moved to Montreal, where he worked with the RCMP’s [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] version of COINTELPRO.)
How Do We Know He Was Wrongfully Convicted?
The inconsistencies and injustices attending Eddie Conway’s arrest and conviction demonstrate a blatant attempt to frame him. This summary simply skims the surface.
On April 24, 1970, Baltimore police officer Donald Sager was shot and killed. His partner, Stanley Sierakowski, who was wounded, called it in, stating they had been shot by “two colored males.” James Edward Powell and Jack Ivory Johnson, two recent BPP recruits were arrested and charged. On April 26, Eddie Conway was arrested as a suspected third gunman, despite the clear initial description of only two suspects.
On April 30, in keeping with the FBI’s plan to eliminate the Baltimore BPP chapter, mass raids resulted in the arrests of 21 other Panthers or supporters, allegedly for the murder of a “suspected informant.” In this “bag of bones” case, the victim had been killed 6 months earlier and belatedly tied to the BPP thanks to a lead provided by the FBI. The first defendant, Irving Ochiki Young, was tried & convicted but the second was acquitted after his lawyer exposed the involvement of FBI infiltrators, and soon all the cases were dropped. (Maryland governor Marvin Mandel later commuted Young’s sentence based on perjury by witnesses.)
In the meantime, Eddie Conway‘s trial was proceeding. Famed defense attorney William Kunstler requested 30 days to find a lawyer to represent Eddie. Trial judge Charles Harris granted a continuance, but then withdrew it. He refused to let Eddie defend himself, or even cross-examine witnesses, and instead appointed an alcoholic public defender who met with Eddie for just 45 minutes before the trial. Eddie boycotted much of the trial, which he aptly described as a “legal lynching.”
No physical evidence ever linked Eddie Conway to the scene. The police never found the weapon they claimed had been fired by “third man.” A primary prosecution witness was a police officer who identified Eddie based on a misleading photo lineup. He also claimed to know Eddie Conway “from the neighborhood”—at a time when Eddie had not lived there.
Another key witness was a known jailhouse informant who had been placed into Eddie’s cell for 4 days (over Eddie’s objections) and had then claimed Eddie had confessed in great detail to the crime. Peter Ward, the prosecutor, subsequently helped ensure that this witness obtained expedited parole in Michigan, where he was then serving time.
The State planned to introduce testimony from Jack Ivory Johnson, who had been arrested near the scene, and who allegedly identified Eddie as the “third man.” On the stand, however, Johnson recanted, saying he’d been coerced, and refused to testify. Nonetheless, Judge Harris allowed the prosecutor, in his summation to the jury, to claim that Johnson had “spilled the beans.”
The judge then told the jurors that they did not have to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, by the evidence produced in court, in order to convict him. They did so, and Eddie Conway was sentenced to life pls 30 years. He was 24 years old. By March 1972, the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party had been effectively shut down, in accordance with the FBI’s wishes.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Maryland’s jury instruction unconstitutional (Unger v. Maryland). Because anyone convicted on this basis was entitled to a new trial, an appellate court ordered Eddie Conway’s release. The Baltimore State’s Attorney refused to vacate Eddie’s conviction and, instead, he was released on a 5-year probation.
Why Is Eddie Conway’s Exoneration Important?
Eddie Conway’s many contributions to the community and to the struggle for Black liberation continue to be recognized. However, only a direct exoneration by state officials will allow the true history of repression in this case to come out. This is important because there is today a resurgent effort to eliminate critical analysis of U.S. policies and practices, and to quash all efforts to expose the history of racialized oppression, as well as its current manifestations, in the United States. These trends can only be effectively countered by compelling the state to acknowledge how militarized force and pretextual prosecutions have been and continue to be used to deter those who would organize for justice.