April 19, 2010
Since February 2009, Chip has been held in an isolation chamber, “the hole,” on an administrative charge he has appealed. Even though the required term of punishment ended in February of this year, Chip remains in the hole, transferred now from Centinela to Corcoran State Prison, in Corcoran, California.
And, Chip’s situation is now worsened by the ongoing refusal of the CDCR to provide him urgently-needed medical care, in violation of his Constitutional rights, under the Eight Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishments.”
The Committee to Free Chip has engaged Attorney Keith Wattley of Oakland, California, to petition the local superior court to release Chip from the hole immediately. We need your help.
SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTION NOW!
MORE UPDATES TO FOLLOW… STAY TUNED!
About Chip
Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, born and raised in Compton, California, joined the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party in early 1969 as a teenager who had just been released from the California Youth Authority. In September of that year, as a dedicated member of the Party, Chip was arrested in connection with a police shoot-out and tried for assault on police and related charges, including the murder of a security guard. He was sentenced to death.
Ultimately, his sentence was commuted to life with parole. He has been in prison for nearly 40 years now.
Chip’s dedication to the cause of the liberation of black and all oppressed people has not wavered through all the years of his brutal incarceration.