Mark Curtis (SWP member)

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Mark Curtis is a former member of the American Socialist Workers Party who, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was the subject of a high profile defence campaign by the SWP after he was charged and convicted of raping a 15 year old high school girl in 1988. The SWP and Curtis' defenders claimed that he had been framed by the police due to his politics and his trade union activities. The Iowa Supreme Court, however, affirmed his conviction finding overwhelming evidence of his guilt. Curtis was paroled in 1996 after serving eight years of a twenty-five year sentence. Those who developed skepticism about Curtis' innocence pointed out that the victim and the arresting officer were both African Americans with no previous familiarity with Curtis or the SWP and little motive to participate in a frame-up of a member of this obscure group. Moreover, it was pointed out, Curtis had been caught with his pants down at the scene with the victim. These critics included the leader of the NAACP in Boston who withdrew her support of Curtis after investigating the facts of this matter further. Curtis' membership in the SWP was later terminated after he was arrested for soliciting a prostitute in 1997 and no further mention of him has been made by that organization since that time.

[edit] External links

Parole Mark Curtis Now October 23, 1995 article in the SWP's newspaper, The Militant.
Strange doings in the SWP an anti-Curtis article from the Workers' League arguing that Curtis was guilty.
US socialist wins freedom 1996 report from Green Left Weekly.
Mark Curtis and Jack Barnes usenet post on the case.