The answer of the lawyer: Elisabeth Fink

April 9, 1996

John C. Keeney, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Washington

Dear Mr. Keeney:

I represent Silvia Baraldini, an Italian woman whose government has asked you four times to be transferred according to the terms of the Convention for the Transfer of Prisoners.

I write this letter to you, the author of the fourth refusal, dated February 22, 1996, because you did not deliver it to Silvia Baraldini until March 28, 1996 and, in addition, to correct the errors contained in your letter.

In the first place, you attribute to S. Baraldini membership in an organization that supported the overthrow of the government by violent means. But Baraldini was never accused of riotous conspiracy and the government never presented arguments based on its investigation of her prior to sentencing indicating that the government supported such a declaration. the organization with which Baraldini is condemned of being associated, stood for the liberty and equality of Afro-Americans and other oppressed persons, choosing to use illegal means to reach these goals. But belonging to such a group does not constitute rebellion.

In the second place, your description of her role in the escape of Assata Shakur Aka Joanna Chesimard is inaccurate and not supported by the facts. There never was an accusation that Silvia was involved in the plan of the escape from jail, that she saw the plan, and even less that she held the jail personnel, only testimony to the effect concerning her part -- which came from the principle witness of the District Attorney, an accomplice and an old participant to the homicides and bank robberies. His testimony and his declarations limit her role to being in place when the group left the prison and to the driving of the car that was used after the escape.

At the time of her arrest, in November of '82, Baraldini was not armed and no arms were found in the last search of her apartment. There does not exist testimony or information in possession of the government that implicates Baraldini of actions that ended in the death of another person.

At present, the Italian Republic asks for her transfer to an Italian jail. Although the Department of Justice has expressed its reservations about the Italian legal process, it is well noted that the process calls for a equal number of years. Silvia Baraldini has already served 14 years in prison. If she is transferred today to serve the remainder of her time in an Italian prison, by the time she gets out she will have served almost twenty years -- for being an accomplice, after the fact, in an escape wherein nobody was wounded and in preparations for a robbery that never too place.

Currently Silvia Baraldini has served double the sentence recommended for serious crimes by the American Commission of Parole Boards.

Moreover, Baraldini is 49 years this year and her mother is 80. When this case was adjudicated by the Court of Appeals of the United States, it was found that to sufficiently prove the charges against her was a question of "strict definition." In addition, the judge that heard her case is known for harsh sentences. At this time, Baraldini has served almost fifteen years. It is unfair to state that if she were to finish the balance of her sentence in an Italian prison that this would offend the feelings of the American people.

Any informed person who knows all the facts -- her small role in the plot, her treatment for cancer, the tragic death of her sister, and the situation of her widowed mother -- would agree that fifteen years in jail paid for by American tax payers are enough and that the Italian Republic should be granted its application.

Because of the wide support which she enjoys from the Italian people, granting this transfer would constitute an act of friendship towards one of our greater allies and would be in harmony with the spirit of the Convention that was ratified by the American government.

In consideration of the relative facts, Silvia Baraldini demands a revision of your refusal to transfer her to an Italian prison.

Sincerely,

E. Fink

cc: Ferdinando Saileo, The Italian Ambassador