The Innocence of Joan Little

Will Packer ~ ~ ~ Joan Little

Will Packer is getting ready to develop a miniseries adaptation about the landmark case of Joan Little, called The Innocence of Joan Little, reports Shadow and Act.

Little’s case in 1974 drew national attention to a jail in Beaufort County in Washington, North Carolina, after Little was found innocent for killing a jailer who attempted to rape her. It was a landmark case, not only the first in United States history to recognize a woman’s right to kill a potential rapist in self-defense but also a case that acknowledged the rights of prisoners in the United States. She was found not guilty by a jury of six whites and six African-Americans.

Little was the first woman in US history to be acquitted under the defense that she killed 62-year-old Clarence Alligood, her would-be rapist, in self-defense. Her case set off a wave of support from civil rights, feminist, and anti-death penalty movements at the time as well.

Will Packer’s Will Packer Productions as well as Paulist Productions are on board to develop and produce the miniseries, though no network is yet attached, and there has been no word on casting. The series will be based on the book by author James Reston Jr., “The Innocence of Joan Little: A Southern Mystery.”

Kabul: Women's Prison - An Inside Look

From the Takeaway:

Western countries celebrated the liberation of women in Afghanistan from the Taliban-controlled government when the U.S. invaded in 2001. However, as the war in the country continues in the post-Taliban era, women's rights are not secure. Badam Bagh, Kabul's only prison for women is filled with stories about the violation of women's rights.

In one instance, a 16-year-old girl was sentenced to 18 months in prison after a boy came to her home to propose without sending his parents first; another was arrested when her husband accused her of adultery. The women's prison is an improvement of sorts, before it existed, female prisoners were incarcerated alongside men, and there were reports of rape. But even at Badam Bagh, "The Almond Garden," it becomes clear that Afghan women are still struggling without rights.

The BBC's Lyse Doucet was given rare access to Badam Bagh, Kabul's only prison for women. She found that both the crimes and the punishments are very different for Afghan women than men.

Haiti: No Justice For Women

From AFP:

The inmates at Haiti's only women's prison cry out in desperation as warden Marie-Yolaine Mathieu makes her rounds, hoping that she will hear their case and perhaps, help secure their release.

This impoverished Caribbean country's broken judicial system has failed its citizens at every turn. But it has been especially delinquent in prosecuting those who face criminal charges but have never been convicted of crimes.

Haiti's main in prison in Port-au-Prince was virtually destroyed by the 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12, and almost all of its estimated 4,000 male prisoners escaped.

But the women's institution -- condemned years ago by UN officials as "cruel and inhumane" -- still holds its unhappy occupants. Built for around 30 inmates houses 300.

Concentration Camp Bordellos

Article by Mareike Fallet and Simone Kaiser @ Spiegel Online:

Concentration camp brothels remain a hushed-up chapter of the Nazi-era horrors. Now a German researcher has probed the dark subject -- and has revealed the meticulous cruelty of the so-called "special buildings."

The prisoners' brothel at the Buchenwald concentration camp opened on July 11, 1943. It was the fourth of a total of 10 so-called "special buildings" erected in concentration camps between 1942 and 1945, according to the instructions of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS. He implemented a rewards scheme in the camps, whereby prisoners' "particular achievements" earned them smaller workloads, extra food or monetary bonuses.

Altogether some 200 women shared the fate of the Mauthausen prisoners in the camp brothels. In particular healthy and good-looking women prisoners between the ages of 17 and 35 caught the eye of SS recruiters. More than 60 percent of them were of German nationality, but Polish women, those from the Soviet Union and one Dutch woman were transferred into the "special task forces." The Nazis didn't allow Jewish women for "racial hygiene" reasons.

History Today also has a feature on this dark passage of history:

Robert Sommer’s latest book The Concentration Camp Bordello: Sexual Forced Labor in National Socialistic Concentration Camps (Das KZ-Bordell) provides, however, for the first time a comprehensive study of this dark, hushed-up and largely ignored chapter of the history of Nazi Germany. Sommer is a cultural studies scholar based in Berlin. His study will be published in July by Schoningh Verlag, Paderborn. It is the result of a nine-year project based on the study of archives, concentration camp memorial sites and interviews with historical witnesses.

US Journalists Held in Nth Korea

From the Guardian:

Two American journalists were expected to go on trial in North Korea today facing charges of committing "hostile acts" for which they could spend up to 10 years in one of the country's notorious labour camps.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling were arrested on 17 March after allegedly crossing the border from China into North Korea while filming a report about refugees.

The women, described by their families as "very, very scared," find themselves caught up in a potentially volatile power struggle as the UN and Washington decide how to respond to North Korea's nuclear weapons test last week.

Observers believe the increasingly provocative regime is using the women to secure the best possible terms ahead of possible negotiations over its nuclear weapons programme.

The women have spent four months in solitary confinement and have been permitted only one visitor, the Swedish ambassador, Mats Foyer, who has been liaising with them on behalf of Washington, which does not have diplomatic ties with North Korea.

Bob Dietz of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement: "We urge that their fate not be linked to the ongoing security situation on the Korean Peninsula. Euna Lee and Laura Ling were acting as journalists, not criminals, and should be released."