Organized by Dod McColgan

Anthony Gay is a political prisoner and a freedom fighter. He is a brilliant, self-taught jailhouse lawyer and the father of a two-year-old. After being convicted in 1994 for a street fight involving the theft of one dollar, he spent 24 years in prison, and endured 22 years of torture in solitary confinement in IDOC. In 2018, he secured his own freedom by convincing a State’s Attorney that his additional sentences had been unlawfully administered consecutively, when they should have been concurrent. He then became the leading force behind the Isolated Confinement Restriction Act, HB 3564, which would limit the use of solitary confinement in Illinois prisons to 10 days within a 180 day period. This bill passed the Illinois House of Representatives, and we are still fighting to make it law.

 

In response to these challenges to the racist criminal justice system, in 2020, Anthony was framed by Rock Island police officers for possessing a weapon and ammunition, which he is barred from possessing as someone with a felony on his record. The case was heard at the federal level because the police claimed the weapon had traveled across state lines. Anthony chose to represent himself in court, and managed to achieve a hung jury.

 

In May of 2022, the case was re-tried in front of the same judge. Anthony Gay faced a white supremacist judge, racist prosecutors, and an all-white jury. He was given only 16 days to prepare his case, and treated unfairly throughout the trial. Not only did he have to grapple with the bias of the judge, who ruled in favor of the prosecution on motion after motion, but he was also up against the seemingly endless resources of the federal government. The prosecution had no physical evidence and no eyewitnesses to testify to seeing Anthony with a gun. They called multiple expert witnesses to testify to why they did not have this evidence. They presented a video to the jury that showed none of what they claimed it showed. Somehow with this, they were able to convince the jury to lock Anthony back up. So, now we must fight to get him free.

Since being charged, Anthony has suffered with his reincarceration as he lives with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from enduring 22 years in solitary confinement. His legal support team attempted to get the judge James Shadid to move him to electronic monitoring so that he could fight his appeal from home, but the judge denied it.

We are raising money so that Anthony can get legal assistance as he fights his appeal. Please donate and share as widely as you can, any amount helps!