Ezra Bozeman has been in prison since 1975 for a crime he didn’t commit. Our judicial system has wrongly convicted a lot of innocent people, especially those who are young, black, and from poor families, like Ezra. But Ezra’s lengthy time behind bars—almost fifty years, despite his unflagging efforts to gain release, his exceptional qualities as a human being and many contributions to his prison community, and now his catastrophic paralysis from grossly negligent medical care make his story a stand out even in this world where shameful stories are commonplace. The continuing injustice occurring today is the Allegheny County DA’s continual refusal to release the homicide files containing all of the investigative material in Ezra’s case which he has never been permitted to see. Access to these 50 year old files, would prove Ezra’s innocence! Free Ezra, Free the Evidence!
Ezra’s Medical Crisis
Ezra’s crisis deepened today as I learned that he has been taken to the emergency room of a hospital I’m not allowed to know the name of because his Stage 4 wound has become infected. I was told he is on intravenous antibiotics.
We are speeding up the filing for Compassionate Release to tomorrow. April 25, because we know that going back to prison will be lethal for him as extremely high quality wound care is now essential, and he was not getting even minimal wound care, thus the infection.
Thank you for your prayers and your petition to the Governor for a Reprieve (which we will continue to pursue after he is released hopefully by next week!)
Ezra has now been dischaarged from Magee Rehabilitation Hosptial and sent to SCI Laurel Highlands, 200 miles away from all loved ones, including yours truly, his fiance. Ezra will begin his 50th year of a life without parole sentence on May 1. Laurel Highlands is woefully ill-equipped to provide the high level care Ezra needs in his current state of acute paralysis and in this critical 6-12 month period when recovering some function is most available. The lack of proper case is exemplified by him now receiving physical therapy twice a week with one physical therapist for 8 patients when he was receiving physical therapy twice a day with one physical therapist and an aide working exclusively with him.
Ezra suffered an injury on the basketball court in August of 2019. Due to a lack of testing, this injury was misdiagnosed for years until emergency surgery was required.
He had spinal surgery on February 6 at Temple University and on February 14 developed an epidural hematoma and had emergency surgery from which he awakened paralyzed, arms, hands fingers, legs, feet, and toes —all of this starting with what was probably a minor injury in his neck on the basketball court that went undiagnosed and untreated for over four years.
An Innocent Man’s Story
Since his incarceration in 1975, Ezra has filed eight Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petitions, in addition to two habeas corpus petitions and Writ of Mandamus and Extraordinary Relief. All have been unsuccessful. Ezra studied the Pennsylvania legal system extensively during his years as a prisoner and gained a lot of knowledge about law. But pro se defendants face an uphill struggle no matter what the circumstances.
His many appeals have all been denied on procedural grounds,judges rulings which show obvious judicial malfeasance, but still PCRAs (his appeals)were denied citing that they had been previously ruled on. The fact is that Ezra has never had a fair trial where all the evidence was brought to the light of day.
FREE EZRA, FREE THE EVIDENCE!
This Is Also a Love Story
“Don’t look for love, BE love.”
Ezra’s and Christine’s story is a most improbable one of love blossoming late in life under the most challenging and inhospitable conditions you could imagine. It is a story of a battle against 50 years of an obvious gross miscarriage of justice that led to two people discovering the love of their lives. The joy that this beautiful new love brought to both of them even with the severe restrictions of Ezra’s prison life was shattered when an injury that Ezra had been struggling to have diagnosed and treated for four years led to emergency surgery and his current state of nearly total paralysis.
Ezra is a 68-year-old man who has been incarcerated for 49 years for a second-degree felony murder he did not commit—wrongfully accused and wrongfully sentenced at age 19 to a lifetime in prison. Despite his early years of terror and rebellion, Ezra has come to see the world with compassionate eyes for the great suffering of all mankind and believes that our future survival depends on our loving one another. Today, he describes himself as “on fire with love—for the world” and sees himself as “a part of this interconnected web of life.”
Christine is a retired woman who was comfortable enough living in a suburb of Philadelphia after a career in a transformational leadership development company she founded in New York City in 1986. She was living out the final chapters of her life as a mother and grandmother and focusing on preparing for a conscious death after a lifetime of spiritual seeking when she began volunteering in a Pennsylvania state prison, where she came to know Ezra.
And so, this story is also ultimately about transformation and transcendence through a profound discovery of the reality of the power of real love—self-love at first, leading to an awareness of universal love, and, finally, to include a deep personal love.
“Being Love,” Ezra has said, in writings that span years of his life as a spiritual seeker, “I have found a refuge and a way to thrive even in circumstances that are challenging every day; and in sharing love, I have found my calling.”
“Our purpose in sharing our story,” says Christine, “is to speak to people’s hearts and open up the flow of love in others as it has opened for us. Many miracles have already occurred to bring us to this improbable point and many more will be needed to bring us home together.”
While they are committed to that love, universal and personal, as the context for their story, they are also committed to bringing people into the reality of prison life, with its relentless commitment to punishment and control that, contrary to public pronouncements to the contrary, in reality has nothing to do with rehabilitation or increasing public safety. The results are ample proof of that and, by finding a way to tell the story of Ezra’s blatantly wrongful incarceration now coupled with his catastrophic paralysis which inexplicably empowered authorities to deny Ezra any contact with Christine or any of the many who love him from the beginning of this crisis. She has also been denied any access to information as to Ezra’s progress, having been informed that the only right she has as official next of kin is to be notified of his death.
Their hope is that the public outcry will be loud and consistent, because their story, while especially dramatic in both its wrongful conviction and woeful lack of prison medical care, it is typical of what goes on in US prisons every day with the incarcerated having absolutely no recourse other than internal reviews.
Christine’s First Visit with Ezra On April 15
I saw Ezra on April 15 for the first time in 3 months—his first opportunity to be visited by a loved one since this horrendous life altering crisis. Where they have located him presents a formidable barrier to contact. Going through the long two-day trip leaving the day before as the only allowed visitation time starts at 8:30 am so must make the 4 hour plus trip the night before.
While with him, I learned all of the following about SCI Laurel Highland’s capacity, structure and willingness to take care of his catastrophic level of paralysis:
He does not have the capacity to call for help if he’s in trouble. He lays in bed all night—for hours with no ability to call for help if he has an emergency because the bell is not in reach!
He is not getting his bandages changed on his wound twice in the night as the doctor prescribed and there is a nurse who confirmed that did not happen.
He is being forced to choose between contact with loved ones and following doctor’s orders, when in reality both things are critical to his well-being and recovery. So on Sunday which always was a day when he spoke to many people in his community, he had to chose to follow the doctor’s orders for complete bed rest due to the worsening of his wound on his backside which, if it became infected would be life threatening and so he was able to speak to no one because they can’t manage to get a phone into his room—something they even do for people in solitary confinement at Chester.
Also, he has not been given the papers with all the information he was given at Magee about how to care for and advocate for himself. He said he saw them packed up at Magee and has requested them but never seen them.
Also, it’s been 11 days that he has been there—removed entirely from any person he knows, and he has no television, no tablet, none of his commissary items so he could eat peanut butter and jelly or something else he had purchased on the very many occasions that he can’t eat the general population diet that he is offered as a quadriplegic patient with very specific dietary needs. I am told that’s because they’re “waiting” for his property to be brought up from Chester where he lived. He was told they might get him a loaner, but they have chosen not to.
He says it’s a culture of cruelty and sniping and backstabbing. He says it goes on even among the staff.
Even with all of this, Ezra is eager to utilize what he calls “my new skillset” and has signed up to function in his role as a “Certified Peer Specialist” to share what he learned about how to care for himself, eg. the importance of “sitting in a wheel chair with your chin up and your shoulder blades pinched back rather than with your head falling on your chest as he said he sees men around him doing just aimlessly wheeling themselves around.” Ezra said he learned that was actually leaving you with the danger of tipping forward out of your wheelchair. He also wants to teach others “by living it myself” to be resilient and “when you can’t do something the way you used to you find a new way.” That’s our Guy!!
As many of you are doing, please continue to think of people you can contact to write to the Governor, Lt Governor, Attorney General, and your State and Federal Legistors in your district asking them to contact Governor Shapiro, Lt. Governor Austin Davis and Atty General Michelle Henry.
Yusef Jones and I dropped off the Petition for Reprieve at the offices of the Governor, Lt. Governor and the State Reps who signed the letter to DOC Secretary Harry.
More will be sent.
Now I’m more clear than ever that his life is at stake. Go to the website to see the newest letter from Dr. Chris Costas about Ezra’s need for getting appropriate care fast.
April 24—Although I am his finacee and official next of kin and medical surrogate, i am again cut off from all communications with him as he faces this lifethreatening medical emergency. He must not go back to SCI Laurel Highlands!
Prayers and Action Please!!
On April 4, Ezra was discharged from Magee Rehabilitation Center and sent to SCI Laurel Highlands. He arrived with none of his equipment for his Physical Therapy. We are waiting to see if it arrives tomorrow, eg. special boots, hand splints, compression stockings, compression band. He said the more people know about his story, the better it will be the more impact on getting him home! He said his progress has been slight but he was told that he still has plenty of time to improve.
He’s using every tool he has in his tool box and “I’m not going to stop until I can run—not just walk, but run.” That’s our guy!!
I saw Ezra for the first time since my birthday on January 21 on Zoom yesterday, April 10. This was the first time he was able to see or be seen by any of his friends or family. This is truly a travesty. It is also the customary policy for every person who has the great misfortune of becoming ill while incarcerated. The denial of rights is greater than if he had gross behavior violations and was sent to the hole. He was wrapped up in towels and blankets with just his much thinner face peaking out. He was often convulsed with coughing from the fluid that had collected in his left lung due to having been mistakenly laid all the way over on his left side in bed.
We will have our first contact visit this Monday, April 15, which we’re both beyond thrilled about. I am trying to get permission to have a back to back visit—two days in a row—since the round trip is 8 hours.
A bed sore on his tail bone that seemed to be healing well when he arrived a week ago on April 4, was yesterday examined and was assessed as having worsened considerably. We are very concerned about this as infection is always a major danger for people with the level of paralysis Ezra has.
Keep sending him the love and prayers and know that he is, of course, still fighting and determined to be with us all again!
Take Action
Ezra’s case is one of the most vivid and tragic examples of the cruel injustice and total unworkability of keeping millions of fine human beings in perpetual incarceration. As Ezra recently expressed for himself when speaking of his need for physical therapy after emergency surgery left him totally paralyzed, “Yes. I need a lot of physical rehabilitation but my rehabilitation at the human level was complete decades ago.”
But more, much more, needs to be done. Getting Ezra released from prison is urgent for him personally as well as those who love him and it is also a powerful example of why the need for reforms like passage of the Medical and Elderly Parole Bill and the end to mandatory minimums is needed now.
Seven state representatives wrote a letter advocating for Ezra. You may read the letter below.
In addition, a petition has been organized. Call on Governor Shapiro to grant Ezra Bozeman a reprieve today. Please take action and sign the petition today!
