Eric King and Supporters Organize Call-in Campaign over Transfer to USP Lee
Political prisoner Eric King, who was found not guilty of attacking a guard in federal court less than a month ago, is expecting to be transferred to a high security U.S. penitentiary in Lee County, Virginia (USP Lee) either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. King, his family and supporters are seeking answers as to why his medium security level was increased to maximum after winning at trial, and why he’s being sent across the country, far from his loved ones.
Update on 5/5/22: Eric King arrived at USP Lee on May 4, 2022 after being at the USP Atlanta transfer center for about three weeks. The call-in campaign by King and his support team is now focused on getting him transferred out of USP Lee and into a low or medium security prison.
“I win at trial, so I’m not, I’m not considered violent anymore. I’m not some staff brutalizer, and then I do all this good shit getting my shot record cleaned up, and then they put a max custody on. And so that means they can send me right back to these, these prisons where I’ve had just horrible experiences, where there’s people that, that want to get at anti-racists, people that do not like what we stand for.”
Eric King speaking from Grady County Jail on April 8, 2022
According to a lawsuit filed on King’s behalf by the Civil Liberties Defense Center in May 2021, while at Kentucky’s USP McCreary in February 2018, King was “subjected to attacks from known white supremacist prisoners, attacks which were orchestrated and abetted by BOP defendants.”
After four months at USP McCreary, he was transferred to USP Lee, where his safety was at risk again by white supremacists. He was also denied legal calls, reading or writing materials of any kind, toilet paper, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. He was at USP Lee for 13 days and was held in solitary confinement the entire time.
Supporters, and King himself, are working hard to encourage the public to call or e-mail politicians and BOP officials to ask them not to send Eric to USP Lee, and rather to a medium security prison for the duration of his 2016 conviction’s sentence, which he has less than two years left of.
Even if he is placed in the Solitary Housing Unit (SHU) like he was before, they believe his safety would still be at risk because white supremacists could be placed in the same unit.
“And then there’s this staff, ’cause like they, they’re acting like I got one over on ’em, like I tricked ’em, like I beat the system by, by beating the case. They didn’t want me to beat this case… And then when you get found not guilty, it just throws a wrench in their whole fucking system. And they, they don’t like that one bit. And so we’re, we’re dealing with the repercussions of that right now. Where they’re saying basically we couldn’t beat you in the case, but we’re gonna send you somewhere where, where [white supremacists will] take care of you.”
Eric King speaking from Grady County Jail on April 8, 2022
To learn more about the call-in campaign for Eric King, visit here.
Unicorn Riot coverage of Political Prisoner Eric King:
- Coverage of the Trial of Political Prisoner Eric King (March 2022)
- Eric King Released from Prison After 9+ Years as Political Prisoner (Dec. 14, 2023)
- Eric King and Supporters Organize Call-in Campaign over Transfer to USP Lee (April 13, 2022)
- Anarchist Prisoner Eric King Found Not Guilty in Assault of Prison Guard (March 18, 2022)
- BOP Blames Bird for Eric King’s Property Destruction During Federal Trial (March 18, 2022)
- Prison Abolition Advocates Rally Outside Federal Prison on NYE (Dec. 31, 2020)
- Eric King Given 10 Year Sentence for Molotov Attack on Empty Govt Building (June 28, 2016)
- Eric King Signs Non-Cooperating Plea Deal (March 3, 2016)
Follow us on X (aka Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, BlueSky and Patreon.
Please consider a tax-deductible donation to help sustain our horizontally-organized, non-profit media organization:
