COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING COMMITTEE ON LAW AND GOVERNMENT - - - Room 696, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, March 13, 2003 1:10 p.m. - - - RESOLUTION 020171 - authorizing the City Council Committee on Law and Government to conduct a full and comprehensive investigation of allegations that biological and chemical research was forced upon people incarcerated in the Philadelphia prisons during the years 1949 to 1974. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN, Chair COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN ANGEL ORTIZ - - - V A R A L L O, INCORPORATED LITIGATION SUPPORT SERVICES 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2 I N D E X RESOLUTION 020171 GLORIA GILMAN, ESQ. ......................... 8 ROBERT HELMS ............................... 27 BETTY HILL ................................. 47 LARRY FRANKEL .............................. 57 WILLIAM CHECK .............................. 62 LEOTIS JONES ............................... 63 3 3/13/03 - LAW & GOVERNMENT - RES. 020171
The Committee on Law Government is now in session. Let the Chair note the presence at the outset here of Councilman Wilson Goode to my far left; Councilman Ortiz immediately to my left; myself, I'm David Cohen, Council-at-Large and Chairman to the Law and Government Committee; to my right is Tim Kearney, the Secretary of the Committee or the Clerk. And I'm going to ask him again to read a copy of the resolution that City Council passed authorizing these hearings and then we'll start. Please proceed, Mr. Kearney.
City Council Resolution 15 020171, authorizing the City Council Committee on Law and Government to conduct a full and comprehensive investigation of allegations that biological and chemical research was forced upon people incarcerated in the Philadelphia prisons during the years 1949 to 1974.
Thank you, Mr. Kearney. As some of you know who have been in attendance at previous hearings, the fight for justice where injustice has prevailed previously is 4 3/13/03 - LAW & GOVERNMENT - RES. 020171 a long and sometimes very difficult fight. We're beginning to learn that firsthand. The fight is so hard and the stakes apparently are so high that the University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in the State of Pennsylvania and in the City of Philadelphia, has chosen a policy of ignoring the City Council of Philadelphia, of its ignoring the subpoena. We can't tolerate that if City Council is to exist as a legislative body. Therefore, the matter is in the courts. The courts don't work with the same speed that we do. They have all kinds of technicalities. We're hoping that the courts will understand the need. We're going to try to make it more and more clear to them to understand the need for quick action on human rights. They're pretty good when they have to for quick action to solve business problems. We expect at least that kind of quickness when it comes to human problems. In fact, we think the reverse ought to be true; it ought to be quick response to human actions and much more slow action maybe with respect to business problems. But the reverse is true. But this is a historic route. We're not 5 3/13/03 - LAW & GOVERNMENT - RES. 020171 going to ever again permit the kind of human experimentation that took place here in the period that was expressed in the resolution. But we've got a long way to go because the seeds of injustice will continue to flower until we pull them out by the roots. And the purpose of this hearing is to pull the injustice out by the roots to make certain that no such conditions ever exist again. And to the University of Pennsylvania and to others like them, like the chemical companies that have indicated that they are probably going to follow the same policy of resistance, I want them to know it's a good thing I have not yet reached my 38th birthday because I intend to be hear long enough, God willing, to see the day of celebration when human rights are respected, when apologies are made for the impossible treatment that occurred here in Philadelphia in the prison system, when it's made clear that government is going to see to it and private industry accepts their responsibilities to also see to it that never again are those days ever coming around again, that reparations of the kind necessary to take care of the evils that were fomented by the inhuman behavior at the University 6 3/13/03 - LAW & GOVERNMENT - RES. 020171 of Pennsylvania and the chemical companies and the professor at the university, Dr. Kligman, the professor in charge will never be permitted to occur again. Until that day, it's not going to rest. Let me say one thing about length of time and slowness. I don't think it's in their interest, those who try to forget that it ever occurred or want to deny the truth, it's really not in your interest to stall and delay because one thing is certain, this is going to be on the front burner constantly and it's going to last as long as necessary to get a correction. So if the folks out there feel they can out-stall us, they cannot do that because we're not going to permit that to happen. And all that's going to happen is there's going to be more and more publicity because until we get action, we've got to keep on going, making clear to people the nature and the extent of injustice that occurred during this period. And that's the reason for these hearings and there will be sufficient hearings until the courts get rid of their ways and begin to pay full attention, full speed ahead to correct the abuse of human rights. So I make that statement at the 7 3/13/03 - LAW & GOVERNMENT - RES. 020171 beginning, and you'll understand why it may be necessary to continue to have hearings. We are going to want all of the victims of these injustices to have an opportunity to be heard.
And then we're going to give those who have been accused -- we're going to give them the opportunity, which maybe they don't even deserve, but we're going to give them the opportunity to try to apologize for their treatment and take the corrective action necessary. So with that beginning, we're going to begin calling the witnesses. We'll ask each witness to be as brief as possible, but explain the story fully. Repetition is not needed. Just tell us of your experiences. The first person we're going to be calling is Gloria Gilman, an attorney in the City of Philadelphia. Ms. Gilman, would you go to the witness stand? Now, I'm going to ask each witness to give their name and to spell the last name so that the