Carmen Valentín Pérez

AKA: Carmen Valentin
Released
Date of birth:02. 03. 1946
Age:80
Gender:Female
Race:Hispanic
Era:1990s
Inmate Number:#88974-024
State:Illinois
Time Imprisoned:
19 Years 5 Months 6 Days
Support
Puerto Rican Independence Anti-Imperialism FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional)
No image available

Biography

Carmen Valentín Pérez combined Puerto Rican nationalist politics with on-the-ground community work as an educator and organizer in Chicago. Her activism included efforts to expand culturally relevant education, support bilingual and community institutions, and build programs aimed at strengthening Puerto Rican cultural and civic life.

She was arrested on April 4, 1980, in Evanston and convicted of seditious conspiracy and related federal charges connected to the FALN, receiving a 90-year sentence. She was released on September 10, 1999, after conditional clemency, ending nearly two decades of incarceration in a case that remained politically contested and widely debated in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Carmen Valentín was a Chicago Public Schools teacher and one of 11 FALN members arrested on April 4, 1980 in Evanston, Illinois. She was convicted of seditious conspiracy in support of Puerto Rican independence and sentenced to a long federal prison term. She served 19 years before being released by President Clintons clemency on September 10, 1999.

Cases

Charges: Seditious conspiracy — FALN, in support of Puerto Rican independence
Arrested: Apr 3, 1980
Incarcerated: Apr 3, 1980
Released: Sep 9, 1999
Sentence: Long federal prison term; commuted by President Clinton September 1999 after 19 years Verdict as recorded: Yes — federal seditious conspiracy, 1981
Convicted: Yes
Charges: Seditious conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 2384), armed robbery (Hobbs Act), interstate transportation of firearms with intent to commit violent crime, weapons possession.
Arrested: Apr 3, 1980
Sentenced: Feb 17, 1981
Incarcerated: Feb 17, 1981
Released: Sep 9, 1999
Sentence: 90 years federal prison Charges as recorded: Seditious conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 2384), armed robbery (Hobbs Act), interstate transportation of firearms with intent to commit violent crime, weapons possession. Defendants asserted prisoner-of-war status under Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions and refused to participate in the trial.
Prosecutor: Jeremy D. Margolis (AUSA, N.D. Ill.)
Judge: Hon. Thomas R. McMillen
Convicted: Yes

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