Biography
Raphael Joseph, also known as Kwesi, was one of the five defendants in the Fountain Valley murder prosecution in the U.S. Virgin Islands. On August 13, 1973, a jury convicted the defendants of first-degree murder, first-degree assault and robbery. In September 1975, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the denial of their motion for a new trial, which challenged the circumstances of the jury deliberations.
Supporters of the Virgin Island Five describe the defendants as supporters of independence and allege coercion and abuse during the investigation and trial. Those are attributed advocacy claims; the criminal convictions and the appellate ruling remain part of the record. The political-prisoner campaign around the case should be distinguished from a judicial finding that the prosecution was politically motivated.
Previous biography:
Note to editors: This seems not to fit your definition of a political prisoner. He murdered eight white people in the Virgin Islands due to white resentment (which is political, but the murders could hardly be described as political). He did not recieve an abnormally long sentence (eight life sentences for murdering eight people), and if he did, he was not a political activist or anything; there was not anything inhnerently political about him or his case.
The documentary press notes for The Skyjacker’s Tale describe the five defendants’ August 13, 1973 convictions and sentences of eight consecutive life terms plus ninety years, followed by transfer through Puerto Rico to mainland prisons. The notes record their allegations of coercion and the trial judge’s June 13, 1973 rejection of a defense challenge; the documentary’s challenge to the prosecution is not a judicial exoneration. Source: https://www.strandreleasing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/skyjackerstale_pk.pdf#page=8
The film’s timeline places Joseph’s clemency in December 1994, and its Tina Tuitt biography describes approximately twenty-one years served. This is a rounded retrospective account, not evidence fixing a new day of physical discharge. Source: https://www.strandreleasing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/skyjackerstale_pk.pdf#page=10
Research sources
- Third Circuit, Government of the Virgin Islands v. Gereau, 523 F.2d 140 (1975)
- ABCF account republished by libcom: advocacy perspective and allegations
The Summer 1995 Breakthrough political-prisoner directory lists Raphael Joseph with the contemporaneous mailing location address unknown. It prints historical prisoner number 96558-131. This is a 1995 directory observation, not an admission or transfer date, present custody claim, or complete custody duration. No current address or existing case institution is overwritten.
