The Voice

To the Editor:
After four difficult years, I have been released from my legal ordeal. I want to thank everyone who supported me through this, the greatest challenge I’ve ever had to face. I feel vindicated because I am innocent, but I am also humbled by a legal and political victory that is not mine alone. Everyone who contributed their support to this case can lay claim to a victory against the forces aiming to abridge our fundamental rights.

It’s only now that it seems my case is over that I can fully comprehend the immensity of what happened. The unfortunate events following my wife’s death occurred at a moment of intense pain and sadness for all of us. Neither my life nor the work of Critical Art Ensemble has been the same without her. If Hope were here today, I know she would be proud of everything that has been done by all the people involved. Collectively, we stood without flinching, and defeated a monster of social injustice. Hope always said that we should “never surrender” to authoritarian power, and we didn’t.

UUP member and University of Buffalo professor of visual arts Steven Kurtz has been waiting four years to hear four words, “This case is dismissed.”

He got his wish April 21, when Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment that had been hanging over Kurtz’s head since June 2004, when he was charged with two counts each of mail fraud and wire fraud. The charges stemmed from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Robert Ferrell, a professor of human genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble.

The charges followed Kurtz’s detention on suspicion of bioterrorism. Local authorities contacted the FBI after responding to Kurtz’s call that his wife had died suddenly overnight.