Kelly Duda testifying in Parliament in the UK before the Lord Archer Inquiry in 2007

Kelly Duda (born June 6, 1966 in Little Rock) is an American filmmaker and activist from Arkansas best known for the 2005 documentary, Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal.

Career

Duda has worked on several documentary projects.

Duda contributed to the Fuji Television documentary, The Hepatitis C Epidemic: A 15-Year Government Cover-up. The program won a Peabody Award in 2003 and was reportedly watched by more than 12 million viewers in Japan.[1] Duda received special thanks for Robert Greenwald's documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.[2]

Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal is a feature-length documentary, which alleges that in the 1970s and 1980s, the Arkansas prison system profited from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and HIV. The documentary contends that thousands of victims who received transfusions of a blood product derived from these plasma products, Factor VIII, died as a result.[3][4] Duda experienced negative responses in Arkansas as a result of his investigation, including claims of death threats, his tires being slashed, break-ins, and files being stolen.[5] The premiere of the film was delayed due to a legal dispute about the film's ownership.[6]

As a result of the documentary, on July 11, 2007, Duda testified at the Lord Archer Inquiry on Contaminated Blood in the Parliament of the United Kingdom overseen by Peter Archer, Baron Archer of Sandwell.[7] The British inquiry aimed to investigate the British government's culpability in the National Health Service's use of tainted blood. Duda gave evidence as to the United States' role in the events.[8] On December 4, 2017, Duda testified in a criminal trial in Naples, Italy against Duilio Poggiolini, and 10 representatives of the Marcucci Group, who have been charged with manslaughter for supplying blood products (including factor 8) to Italian patients, including hemophiliacs. 2,605 Italians have been infected with HIV and hepatitis from contaminated blood products.[9]

In 2012, Kelly accompanied actor and activist George Takei to the Rohwer War Relocation Center site and cemetery, marking the 70th anniversary of Executive Order 9066.[10] He was also a photographer on the 2014 documentary To Be Takei.[11]

Activism

On September 20, 2007, Kelly Duda traveled to Jena, Louisiana with students from the University of Central Arkansas to participate in the Jena 6 march for justice, along with Martin Luther King III.[12]

Kelly Duda was co-founder, along with Lanette Grate, and president of the short-lived West Memphis Three Injustice Project. Originally named the West Memphis Three Innocence Project, the 501(c)(3) organization, was renamed after a cease and desist order for unauthorized and illegal use of the Innocence Project's name.[13] The mission of the West Memphis Three Injustice Project was to help exonerate Arkansas prisoners Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley and Damien Echols, otherwise known as West Memphis Three.

In 2015, Duda wrote an editorial and spoke at a committee hearing on ending Robert E. Lee Day as a state holiday in Arkansas, currently celebrated on Martin Luther King Jr. Day[14] After two separate bills were drafted to end the holiday, the proposed law failed four times to make it out of the Republican controlled committee.[15] In December 2016, Duda supported a resolution from the City of Little Rock urging lawmakers to eliminate Lee Day as a holiday in favor of Martin Luther King Day.[16] Duda wrote an opinion piece on the matter in 2017, and later that year SB519 eliminated Lee Day as a state holiday, instead establishing a memorial day for Lee in October by gubernatorial proclamation and allowing King Day, the federal holiday to stand on its own.[17][18]

In 2021, Duda launched a public campaign to free Rolf Kaestel, an inmate whistleblower who appeared in Duda's "Factor 8." Kaestel was serving a Life sentence for robbing a taco hut of $265 with a water pistol in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1981.[19]After serving 40 years, Kaestel was freed when Governor Asa Hutchinson commuted his sentence.[20][21]

References

  1. ↑ Noel Holston (2003-02-04). "The Peabody Awards Winners". Archived from the original on 2012-03-15.
  2. ↑ "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price IMDB Page". IMDb. 2005.
  3. ↑ Hattenstone, Simon (3 March 2018). "Britain's contaminated blood scandal: ′I need them to admit they killed our son′". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2020-04-13. In the 1970s and 80s, 4,689 haemophiliacs became infected with hepatitis C and HIV after they were treated with contaminated blood products supplied by the NHS. Of those infected, 2,883 have since died.
  4. ↑ Herron Zamora, Jim (3 June 2003). "Bad blood between hemophiliacs, Bayer: Patients sue over tainted transfusions spreading HIV, hep C". San Francisco Chronicle. USA. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 2020-04-15. A San Francisco attorney filed a class–action lawsuit Monday on behalf of thousands of hemophiliacs who claim that Bayer Corp. and several other companies knowingly sold blood products contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C.
  5. ↑ James W. Antle (June 2007). "Arkansas Blood Money". American Spectator.
  6. ↑ "Festival Blood Feud". Variety. 2004-01-21.
  7. ↑ "Hearing Transcripts". Independent Public Inquiry on Contaminated Blood. 2007-11-07. Archived from the original on 2011-09-04.
  8. ↑ PA News (2008-10-09). "Haemophilia grant protest at Lords". Channel 4.
  9. ↑ "HIV transfusion scandal: Italy ordered to pay out millions". The Local Italy. 14 January 2016.
  10. ↑ "George Takei Documentary". Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  11. ↑ "To Be Takei". 22 August 2014 – via www.imdb.com.
  12. ↑ "College Students From Around the Nation Rally in Jena". 2007-09-25.
  13. ↑ Marc Perrusquia. "Freedom Fund Squabble Grows". The Commercial Appeal.
  14. ↑ "The charge of the Lee brigade on change in Lee/King holiday law; bill defeated". 28 January 2015.
  15. ↑ "Bill to move Robert E. Lee Day does not pass". Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  16. ↑ Rusley, Kimberly (2016-12-06). "LR City Board approves resolution asking legislators to end MLK/Lee holiday".
  17. ↑ "On the right side". 16 January 2017.
  18. ↑ "Hutchinson signs King/Lee holiday split". 22 March 2017.
  19. ↑ Briquelet, Kate (31 May 2021). "He Robbed a Taco Joint With a Toy Water Gun for $264. He Got Life in Prison". The Daily Beast.
  20. ↑ Briquelet, Kate (26 September 2021). "Man Who Got Life for Toy Gun Robbery Will Finally Walk Free Next Month". The Daily Beast.
  21. ↑ "After decades in prison, Arkansas man who robbed taco shop with toy gun nearer to release". 2 August 2021.
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