By Erica Thompson

Chuck Turner, a five-term Boston City Councilor, will begin his three year jail sentence tomorrow for accepting a $1,000 bribe, but only after paying a visit to Northeastern.

Turner will be one of four guest speakers tonight at the Northeastern School of Law’s “Framing the Innocent,” a forum about prosecutorial terrorism, FBI repression techniques and political prisoners. The lecture will focus primarily on supposed government misconduct at the Massachusetts US Attorneys office and will allow students, faculty and community to sound off on the issues in question.

Law student Chris Bridges organized the event, but did not respond to an email sent yesterday morning.

Turner, 70, was recently sentenced to three years in jail with three and a half years of post-jail probation for accepting a $1,000 bribe. State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, also of Roxbury, was found guilty of accepting bribes to the tune of $23,500 in a related investigation. Prosecutors also accused Turner of lying on the witness stand and making a mockery of public office and the criminal justice system.

However, Turner maintains his innocence and blames his sentence on a government conspiracy to discredit African-American elected officials, claiming his trial was an example of “prosecutors gone wild,” as quoted in The Boston Globe.

“I think it’s absolutely crazy that Turner has been sentenced to three years in jail for accepting a mere $1,000 bribe,” said Eli Waimberg, a sophomore digital art major who has been following the case. “Dianne Wilkerson got only six more months than him and she admitted to accepting over $20,000 more of bribes. That just does not match up. Especially after giving back to his community for more than 40 years.”

Turner’s attorney attempted to appeal the case to US District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock, asking for Turner to be spared prison because of more than 40 years of service as a community activist and elected official, but was denied.

“I think that regardless of what he’s done in the past in terms of politics, he knows that accepting a bribe is wrong, his contemporaries know he’s in the wrong, so it kind of seems like if this were an isolated incident, more people would have come to his defense,” said Taylor Avery, a middler communication studies major. “Three years for a thousand dollar bribe is dramatic, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I feel like there’s more to the story here.”

Guest speakers at tonight’s forum include Michael Avery, a professor of law at Suffolk Law School, who won a landmark civil suit against the Boston FBI on behalf of four men wrongfully convicted of murder; Laila Murad, organizer from the Tarek Mehanna Support Committee; and Bob Boyle, an attorney representing activists and political prisoners targeted by the FBIs infamous Counter-Intelligence Program; in addition to Turner, an African-American five-term Boston City Councilor representing Roxbury and Dorchester, and a lifetime activist for social justice.

“It’s awesome that he is coming to speak the night before he goes to jail. It’s important that people understand what is happening in the world around them. And there never seems to be a concrete guideline for justice in this country,” Waimberg said. “The real problem here is the only people that are capable of making changes or stopping this corruption are the ones guilty of it themselves.”

The event, sponsored by The Northeastern School of Law Chapters of the National Lawyers Guild, Ending the Prison Industrial Complex, and Black Law Student Association, will be held in 240 Dockser Hall, 65 Forsyth St. at 7 p.m.