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The San Francisco 8 -- No More! By Abu-Jamal, Mumia It's
been 2 1/2 years since the San Francisco 8 -- eight former members of
the Black Panther Party -- were cast into California jails and
threatened with life sentences stemming from the 1971 shooting of a cop.
Perhaps
the State figured the post - 9//11 paranoia and mania would make this
an easy case. Perhaps the government thought that because many of the
accused were men of advancing age, decades away from their prime
organizing and activist days, it would be a cake walk.
The 8 men
fought with dignity, principle and unity -- and several days ago --
charges for 4 of them were dismissed altogether: Ray Boudreaux, Richard
Brown, Hank Jones and Harold Taylor.
New York's Jalil Muntaqim
pled no contest to conspiracy -- and got time served in San Francisco
County Jail -- almost 2 1/2 years -- with 3 years probation.
Herman Bell -- another New York former Panther -- took a similar deal earlier in July.
One
ex-Panther, Francisco Torres, faces a hearing next month, where most
observers expect all charges to be dropped. Another, John bowman, died
before trial. The last, Richard O'Neal, was cleared pre-trial.
From
the very beginning, back in the '70's -- several of the men were
brutally tortured by police in Louisiana to elicit false confessions
(thus we see that Abu Ghraib really was nothing new).
The cases were dismissed decades ago -- on that basis alone.
That
the prosecutions were reinstated at all is due more to the politicized
Justice Department under John Ashcroft and George Bush -- where torture
was a tool of state --than anything else. Also implicated? The
political ambitions of California Attorney General Jerry Brown, seeking
the governorship.
No charges should've been brought in the first place -- or if contemplated, dismissed under double jeopardy principles.
As it is -- even the state admits -- dismissal is valid due to insufficient evidence.
These
results are due, in large part, to the solidarity of the men
themselves, and some excellent, aggressive lawyering by assorted
defense counsel, among them J. Soffiyah Elijah of Harvard Law School.
Several
years ago, in a statement calling for support for the San Francisco 8,
I implored supporters to fight for them now -- before they fell into
the clutches of the state containment system -- instead of after.
Many took up that fight -- leading to many of the most recent results. |
3:01 AM
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