[Marxism] : Update on the San Francisco 8 Political Prisoner's Case

[Charles Brown]

From: Pan-African News Wire [mailto:ac6123 at wayne.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:18 AM

Update on the San Francisco 8 Political Prisoner's Case

A very large, well-attended rally preceded today's packed San
Francisco
8 court hearing. Four of the SF 8 - Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Hank
Jones and Francisco Torres - joined in leading chants outside the 850
Bryant Street courthouse along with supporters from all over the Bay
Area and from other West Coast cities. 

The main defense arguments focused on the prosecutors' request to
conduct "conditional exams" of 5 witnesses who are old and in poor
health and so may not be available at trial. There are legal bases for
their testifying in advance of the preliminary hearing and trial. But
the defense is arguing that they have full rights to court-ordered
discovery pertaining to these witnesses allowing them to prepare to
cross examine them - particularly exculpatory evidence. 

Judge Philip Moscone seemed to indicate that the standards for these
exams would have to meet trial standards, and that he will address the
related discovery issues, but would not issue a written ruling until
next week's court hearing. 

Defense subpoenas make clear reference to missing exculpatory evidence
including "negative comparisons" of latent prints by FBI fingerprint
examiners from 1971 and 1975. "I believe that the FBI has been deeply
involved in the investigation of the Ingleside murder," according to
defense attorney Chuck Bourdon, who represents Francisco Torres.
Bourdon
also thinks that all FBI files "have not yet been provided." 

Several agencies made reports of negative results over the years. The
only positive identification of any latent print (the same latent
print)
was made recently by an 'expert' that was previously disciplined for
making false fingerprint reports. 

Stuart Hanlon, representing Herman Bell in this case, referenced his
previous defense of Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt - a major target of FBI's
COINTELPRO program. Geronimo "was falsely imprisoned for 27 years by
the
withholding of FBI exculpatory evidence," argued Hanlon. "This request
demanding full discovery and particularly FBI evidence is more than
reasonable in light of this history. This case is no different,"
Hanlon
pointed out. 

"The FBI and COINTELPRO are relevant to this case as COINTELPRO is a
continuum through today's Phoenix Taskforce," argued Jalil Muntaqim's
lawyer, Daro Inouye. The Phoenix Taskforce is a multi-agency force
that
is difficult to formally define. 

It is known that it includes the US Attorney, the FBI, local police
agencies including the SFPD, and the California Department of Justice.
It is the umbrella organization that has reopened this case, empaneled
various Grand Jury investigations and is overall responsible for this
37-year old Panther prosecution. 

Dave Druliner, the lead State prosecutor, replied to defense
references
to COINTELPRO dismissively as "an aura that exists out there," and
"just
something that the defense brings up from time to time." Apparently
congressional investigations revealing the illegality of the FBI's
COINTELPRO program in the 1970s are part of that aura. 

Next week's hearing will also address requests from Herman Bell and
Jalil Muntaqim to be returned to New York State between now and the
start of the preliminary hearing in this case (likely to be scheduled
for early September), in order to pursue their parole hearings. Judge
Moscone indicated a willingness to agree to these requests if Herman
and
Jalil were to waive their rights to be present at any interim hearings
in San Francisco. 

The next hearing in the San Francisco 8 case is scheduled for Tuesday,
April 29th at 9:30 am in Department 26, 3rd floor, 850 Bryant Street. 
_______________________________________________
Please support these brothers by sendig a donation. Make checks
payable
to CDHR/Agape and mail to the address below or donate on line: 

http://www.freethesf8.org/donate.html 

Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) PO Box 90221
Pasadena,
CA 91109
(415) 226-1120
FreetheSF8 at riseup.net 
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