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Everyone is out on bail except for political prisoners Jalil Muntaqim and Herman Bell, two of the NY3. The third member, Albert Nuh Washington, died in prison.

June 29, 2009 Court Update

Herman Bell was supported by a courtroom of supporters today as he entered a plea in the SF 8 case. After legal formalities he left the courtroom raising a clenched fist to the crowd. The following statement was issued by his legal team:

Herman Bell Pleads Guilty to Reduced Charge of Voluntary Manslaughter For a Sentence of Five Years Probation

Today, June 29, 2009, Herman Bell, one of the SF8, will plead (pled) guilty in Department 22 of the San Francisco Superior Court to the reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter for his role in the killing of San Francisco police officer John Young in 1971. Mr. Bell is charged along with six others with this crime. The other six are still scheduled to go forward with the preliminary hearing beginning on July 6, 2009.

The other six maintain their innocence and Mr. Bell's plea does not in any way incriminate them; Mr. Bell supports the others' innocence. Part of the plea agreement, which will be (was) read in open court, is that Mr. Bell will not be a witness against his comrades and friends and cannot be called to any hearing as a witness by the prosecution.

Mr. Bell's plea is based on his unique situation. Mr. Bell was convicted in 1975 for the killing of two police officers in New York City. He has been in prison for almost thirty-seven years for those convictions. His fight for freedom is in New York, where he will continue to fight for parole. He has been a model prisoner while in New York, where he has gained graduate degrees and started programs to help other inmates and the communities from which they come.

Mr. Bell is pleading to the reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter and is, in fact, receiving no punishment based on his admission of guilt. His sentence will be that he will be placed on informal probation for five years and will be allowed to immediately return to New York. He will receive absolutely no additional prison time for his actions. He and his attorneys believe that the resolution in this case will not negatively affect his parole efforts in New York.

The second charge faced by Mr. Bell, conspiracy to kill policemen, will be (was) dismissed.

Mr. Bell and his supporters see this resolution as a resounding victory. Mr. Bell was facing life without the possibility of parole in a maximum security prison in California if convicted. The government, through an informant, originally alleged that Mr. Bell was the shooter of Sgt Young. However, it is difficult to believe that the Attorney General of California, who prosecuted this case, would have allowed Mr. Bell to plead to a lesser charge with a sentence of only informal probation if there was credible evidence he had shot Sgt. Young.

Bell and his co-defendants have always maintained that, because of the torture used by the New Orleans Police Department to gain alleged confessions and the lack of new evidence, these charges should never have been brought.

Dolores Michelsen
LAW OFFICES OF HANLON & RIEF
179 11th Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA  94103

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June 8, 2009 Court Update

Preliminary Hearing Delayed

A spirited picket line of some 300 people filled the block in front of the SF County Courthouse chanting "Drop the charges" and "Free the eight." The 8 am rally loudly announced that the community will not allow the persecution of the San Francisco 8 to go forward without a concerted struggle. The picket line was joined by SF Supervisor Eric Mar, who is introducing a resolution Tuesday to the entire SF Board of Supervisors calling on California Attorney General to "Drop the Charges." Mar also called the San Francisco 8 case "COINTELPRO 2009," referring to the FBI counter-intelligence program carried out with local police agencies to destroy the Black Panther Party.

The Brass Liberation Orchestra maintained the tempo as the crowd and defendants Richard Brown, Hank Jones, Harold Taylor and Cisco Torres marched along prompting Ray Boudreaux, another of the eight, to remark that "this demonstration takes me back to New Orleans." The marchers raised the spirit so that they could be heard inside the jail by Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim, who remain locked up inside the jail at the same location.

Soffiyah Elijah, one of the lawyers for the eight, thanked the crowd and announced after a day of closed hearings that the preliminary hearing will actually start on Monday, July 6th. The preliminary hearing is expected to last weeks, and will determine if these men should stand trial. The defendants, their support committee and defense attorneys say that the eight are innocent, that they cannot get a fair trial because too much time has passed, that there is no new evidence, missing evidence, and that the prosecution's case relies on statements made under torture in New Orleans and ruled illicit in the 1970s. This same case was dropped over 30 years ago by the San Francisco District Attorney.

Photographs of today's rally can be seen at
http://freethesf8.blogspot.com/

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Jan. 23, 2009 Court Update

In a brief court hearing on Friday, January 23rd, attorneys for the SF8 once again tried to pry discovery (potential evidence) from the prosecution.

California State Prosecutors revealed that federal wiretaps of the defendants were reviewed by a US Attorney's “taint team,” which deemed them non-discoverable (not to be made available to the defense) because they lack relevance. This was immediately challenged by defense attorneys, who argued that the federal government cannot be expected to determine the relevance of their own surveillance given the history of COINTELPRO (the FBI's counter intelligence program), which targeted the Black Panther Party and these very defendants for the last 40 years. In light of this history and the fact that this very prosecution was started by the federal government after 2000, several defense attorneys argued, you can't say that the Federal Government and the FBI have no interest in this case, and those same agencies cannot determine the relevance or lack of relevance of these wiretaps.

John Philipsborn, who represents Hank Jones, made it very clear that there is substantial evidence of close FBI surveillance of several of these defendants along with many other people associated with the Black Panther Party. It is more than reasonable, he argued, that the defense team determine the relevance of the wiretaps, not just a federal “taint team.”

Judge Moscone agreed to review an affidavit from this “taint team” and rule on these wiretaps.

Chuck Bordon, who represents Francisco Torres, once again argued that all fingerprint evidence be turned over by the prosecution. These requests were originally made at the beginning of these hearings and still have not been fully complied with.

Close to 200 pages of additional materials are being deemed “non-discoverable” by the California prosecutors on behalf of New York prosecutors. These documents date back to the 1970s and the New York 3 case – which was tried twice and resulted in the convictions of Herman Bell, Jalil Muntaqim and Nuh Washington (now deceased). The events connected to that New York case are being re-raised in one of the conspiracy counts against Herman Bell, Jalil Muntaqim and Francisco Torres. Not only is the prosecution raising more than 30-year old legal issues that have already been tried, but they are clearly trying to limit raising issues of COINTELPRO, the use of torture, and the government conspiracy to destroy the Black liberation movement.

Before the hearing ended, prosecutors revealed that the highly touted shotgun that was purchased through the internet and sent to the FBI labs last October for testing as the “missing murder weapon,” has now been found to NOT match any other weapons evidence in this case. That weapon, much like the highly touted DNA swabs taken in June of 2006 and only last year determined to not match any of the defendants, only served as the prosecutor's “new evidence” argument to the media, and turns out to be yet another lie.

The next discovery hearing is scheduled for March 6th at 9:30 am in Dept. 22.

Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221 Pasadena, CA 91109 (415) 226-1120
E-mail: freethesf8 [at] riseup [dot] net

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