SF Labor Council Calls On CA Attorney General Jerry Brown To Drop Charges Against SF8

http://www.sflaborcouncil.org/ViewUpload/395


Resolution Calling for Attorney General Jerry Brown to Dismiss All
Charges against the San Francisco 8 Defendants

Whereas, Herman Bell, Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Henry (Hank) Jones, Jalil
Muntaquim (Anthony Bottom), Harold Taylor and Francisco Torres, seven men
collectively known as the San Francisco 8 defendants [charges having been dropped
against Richard O’Neal], are a group of community activists who have devoted their
lives to serving their communities and making a difference, and are fathers,
grandfathers; and

Whereas, all of these men were members or associates of the Black Panther Party for
Self-Defense (BPP), a primary target of the FBI’s unconstitutional COINTELPRO
program in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, a program designed to disrupt and destroy a
number of progressive organizations in many United States cities; and

Whereas, in 1973, three Black activists – including one of the defendants – were
arrested in New Orleans and tortured by local police, and interrogated by two San
Francisco police detectives at intervals between the torture, which lasted several days,
during which the three men were separated from each other, stripped naked, covered
with wool blankets soaked in boiling water, beaten with slapjacks, suffocated with
plastic bags tied over their heads, sleep deprived, kicked, beaten, shocked with
electric cattle prods on their genitals, anus and under the neck; and

Whereas, statements resulting from the New Orleans torture were used to bring
charges in the mid-1970s in several jurisdictions (including charges for the 1971
killing of a San Francisco police officer); all of these charges were dismissed when
the judges learned that these ‘confessions’ had been coerced under torture; and

Whereas, in 2007, after 36 years, the prosecution re-filed the charges against the San
Francisco 8 based on the same tortured ‘confessions’ illegally obtained in 1973. By
September 2007, six of the eight who were eligible for bail were released thanks to
the support of their families and supporters, who saw the case as a continuation of the
COINTELPRO attack on the Black liberation movement; and

Whereas, this case was reopened based on questionable claims of "new" evidence;
and

Whereas, the San Francisco District Attorney’s office declined to renew the
prosecution of these community activists, but the California Attorney General
imposed the current prosecution of this case, and the jail and court costs of potentially
millions of tax dollars to be incurred by the City of San Francisco,

Therefore be it Resolved, that in the name of fairness, justice and human rights – and
to express our outrage that this prosecution based on coercion and tortured
‘confessions’ in this 36-year-old case would be allowed to proceed – the San
Francisco Labor Council calls on California Attorney General Jerry Brown to drop all
charges against the San Francisco 8 defendants and

Be it Finally Resolved that this resolution be forwarded to affiliates for concurrence and action.

Submitted by Davis Welsh, NALC 214, and adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council on
February 9, 2009.

Respectfully,

Tim Paulson
Executive Director

OPEIU3 AFL-CIO 11

Millions Spent By CA Demo Attorney General Jerry Brown On Prosecution/Persecution Of SF 8

http://www.examiner.com/a-1206367~S_F__stuck_with_bill_for_legal_fees.html
S.F. stuck with bill for legal fees

Feb 7, 2008 3:00 AM (6 hrs ago) by Brent Begin, The Examiner
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - The City is being forced to foot the $2 million legal fee bill for the defense of seven men charged with murdering a San Francisco police sergeant more than three decades ago.

Although the California Office of the Attorney General has decided to pursue the trial of seven alleged members of the Black Liberation Army accused of plotting to murder Sgt. John Young at Ingleside Station in 1971, it is San Francisco that is being stuck with the multimillion-dollar defense tab because the case has been filed within San Francisco County jurisdiction.

Although there are eight co-defendants, only one public defender can be assigned to one case to avoid conflicts of interest, according to San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. The other seven defendants must be provided private counsel at the expense of the county of San Francisco.

“This is probably the most expensive case and complex case we have had in this county,” Adachi said.

Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office introduced an appropriation request to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that would pay for unanticipated costs in People v. Bell, which was filed by state prosecutors in San Francisco Superior Court a year ago.

San Francisco budgets more than $7 million for indigent defense and grand juries in Superior Court, according to city data. People v. Bell, however, has already totaled expense defenses of $589,906 and is estimated to cost $1.9 million through fiscal year 2007-08. The court and local bar association have been working to introduce state legislation that would reimburse the county for the costs of defending a case brought by state prosecutors, according to the mayor’s spokesman, Nathan Ballard. “In the meantime, the financial obligation rests with The City,” he said.

Attorney Stuart Hanlon, who said he represents Herman Bell at a quarter of his normal hourly rate, said the state should pay the bill.

“What’s extraordinary is that the district attorney isn’t prosecuting this case,” Hanlon said. “It’s the state that brought the charges 35 years after the fact, and now San Franciscans have to front the bill.”

Hanlon’s client, along with conflicts counsel for Anthony Bottom and Francisco Torres are scheduled to be in court today to argue that conspiracy charges against their clients should be dropped because the three-year statute of limitations has expired. State prosecutors argue that those three defendants have been out of state and the limitations do not apply.

Conspiracy charges have already been dropped against Richard Brown, Ray Boudreaux, Henry Watson Jones and Harold Taylor. The men still face charges of murder, which has no statute of limitations. Richard O’Neal, who was charged only with conspiracy, was released in January after spending more than eight months in jail.

bbegin [at] examiner.com