Freedom Socialist • Vol. 29, No. 1 • February-March 2008

The San Francisco 8 and Omaha 2
'60s-era Black Panthers fight legal persecution

by Linda Averill

Five grand jury resisters involved in the San Francisco 8 case and interviewed in the DVD documentary Legacy of Torture. Credit: Scott Braley

During the 1960s and early '70s, the job of COINTELPRO was to destroy all the progressive movements that were going on at the time.

This is how Richard Brown, a member of the San Francisco 8, sums up the FBI's counterintelligence program. Known as COINTELPRO, the program targeted radical groups like the Black Panther Party, and "neutralized" their leaders using a variety of methods including spying, slander, and even murder. But a favorite method was to put leaders behind bars through frame-ups.

COINTELPRO was shut down in the mid '70s after public hearings exposed its illegal actions. COINTELPRO officials were even convicted for their crimes, but pardoned.

However, none of the Panthers who were framed were freed, or even given new trials. Many remain behind bars to this day.

Fast forward to 2007. The U.S. government is reopening a case against eight African American activists, all of them Panther members or supporters. All are charged with the killing of a police officer in 1971, even though a judge dropped charges against the men in 1973 - because police used torture to extract confessions.

But backing for the SF 8 is growing from coast to coast, as they educate about the history of COINTELPRO frame-ups and connect their case to the current war on dissent through the Department of Homeland Security (see cover story).

They are raising awareness about the use of torture by the U.S. government, not only in places like Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, but in the U.S. as well. By doing so, they hope to win justice for themselves and other Panthers still in prison. They demand that Congress investigate COINTELPRO and revisit the cases of its targets.

Omaha 2: convicted for their ideas. One such instance involves two Panthers from Omaha, Nebraska, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (also known as Ed Rice), who have spent 37 years behind bars.

Both were sentenced to life in prison for the 1970 bombing death of a police officer who was searching a vacant house. Their trial, held in 1971, was marked by many of the same constitutional violations as that of famous political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Police, the FBI, and prosecutors collaborated in tampering with evidence and withholding crucial information from defense attorneys. The star witness, Duane Peak, was threatened with the death penalty and given a lighter sentence in exchange for his testimony against the men. And a nearly all-white jury convicted Poindexter and Langa after the two were provided inadequate defense by an overworked attorney. In short, the trial was a miscarriage of justice.

Well after their conviction, revelations about COINTELPRO revealed the Omaha 2 were targeted for persecution by the FBI. Both men were heavily involved in organizing in Omaha's Black community against rampant police brutality. They were also leaders of the Black Panther Party and, later, the National Committee to Combat Fascism.

The ACLU in Nevada has urged the courts to retry their case, asserting that it stinks of a COINTELPRO-style frame-up. Amnesty International has declared the two men political prisoners. But in September 2007, a district court judge in Nebraska refused to grant Poindexter a new trial.

Langa has also exhausted his appeals. In 1974, a federal court ordered a new trial, but the U.S. Supreme Court intervened and referred Langa's case back to the state. By then the Nebraska high court refused to reconsider the case because the statute of limitations had expired! So much for justice.

SF 8: using the court of public opinion. Like Poindexter and Langa, the SF 8 were also active with the Black Panther Party. The eight are Richard Brown, Richard O'Neal, Ray Boudreaux, Harold Taylor, Hank Jones, Francisco Torres, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim.

In 2003, they were called before a grand jury, convened in San Francisco. When they refused to testify, citing their Fifth Amendment rights, they served jail time.

Soon after their release, they formed the Committee for Defense of Human Rights to alert the public about use of torture in the U.S. and to educate about COINTELPRO, the Patriot Act, and the revival of witch-hunt tactics by the Department of Homeland Security.

In January 2007, a few months after former Panthers held a widely publicized 40th anniversary celebration, police arrested six of the SF 8.

Bell and Muntaqim were already in prison, having spent more than 30 years behind bars on other convictions. Both assert they are innocent victims of a police frame-up in that case as well.

Solidarity for all of the SF 8 is growing. Berkeley passed a resolution calling for all charges against them to be dropped. Hearings for the men are filled with supporters.

The Center for Constitutional Rights and other civil liberties organizations are providing help. And Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mairead Corrigan Maguire have launched a petition campaign to demand dismissal of the charges.

At the end of 2007, six of the eight Panthers were released on bail after supporters and friends put up homes and personal property.

In January, prosecutors were forced to drop conspiracy charges against five of the men. And pressure is rising to also drop conspiracy charges against Bell, Torres and Muntaqim.

At a fundraiser for the eight, held in New York City, Herman Bell said, "Despite these dark and difficult times, things will get better when we make them so - when we commit to work for the freedom of our leaders who have been repressed, when we become that vibrant leadership ourselves."

A preliminary court hearing for the eight will get underway on April 21.

To support the SF 8, Omaha 2, and other political prisoners, write to the NYC Jericho Movement at P.O. Box 1272, NY, NY 10013, go to www.jerichony.org, or visit www.freethesf8.org.