[Freethe SF8] Nobel winners: ‘drop charges against San Francisco 8’

[SF-8 case]

Nobel winners: ‘drop charges against San Francisco 8’

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12139/1/401

Author: 
<http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12139/1//index.php/article/author/view/302>Marilyn 
Bechtel

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 12/06/07 12:32


SAN FRANCISCO ­ A statement issued last week by 
Nobel Peace Prize laureates including South 
African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has galvanized 
attention on a long-simmering case involving 
eight former Black Panther Party members charged 
with the 1971 murder of a San Francisco police 
sergeant. The men and their supporters contend 
the evidence cited against them was obtained under torture.

On Nov. 30, a World Council of Churches 
representative officially released the 
International Call on the San Francisco Eight, 
signed by Archbishop Tutu, Mairead Maguire and 
Betty Williams of the Community of Peace People, 
Northern Ireland, and representatives of 
organizations that have also received the peace prize.

The statement cites the known involvement of the 
U.S. government and the FBI in illegal policing 
against civil and human rights organizations, 
including the COINTELPRO operation targeting the 
Black Panther Party, the lack of new evidence in 
the case, and the dismissal of the alleged 
evidence presented in an earlier investigation.

The Nobel laureates call for dropping all charges 
against the eight, freeing two of the men who 
have been jailed for decades, and pursuing 
official investigations into “the ongoing legacy 
and possible continued operation of COINTELPRO 
and similar programs, with an eye towards true 
reconciliation and human rights based on 
internationally recognized standards and principles.”

Six of the eight men ­ Francisco Torres, Richard 
Brown, Richard O’Neal, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones 
and Harold Taylor ­ were rearrested last January 
on charges stemming from the 1971 killing of San 
Francisco Police Sgt. John Young and other 
charges connected to attacks on other officers. 
Two others, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaquim, have 
long been jailed on other charges.

Three of the men had been charged in 1973 with 
Young’s murder. But a federal court ruled the 
next year that both San Francisco and New Orleans 
police had tortured them to obtain a confession. 
Charges were dismissed in 1975 because statements 
used as evidence were made following torture.

The case was reopened in 2003 by the U.S. 
Department of Justice, using funds allocated to 
the Department of Homeland Security. The 
California state attorney’s office, which is 
working on the case with a federal task force, 
has said no new scientific evidence has emerged.

Both on Jan. 26 and Nov. 30, “Democracy Now” 
featured interviews with San Francisco Eight 
members who detailed horrific accounts of 
prolonged torture at the hands of New Orleans police in 1973.

A Dec. 3 court hearing in the case brought nearly 
100 supporters to a lively picket line in front 
of the City’s Hall of Justice. At the hearing, 
Judge Philip Moscone set Jan. 10 as the date for 
the San Francisco Eight to officially enter 
pleas. He also set April 21 for the start of the 
preliminary hearing in the case.

Marching in the picket line was S.F. Eight member 
Francisco Torres. “The message the government 
wants to send youth is, this is what will happen 
to you if you get involved and resist government 
policies, so it’s pointless to resist,” he said.

“This is not a government of the people any 
more,” Torres warned. “We need to become more 
aware and more investigative, and our movements 
need to build links and listen to each other.”

On the picket line was a sizable contingent from 
the San Francisco Gray Panthers, which focuses on 
social justice, civil liberties and peace. Gray 
Panther leader Michael Lyon said the organization 
opposed the Patriot Act and other post-Sept. 11 
Bush administration curbs on civil liberties. He 
called the reactivation of the San Francisco 
Eight case an effort to keep people under control 
at the same time the working class is under increasing economic attack.

mbechtel @pww.org

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