[Cdhrsupport] Charges vs. former Black Panthers based on police torture

[News about recent Panther busts]

Charges vs. former Black Panthers based on police torture

http://bridgenews.org/news/0207/news_item.2007-01-31.6851688708

Written by : Myriam Ortiz
Last modified 2007-01-31 16:21
Former Black Panthers who were arrested a few 
days ago on 1971 homicide charges produced 
"evidence" under torture. The Jericho Boston 
organization has called a press conference for Thusday at 1:00 PM.

BOSTON, Wednesday, January 31– On Thursday 
February 1st, the Boston Chapter of the Jericho 
Movement is holding a press conference to 
denounce the arrests and criminal complaints 
against 8 former Black Panther Leaders, including 
3 who attended an event last year here in Boston.

Last week, authorities in San Francisco announced 
the arrests of former Black Panthers in the 1971 
killing of police officer Sgt. John V. Young 
despite the use of torture to obtain confessions. 
The press conference will take place at 45 Mt. 
Auburn St., in Cambridge at 1:00pm.

Soffiyah Elijah, deputy director of the Criminal 
Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, said, 
“The case against these men was built on torture, 
just like the history of this country and it's 
commonplace for law enforcement to claim that 
they don't torture people, but in the end we 
always find out that they're lying.”

Former political prisoner Kazi Touré said, "This 
government has used these same tactics under 
different names, they used to call it COINTELPRO, 
today they call it the Patriot Act. These 
atrocities are just another attempt to silence 
people, to intimidate activists and to distract 
the public from the atrocities the US government also commits abroad.”

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner 
(Green-Rainbow, District 7) is also expected to 
participate in the press conference.

In 1973, New Orleans police employed torture over 
the course of several days to obtain information 
from members of the Black Panthers who were 
stripped naked, beaten, covered in blankets 
soaked with boiling water, and had electric 
probes placed on their genitals, among other methods.

A court ruled in 1974 that both San Francisco and 
New Orleans police had engaged in torture to 
extract a confession, and a San Francisco judge 
dismissed charges against three men in 1975 based on that ruling.

Two years ago, a grand jury convened in San 
Francisco to reopen the case. All the men 
appeared every time they were requested, but 
refused to testify. The failure of the numerous 
grand juries that have been convened to issue an 
indictment indicates that the government has a 
very weak case against these men.

A screening of the film Legacy of Torture: The 
War Against the Black Liberation Movement, will 
follow the press conference. The film was 
directed, produced, and edited by Andres Alegría, 
Claude Marks and The Freedom Archives and has a running time of 28 minutes.

The Jericho Movement has the defined goal of 
gaining recognition of the fact that political 
prisoners and prisoners of war exist inside of 
the United States despite the United States’ 
government’s continued denial; and winning 
amnesty and freedom for these political prisoners.

<http://www.jerichoboston.org>Jericho Boston


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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