[Freethe SF8] SF 8 Case may cost millions

[SF-8 case]

'71 cop-killing case may cost S.F. millions

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 28, 2008

A murder trial for several men charged with killing a San Francisco 
police officer 37 years ago and with plotting to kill police officers 
across the country could cost the city millions of dollars in 
attorney fees for the accused.

The "San Francisco Seven" are accused of killing Sgt. John Young 
inside the Ingleside Police Station in 1971, and three of those men 
are also charged with conspiracy to kill officers from New York to 
Los Angeles to Louisiana from 1968-73.

Prosecutors have described the accused as members of the Black 
Liberation Army, an offshoot of the Black Panthers.

The case, which some attorneys involved are calling the most complex 
and expensive in city history, already has drained the fund of money 
set aside for attorneys of criminal defendants who cannot afford a lawyer.

"This is a very extraordinary case," said Neal Taniguchi, chief 
fiscal officer for San Francisco Superior Court, where it is being 
tried. "It's a case that is 35 years old and has half a million 
documents of evidence. It's very time consuming to go through all the 
evidence, and that's why it costs so much."

On Thursday, the Budget and Finance Committee of the Board of 
Supervisors considered a measure to allow the county court system to 
spend an additional $2.26 million this year for indigent defendants 
who are not represented by the public defender.

Most all of that money would be spent on this case, and it would be 
in addition to the $7.26 million San Francisco already had budgeted 
for these kinds of expenses. By law, the public defender can only 
represent one defendant in a trial where multiple people are being prosecuted.

The case also is unusual because it is state Attorney General Jerry 
Brown, not county District Attorney Kamala Harris, who brought 
charges against the men.

City leaders say they plan to ask the state to reimburse San 
Francisco for the cost, but that will take an act of the state 
Legislature and the city cannot do so until the trial is complete.

Attorneys defending the men said the government's case is weak and 
questioned the reasoning for pursuing an expensive and time-consuming trial.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi, whose office is representing one 
defendant, said he thinks prosecutors will have a difficult time 
proving the charges, as the accused have maintained their innocence 
for decades and the case involves allegations of illegal police interrogation.

"I've been around 20 years and I've never seen a case like this," Adachi said.

Stuart Hanlon, a defense attorney representing another of the 
accused, said there is no new evidence in the case and much of the 
evidence - including the gun purportedly used in the shooting - has vanished.

"It's going to be very tough to prove this case, and the real 
question is, given the lack of evidence, why we're doing this," said 
Hanlon, who said he is working for about a quarter of his regular 
rate and said the other attorneys on the case are collaborating to 
keep the fees low.

The Superior Court assigned two defense attorneys for each defendant 
because of the voluminous amount of evidence, Taniguchi said.

The attorney general last month dropped conspiracy charges against 
five of the men originally charged, which led to the release of one 
of them. The three others still are charged with murder and 
conspiracy, and prosecutors are confident they can win the case.

"We have very strong evidence supporting our prosecution for these 
individuals murdering a police officer," said Gareth Lacey, spokesman 
for Attorney General Brown. "We have credible and strong new evidence 
that we'll present at the preliminary hearing in April."

Taniguchi said the money the court requested, which still needs 
approval from the full Board of Supervisors, also would pay for the 
increasing number of defense attorneys needed from outside the public 
defender's office.

In 2005-06, 14 such attorneys were needed. Last fiscal year, that 
number increased to 24, he said.

E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at 
<mailto:wbuchanan at sfchronicle.com>wbuchanan at sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/28/BALLV9NKR.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle




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