[Ppnews] Ominous ruling by Nebraska Supreme Court against Black Panther in COINTELPRO case

[Political Prisoner News]

June 15, 2008 at 11:30:45

<http://www.opednews.com/articles/Omininus-ruling-by-Nebrask-by-Michael-Richardson-080615-185.html>Ominous 
ruling by Nebraska Supreme Court against Black 
Panther in COINTELPRO case puts new trial request in doubt


by 
<http://www.opednews.com/author/author3874.html>Michael 
Richardson     Page 1 of 2 page(s)

<http://www.opednews.com>http://www.opednews.com

[]

Ed Poindexter

The Nebraska Supreme Court denied a pro se parole 
bid by Ed Poindexter in a decision many expected 
was a foregone conclusion.  However, in denying a 
request for parole eligibility the state high 
court signaled the difficulty Poindexter faces 
later this year when his request for a new trial 
is argued by Lincoln attorney Robert Bartle.

Poindexter was convicted in 1971 for the bombing 
murder of an Omaha policeman, Larry Minard, in a 
controversial trial marred by conflicting police 
testimony, withheld evidence, and tainted 
assistance by the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation.  Poindexter and co-defendant Mondo 
we Langa (formerly David Rice) both deny any 
involvement in the crime and were both targets of 
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover under the infamous 
Operation COINTELPRO which targeted the Black 
Panthers for "no holds barred" treatment.

Poindexter's request for a new trial comes after 
sophisticated vocal analysis by voice analyst Tom 
Owen in 2006 revealed that the confessed bomber, 
15 year-old Duane Peak, did not make the 
emergency call that lured Minard to his 
death.  Peak implicated Poindexter and Mondo we 
Langa making his credibility critical
and leaving an unknown caller at large.

Retired Omaha detective Robert Pheffer also 
contradicted his own trial testimony about 
finding dynamite that was allegedly used in the 
fatal bomb in a dramatic and emotion-charged 
hearing in Douglas County District Court last year before Judge Russell Bowie.

At the time of the trial Omaha was gripped by 
racial tension.  Former Nebraska governor Frank 
Morrison was Poindexter's court-appointed public 
defender.  Morrison described Omaha in a 2003 deposition.

"There was tremendous racial feeling.  North 
Omaha was one of the hottest spots in the whole 
United States for racial violence.  In fact, when 
in 1966 we had to call out the National Guard, 
they set fire to North Omaha and we had to bring 
in the National Guard and take over to preserve 
order.  There was terrible racial feeling
.I 
don't have words to describe it, but there was 
terrible discrimination and hatred of African-Americans, terrible."

The "terrible racial feeling" Morrison described 
was fueled in part by COINTELPRO dirty tricks 
initiated by the FBI to disrupt the Black 
Panthers.  Both Ed Pointdexter and Mondo we Langa 
had been secret targets of Hoover's clandestine 
operation but the compromised role of the FBI was 
unknown by Omaha police who were assisted by the 
federal agents in the search for Minard's killers 
and unknown by jurors who convicted Poindexter 
unaware of Hoover's secret directives against the Black Panthers.

The FBI, in cooperation with Omaha Assistant 
Chief of Police Glenn Gates, kept the recording 
of the emergency call from defense attorneys 
while the jurors who decided the fate of the two 
Black Panther leaders never heard the voice of 
the anonymous caller. A secret COINTELPRO memo 
obtained after the 1971 trial under the Freedom 
of Information Act revealed that release of the 
emergency tape recording would be "prejudicial to 
the police murder trial" case against Poindexter and Langa.

The jurors also never knew that Peak, the 
confessed bomber, brokered a deal where he served 
33 months of juvenile detention and then walked 
free in exchange for his testimony against 
Poindexter and Langa.  Nor did the jurors know 
that Raleigh House, the supplier of the dynamite, 
would never be formally charged and only spent 
one night in jail before being released on his 
own signature because the police wanted to claim 
Langa supplied the dynamite.  In fact, Omaha 
Police Captain Murdock Platner did indeed make 
such a claim in sworn testimony to a 
Congressional committee contradicting actual 
trial testimony about the dynamite.

Details about the compromised FBI role in the 
case did not come until years after the trial and 
only judges, not jurors, have since been told 
about the withheld evidence, conflicting and 
contradictory police testimony, about the deal 
with Peak, and about the voice analysis that 
contradicts the story of the state's chief 
murderous witness against Poindexter.

The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that 
Poindexter's bid for parole must fail because the 
Board of Pardons has not commuted his life 
sentence to a term of years thus depriving the 
Board of Parole the ability to grant a parole 
request.  In responding to Poindexter's arguments 
that numerous other prisoners serving life 
sentences have been released on parole after 
serving less time than he has the court said that 
a commutation of sentence was a "discretionary 
state privilege" and that even if "granted 
generously in the past" Poindexter had no legal 
entitlement to similar consideration.

While the expected ruling against parole for 
Poindexter does not presage the outcome of his 
pending new trial request some of the language in 
the decision does suggest that attorney Robert 
Bartle will have his work cut out for him during 
oral arguments scheduled for this fall.

In the ten-page decision there were three 
references to the underlying crime, the murder of 
Larry Minard.  In the opening summary of the 
decision the Nebraska Supreme Court properly 
noted, "In 1971, a jury convicted Edward Poindexter of first degree murder."

However, two later references were less neutral 
and potentially betray a bias of the court to the 
prosecution case.  The court discussed sentencing 
statutes, "in 1970 when Poindexter committed his 
offense."  In the conclusion of the decision the 
court repeated the bias and used the statement 
"when Poindexter committed his crime" to describe the killing of Minard.

Nebraska newspapers, which have not reported on 
the COINTELPRO manipulation of the case against 
Poindexter, brandished headlines about Cop-Killer 
Poindexter Denied Parole following the language of the court decision.

Meanwhile, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa 
remain imprisoned at the maximum security 
Nebraska State Penitentiary serving life 
sentences while three of Minard's killers, Duane 
Peak, the confessed bomber; Raleigh House, the 
supplier of the dynamite; and the unknown emergency line caller walk free.

Last week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, federal 
Magistrate Christine Nolan recommended that Black 
Panther Albert Woodfox, serving a life sentence 
at Angola State Prison, should be granted a new 
trial.  U.S. District Judge James Brady has yet 
to rule on Nolan's recommendation.  The new trial 
recommendation followed a state court denial of a 
new trial request last month for co-defendant 
Herman Wallace.  Wallace and Woodfox were held in 
solitary confinement for 36 years and only 
recently have been moved to regular maximum 
security cells.  The two men, leaders in a prison 
chapter of the Black Panthers, were convicted for 
the murder of a prison guard during a riot at the 
prison in 1972 on the testimony of another 
prisoner released in exchange for testimony against the Panthers.

In Nebraska, a decision on Poindexter's request 
for a new trial is expected later this year.

  Permission granted to reprint





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