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<font face="Verdana" size=2><b>March 2, 2009<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=4>Framed by the FBI: A dozen reasons the
'Omaha Two' deserve a new trial <br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2><i>By Michael Richardson<br><br>
</i>On August 17, 1970, an Omaha, Nebraska policeman, Larry Minard, was
murdered in an ambush bombing at a vacant house. Two men, Edward
Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice), are serving life
sentences at the Nebraska State Penitentiary for his killing. The
pair were leaders of Omaha's chapter of the Black Panther Party.
Most people assume justice was done in the case and little effort has
been made by the news media to dig into the hidden aspects of the crime.
<br><br>
Poindexter has a new trial request pending before the Nebraska Supreme
Court and an examination of the record, much of it still hidden by
Federal Bureau of Investigation censors, reveals a dozen reasons to
question the outcome of the trial. <br><br>
<b>1) The 911 call that lured police into a lethal trap <br><br>
</b>It was a hot summer night when the call came in. A deep male
voice said a woman was screaming at a vacant house on Ohio street.
The police dispatcher sent several two-man cars to investigate. As
eight officers fanned out to search the house and yard one of them
stooped to check out a suitcase near a doorway. The blast killed 29
year-old Larry Minard instantly. <br><br>
While an intense investigation ensued, the single-most important piece of
evidence was the 911 recording of the killer's voice that lured police
into the lethal trap. The FBI immediately offered to analyze the
tape recording to attempt an identification of the killer by comparison
of voice samples--under certain conditions. Neither the FBI nor
Assistant Chief of Police Glen W. Gates wanted the results made public.
<br><br>
The <i>Omaha World-Herald </i>quoted, in a front-page story 'Voiceprint
in Bombing to FBI Lab', acting-Chief of Police Walter J. Devere that the
recording would be a good investigative tool. What Devere didn't
know or was withholding from the public was the truth of the matter--the
recording was not to be used to find the killer. <br><br>
The very day of the bombing, the recording was sent to Washington, D.C.
for analysis at the FBI Crime Laboratory. However, a request was
made from Omaha to issue no lab report on the results. When FBI
Crime Laboratory director Ivan Willard Conrad got the unusual request he
talked with J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, and was told to
withhold a report on the recording. Conrad scrawled on the memo,
"Dir advised telephonically & said OK to do." Conrad
then initialed and dated the memo entry, two days after Minard's
death. The clandestine memo ended the search for truth in the case.
<br><br>
On October 13, 1970, the Omaha FBI office updated Hoover on the status of
the deception. "Asst. COP GLENN GATES, Omaha PD, advised that
he feels that any uses of this call might be prejudicial to the police
murder trial against two accomplices of PEAK and, therefore, has advised
that he wishes no use of this tape until after the murder trials of Peak
and the two accomplices has been completed."<br><br>
The FBI memo continued, "[N]o further efforts are being made at this
time to secure additional tape recordings of the original telephone call.
<br><br>
The jury that would later convict Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa never
knew of Hoover's secret order to withhold evidence and never got to hear
the recording of the killer's voice. Officials destroyed the
recording after the trial. <br><br>
If it wasn't the two Panther leaders on the recording, whose voice was
it? <b> <br><br>
2) The confessions and recantations of 15 year-old Duane Peak
<br><br>
</b>Duane Peak, a 15 year-old, confessed to planting the bomb that killed
Minard and also said he made the phone call as well. Peak actually
gave a half-dozen statements to police both denying his involvement and
implicating others. While being questioned in custody by assistant
county prosecutor Arthur O'Leary, the youth was told the truth did not
matter. <br><br>
"As a practical matter, it doesn't make any difference what the
truth is concerning you at all." <br><br>
"You realize now that it doesn't make any difference whether you did
or didn't. That doesn't really make one bit of difference at all at
this stage of the game." <br><br>
Peak, under threat of the electric chair, finally told interrogators what
they wanted to hear, he had been put up to the crime by Ed Poindexter and
Mondo we Langa. A preliminary hearing was scheduled. <br><br>
However, Peak didn't follow the script and refused to name the two
Panther leaders in court. A recess was called for several
hours. When Peak returned to the stand he was wearing sunglasses
and was noticeably trembling. Defense attorney David Herzog asked
Peak about his sudden change of demeanor. <br><br>
ATTORNEY: "What happened to make you shake and bring your
nervous condition about now?" <br><br>
PEAK: "I don't know." <br><br>
ATTORNEY: "You had a conversation between the time you were
placed on the witness stand this morning and the present time now, isn't
that correct?" <br><br>
PEAK: "Yes." <br><br>
ATTORNEY: "And there were some things that the police officers
told you about what would happen to you, like sitting in the electric
chair, isn't that correct?" <br><br>
PEAK: "I didn't have a chance." <br><br>
ATTORNEY: "You didn't have a chance, did you?" <br><br>
PEAK: "No." <br><br>
ATTORNEY: You are doing what they want you to do, aren't you?"
<br><br>
PEAK: "Yes." <br><br>
After implicating Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa, in the solitude of
his jail cell, the young killer would express remorse in a letter, known
to the prosecution but withheld from the defense. <br><br>
"The Lord knows I tried but something happened which forced me to
realize I had no alternative but to say what I said. No matter what
anyone says from now on I refuse to call myself a man, or anything close
to a man because I did what I did. Even though there was no other
way, because they already had enough evidence to convict those other two
bloods." <br><br>
"I not only turned against those two bloods, but I turned against
myself and my own people. I could have denied everything and all
three of us would have gone up to the chair. And then again if I
denied everything one of those other bloods would have gave them a story
and sent me and the other dude up." <br><br>
Peak ended up with a deal and was sentenced as a juvenile serving 33
months of detention before his release while the 'Omaha Two' remain in
prison.<br><br>
***<br><br>
<i>Permission granted to reprint<br><br>
<br>
</i>Author's Bio: Michael Richardson is a freelance writer based in
Boston. Richardson writes about politics, law, nutrition, ethics, and
music. Richardson is also a political consultant. <br><br>
<br><br>
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