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<h1 id="reader-title">The Reader | Omaha, Nebraska</h1>
<h1 id="reader-title">Crime and punishment questions still
surround 1970 killing that sent Omaha Two to life in prison</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by Leo Adam Biga</div>
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<p class="byline"><i>Monday, April 25th, 2016</i></p>
<p>When Mondo we Langa died at age 68 in the Nebraska
State Penitentiary last month, he’d served 45 years for
a crime he always maintained he did not commit. The
former David Rice, a poet and artist, was found guilty,
along with fellow Black Panther Ed Poindexter, in the
1970 suitcase bomb murder of Omaha police officer Larry
Minard. With his reputed accomplice now gone, Poindexter
remains in prison, still asserting his own innocence.</p>
<p>Poindexter and we Langa have been portrayed by
sympathetic attorneys, social justice watchdogs and
journalists as wrongfully convicted victims framed by
overzealous officials. The argument goes the two were
found guilty by a nearly all-white jury and a stacked
criminal justice system for their militant black
nationalist affiliations and inflammatory words rather
than hard evidence against them. Supporters call them
the Omaha Two in reference to a supposed population of
American political prisoners incarcerated for their
beliefs.</p>
<p>The crucial witness against the pair, Duane Peak, is
the linchpin in the case. His testimony implicated them
despite his contradictory statements. we Landa and
Poindexter dispute his assertions. Today, Peak lives
under an assumed name in a different state.</p>
<p>Two writers with Omaha ties who’ve trained a sharp eye
on the case are Elena Carter and Michael Richardson.
Carter, an Iowa University creative writing graduate
student, spent months researching and writing her
in-depth February article for BuzzFeed. She laid out the
convoluted evidentiary trail that went cold decades ago,
though subsequent discoveries cast doubt on the official
record of events. Just not enough to compel a judge to
order a new trial.</p>
<p>Richardson has written extensively on the case since
2007 for various online sites, including Examiner.com.
He lives in Belize, Central America.</p>
<p>Both writers have immersed themselves in trial
transcripts and related materials. They visited we Langa
and Poindexter in prison. Their research has taken them
to various witnesses, experts and advocates. </p>
<p>For Carter, it’s a legacy project. Her father, Earl
Sandy Carter, was with the VISTA federal anti-poverty
program (now part of AmeriCorps) here in the early
1970s. Richardson, a fellow VISTA worker in Omaha, says
he “came of age politically and socially,” much as
Carter did, during all the fervor of civil rights and
anti-war counterculture. Ironically, they did things
like free food programs in the black community closely
resembling what the Panthers did; only as whites they
largely escaped the harassment and suspicion of their
grassroots black counterparts.</p>
<p>Earl Sandy Carter edited a newsletter, Down on the
Ground, to which we Langa and Poindexter contributed.
Richardson knew we Langa from Omaha City Council
meetings they attended. With their shared liberal
leanings, Richardson and Carter teamed to cover the
trial as citizen journalists, co-writing a piece
published in the Omaha Star.</p>
<p>Elena Carter grew up unaware of the case. Then her
father mentioned it as possible subject matter for her
to explore. Intrigued to retrace his activism amid
tragic events he reported on, she took the bait.</p>
<p>“The more I read about it the more I wanted to look
into this very complicated, fascinating case,” she says.
“Everything I read kept reinforcing they were innocent –
that this was a clear wrongful conviction. Until now, my
writing has been personal – poetry and memoir. This was
my first journalistic piece. This was different for me
in terms of the responsibility I felt to get everything
right and do the story justice.”</p>
<p>That sense of responsibility increased upon meeting we
Langa and Poindexter on separate prison visits. They
were no longer abstractions, symbols or martyrs but real
people grown old behind bars.</p>
<p>“It was a lot more pressure than I usually feel while
writing, but also a really great privilege for them to
trust me to write about them,” she says. </p>
<p>She visited we Langa three times, the last two in the
prison infirmary, where he was treated for advanced
respiratory disease. Though confined to a wheelchair and
laboring to breathe, she found him “eccentric, super
smart, optimistic, exuberant and still in high spirits –
singing, reciting poems,” adding, “He wasn’t in denial
he was dying, yet he seemed really determined to live.”</p>
<p>She says, “He was on my mind for a year and a half – it
did become highly personal.” She found both men
“even-keeled but certainly angry at the situation they
found themselves in.” She adds, “Mondo said he didn’t
have any anger toward Duane Peak. He saw him as a really
vulnerable kid scared for his family. But he did express
anger toward the system.”</p>
<p>Richardson, who applied for Conscientious Objector
status during the Vietnam War, never forgot the case.
Ten years ago he began reexamining it. Hundreds of
articles have followed. </p>
<p>“The more I learned, the more I doubted the official
version of the case,” he says. “I reached the conclusion
the men were innocent after about a year of my research.
It was the testimony of forensic audiologist Tom Owen
that Duane Peak did not make the 911 call (that drew
Officer Minard to a vacant house where the bomb
detonated) that made me understand there had been false
testimony at the trial. My belief in their innocence has
only grown over the years as I learned more about the
case. </p>
<p>“Also, my visits and correspondence with both men
helped shape my beliefs. Mondo was unflinching with his
candor and I came to have a profound respect for his
personal integrity. Their stories have never changed.
Their denials seem very genuine to me. The deceit of the
police agencies has slowly been revealed with
disclosures over the years, although much remains hidden
or destroyed.”</p>
<p>There are as many conspiracy theories about the case as
folks making it a cause. Everyone has a scapegoat and
boogeyman. Richardson and Carter don’t agree on
everything but they do agree the men did not receive a
fair trial due to mishandled, concealed, even planted
evidence. They point to inconsistent testimony from key
witnesses. They see patterns of systemic, targeted
prejudice against the Panthers that created an
environment for police and prosecutorial misconduct.</p>
<p>The murder of a white cop who was a husband and father
and the conviction of two black men who used militant
language resonates with recent incidents that sparked
the Black Lives Matter movement. </p>
<p>Considerable legal and social justice resources have
been brought to bear on the case in an effort to have it
reopened and retried. </p>
<p>As Elena Carter wrote, “we Langa and Poindexter’s case
has penetrated every level of the criminal justice
system, from local officials to former governors to the
FBI to the Supreme Court.” Yet, we Langa languished in
prison and died there. </p>
<p>Carter reported we Langa’s best chance for a new trial
came in 1974, “when he filed an appeal in federal
district court, arguing the dynamite and blasting caps
recovered from his home during a police search for Duane
Peak should never have been received in evidence”
because the officers who entered his home “had no
probable cause Duane was there.” Contravening and
contradictory court rulings affecting that decision have
apparently had a chilling effect on any judge taking the
case on.</p>
<p>She and Richardson surmise no judicial official in this
conservative state wants to overturn or commute a
convicted cop killer’s sentence.</p>
<p>“Sadly, when you talk to people about a dead policeman
and Black Panthers, the conversation sort of stops,”
Richardson says.</p>
<p>“I don’t think enough people know about this case,”
says Carter. “Why this case hasn’t been taken as
seriously as it should perplexes and frustrates me.”</p>
<p>She and Richardson believe the fact the Omaha Panthers
were not prominent in the party nationally has kept
their case low profile. The Washington Post did report
on it decades ago and Carter says, “I feel like that’s
the only time a serious national publication had put it
out there they could be innocent.” Until her story.</p>
<p>A documentary examined the case. Noted attorney Lennox
Hinds has been involved in the defense effort.</p>
<p>Locally, Ben Gray made the case a frequent topic on
KETV’s Kaleidoscope. Other local champions have included
State Sen. Ernie Chambers. Then-Gov. Bob Kerrey was
prepared to pardon we Langa, but the prisoner refused on
the grounds it would be an admission of guilt.
Nebraskans for Peace and others keep the case before
officials.</p>
<p>“I would say the Omaha Two case shows the critical need
for the news media to monitor the police and courts,”
says Richardson.</p>
<p>No major exoneration projects or attorneys have adopted
the case, </p>
<p>“I’m not entirely sure why that is after all these
years,” Carter says. “I don’t know what their reluctance
would be looking into this case more.”</p>
<p>Most observers speculate nothing will change unless or
until someone comes forward with dramatic new evidence.</p>
<p>Carter hopes “something more could be done for Ed
(Poindexter) at this point.” Barring action by the
Nebraska Board of Pardons or Gov. Pete Ricketts, the
71-year-old inmate likely faces the same fate as his
late friend given the history of denied appeals
attending the case. </p>
<p>“Mondo told me he was paying a debt he did not owe,”
Richardson says. “Poindexter deserves a fresh look at
his case. I believe in their innocence. They were guilty
of rhetoric, not murder.”</p>
<p>View Carter’s story at <a
href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/e6carter/the-omaha-two#"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/e6carter/the-omaha-two#">http://www.buzzfeed.com/e6carter/the-omaha-two#</a></a>
and Richardson’s stories at <a
href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/omaha-two-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/omaha-two-1">http://www.examiner.com/topic/omaha-two-1</a></a>.
,</p>
<p>Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.com.</p>
<img src="cid:part4.00000306.02050007@freedomarchives.org">
<p><i>posted at 09:29 am <br>
on Monday, April 25th, 2016</i></p>
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