[Freethe SF8] SF 8 court update - "big" surprise, shotgun purchased on internet is no match

[SF-8 case]

In a brief court hearing on Friday, January 23rd, 
attorneys for the San Francisco 8, once again, 
tried to pry discovery (potential evidence) from the prosecution.

California State Prosecutors revealed that 
federal wiretaps of the defendants were reviewed 
by a US Attorney’s “taint team” which deemed them 
non-discoverable (not to be made available to the 
defense) because they lack relevance. This was 
immediately challenged by defense attorneys who 
argued that the federal government cannot be 
expected to determine the relevance of their own 
surveillance given the history of COINTELPRO (the 
FBI’s counter intelligence program) which 
targeted the Black Panther Party and these very 
defendants for the last 40 years. In light of 
this history and the fact that this very 
prosecution was started by the federal government 
after 2000, several defense attorneys argued, you 
can’t say that the Federal Government and the FBI 
have no interest in this case, and those same 
agencies cannot determine the relevance or lack 
of relevance of these wiretaps.

John Philipsborn, who represents Hank Jones, made 
it very clear that there is substantial evidence 
of close FBI surveillance of several of these 
defendants along with many other people 
associated with the Black Panther Party. It is 
more than reasonable, he argued, that the defense 
team determine the relevance of the wiretaps, not just a federal “taint team.”

Judge Moscone agreed to review an affidavit from 
this “taint team” and rule on these wiretaps.

Chuck Bordon, who represents Francisco Torres, 
once again argued that all fingerprint evidence 
be turned over by the prosecution. These requests 
were originally made at the beginning of these 
hearings and still have not been fully complied with.

Close to 200 pages of additional materials are 
being deemed “non-discoverable” by the California 
prosecutors on behalf of New York prosecutors. 
These documents date back to the 1970s and the 
New York 3 case – which was tried twice and 
resulted in the convictions of Herman Bell, Jalil 
Muntaqim and Nuh Washington (now deceased). The 
events connected to that New York case are being 
re-raised in one of the conspiracy counts against 
Herman Bell, Jalil Muntaqim and Francisco Torres. 
Not only is the prosecution raising more than 
30-year old legal issues that have already been 
tried, but they are clearly trying to limit 
raising issues of COINTELPRO, the use of torture, 
and the government conspiracy to destroy the Black liberation movement.

Before the hearing ended, prosecutors revealed 
that the highly touted shotgun that was purchased 
through the internet and sent to the FBI labs 
last October for testing as the “missing murder 
weapon,” has now been found to NOT match any 
other weapons evidence in this case. That weapon, 
much like the highly touted DNA swabs taken in 
June of 2006 and only last year determined to not 
match any of the defendants, only served as the 
prosecutor’s “new evidence” argument to the 
media, and turns out to be yet another lie.

The next discovery hearing is scheduled for March 
6th at 9:30 am in Department 22.

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