[Ppnews] Conspiracy Charge Dropped Against 5 of the SF 8

[Political Prisoner News]

Prosecutors in the San Francisco 8 case announced that they are 
filing an amended complaint in effect dropping the conspiracy count 
against 5 of the brothers because the statute of limitations (of 3 
years on conspiracy) has expired. This is a result of defense motions 
filed recently that challenged the complaint on the basis of expired 
statute of limitations.

Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Hank Jones and Harold Taylor now only 
face one count, the alleged murder of a San Francisco Police Officer 
in 1971. The case against Richard O'Neal must now be dismissed since 
he was originally charged only in the second count.

The prosecutors will argue that the statute of limitations did not 
expire against Herman Bell, Jalil Muntaqim and Francisco Torres as 
they were not residents in California during the last 35 years. "This 
is a ridiculous argument," according to defense attorney Stuart 
Hanlon, "as these men were forcefully removed from the state against 
their will by being imprisoned. Following his acquittal on charges in 
New York State,  Cisco Torres was living in New York City.  All 3 
were consistently available to California State prosecutors." This 
legal point will be argued in the upcoming San Francisco hearing on 
January 10th, and their lawyers will ask that the conspiracy count be 
dropped against the other 3 men.

This is a major victory in this case which rests on statements 
coerced under torture. "This is the first step in the government's 
case falling apart," Hanlon said.




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