[Ppnews] Veronza Bowers - Another Victim of America's Criminal Justice System

[Political Prisoner News]

EXERCISING WHITE POWER: HOW AMERICA TREATS ITS POLITICAL PRISONERS:



Veronza Bowers, Jr. - Another Victim of America's Criminal Justice System

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2009/071309Lendman.shtml
by Stephen Lendman
Monday, 13 July 2009

Throughout Veronza Bowers' incarceration, the Parole Commission 
consistently violated its own rules and regulations in denying Bowers 
due process - even after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (in 1993) 
determined that it acted improperly.

On September 15, 1973, Veronza Bowers, Jr. was arrested in Mill 
Valley, California and charged with robbery and possession of stolen 
property. After state charges were dropped for lack of probable cause 
to obtain a search warrant, the FBI arrested Bowers and charged him 
with the first-degree murder of National Park Service ranger Kenneth 
Patrick on August 5, 1973 at Point Reyes National Seashore near San Francisco.

At trial, testimonies from two government informants, Alan Veale and 
Jonathan Shoher, proved crucial. Both were also charged with the 
killing. Yet there were no independent eye-witnesses, and no evidence 
incriminated Bowers besides the word of these two men who had every 
incentive to cooperate with the Department of Justice.

Veale and Shoher were convicted bank robbers. In return for their 
testimony, their murder charges were dropped, and one of them served 
no prison time, was paid $10,000, and placed in the government's 
witness protection program.

Allegations were that the three men were at Point Reyes National 
Seashore to poach deer, ranger Patrick confronted them, and Bowers 
shot him three times. At trial, he testified for himself and 
steadfastly denied the charge. His wife's alibi testimony was 
dismissed as well as assertions by two relatives of the informants 
who insisted they were lying.

In April 1974, Bowers was convicted in San Francisco District Court 
and sentenced to life in prison. He's currently held at the United 
States Penitentiary (USP), Atlanta, Georgia.

In August 1979, after a failed prison escape from the Lompoc Federal 
Correctional Institution, Bowers became a model prisoner by focusing 
on his spiritual self. He became an author, musician, and student of 
Asian healing arts. He developed a strong interest in Buddhist 
meditation and hands-on healing techniques. He's an honorary Lompoc 
Tribe of Five Feathers member, a Native American spiritual and 
cultural group, and a mentor and founder of the All-Faith Meditation 
Group, a non-denominational spiritual organization devoted to healing 
meditation using the traditional Japanese shakuhachi flute.

At the expense of having his parole appeals denied, Bowers 
consistently maintains his innocence. Friends and supporters stand 
with him and offer testimony in his behalf.

Neoma Kenwood is a California Appellate Project attorney who 
represented Bowers pro bono for many years. On August 14, 1991, he 
wrote to the Parole Commission, mainly as a friend, and said this was 
his first ever letter like this. He did it because "Mr. Bowers is in 
a special category....(he's) very different; I have found him to 
possess much more integrity and decency than many of my fellow professionals."

Prison Administrator J. Harrison praised Bowers in a 1991 letter for 
his "contributions to the operations and programs of the (US 
Penitentiary Terre Haute, IN) Recreation Department," calling them 
"numerous and significant." He added that he "can be depended upon to 
willingly and cheerfully perform any extra task which the staff of 
this department might ask of him, (and) strongly endorsed" his parole.

Numerous other support letters were similar, including one by Maynard 
Garfield. He's treasurer of the Veronza Bowers, Jr. legal defense 
fund. He describes him as mature, intelligent, thoughtful and 
compassionate, and considers it "a privilege and a pleasure to call 
him my friend." Yet he's been denied parole at his hearings. Garfield said:

"I have pleaded with him. Just tell them: 'I was young and did wrong. 
But I have found my way. I am a born-again Christian. I have found 
salvation.' "

Bowers responds:

"Don't you understand. I have been here for 35 years. If the only way 
I can get out is to lie and say I am guilty, then my whole life if a 
sham. I will rot here in prison before I will do that."

According to Garfield, rot he may without considerable help, and 
that's why this article is written - to urge readers to go 
www.veronza.org for information about him and learn how to help. 
Numerous times before, he was approved for parole and given release 
dates, only to have them rescinded at the last moment.

On October 5, 2005, he was due for Mandatory Parole but again was 
denied. On July 18, 2005 Bryan Gaynor, Alan Chaset and Monty Levenson 
representing him explained as follows:

"The National Parole Commission has again blocked Veronza Bowers, 
Jr.'s right to be released on mandatory parole after serving more 
than 31 years in prison....(its) third in a series of high-handed and 
improper actions to deny (him) his right....in complete disregard of 
the Commission's legal obligation to follow applicable federal 
statutes as well as its own rules and regulations. We believe this 
latest and most egregious decision, made at the request of Attorney 
General Alberto Gonzales, is politically motivated, disregards 
Veronza's exceptionally good conduct in prison, and is an unlawful 
denial of his right to due process."

The lawyers also provided background information and explained that 
Bowers was legally entitled to "mandatory parole" since April 7, 2004 because:
    * no evidence showed he might commit a crime if released;
    * he hadn't violated prison rules; or
    * committed serious infractions during his years of 
incarceration; in fact, he's a model prisoner.
Nonetheless, his parole was denied. Then on October 26, 2004, Federal 
Judge William Terrell Hodges of the Middle District of Florida ruled 
on a habeas writ and ordered the Commission to hold a hearing within 
30 days and release Bowers on "mandatory parole" if he complied with 
the above three qualifications.

A December 21, 2004 hearing was held at which nationally-recognized 
criminologist and Clinical Director of the National Center of 
Institutions and Alternatives Hans H. Selvog testified. He 
administered a battery of psychological tests and determined that 
Bowers is normal, socially well-adjusted with no criminal 
disposition, and an excellent candidate for parole.

Examiner Rob Haworth also testified that Bowers was eligible for 
"mandatory parole." He said he believed he was one of the most worthy 
candidates he'd encountered and recommended that he be released on 
February 18, 2005. Commissioner Cranston Mitchell ordered it based on 
Haworth's assessment.

Yet on that date, at the last moment, the Commission notified the 
Coleman Correction Facility warden that the parole was rescinded, and 
the five-member Commission would reconsider his case. Besides 
political pressure from Washington, the ruling was based on 
unsupported allegations of ranger Patrick's widow and members of the 
Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The woman supported her dead husband 
with no knowledge of the facts. FOP members cited spurious 
allegations of prison rule violations, including arranging for two 
contract killings.

Earlier on August 26, 2005, Association of National Park Rangers 
president Lee Werst wrote Thomas Hutchinson, chief of staff, US 
Parole Commission as follows:

"....we believe a decision by the Commission to parole Mr. Bowers 
would send the wrong message to the federal law enforcement community 
we all depend on to protect our public lands and citizens. Indeed, it 
would send the wrong message to Mr. Patrick's family and friends, to 
every employee of the National Park Service, and to all federal 
agency personnel - that the memory of Ranger Patrick's ultimate 
sacrifice somehow holds lesser importance than the early release of a 
convicted murderer."

On March 21, 2005, a rehearing was held and affirmed the previous 
December's recommendations: namely, that no credible evidence 
supported denying Bowers release. Between March 21 and May 16, the 
Commission exercised its "original jurisdiction" and voted two in 
favor, two opposed, and one abstention on parole. Anything less than 
a majority meant Bowers should be freed. June 21, 2005 was his 
scheduled release date, but on June 14, at the request of AG Alberto 
Gonzales, the Commission rescinded it without notifying his lawyers 
so they and Bowers could respond.

Attorneys Gaynor, Chaset and Levenson considered this action "to be 
without a proper basis in law. There is no statutory authority 
whatsoever (for it). It is our position that the original 
jurisdiction decision by the Commission constituted final agency 
action and any further action taken in this matter violates due process."

What's most objectionable is how the politicization of Bowers' case 
made an impartial administrative process impossible. Gonzales' 
intervention was "illegal, unprecedented and pander(ed) to the 
political agenda of his administration's constituents." It defiled 
the case's merits and kept him incarcerated to this day, over four years later.

On June 6, 2009, Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Rhonda Cook said 
"US Magistrate Susan Cole....wrote in a final report and 
recommendation order that US Attorney (General) Alberto Gonzales 
improperly meddled in (his) case (and that Bowers should) be paroled 
immediately."

Cole said Gonzales "had no statutory or regulatory authority" to get 
involved and by doing so affected the Commission's impartiality. In a 
recommendation to US District Judge Charles Moye, assigned to handle 
Bowers' 2008 lawsuit, she added that the decision to keep Bowers 
imprisoned "cannot stand." A Commission spokesperson declined to 
comment. Current Bowers attorney Charles D. Weisselberg was confident 
that an honest review of the case would yield a favorable decision 
for his client.

On August 13, 2005, former political prisoner Ashanti Alston read 
Bowers' prepared statement at a Washington, DC Justice Rally. He said:

"....I am Veronza Bowers, Jr. I am a former member of the original 
Black Panther Party (more on that below) and have been held in 
federal prison for almost 32 years. I am just one of the many 
long-held Political Prisoners whom government officials officially 
claim do not exist....I was convicted (mainly on the testimonies) of 
two paid 'informants (sound familiar?) in (a) shooting death (I had 
no part in)."

"....your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and friends are 
filling up these prisons with sentences longer than they've been on 
this earth....they are filling the graveyards before they've had a 
chance to live. Something is dreadfully wrong with this 
picture...Please, can we have a full minute of silence to remember 
and honor all those who have gone before us in our struggle. For a 
better future for us all. After the silence, I salute and thank you."

The Original Black Panther Party

As Bowers said above, he was "a former member of the original Black 
Panther Party." This writer's October 2008 article on the San 
Francisco Eight former members contained the section below - slightly 
edited here to explain what party members stood for, an agenda far 
different from mainstream propaganda about them.

In October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black 
Panther Party for Self-Defense. It was progressive, activist, 
militantly for ethnic justice, racial emancipation, and real 
economic, social, and political equality across gender and color 
lines - radical ideas then and now. The party's ten-point program 
expressed them:
    * freedom and "power to determine the destiny of our black community;"
    * full employment for black people and everyone;
    * "an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black community;"
    * decent housing;
    * education to expose "the true nature of this decadent American 
society (and teach) us our true history and our role in the 
present-day society;"
    * for "all black men to be exempt from military service" at a 
time they were drafted for foreign wars;
    * "an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people;"
    * "freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and 
city prisons and jails" as political prisoners;
    * for black people in court "to be tried....by a jury of their 
peer group or people from their black communities;" and
    * "land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace."
It added words from the Declaration of Independence at the end:
    * "that all men are created equal";
    * "to secure (their) rights, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;"
    * "that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of 
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and 
institute a new government;"
    * "to throw off (despotism), and to provide new guards for 
(peoples') future security."
They believed in the rule of law, published a newspaper with 250,000 
readers that articulated fundamental wants and needs, and practiced 
what they preached with:
    * nutritious breakfasts for poor children;
    * groceries for needy families;
    * free clinics for medical care;
    * a free ambulance service;
    * help for the homeless;
    * free legal aids and bussing to prisons;
    * after-school and summer classes teaching black history; and
    * voter registration drives for blacks that helped elect 
Oakland's first black mayor, Lionel Wilson, in the city where the 
Panthers were founded.
They were young, idealistic, and willing to put their lives on the 
line for their beliefs and activism. Their goal was to make the world 
a better place - for black people and everyone. They were 
revolutionaries, hostile to repression. In Huey Newton's words they 
were: "never a group of angry young militants full of fury toward the 
'white establishment.' The Party operated on love for black people, 
not hatred of white people." Their 2000 members demanded change and 
struggled for it from over 30 branches nationwide.

They wanted redress of longstanding grievances - slavery, Jim Crow 
laws and practices, segregation, neglect and abuse, and claimed their 
right of self-defense against them. It was a revolutionary agenda 
that included ideas Jefferson preached, but for practicing them the 
US government targeted them for destruction and largely succeeded. 
The 1960s civil rights gains as well so that today blacks are 
repressed, impoverished, and segregated. They're stripped of their 
voting rights, and consigned to second class status by a society 
disdaining them, other people of color, and all non-Christians or Jews.

The October 2008 article focused on the San Francisco Eight (SF 8) - 
innocent men targeted by the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO - a gangster 
operation that never ended. Because of their Black Panther activism, 
they were framed for crimes they didn't commit from 1968 - 1973.
Updated Status of the SF 8

On July 6, California state prosecutors dropped charges against four 
members for lack of sufficient evidence - Ray Boudreaux, Richard 
Brown, Hank Jones and Harold Taylor. Jalil Muntaqim pled no contest 
to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter, received credit for 
time served and three years probation. He'll now return to New York 
to seek parole. Attorney Soffiyah Elijah said: "This is finally the 
disposition of a case that should never have been brought in the first place."

Francisco Torres still faces an August 10 court hearing. He 
steadfastly maintains his innocence, according to his attorney 
Charles Bourdon who'll file a motion to dismiss charges to have his 
client released.

Herman Bell pled guilty to the reduced charge of involuntary 
manslaughter and received a sentence of five years probation with no 
additional incarceration.

Albert Nuh Washington died in prison.

Veronza Bowers, Jr. was targeted for the same reason as the SF 8 - 
for being black and committed to social justice for all people 
equally. Today, others as dedicated risk the same fate at a time 
we're all watched and as vulnerable as Veronza.
A Brief Legal History of Bowers' Case

Throughout his incarceration, the Parole Commission consistently 
violated its own rules and regulations in denying Bowers due process 
- even after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (in 1993) determined 
that it acted improperly. It granted him relief, and instructed the 
District Court to have the Commission recompute his parole eligibility.

Nonetheless, the Commission ignored the order and ruled (without 
explanation) that Bowers must stay in prison until his mandatory 
April 26, 2004 release date. A final appeal to the National Parole 
Commission failed to reverse the decision.

Bowers became eligible for parole on December 6, 1983 after serving 
10 years in prison. In November, he had his first hearing before the 
US Parole Commission, was denied, and was ordered to serve another 10 
years before reconsideration. All subsequent legal appeals failed 
until the 1993 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. It was also 
ignored, and Bowers remains incarcerated despite considerable efforts 
on his behalf and the below listed factors about him:
    * his exemplary conduct and achievements as a model prisoner, 
including attaining a community college associates of arts degree and 
receiving a commendation for saving guards from assault or possible 
death by intervening in a hostile prison confrontation;
    * his activities as an author, musician and therapeutic healer - 
through music, accupressure, and therapy message;
    * his spirituality, strong emotional state, and belief in nonviolence;
    * his receiving the highest possible "salient factor" score of 10 
- the Parole Commission rating to determine his eligibility and 
prognosis if paroled; and
    * the active support of prison staff, family, friends, and 
community for his release.

Bowers' lawyers and supporters continue their struggle to free him, 
the National Jericho Movement among them that seeks "Recognition and 
Amnesty" for political prisoners in America. It calls holding them 
"an act of terror" and says this as an advocate for Bowers:

"TOGETHER, we can help force the US Parole Commission and the federal 
prison system honor its obligation to let Veronza Bowers go free" - 
after unjustly being imprisoned for 35 years, yet courageously 
enduring it with dignity and steadfast adherence to his principles.


Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the 
<http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php>Centre for Research on 
Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at 
<mailto:lendmanstephen at sbcglobal.net>lendmanstephen at sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at 
<http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com>sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen 
to The Global Research News Hour on 
<http://www.RepublicBroadcasting.org>RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays 
from 11AM to 1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with 
distinguished guests on world and national topics. All programs are 
archived for easy listening.

Mr. Lendman's stories are republished in the Baltimore Chronicle with 
permission of the author.




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