Feature Archives

December 22nd: There have been a number of developments in the cases of the eco-defense defendants who were arrested earlier this month and face lonely holidays in prison cells. Daniel Mc Gowan was denied bail based on a conversation that was recorded without his consent. The co-defendant in the charges that he faces is apparently an informant. A former ALF prisoner has received a subpoena for a grand jury hearing. Bill Rodgers was found dead in an apparent suicide in his cell in Arizona, in spite of strong support from his community.

In a bail hearing for Mc Gowan last week, the court learned that an undercover informant had helped investigators to tape a conversation with him. This "evidence" was used to deny bail to McGowan. However, McGowan was released into his sister's custody on January 25th.

Existence of the informant was disclosed last week by an investigator in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, NY, during a bail hearing for McGowan. Mc Gowan faces indictments that he and Stanislas Meyerhoff firebombed the office of a wood products mill and the office and truck shop of a tree farm in 2001. Corporate media reports that a defense motion filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene says that Mc Gowan's co-defendant, Stanislas Meyerhoff, is one of the informants the federal government has relied on for evidence in the investigation. Public defender Craig Weinerman named Meyerhoff and another man, Jacob Ferguson, as informants in a motion for the release of Chelsea Gerlach, who is being held without bail. More about informants Daniel Mc Gowan was moved this week from New York to California and ultimately to Oregon. On December 15th, Democracy Now featured extensive coverage of this case. Audio

Former Animal Liberation Front prisoner Darren Thurston, who is a Canadian citizen, was arrested this month and placed in an INS detention center in Tacoma. His extradition is based on his conviction for raiding a lab in 1992. He was also subpoenaed to the Eugene grand jury for Feb. 16th, 2006. Darren has been told, as were most other recipients of recent subpoenas, that he is a target of the investigation. Read more

Updates about Chelsea Gerlach on Portland IMC's Police State News Page | What to do if the FBI "drops by" | Read more about recent and upcoming Grand Juries | The National Lawyers Guild includes thousands of progressive legal workers | Letter writing recommendations | Prisoner support resources

On June 14th, 2005, California State Assemblymembers Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood) and Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View) announced that they were introducing the “California Moratorium on Executions Act” (AB 1121). The act, if passed, would suspend all executions in California until January 1, 2009 while the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice conducts a thorough study of the state’s criminal justice procedures. Koretz declared, "For the state of California to continue to execute prisoners, while an official governmental body investigates the findings and allegations of error and justice and unfairness in the criminal justice system, just doesn't make sense." AB1121 will be voted on in January. Letters of support can be sent to Assemblymembers.

Death Penalty Focus says there are many reasons to support a moratorium or "time-out" on executions. Study after study has shown the death penalty to be grossly unfair: 122 people nationwide have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence, some coming within hours of their execution. Race, place, and poverty are currently the determining factors in who lives and who dies when it comes to California's death penalty. There are alternatives to the death penalty: existing law in California provides for life without the possibility of parole, under which no offender has ever been released, except for one man who was determined to be innocent. Several human rights and religious organizations advocate other alternatives that include life sentences combined with restitution to the victim's family and victim/offender reconciliation programs.

Californians for a Moratorium on Executions recommends several ways that people can get involved- from signing an online petition, to getting local organizations to pass moratorium resolutions, to circulating petitions, and more. Read more

List of organizations that have endorsed AB 1121 | Californians for a Moratorium on Executions | ACLU Northern California's Death Penalty Page | California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice

A video that San Francisco police officers produced was recently discovered, and it caused a nationwide furor about police professionalism. The video ridiculed the citizens who pay police salaries, and displayed the contempt these officers showed for the profession. The "parodies" that the SFPD video shows demean women and people of color, as well as homeless and transgender people. While there is a certain self-mockery to the video, there is a serious side. A coalition of SF residents and activists held a press conference in the Bayview District on Dec 7th, 2005, to decry the scenes depicted in the video. Overzealous, poorly trained or outright racist police have killed an inordinate number of people. The entire community of Bayview-Hunter's Point is poorly served by these same officers, who intended to play the video at their Christmas party this year.

Eighteen officers are under suspension, including a Captain. Out-take clips not included in the video have also been discovered, with scenes such as a black officer eating out of a dog dish. That officer had gained the nickname 'dog' because he complained about being treated like one by a sergeant. The Captain is claiming he was not aware his image was included in the video, saying the video-clips were from years earlier. He is also apparently claiming his children will need therapy due to exposure of this video.

The speakers in the press conference made it plain that the crime situation in the area is exacerbated by the poor attitude of the officers, who demean the residents rather than treat them as citizens. Two mothers of slain young men spoke at this press conference. Bay Area PoliceWatch has issued several demands, including that the officers responsible for the video be fired, that people who have been convicted of crimes based on testimony of these officers be notified; that a bias review of all legal proceedings that involved these officers be conducted; that the backlog of wrongful death disciplinary cases be dealt with by the end of 2006; and that grassroots voices be included in the Mayor's "Blue Ribbon Commission" that is examining the video. Read more from PoliceWatch

David Grace's Audio and report from 12/7 press conference | Statement from Mesha Monge-Irizarry | Randy Shaw's Analysis in Beyond Chron | More background about the video and other clips

State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement Agent Michael Walker was found not guilty of manslaughter in San Jose on December 13th after a six week trial. He was charged with shooting Rudy Cardenas, a 43 year-old father of five, as Cardenas tried to run away after a car chase through downtown San Jose. Walker thought at the time that he was chasing another man. The verdict was met with disappointment and outrage. 60 gathered on the evening of the 13th at the spot Cardenas was killed in downtown San Jose. Rudy's daughter Regina Cardenas, speaking for the family and their supporters, said she is "...completely appalled. We didn’t think [acquittal] was a possibility at all."

Indybay reporter Peter Maiden covered the trial and wrote an in-depth report called Justice Denied: A History of the Walker Trial.
Indybay's Previous Coverage of the trial | Past Indybay Coverage of the Cardenas Case

Stanley Tookie Williams III was executed early this morning by lethal injection administered by the state of California. Williams, who was just weeks from his 52nd birthday, is said to have been a co-founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles. In 1981, he was convicted of the 1979 murders of four people in the Los Angeles area. After 6.5 years in solitary confinement on Death Row at San Quentin, he renounced his past gang affiliation. He wrote several books and started programs to discourage youth from joining gangs. A film starring Jamie Foxx entitled "Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story," was made to tell his story. Williams never admitted to having committed the murders for which he was convicted. This was one reason that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cited for denying him clemency.

Thousands of protesters held a vigil in front of San Quentin as Williams was killed.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Supporters of Williams tried to submit issues to various legal bodies in hopes of being granted a stay of execution. If a 60-day stay had been granted, it would have given time for courts to examine the legal issues that are outstanding in the case. It would have also given California's legislative bodies a chance to vote on AB 1121, the California Moratorium on Executions Act. The death warrant for Stanley Tookie Williams was signed in October. His execution date was set for December, while the two other men whose warrants were signed the same day received execution dates in January and February of 2006. Read more In the days before his death, a new witness appeared: Gordon Von Ellerman has reported that he had knowledge that Oglesby, a witness who testified against Williams, had studied ways to help frame Williams. Interviews: Democracy Now | Flashpoints | Wake Up Call 12/12/05 | What I would do with the rest of my life
People who met with Stanley Tookie Williams: Rev. Jesse Jackson | Jamie Foxx | Snoop Dogg

More statements:
Death Row prisoner Steve Allen Champion, a.k.a. Adisa Akanni Kamara | Political prisoner Kalima Aswad | Tom Hayden | Mesha Monge-Irizarry | NAACP Press Conference via Telephone during 12/12 Women's Show on KPFA, including attorneys for Williams | Death Penalty Focus | NAACP

Past Indybay coverage from Indybay's Police State Page:
People's Clemency Hearing and Protests on 12/12 | November 30th Day of Action Against Executions | Teach-ins, Day of Action, November 19th Rally at San Quentin | October 2005: Supreme Court Says Racial Bias Doesn't Merit Appeal | 2/2/05

This week the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Third Circuit reversed two critical Federal District Court rulings that affect the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. On December 6th, the court granted "certificates of appealabilty" to Jamal to challenge alleged race and judicial bias in the 1995 Post Conviction Relief Action proceedings overseen by Mumia's original 1982 trial court "hanging" judge, Albert Sabo. Sabo went to extreme lengths to keep evidence of innocence out of the court record. The court also allowed Mumia to challenge the trial summation remarks of the state's lead prosecutor, Joseph McGill, who told the jury, "If you find the Defendant guilty of course, there would be appeal after appeal and perhaps there could be a reversal of the case, or whatever, so that may not be final."

Mumia's lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, told activist Jeff Mackler that McGill's summation had the effect of qualitatively lowering the historic burden of proof regarding reasonable doubt and presumption of innocence. Similar remarks by Pennsylvania prosecutors have resulted in new trials in other cases. The Third Circuit's decision was all the more remarkable in that under the provisions of the 1996 Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the court had no obligation to even consider defense challenges to the Federal District Court's denial of certificates of appealability.

The court has called for an initial January 17th defense brief on these two issues, as well as on the single issue that had previously been certified for appeal-- that is, the defense insistence that the exclusion of 11 of 14 Black jurors constituted an unconstitutional violation of the Supreme Court ruling on this issue in the case of Batson v. Kentucky. In the next several months, defense and prosecution attorneys will face stringent deadlines for a series of briefs and counter briefs. The 10-person court will then issue a decision or set a date for a hearing and oral arguments.

The Third Circuit's decision was not all in favor of Mumia. It denied certificates of appealability on several other points raised by the defense-- including the right to self-representation. It also allowed the State of Pennsylvania to challenge a Federal District Court decision that had ordered the State to hold a new sentencing hearing based on constitutionally flawed jury instructions issued by Judge Sabo. Possible outcomes range from following through with the execution to a new trial. Read more

PDF of the decision and statement from Mumia's attorney Robert R. Bryan | Free Mumia Coalition, NYC | San Francisco Mobilization to Free Mumia | Counterpunch article | Mumia's Freedom Journal | June 16th Legal Update | March 2005 Legal Update

On December 7th, 2005, Rigoberto Alpizar was returning with his wife from South America where they had participated in missionary work with her uncle. As the two were boarding a connecting flight in Miami bound for Orlando, Alpizar became agitated, bolted up the aisle, and tried to flee the aircraft. Passengers said that his wife ran after him shouting, “My husband is sick, my husband is sick.” Others heard her pleading that he was bipolar and had not taken his medicine. After being confronted by plainclothes marshals, Alpizar fled the aircraft and was shot to death. A spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, Dave Adams, claims Alpizar had “run up and down the aisle yelling, ‘I have a bomb in my bag,’” but no passengers interviewed has said that they hear him say anything.
Read More | Eyewitnesses refute official story | Shooting the Mentally Ill | Brother of man shot dead in Miami demands answers | Florida man Murdered by air marshals at Miami | Air marshals kill Latin American U.S. citizen in Miami under questionable circumstances