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

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originally made at the beginning of these hearings and still have not been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.