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Charges vs. former Black Panthers based on police torture
The charges against former Black Panthers, arrested a few days ago in connection with a 1971 homicide, were based on "evidence" produced under torture.
BOSTON, February 1— The Boston Chapter of the Jericho Movement held a press conference to denounce the arrests and criminal complaints against eight former Black Panther Leaders, including three who attended an event last year in Boston.
Last week, authorities in San Francisco announced the arrests of the former Panthers in the 1971 killing of police officer Sgt. John V. Young, despite the fact that torture had been used to obtain confessions.
Soffiyah Elijah, deputy director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, said, “The case against these men was built on torture, just like the history of this country and it's commonplace for law enforcement to claim that they don't torture people, but in the end we always find out that they're lying.”
Former political prisoner Kazi Touré said, "This government has used these same tactics under different names, they used to call it COINTELPRO, today they call it the PATRIOT Act. These atrocities are just another attempt to silence people, to intimidate activists and to distract the public from the atrocities the U.S. Government also commits abroad.”
Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner (Green-Rainbow, District 7) participated in the press conference.
In 1973, New Orleans police employed torture over the course of several days to obtain information from members of the Black Panther Party who were stripped naked, beaten, covered in blankets soaked with boiling water, and had electric probes placed on their genitals, among other methods.
A court ruled in 1974 that both San Francisco and New Orleans police had engaged in torture to extract confessions, and a San Francisco judge dismissed charges against three men in 1975 based on that ruling.
Two years ago, a grand jury was convened in San Francisco to reopen the case. All the men appeared every time they were requested, but refused to testify. The failure of the numerous grand juries that have been convened to issue an indictment indicates that the Government has a very weak case against these men.
A screening of the film Legacy of Torture: The War Against the Black Liberation Movement followed the press conference.
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The Jericho Movement seeks recognition of the existence of political prisoners and prisoners of war inside the United States, and works to win amnesty and freedom for these prisoners.
POBox 301057 Jamaica Plain, MA 02130