The SF Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on a controversial resolution asking the state to drop charges against seven men accused of murder in the death of a San Francisco police sergeant in 1971 - a measure that has angered current and former police officers to no end.
The resolution, introduced by Supervisor Eric Mar and co-sponsored by supervisors Ross Mirkarimi, Sophie Maxwell and Chris Daly, contends that the only evidence in Sgt. John Young's killing was obtained through torture, and that "the case was reopened based on questionable claims of 'new' evidence."
This is a total disgrace, and this case should be at the forefront of the current debate about the US government's use of torture.
For more information, check out this new article in the SF Bay View Newspaper:
http://www.sfbayview.com/...
"There is no truth to the charges brought against these men," said Soffiyah Elijah, deputy director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School. "These charges were thrown out of court in the mid ‘70s. Just like then, these charges are based on statements obtained from men who were subjected to several days of torture by law enforcement authorities still involved in the current prosecution. The ‘new evidence’ touted by Attorney General Jerry Brown - DNA, fingerprints and a weapon - have already been admitted by the prosecution to link to none of these men. This case should have never been brought to trial. Jerry Brown should stop this harassment."
There is a massive public outcry and immense community and national support for the SF 8, who are now elders, husbands, fathers and grandfathers being ripped out of their communities to be put on trial. Thousands of individuals and many organizations, such as the San Francisco Labor Council and the Center for Constitutional Rights, have signed an open letter or passed resolutions urging Attorney General Jerry Brown to drop the charges.
Among those individuals who signed the open letter are Nobel Peace Laureates Rev. Dr. Desmond Tutu, Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams of the Community of Peace People, Northern Ireland; Darryl Jordan, director of the American Friends Service Committee Third World Coalition, Danny Glover, Cynthia McKinney, William Wardlaw of the Executive Director’s Leadership Council of Amnesty International, and Marjorie Cohn, Esq., president of the National Lawyers Guild.