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Portland Observer
Thursday, August 28th, 1976
Page 8
Longest triol ends, controversy lingers
by M ark Skwarta
(P N 8 ) San Rafael, California - The
verdict In the 16 month tria l of the San
Quentin Six, hailed by many as a victory
for the defense (40 acquittals out of 46
conspiracy, murder and assault charges),
has effectively closed the book on the
controversial events surrounding the
death of prison activist George Jackson in
a bloody prison uprising on August 21st,
1971.
A fte r 24 days of sequestered delibera­
tion. the exhausted ju ry delivered a ver
diet implicitly rejecting the state's all
im portant conspiracy charge against five
of the six defendants.
But in finding defendant Johnny Larry
Spain guilty of conspiracy and two counts
of murder, the jurors nonetheless upheld
the cornerstone of the stale's conspiracy
theory - that Jackson conspired with
radical attorney Stephen Bingham to es­
cape.
T hat finding, according to attorneys
and observers who have followed the case
from the beginning, forecloses any likeli
hood of an independent investigation into
an alleged counter-conspiracy on the part
of prison guards and law enforcement
authorities to assassinate George Jack
son - the theory on which the defense had
staked its case.
The result is that the nagging ques
tiona and doubts that marked the rase
since August 1971 may never be re­
solved. In that sense, the verdict was a
frustrating blow to the defense, which
had hoped to open up the case in a
wide-ranging legislative investigation
w ith power to subpena policy records and
interview witnesses not Included in the
trial.
C O N F U S E D JURO RS
The poet verdict remarks by jurors in­
dicate that a wide range of disagreement
and confusion marked their deliberations.
Faced w ith two bizarre theories of con
»piracy - one supported by the defense
and an opposing one by the prosecution -
the ju ry accepted neither in its entirety.
Some indicated they believed elements of
both theories, while others rejected both
outright.
“I still don't think I know what were
the circumstances of George Jackson s
death,” adm itted juror Sandra Irish of
San Rafael, site of the trial.
The defense had contended that Jack­
son's death was the result of a plot by the
California Departm ent of Corrections,
the crim inal conspiracy section of the Los
Angeles Police Departm ent and prison
guards to "assassinate" Jackson, who
was viewed as a charismatic prison revo
lutionary w ith a national constituency.
T hat theory was based on testimony by
Louis Tackwood, a former Los Angeles
Police Departm ent agent who said he had
participated in a plot to set up an escape
attem p t in which Jackson would be shot.
W hile Tackwood's testimony contained
inconsistencies that the prosecution seiz
ad on to discredit him. at least some
jurors were convinced that a plot involv­
ing law enforcement authorities did exist.
But without solid corroborating evi­
dence, and with Tackwood's lack of credi
bility, the theory failed to convince the
jury that it was the only possible explan
ation for the abortive escape attem pt and
lence of August 21st - viewing much of it
instead as the product of years of tension
two othor inmates.
and hostility between guards and con­
And in fact, ons attorney. Robert Car-
victs that finally exploded behind prison
row, refused to participate in the defense
conspiracy charge on the grounds that it
walls.
In this respect, the jurors were clearly
would hinder more substantive argu­
influenced by the brutal p rotrait of prison
ments regarding destruction of important
evidence and the law enforcement estab­ life drawn by prisoner after prisoner -
including three of the defendants who
lishment's documented hatred of George
took the stand for the defense and were
Jackson.
aubsequently acquitted on all charges.
But just as the ju ry turned down the
A fourth defendant. Hugo Pinnell, who
defense's blanket conspiracy explanation,
it also refused to buy the “dragnet" ap­ alone chose to defend himself and cross-
proach of the prosecution - an attem pt to examine guards who accused him of slit­
ting their throats, emerged in the words
link all six defendants in an elaborate
escape attem pt involving the seventh de . of several jurors as the most eloquent and
moving figure of the trial.
fendant, Bingham, who disappeared the
O N E C O N S P IR A C Y C O N V IC T IO N
day after the event.
According to this scenario, Bingham
The ju ry did bring in one all-important
somehow smuggled a gun into a visitor's conspiracy conviction - against defendant
room where he passed it to Jackson, who Johnny Spain - though it was confined
hid the weapon under an afro wig and
simply to plotting w ith Jackson and Bing­
ham to escape by violent means. (Spain
returned to the Adjustm ent Center, a
prison within the prison, where he was was acquitted on the other tw o conspir­
acy subdivisions - supplying a gun or
housed. Then, the scenario continues,
Jackson pulled out the gun and opened kidnapping guards.
The critical evidence in Spain's conspir
the cells to free the other inmates, some
of whom murdered three guards and two acy conviction-- which led directly to his
white trustees and assaulted other conviction on two counts of murder —
map of the
guards in an attem pt to escape. Jackson included ammunition and
was shot down by rifle fire from a prison grounds outside the prison that were
wall as he ran across the yard toward a found in his cell adjacent to Jackson s.
But regarding the prosecution’s ex
high wall.
Even at the outset, prosecutor Jerry
planation for how the conspiracy was
Herman adm itted that he could not prove carried out Bingham smuggling the gun
who murdered whom, but that all six into Jackson who brought it into the
defendants were guilty of the murders by
prison concealed beneath a wig - the jury
reason of conspiracy and aiding and abet­ failed to reach an agreement.
In the course of deliberating they even
ting.
But the ju ry rejected the all-inclusive attem pted to re-enact the wig trick - a
conspiracy as the explanation for the vio­ feat that they concluded was only one
the deaths of Jackson, throe guards and
possibility for how the gun entered the
prison.
Said Jury forewoman Cora Shipley, "I
wouldn't say that anybody was absolutely
certain he took the gun in there in that
manner. I t was like it was possible, but
not necessarily plausible."
By swallowing their doubts about how
the gun got into the prison, yet finding
Spain guilty of conspiracy, the jury, says
one defense attorney, settled for giving
the prosecution, rather than the defense,
the benefit of the doubt that a Bingham
Jackson conspiracy existed at alL
This single conspiracy conviction saved
the day for the prosecution by upholding
the official version of Jackson's death -
that he died as a result of a prison hatch­
ed escape attem pt.
The state's conspiracy dragnet - weax-
ened by the confusion of 46 separate
charges, missing evidence, and suspect
testimony by some guards - failed to
ensnarl the other five defendanta.
For them, the verdicts came down to
the credibility of each individual defen­
dant versus his accuser». On those
grounds. W illie Tate, Fleets. Drumgc and
Louis Talamantez were completely ac­
quitted, while Pinnell and David Johnson
were convicted on assault charges.
As defense attorney Ernest Graves put
it after the verdict, “W e may have won
the game on points, but the state won the
ballpark” - a reference to Spain's con­
spiracy conviction which, barring a suc­
cessful appeal, will leave the controver­
sies of August 21st, 1971, still up in the
air.
O r e g o n S ta te Fair
1976
GRANDSTAND ENTERTAINMENT
JERRY LEE LEWIS
7:30 & 9:30, Sat Aug 2 8 1 $5, $4
WOLFMAN JACK SHOW
7:30 & 9:30. Sun. Aug. 29 / $4, $3
RICK NELSON
7:30 & 9.30, Sat. Sept. 4 / $5, $4
BLUEGRASS SHOW
8 pm, Sun., Sept. S / $3.50
BLOOD, SWEAT 4 TEARS
8:30 pm, Mon Sept 6 / $5.00 in advance,
$6.00 day of show
August 28-Sept 6 1 Silstn
Fair Hours:
10am-10pm - Mon.-Tliurs.
10am -llpm • Fri. Sat. Sun.
Fair Admission:
Adult $2 00
Children (6-12)- .50
Students (13-17)-$1 25
PRCA RODEO
HORSE SHOW
$5, $4. $2 50
TRICK RIDING ACT
Aug 28 4 29, 7:30 pm
ROY ROGERS, DALE
EVANS SHOW
Aug. 30-Sept. 3 1:3047:30pm
MULE TEAM ACT
Sept. 4-5,7:30 pm
Sept. 6 . 1:30 pm
HORSE RACING DAILY
NAACP needs funds
A campaign to help raise funds for
bend money in Mississippi was announc
ed by M rs. Virna M. Canson. Regional
D irector. W est Coast Region. N A A C P .
“N A A C P has been struck for the
second tim e this year with an adverse
ruling from Hinds County Mississippi's
Chancellery C o u rt"
The Hinds County Chancellery Court,
last week, awarded tw elve white m er­
chants in the town of Port Gibson. Miss­
issippi a $1.250.000 judgment against
NAACP.
Mississippi law requires 125% of the
judgm ent rendered be posted prior to an
appeal being filed. This means more than
a million and one half dollars must be
raised in order to post bond.
"W e have serious doubts about the
constitutionality of this requirement, but
we must post bond before we can appeal.
W e are confident we can win once we get
to another level in the legal process.
Mississippi is still the symbol of op
pression," M rs. Canson said.
W estern Region's National Director?
and the local branch and youth counci!
presidents are mobilising to reach the
grass roots citizenry in their communities
in the nine W estern States of the Re­
gion.
Contributions should be sent directly
to N A A C P L E G A L D E P A R T M E N T ,
1790 Broadway. New York. N .Y .. 10019.
School
committees
organize
If your soft pack got scrunched in the suitcase,
*s try our hard pack.
Citizen advisors to the Portland Board
of Education next week hold their first of
11 public meetings of the 1976-77 school
year.
The three area citizen advisory com­
mittees. each gathering for area organ
ization and orientation purposes, begin
their sessions at 780 p.m.
• A rea l's committee - embracing the
high school clusters of Jackson, Jeffer
son. Lincoln, Roosevelt and Wilson - will
meet August 23rd at T erw illig er Prim ary
School. 6318 S.W . Corbett St.
-A re a 2's committee - encompassing
the high school neighborhoods of M adi­
son. Adams and M arshall, plus district-
wide Benson Polytechnic and Monroe -
will meet August 24th at Glenhaven E le­
mentary School, 8020 N .E . Tillamook St.
- Area 3's committee - e m b ra c in g the
high school clusters of G rant, Washing
ton, Franklin and Cleveland - meets
August 25th at the Area 3 Office, 1221
S.E. Madison St.
D istrict wide organization and orienta­
tion will draw new and old members of all
three committees to the school board's
third annual workshop timed from 8:30
a.m. to 1:00 p.m. September 18th in the
auditorium of the school district's admin
istration building at 631 N .E . Clackamas
St.
The nine-memb«r committees general
ly hold their public meetings on the third
Monday of each month at selected schools
within their adm instrative areas.
Evolving from the 1970 administrative
decentralization of the school district, the
committees advise area superintendents
and make recommendations to the school
board.
X
-
Menthol and Regular
In the 15th century some
people carried a portable sun­
dial in their pockets to tell
the time.
W arning: The Surgeon General Has D eterm ined
That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.
17mg. " in " 1.1 mg. nicotine, av. per cigarette, by FIC Method.
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