---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2002 15:04:37 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: 60's Firebrand, Now Imam, Is Going on Trial in Killing
60's Firebrand, Now Imam, Is Going on Trial in Killing
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/06/national/06ATLA.html
January 6, 2002
By DAVID FIRESTONE
ATLANTA, Jan. 5 - He says he is no longer H. Rap Brown and
has renounced the ways of his old world, moving past a
youthful history of violent confrontation that made him one
of the most incendiary black activists of the 1960's and
70's.
Now he is a Muslim cleric called Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin,
and when he goes on trial for his life on Monday, that
history will be part of his defense in the politically and
racially charged case.
Mr. Al-Amin is charged with killing a black sheriff's
deputy in a shootout here nearly two years ago, but he says
the accusation is simply the latest episode in a government
conspiracy against him dating to the days of J. Edgar
Hoover.
"The F.B.I. has a file on me containing 44,000 documents,
but prior to this incident, their investigation has
produced no fruits, no indictments, no arrests," he said in
a telephone interview from the Fulton County jail, where he
has spent most of the last two years. "At some point, they
had to make something happen to justify all the
investigations and all the money they've spent.
"More than anything else, they still fear a personality, a
character coming up among African-Americans who could
galvanize support among all the different elements of the
African-American community."
In the interview, the first since his arrest, Mr. Al-Amin
said his embrace of Islam had made him dangerous to the
federal government and a threat to the black political and
law enforcement leaders in Atlanta who arrested him and are
prosecuting him.
"They are trying to crush Islam before it realizes its own
worth and strength," he said. "We are the biggest gang on
the planet, and when you hear them talk about the
`crusade,' you know what they are talking about."
Mr. Al-Amin, 58, is the imam of the Community Masjid, a
mosque in the West End of Atlanta, and had become prominent
in national Muslim circles. Some of the nation's largest
Muslim organizations are on his support committee, and
Islam is likely to play a prominent role in the trial,
which was postponed in September after the judge said the
postattack atmosphere could be prejudicial. When jury
selection begins, lawyers familiar with the case said,
potential jurors will be closely questioned on their
opinions of Muslims.
Mr. Al-Amin is under an order from Judge Stephanie B. Manis
of Superior Court restraining him from discussing the
specifics of the case, and he declined to discuss his
actions on the night of March 16, 2000, when two sheriff's
deputies were shot while trying to serve him with a warrant
for minor offenses including impersonating a police
officer. One deputy, Ricky Kinchen, died the next day; the
other, Aldranon English, recovered from his wounds.
Mr. Al-Amin's murder trial will turn on the specifics of
that night. Prosecutors seeking the death penalty will
present evidence that the deputies were searching for him,
and Mr. English is expected to identify Mr. Al-Amin as the
man who shot him. An intensive manhunt followed the
shooting, and three days later, Mr. Al-Amin was found
hiding in a field in Lowndes County, Ala., after an
exchange of gunfire with federal marshals. Nearby was a
9-millimeter handgun and a Ruger assault rifle that police
ballistics later matched to the ammunition used against the
deputies.
The defense will challenge each assertion, according to
lawyers familiar with the case and pretrial pleadings.
Immediately after the shooting, for example, both deputies
told the police that they had shot their attacker, and yet
Mr. Al-Amin was found uninjured, and the body armor he was
wearing when arrested showed no signs of dents. In
addition, they say, Mr. English said his attacker had gray
eyes, yet Mr. Al- Amin's eyes are brown. Bullet holes in
vehicles at the scene, across from the Community Masjid,
indicate that the gunman fired from the middle of the
street, yet Mr. English said his attacker was on the
sidewalk.
Because of the judge's order, neither the prosecutors nor
the defense team were able to discuss the case. Other
lawyers who have followed the case say the trial, which is
expected to last a month once a jury is selected, will
probably shape up as a classic battle of identification.
"The district attorney will have to answer what may be a
case of misidentification by the deputy who said he shot
the defendant," said Buddy Parker, a former federal
prosecutor now in private practice here. "The defense is
going to have to explain why the weapons were found where
they were. It's going to be a showdown."
Underlying the legal battle is a racial and religious issue
that has riven Atlanta's blacks and revived memories of a
very different time in civil rights history. In 1964, when
H. Rap Brown first signed up with the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee and began registering voters, few
blacks were in positions of political power. After he
became disenchanted with civil disobedience and organizing
work, he began advocating a more violent struggle and was
made an honorary member of the Black Panthers. He was
charged with inciting a riot and carrying a gun across
state lines and was captured after a 1971 shootout with the
police in a New York City bar.
Mr. Al-Amin converted to Islam in jail and moved to Atlanta
in 1976, and by then, the world had begun to change. By the
time of his arrest in 2000, the mayor, police chief,
sheriff and district attorney in Atlanta were all black, as
was the majority of the city, and many black leaders were
furious that two deputies, both black, had been shot in the
line of duty.
Among the growing number of Muslims in the neighborhoods of
the West End, however, Mr. Al-Amin was known as Imam Jamil,
a soft- spoken community organizer who preached against
drugs and gambling and never advocated violence. Few could
believe that he would have shot two men, and many quickly
subscribed to the conspiracy theory.
"There's a real split," said Councilman Clarence T. Martin,
who represents part of the area. "A lot of the neighborhood
is very conservative and was very upset when two officers
were shot. But in the Muslim community, in the struggle
community, there's a lot of support for him. I expect all
this will come up again once the trial starts."
In the interview, made from a jail pay phone that
automatically disconnected after 20 minutes, Mr. Al-Amin
sharply criticized the judicial order preventing him from
speaking out.
"I can't even say I'm innocent," he said. "Do you know of
any other defendant who is not allowed to say he is
innocent? It's just part of the same continual persecution
and prosecution against me, just part and parcel of the
same thing."
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