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Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 23:57:56 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Opening statements expected in trial of ex-Black Panther
Opening statements expected in trial of ex-Black Panther
<http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/02/19/al.amin.trial/index.html>
February 19, 2002
Atlanta, Georgia (CNN)
Opening statements got under way Tuesday in the trial of a former Black
Panther whoin the 1960swent by the name H. Rap Brown.
If convicted, Jamil Abdullah Abdullah Al-Amin, who went by the name H. Rap
Brown in the 1960s, could face the death penalty.
Al-Amin, now a Muslim cleric who ran a small grocery store till his arrest,
is charged with killing a Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff's deputy and
wounding another on March 16, 2000.
The surviving deputy is expected to testify that Al-Amin fired at them that
day when officers tried to arrest him on minor charges.
The arrest warrant was for Al-Amin's failure to appear in court on charges
of receiving stolen property and impersonating an officer.
The deputies exchanged gunfire with a man standing near a black Mercedes
Benz, and a spokesman on that day said the deputies might have wounded the
man who shot at them.
One deputy, Ricky Kinchen, died the next day. The surviving officer
identified Al-Amin as the shooter.
SWAT teams, helicopters and search dogs joined in a hunt that started with
a blood trail. After entering a vacant house where police thought they'd
cornered the shooter, they found more signs that the assailant may have
been wounded.
Four days later, authorities arrested Al-Amin in Lowndes County, Alabama,
175 miles southwest of Atlanta. He was not wounded.
Police also found a rifle and handgun near his arrest location, and tests
indicated they were the weapons that wounded Kinchen, a local newspaper
reported. Ten days later, they also found a black Mercedes with bullet
holes in it.
Three months later, an Atlanta fugitive captured in Nevada confessed to
killing Kinchen. He later recanted that statement.
Black Panther past
Born Hubert Gerold Brown in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Al-Amin went by the
name H. Rap Brown during the 1960s and served as chairman of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
In 1967, he was charged with inciting a riot in Cambridge, Maryland, where
he declared to hundreds of African-Americans: "It's time for Cambridge to
explode, baby. Black folks built America, and if America don't come around,
we're going to burn America down."
The next morning, a school and two city blocks burned.
He later joined the Black Panther Party, which sought to empower
African-Americans and confront and conquer social injustices. At one point
he was minister of justice for the Panthers.
As a Panther, Al-Amin exhorted African-Americans to arm themselves. "I say
violence is necessary," he once famously said. "It is as American as cherry
pie."
The Black Panther Party collapsed in the late 1970s, brought down by
deaths, defections and infighting.
Al-Amin, 58, converted to Islam while in prison serving five years for his
role in a robbery that ended in a shootout with New York police.
Until his arrest, Al-Amin operated the grocery in Atlanta's West End and
was the spiritual leader of a mosque in the neighborhood.
Neighbors credited Al-Amin, whom friends described as a humble and
respectful man, for working to clean up drugs and prostitution in the
low-income West End.
Conspiracy accusations
Al-Amin and his followers contend the state's case is bogus, and represents
the U.S. government's latest attempt to destroy the Muslim cleric.
Because the accused in under a gag order, Ed Brown, Al-Amin's brother,
serves as spokesman for the family.
"This [murder arrest] is part of a pattern that has gone on for 35 years,"
Brown said. "It started with his civil rights efforts and now it's Islam.
Anything that shines a light on the corruption of this government or does
not contribute to its process of corruption, they are opposed to."
The government has cooked up a case against his brother, destroying
evidence, Brown continued.
"Both officers said they wounded the perpetrator. It was reported there was
a blood trail. They got a search warrant and mobilized the SWAT team based
on the blood trail," he said.
"But then when they arrested him and he wasn't wounded, they stopped
talking about it."
Al-Amin's dealings with authorities did not end when he converted to Islam,
records show. In 1995, he was accused of aggravated assault, but the victim
later recanted and said authorities pressured him to blame Al-Amin.
From 1992 to 1997, the FBI staked out Al-Amin, suspecting him of
gun-running. The agency generated 44,000 documents, records indicate, but
failed to produce an arrest or indictment.
"What explanation do they have for watching him?" Ed Brown asked. "They
were so obsessed."
Now, Al-Amin faces the death penalty if convicted. Brown said Al-Amin's
death is what law enforcement has sought for years.
"This is a very unforgiving country when you show this country its warts,
when you hold the mirror up," Brown said. "If you happen not to share their
beliefs, they'll kill you."
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