---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 13:14:34 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: TRIAL UPDATES [Al-Amin, SLA]
Oread Daily March 4
TRIAL UPDATES
As a new week begins in the trial of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin it is expected
that defense attorneys will call several witness who will contradict
prosecution testimony that it was Al-Amin who shot two deputies. Many of
these people were never questioned by police. One witness will be Imhotep
Shaka, who lives in the same West End neighborhood as Al-Amin and who will
testify he saw someone other than Al-Amin firing shots at the deputies.
Also to be called is national guardsman Courtney Davis who will say that it
was not Al-Amin who fired on federal agents before allegedly fleeing into a
wooded area near White Hall, Alabama. Davis is expected to say that he saw
someone wearing different clothing from Al-Amin's shooting at agents. Julia
Mae Brazil will support the Davis testimony. She says she, too, saw someone
wearing different clothing from Al-Amin's shooting at the agents. White
Hall residents Cedric Steele and John White will also testify they did not
see anyone shooting at federal agents but saw agents firing.
Last week in a rather amazing ruling, Judge Stephanie Manis ruled that the
defense could not imply that race might be a motive for police and
prosecution actions in the case. Manis declared racial issues irrelevant to
the trial. This took place as defense Attorney Jack Martin was attempting
to elicit testimony concerning possible racial division amongst law
enforcement officers involved in the investigation. Martin said white
officers had tried to cover up an FBI agent's attack on Al-Amin after his
arrest while three black law enforcement officers were willing to reveal
the assault. Race may create a motive "to tailor your testimony, to stretch
what you really know, perhaps even to plant evidence," Martin said. Defense
lawyers have raised the possibility that federal agents planted key
evidence in the vicinity of Al-Amin's arrest -- namely an assault rifle and
handgun tied to the killing of Sheriff's Deputy Ricky Kinchen and the
wounding of Deputy Aldranon English. "There seems to be some type of
allegiance of silence," Martin told Manis. "I was going to say conspiracy
of silence, but I don't like to use the word 'conspiracy.' " During his
testimony, FBI Special Agent Ron Campbell acknowledged he kicked and spat
at Al-Amin following the arrest. Earlier, an Alabama sheriff testified he
was bothered by an FBI agent's unprovoked assault on the handcuffed Al-Amin
but he didn't report it. "He kicked him, he spat on him and he called him a
scumbag cop killer," said Lowndes County Sheriff Willie Vaughner.
And out in California, where hearing have been going on in the "SLA" bank
robbery and murder case, it came to light that prosecution investigator had
spent 4 hours listening and taking notes on secretly recorded conversations
involving William Harris and his former wife, Emily Montague, shortly after
the two were jailed before concluding that the conversations "dealt with
trial preparation." "It's pretty outrageous conduct," said James
Bustamante, attorney for Michael Bortin. "They got caught at something
relatively dirty." Bustamante pointed out that while jailers are entitled
to monitor prisoner conversations for security reasons such monitoring does
not mean recordings. He said California court rulings have held that the
monitoring can't be for the purpose of gathering evidence. Jailers in
Portland, Ore., also tape-recorded Bortin's Jan. 16 conversations with his
wife after his arrest, at the request of Sacramento County investigators,
defense attorneys said.
Sources: ABC News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Iman Jamil.com
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