On the 19th of May, 1971, two New York City police officers were wounded in a burst of machine gunfire while standing guard outside the home of the Manhattan district attorney, Frank Hogan. Two years later, after three trials, a leader of the Black Panthers, Dhoruba Bin Wahad, was convicted of the crime by a jury that deliberated for less than one hour. He was sentenced to 25 years to life.
As a result of Wahad's federal lawsuit against the FBI in the city, which argued that he was a victim of an FBI-police smear campaign who worked together to smear the black power movement, the agency released over 300,000 pages of secret documents about Cointel Pro.
FBI records show that prosecutors withheld crucial evidence from the defense. The most critical item withheld was a tape recorded anonymous call saying that Wahad did not do the shooting. It turns out that the call was made by Pauline Joseph, a prosecution witness who had implicated Wahad. He was released in 1990.
For 25 years, Dhoruba Bin Wahad has been waiting to tell his story. He almost had his chance to do it in a courtroom this week. He wanted to force onto the witness stand the New York City police officers that arrested him, and the authorities that wrongfully convicted him and put him in prison for 19 years on falsely concocted evidence. But at the last minute, the city decided to settle the extraordinary case of this former Black Panther.
Guest: Dhoruba Bin Wahad, former Black Panther who was wrongly imprisoned for 19 years.
<http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20001207.ra&start="52:21.7">
[Part 2 of the story is at <http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20001208.ra&start="47:06.7">.] *****
_Passin' It On_ (Dir. John Valadez): <http://www.itvs.org/external/PIO/>; <http://www.frif.com/cat97/p-s/passin.html>; and <http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/vid/pass.html> (the last link is for home video -- 57 minutes, color, $19.95). -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>