Sorry, figured you'd read my article or one with enough detail for some of this to make sense without elaboration. Mine's at http://www.afn.org/~iguana/archives/2002_04/20020405.html and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution may still make available for free their extensive though myopic coverage. Thelwell's article in the Nation (written before the trial) is also worth a read, "H. Rap Brown/Jamil Al-Amin: A Profoundly American Story," (March 18, 2002). And I see the support committee site is back up after a long absence, http://www.imamjamil.com
The cars were facing each other during the shootout, according to the police.
Therefore bullet holes in each car should've allowed for a fairly good reconstruction of the shooting.
My summary of the case is that there is no way to know if Jamil Al-Amin was framed. Neither we, nor the defense, have access to enough information to know this. We do, however, have good evidence that they attempted to frame him in the past (in '95, not to mention '67-70), we know that the manner in which the Sheriff attempted to served the warrant was bizarre, that there were large inconsistencies in the prosecution's version of events, that non-police witnesses frequently contradicted the police version (which takes courage), that there was no clear motive, that this was very out of character for the defendant, and that another person was almost certainly involved in the shooting. I think the whole thing at least warrants a DOJ investigation of the conduct of the police [bitter chuckle]. Given that we are not likely to get satisfaction that way, I don't think we--those who support civil rights and civil liberties, say--should simply take the verdict for justice done. It clearly isn't.
By the way, I hear they're now trying him in Alabama on charges that he shot at the cops from the woods before he was apprehended. And the case in which he received life w/o parole is also up on appeal soon, I understand.
Jenny Brown