Support Political Prisoners

COINTELPRO
After COINTELPRO became public in 1977, and the
Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1978,

OMAHA 2
Rice and Poindexter were able to access their FBI
files, which were each over a thousand pages long, Please write to the Omaha 2 at:
although they only received small portions upon
request. In 1978 Amnesty International published a Ed Poindexter
report finding that irregular conduct by the FBI dur-
ing its COINTELPRO operations had undermined
#110403
7525 4th Avenue
the fairness of trials of a number of political activists
during the 1970's. This led to the 1980 conviction Lino Lake, MN 55014-1099
ED POINDEXTER
(and 1981 pardon by President Ronald W. Reagan) of Minn. Correctional Facility AND
FBI Director L. Patrick Gray and Edward S. Miller.
However, beyond the general campaign to discredit
Mondo We Langa (D. Rice)
MONDO WE LANGA
and smear BPP member, the particular links between
COINTELPRO and this case were uncertain until 27768 / Box 2500
Senator Chuck Hagel facilitated release on over a Lincoln, NE
thousand pages of relevant documents in 2001. 68542-2500
Commuting Sentences
Since 1993, the Nebraska Parole Board has voted For more information on the Omaha 2, please
unanimously and repeatedly to commute both men's contact their support group at:
sentences to time served. However, as of September
2005, the Nebraska Board of Pardons has refused to
schedule a hearing in the matter. One Board member Tekla Johnson, Lincoln Justice Committee
has even asserted that there are "no circumstances" PO Box 4756
under which he would consider commutation. Lincoln, NE 68504

Cause célèbre
David Rice and Ed Poindexter are recognized as Local groups working on the Omaha 2 case:
political prisoners, as their arrests and convictions
were marred by circumstancial evidence and police
falsehoods, and occurred in a time of intense political
Los Angeles Branch of the
Anarchist Black Cross Federation
turmoil. Controversial Omaha police officer, Tariq
Al-Amin, has led the charge for the freedom of Rice PO Box 11223 Both have served over 30
and Poindexter in Omaha, while Amnesty Whittier, CA 90603 years in prison for a crime
International and the NAACP are among the national E-mail: la@abcf.net
organizations which support the immediate release of they did not commit.
the two men.
Jericho Amnesty Coalition
PO Box 34186
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Rice and Poindexter
Ed Poindexter and David Rice are two former mem-
bers of the Black Panther Party imprisoned for
crimes they did not commit. Swept up during a
racially tense period of our country’s history,
Poindexter and Rice became the target of this coun-
try’s law enforcement agencies and spent years
unjustly behind the prison walls.
In the summer of 1970, shortly after the murder of a
local high school student, there was a rash of bomb-
ings in the midwest. Members of the Black Panther
Party were the prime suspects in these bombings
and a warrant was issued to search Omaha BPP
headquarters for bomb making materials. An ex-
BPP member Luther Payne was arrested in Omaha
for possessing dynamite.
August 17
A call was made to the police reporting a woman
screaming at a vacant house near 28th and Ohio
Street. When the Omaha Police Department (OPD)
arrived they noticed a suitcase sitting in the the
front room. As Officer Larry Minard attempted to
pick up the suitcase, a bomb exploded killing him-
self and seriously injuring John Tess.
Duane Peak
Eleven days later, police arrested Duane Peak for
the bombing. Peak confessed and implicated six
others, but mentioned neither Rice nor Poindexter.
However in a later statement, Peak told police that
Rice and Poindexter had made the bomb and told
him to plant it and to lure the police to the vacant
house with an anonymous phone call to the police.
This led to the charge of Poindexter and Rice of
murder on August 31.
In an interview with the Washington Post on
Janurary 8, 1978, County Prosecutor Art O'Leary
admitted that he had made a deal with Duane Peak
to prosecute him as a juvenile in return for his testi-
mony. O'Leary acknowledged that without Peak's
testimony, the pair would not have been convicted.
The Prelmiminary Hearing and Trial
At a preliminary hearing on September 28, Peak
took the stand and recanted his story, testifying
instead that neither Poindexter nor Rice were
involved. After a recess, Peak changed his testimo-
ny yet again and implicated Poindexter and Rice. Peak
was at that time wearing dark glasses, which he
removed at the request of Rice's attorney, David Herzog.
Peak appeared to those present to have been beaten.
Herzog asked Peak if he had been threatened during the
recess, and if he had discussed his confession to help
him remember it. Peak replied in the affirmative to both
questions, telling the court that his lawyer was not pres-
ent when he discussed his confession with county attor-
ney O'Leary.
Both Poindexter and Rice were tried in Douglas County
District Court by a jury of eleven white and one black
person. Deliberations lasted four days before both men
were found guilty. Judge Donald A. Hamilton sentenced
them to life in prison. The lone black juror later stated
that he accepted the guilt of the pair on the condition
that the death sentence was not asked for.
Controversy over Evidence
In addition to Peak's testimony, the state offered three
pieces of dynamite found in Rice's home as evidence.
The officers could not find Rice's or Poindexter's finger-
prints on the dynamite, and were not clear as to the
exact location of the dynamite in Rice's house.
Accusations have been made that the dynamite was
planted, suspicions which were even held by ex-police
officer Marvin McClarty. Shortly after his conviction,
Rice's house mysteriously burned to the ground, elimi-
nating any possibility of exploring the accuracy of
police testimony about the dynamite.
Luther Payne and his associates were not discussed in
the proceedings of the trial, and after the trial, charges
were dropped, although skin tests found that one of the
men had recently handled dynamite. Skin tests for Rice
and Poindexter were negative. Peak was not tested.
In 2005, the tape of the emergency call that lured police
to the North Omaha home was uncovered. The tape had
been suppressed at trial; police had clain that it had been
destroyed. Expert analysis has determined that the voice
on the tape is not the voice of Duane Peak and calls for
the release of Poindexter and Rice have been renewed.
Circumstantial Evidence
The state also brought forward as evidence at trial polit-
ical literature the two men had written. These articles
were among many published around that time by vari-
ous political groups in the context of the Vietnam War
and the Civil Rights Movement. Former Nebraska
Governor Frank Morrison, who had represented
Poindexter at his trial, is quoted: "The reason they
were suspected was because they were members of the
Black Panthers. [Authorities] had a couple of young
Blacks who everybody knew used incendiary language
-- hateful things that irritated the police. They weren't
convicted of murder. They were convicted of rhetoric.
The only thing these young fellas did was try to com -
bat all the racial discrimination of the time the wrong
way."
In a 1990 BBC documentary about this case, the offi-
cer in charge of the investigation, Detective Jack
Swanson, affirmed the Omaha Police Department's
fear of the Black Panther Party: "We feel we got the
two main players in Rice and Poindexter, and I think
we did the right thing at the time, because the Black
Panther Party ... completely disappeared from the city
of Omaha ... and it's ... been the end of that sort of
thing in the city of Omaha -- and that's 21 years ago."
Appeals
At David Rice's appeal in March 1974, Judge Warren
Urbom of the Federal District Court found that the
police had no evidence to allow a search of his home,
where they had allegedly found the dynamite. Judge
Urbom also noted the inconsistencies in a Police
Lieutenant's testimony about the reasons for a search
warrant, concluded "it is impossible for me to credit
his testimony", and overturned Rice's conviction,
ordering a new trial in which the evidence of the
dynamite could not be used to corroborate the state's
case. This ruling was upheld by the Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals in 1975. The State of Nebraska then
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was in the
process of ruling on a landmark case, Stone v. Powell
(July 6, 1976), which in a decision taken together with
Wolff v. Rice, the Court held that where states had
provided opportunities for full and fair litigation of
Fourth Amendment claims, the Constitution did not
require the granting of federal habeas corpus relief.
Thus Rice had to go through state courts to decide the
question of the legality of the search of his house.
However, the Nebraska Supreme Court refused to
hear his case on the grounds that the time limit for
appealing through the state court had been exhausted.