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| We, the undersigned, appeal to the human rights
community internationally and request that awareness and attention be
drawn to the case of David Rice and Ed Poindexter. In April of 1971, Omahans David Rice (Mondo we Langa) and Ed Poindexter were each convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the death of Omaha Police officer Larry Minard. Minard was killed on August 17, 1970 when a dynamite-filled briefcase exploded as he and two other officers investigated a tip from a 911 call that a crime was taking place at 2867 Ohio Street in Omaha. Initially, state authorities sought only the conviction of Duane Christopher Peak, a fifteen-year-old who was peripherally involved in the activities of the National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF), an Omaha group that spun-off from a local chapter of the nationally prominent Black Panthers organization. Rice and Poindexter were executive officers in the NCCF. For years, both men were engaged in legal, political activities protesting police conduct in the Black community of North Omaha. Peak implicated Rice and Poindexter in the bombing and served no time for his involvement. At a preliminary hearing on Sept. 28, 1970, Peak shocked prosecutors by exonerating Rice and Poindexter. After a break for the noon hour, by eyewitness accounts, Peak returned to the hearing visibly shaken, wearing sunglasses, and changed his entire story from the morning, implicating Rice and Poindexter. Peak was the only eyewitness against the convicted men. Peak's account at trial was supported by physical evidence, dynamite purportedly seized from Rice's house. A federal court ruled in 1974 that the search by which the dynamite was allegedly found was illegal, lending credibility to we Langa's (Rice's) contention that it was planted. In 1974, the Federal district court ordered a new trial, but this was prevented by a jurisdictional technicality applied by the Supreme Court [Stone v. Powell, 428 US 465, (1976)], which established that a remedy for a Fourth Amendment claim must first be sought in State court. While awaiting an outcome in the federal process, the statutory time limit for filing in the Nebraska courts had expired. Rice and Poindexter were convicted with the assistance of agents from the FBI COINTEL-PRO (counter intelligence program). FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover instituted the program in 1956 with the goal of disrupting extremist political groups, with particular focus on Black Nationalist organizations. Among the program's stated purposes was "to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of Black Nationalist, hate-type organizations . . . their leadership . . . and supporters." COINTEL-PRO was officially abandoned in 1972 after Hoover's death. A freedom of information suit against the FBI exposed the unconstitutional practices of COINTEL-PRO. For their involvement in COINTELPRO, former FBI Director L. Patrick Grey and Edward S. Miller, one-time head of the domestic counterintelligence unit in the FBI's New York Field Office, were convicted in 1980 of having "conspired to injure and oppress the citizens of the United States." Having served no time, they were pardoned in 1981 by President Reagan. One of the most alarming aspects of the Rice-Poindexter case is the suppression of what would have been a key (effectively exculpatory) piece of evidence, the audiotape of the actual 911 call that led the police officers to the house where the bomb exploded. A FBI memo recommending suppression of the 911 tape as evidence surfaced nearly eight years after the trial, showing police cooperation with the FBI. The following text is excerpted directly from the FBI memo released through the FOI (boldface added). "Assistant COP GLENN GATES, Omaha PD, advised that he feels that any use of tapes of this call might be prejudicial to the police murder trial against two accomplices of PEAK and, therefore, has advised that he wishes no use of this tape until after the murder trials of PEAK and the two accomplices has been completed." An actual copy of the 911 tape surfaced several years later, revealing that the voice on the tape was not that of Duane Peak, contrary to what was established during the trial. Those who knew Peak are certain that the tape recording of the 911 call is not of his voice. If his voice is not the voice on the tape, it means he was lying at the trial and his testimony had no credibility. In fact, the transcript of the 911 call reveals gross inconsistencies and contradictions with Peak's sworn testimony and depositions about the specific details of the call. Had the 911 tape been used during the trial, it is a virtual certainty that Rice and Poindexter would not have been convicted. The
Rice-Poindexter case has gained generally limited attention
internationally. The case was the subject of a BBC documentary in 1990.
The film examined the Rice-Poindexter case as well as that of Geronimo
Pratt, a Black Panther activist who was targeted by COINTEL-PRO and
imprisoned for a murder he did not commit. Pratt's conviction was
overturned in 1997. It becomes clear that the Rice and Poindexter were convicted for their
rhetoric and radical politics, not for any crime they committed. The case
potentially represents one of the worst miscarriages of justice in
Nebraska history, and it deserves the attention of the human rights
community and concerned individuals in Nebraska, the United States, and
internationally. Mary Dickinson |