- On September 15, 1973, Veronza Bowers, Jr. was arrested
in Mill Valley, California and charged with robbery and possession of stolen
property. After state charges were dropped for lack of probable cause to
obtain a search warrant, the FBI arrested Bowers and charged him with the
first-degree murder of National Park Service ranger Kenneth Patrick on
August 5, 1973 at Point Reyes National Seashore near San Francisco.
-
- At trial, testimonies from two government informants,
Alan Veale and Jonathan Shoher, proved crucial. Both were also charged
with the killing. Yet there were no independent eye-witnesses, and no evidence
incriminated Bowers besides the word of these two men who had every incentive
to cooperate with the Department of Justice.
-
- Veale and Shoher were convicted bank robbers. In return
for their testimony, their murder charges were dropped, and one of them
served no prison time, was paid $10,000, and placed in the government's
witness protection program.
-
- Allegations were that the three men were at Point Reyes
National Seashore to poach deer, ranger Patrick confronted them, and Bowers
shot him three times. At trial, he testified for himself and steadfastly
denied the charge. His wife's alibi testimony was dismissed as well as
assertions by two relatives of the informants who insisted they were lying.
-
- In April 1974, Bowers was convicted in San Francisco
District Court and sentenced to life in prison. He's currently held at
the United States Penitentiary (USP), Atlanta, Georgia.
-
- In August 1979, after a failed prison escape from the
Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution, Bowers became a model prisoner
by focusing on his spiritual self. He became an author, musician, and student
of Asian healing arts. He developed a strong interest in Buddhist meditation
and hands-on healing techniques. He's an honorary Lompoc Tribe of Five
Feathers member, a Native American spiritual and cultural group, and a
mentor and founder of the All-Faith Meditation Group, a non-denominational
spiritual organization devoted to healing meditation using the traditional
Japanese shakuhachi flute.
-
- At the expense of having his parole appeals denied, Bowers
consistently maintains his innocence. Friends and supporters stand with
him and offer testimony in his behalf.
-
- Neoma Kenwood is a California Appellate Project attorney
who represented Bowers pro bono for many years. On August 14, 1991, he
wrote to the Parole Commission, mainly as a friend, and said this was his
first ever letter like this. He did it because "Mr. Bowers is in a
special category....(he's) very different; I have found him to possess
much more integrity and decency than many of my fellow professionals."
-
- Prison Administrator J. Harrison praised Bowers in a
1991 letter for his "contributions to the operations and programs
of the (US Penitentiary Terre Haute, IN) Recreation Department," calling
them "numerous and significant." He added that he "can be
depended upon to willingly and cheerfully perform any extra task which
the staff of this department might ask of him, (and) strongly endorsed"
his parole.
-
- Numerous other support letters were similar, including
one by Maynard Garfield. He's treasurer of the Veronza Bowers, Jr. legal
defense fund. He describes him as mature, intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate,
and considers it "a privilege and a pleasure to call him my friend."
Yet he's been denied parole at his hearings. Garfield said:
-
- "I have pleaded with him. Just tell them: 'I was
young and did wrong. But I have found my way. I am a born-again Christian.
I have found salvation.' "
-
- Bowers responds:
-
- "Don't you understand. I have been here for 35 years.
If the only way I can get out is to lie and say I am guilty, then my whole
life if a sham. I will rot here in prison before I will do that."
-
- According to Garfield, rot he may without considerable
help, and that's why this article is written - to urge readers to go <http://www.veronza.org>www.veronza.org
for information about him and learn how to help. Numerous times before,
he was approved for parole and given release dates, only to have them rescinded
at the last moment.
-
- On October 5, 2005, he was due for Mandatory Parole but
again was denied. On July 18, 2005 Bryan Gaynor, Alan Chaset and Monty
Levenson representing him explained as follows:
-
- "The National Parole Commission has again blocked
Veronza Bowers, Jr.'s right to be released on mandatory parole after serving
more than 31 years in prison....(its) third in a series of high-handed
and improper actions to deny (him) his right....in complete disregard of
the Commission's legal obligation to follow applicable federal statutes
as well as its own rules and regulations. We believe this latest and most
egregious decision, made at the request of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,
is politically motivated, disregards Veronza's exceptionally good conduct
in prison, and is an unlawful denial of his right to due process."
-
- The lawyers also provided background information and
explained that Bowers was legally entitled to "mandatory parole"
since April 7, 2004 because:
-
- -- no evidence showed he might commit a crime if released;
-
- -- he hadn't violated prison rules; or
-
- -- committed serious infractions during his years of
incarceration; in fact, he's a model prisoner.
-
- Nonetheless, his parole was denied. Then on October 26,
2004, Federal Judge William Terrell Hodges of the Middle District of Florida
ruled on a habeas writ and ordered the Commission to hold a hearing within
30 days and release Bowers on "mandatory parole" if he complied
with the above three qualifications.
-
- A December 21, 2004 hearing was held at which nationally-recognized
criminologist and Clinical Director of the National Center of Institutions
and Alternatives Hans H. Selvog testified. He administered a battery of
psychological tests and determined that Bowers is normal, socially well-adjusted
with no criminal disposition, and an excellent candidate for parole.
-
- Examiner Rob Haworth also testified that Bowers was eligible
for "mandatory parole." He said he believed he was one of the
most worthy candidates he'd encountered and recommended that he be released
on February 18, 2005. Commissioner Cranston Mitchell ordered it based on
Haworth's assessment.
-
- Yet on that date, at the last moment, the Commission
notified the Coleman Correction Facility warden that the parole was rescinded,
and the five-member Commission would reconsider his case. Besides political
pressure from Washington, the ruling was based on unsupported allegations
of ranger Patrick's widow and members of the Fraternal Order of Police
(FOP). The woman supported her dead husband with no knowledge of the facts.
FOP members cited spurious allegations of prison rule violations, including
arranging for two contract killings.
-
- Earlier on August 26, 2005, Association of National Park
Rangers president Lee Werst wrote Thomas Hutchinson, chief of staff, US
Parole Commission as follows:
-
- "....we believe a decision by the Commission to
parole Mr. Bowers would send the wrong message to the federal law enforcement
community we all depend on to protect our public lands and citizens. Indeed,
it would send the wrong message to Mr. Patrick's family and friends, to
every employee of the National Park Service, and to all federal agency
personnel - that the memory of Ranger Patrick's ultimate sacrifice somehow
holds lesser importance than the early release of a convicted murderer."
-
- On March 21, 2005, a rehearing was held and affirmed
the previous December's recommendations: namely, that no credible evidence
supported denying Bowers release. Between March 21 and May 16, the Commission
exercised its "original jurisdiction" and voted two in favor,
two opposed, and one abstention on parole. Anything less than a majority
meant Bowers should be freed. June 21, 2005 was his scheduled release date,
but on June 14, at the request of AG Alberto Gonzales, the Commission rescinded
it without notifying his lawyers so they and Bowers could respond.
-
- Attorneys Gaynor, Chaset and Levenson considered this
action "to be without a proper basis in law. There is no statutory
authority whatsoever (for it). It is our position that the original jurisdiction
decision by the Commission constituted final agency action and any further
action taken in this matter violates due process."
-
- What's most objectionable is how the politicization of
Bowers' case made an impartial administrative process impossible. Gonzales'
intervention was "illegal, unprecedented and pander(ed) to the political
agenda of his administration's constituents." It defiled the case's
merits and kept him incarcerated to this day, over four years later.
-
- On June 6, 2009, Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer
Rhonda Cook said "US Magistrate Susan Cole....wrote in a final report
and recommendation order that US Attorney (General) Alberto Gonzales improperly
meddled in (his) case (and that Bowers should) be paroled immediately."
-
- Cole said Gonzales "had no statutory or regulatory
authority" to get involved and by doing so affected the Commission's
impartiality. In a recommendation to US District Judge Charles Moye, assigned
to handle Bowers' 2008 lawsuit, she added that the decision to keep Bowers
imprisoned "cannot stand." A Commission spokesperson declined
to comment. Current Bowers attorney Charles D. Weisselberg was confident
that an honest review of the case would yield a favorable decision for
his client.
-
- On August 13, 2005, former political prisoner Ashanti
Alston read Bowers' prepared statement at a Washington, DC Justice Rally.
He said:
-
- "....I am Veronza Bowers, Jr. I am a former member
of the original Black Panther Party (more on that below) and have been
held in federal prison for almost 32 years. I am just one of the many long-held
Political Prisoners whom government officials officially claim do not exist....I
was convicted (mainly on the testimonies) of two paid 'informants (sound
familiar?) in (a) shooting death (I had no part in)."
-
- "....your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters
and friends are filling up these prisons with sentences longer than they've
been on this earth....they are filling the graveyards before they've had
a chance to live. Something is dreadfully wrong with this picture...Please,
can we have a full minute of silence to remember and honor all those who
have gone before us in our struggle. For a better future for us all. After
the silence, I salute and thank you."
-
- The Original Black Panther Party
-
- As Bowers said above, he was "a former member of
the original Black Panther Party." This writer's October 2008 article
on the San Francisco Eight former members contained the section below -
slightly edited here to explain what party members stood for, an agenda
far different from mainstream propaganda about them.
-
- In October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded
the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. It was progressive, activist,
militantly for ethnic justice, racial emancipation, and real economic,
social, and political equality across gender and color lines - radical
ideas then and now. The party's ten-point program expressed them:
-
- (1) freedom and "power to determine the destiny
of our black community;"
-
- (2) full employment for black people and everyone;
-
- (3) "an end to the robbery by the capitalists of
our black community;"
-
- (4) decent housing;
-
- (5) education to expose "the true nature of this
decadent American society (and teach) us our true history and our role
in the present-day society;"
-
- (6) for "all black men to be exempt from military
service" at a time they were drafted for foreign wars;
-
- (7) "an immediate end to police brutality and murder
of black people;"
-
- (8) "freedom for all black men held in federal,
state, county and city prisons and jails" as political prisoners;
-
- (9) for black people in court "to be tried....by
a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities;"
and
-
- (10) "land, bread, housing, education, clothing,
justice and peace."
-
- It added words from the Declaration of Independence at
the end:
-
- -- "that all men are created equal";
-
- -- "to secure (their) rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;"
-
- -- "that, whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish
it, and institute a new government;"
-
- -- "to throw off (despotism), and to provide new
guards for (peoples') future security."
-
- They believed in the rule of law, published a newspaper
with 250,000 readers that articulated fundamental wants and needs, and
practiced what they preached with:
-
- -- nutritious breakfasts for poor children;
-
- -- groceries for needy families;
-
- -- free clinics for medical care;
-
- -- a free ambulance service;
-
- -- help for the homeless;
-
- -- free legal aids and bussing to prisons;
-
- -- after-school and summer classes teaching black history;
and
-
- -- voter registration drives for blacks that helped elect
Oakland's first black mayor, Lionel Wilson, in the city where the Panthers
were founded.
-
- They were young, idealistic, and willing to put their
lives on the line for their beliefs and activism. Their goal was to make
the world a better place - for black people and everyone. They were revolutionaries,
hostile to repression. In Huey Newton's words they were: "never a
group of angry young militants full of fury toward the 'white establishment.'
The Party operated on love for black people, not hatred of white people."
Their 2000 members demanded change and struggled for it from over 30 branches
nationwide.
-
- They wanted redress of longstanding grievances - slavery,
Jim Crow laws and practices, segregation, neglect and abuse, and claimed
their right of self-defense against them. It was a revolutionary agenda
that included ideas Jefferson preached, but for practicing them the US
government targeted them for destruction and largely succeeded. The 1960s
civil rights gains as well so that today blacks are repressed, impoverished,
and segregated. They're stripped of their voting rights, and consigned
to second class status by a society disdaining them, other people of color,
and all non-Christians or Jews.
-
- The October 2008 article focused on the San Francisco
Eight (SF 8) - innocent men targeted by the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO -
a gangster operation that never ended. Because of their Black Panther activism,
they were framed for crimes they didn't commit from 1968 - 1973.
-
- Updated Status of the SF 8
-
- On July 6, California state prosecutors dropped charges
against four members for lack of sufficient evidence - Ray Boudreaux, Richard
Brown, Hank Jones and Harold Taylor. Jalil Muntaqim pled no contest to
conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter, received credit for time served
and three years probation. He'll now return to New York to seek parole.
Attorney Soffiyah Elijah said: "This is finally the disposition of
a case that should never have been brought in the first place."
-
- Francisco Torres still faces an August 10 court hearing.
He steadfastly maintains his innocence, according to his attorney Charles
Bourdon who'll file a motion to dismiss charges to have his client released.
-
- Herman Bell pled guilty to the reduced charge of involuntary
manslaughter and received a sentence of five years probation with no additional
incarceration.
-
- Albert Nuh Washington died in prison.
-
- Veronza Bowers, Jr. was targeted for the same reason
as the SF 8 - for being black and committed to social justice for all people
equally. Today, others as dedicated risk the same fate at a time we're
all watched and as vulnerable as Veronza.
-
- A Brief Legal History of Bowers' Case
-
- Throughout his incarceration, the Parole Commission consistently
violated its own rules and regulations in denying Bowers due process -
even after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (in 1993) determined that
it acted improperly. It granted him relief, and instructed the District
Court to have the Commission recompute his parole eligibility.
-
- Nonetheless, the Commission ignored the order and ruled
(without explanation) that Bowers must stay in prison until his mandatory
April 26, 2004 release date. A final appeal to the National Parole Commission
failed to reverse the decision.
-
- Bowers became eligible for parole on December 6, 1983
after serving 10 years in prison. In November, he had his first hearing
before the US Parole Commission, was denied, and was ordered to serve another
10 years before reconsideration. All subsequent legal appeals failed until
the 1993 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. It was also ignored, and
Bowers remains incarcerated despite considerable efforts on his behalf
and the below listed factors about him:
-
- -- his exemplary conduct and achievements as a model
prisoner, including attaining a community college associates of arts degree
and receiving a commendation for saving guards from assault or possible
death by intervening in a hostile prison confrontation;
-
- -- his activities as an author, musician and therapeutic
healer - through music, accupressure, and therapy message;
-
- -- his spirituality, strong emotional state, and belief
in nonviolence;
-
- -- his receiving the highest possible "salient factor"
score of 10 - the Parole Commission rating to determine his eligibility
and prognosis if paroled; and
-
- -- the active support of prison staff, family, friends,
and community for his release.
-
- Bowers' lawyers and supporters continue their struggle
to free him, the National Jericho Movement among them that seeks "Recognition
and Amnesty" for political prisoners in America. It calls holding
them "an act of terror" and says this as an advocate for Bowers:
-
- "TOGETHER, we can help force the US Parole Commission
and the federal prison system honor its obligation to let Veronza Bowers
go free" - after unjustly being imprisoned for 35 years, yet courageously
enduring it with dignity and steadfast adherence to his principles.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
<mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net>lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
- Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
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