And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 14:15:54 -0800 From: Nicholas Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> VIA: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 17:45:13 EST ATTORNEY GENERAL TAKES OVER BEAR LINCOLN CASE As predicted last week the California Attorney General's office has taken over the Bear Lincoln case, but has not decided whether to retry him on manslaughter charges, a deputy A.G. revealed in court last Friday in Ukiah. Deputy Attorney General Michael O'Reilly showed up in court January 15 to tell the judge -- and new Mendocino Distict Attorney Norman Vroman -- that his office had taken over the Lincoln case at the request of Vroman's predecessor Susan Massini. O'Reilly said he would need three more months to decide whether to retry Lincoln. Judge John Golden set a hearing date of April 23 for O'Reilly to return. About 150 Lincoln supporters held a spirited rally in front of the courthouse before the hearing. They then packed the courtroom for the brief hearing. Details of the hearing and the rally are given in a story in the Albion Monitor at http://www.monitor.net/monitor Lincoln, a Native resident of the Round Valley Indian Reservation in northern Mendocino County, California, was acquitted of murder in a 1997 trial stemming from the shooting death of deputy sheriff Bob Davis. The jury hung 10-2 for acquittal on the lesser charge of manslaughter. Jurors said the main prosecution witnesses were caught lying on the witness stand. Ten of the jurors concluded that Lincoln was acting in self-defense when he fired shots in the dark after seeing his lifelong friend Acorn Peters shot down in ambush on a rural mountain road. Many of the jurors also believed that Davis was killed by a bullet fired by his partner, deputy Dennis Miller. Miller changed his story several times before the trial as new physical evidence was discovered. After being the prosecution's star witness at Lincoln's murder trial, Miller was promoted to sergeant, but later left the county for a job with another sheriff's department. After Friday's hearing, the Lincoln-Peters Defense Alliance resolved to send letters and petitions to new California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a former high-ranking Democrat state senator. They felt that Lockyer probably does not know about the Lincoln case yet, and it is being handled by holdovers from the administration of Dan Lungren, Lockyer's right-wing Republican predecessor. Lockyer's office last week sent out a press release touting a new program to enforce civil rights laws. The release was timed in relation to the Martin Luther King federal holiday. The following paragraph is quoted from that release: "For the past eight years the state of California has done little to enforce existing laws that protect the civil rights of all our citizens," Lockyer said. "As Attorney General I will reverse the policies of division and exclusion which characterized the last administration, and I will instead resume the fight to end illegal discrimination and racism in California. We owe it to our children, the future of California, to fulfill the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. that people will 'not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.'" One of the first letters from Lincoln supporters to Lockyer mentioned the civil rights announcement. Former Congressional representative and Green Party candidate for governor Dan Hamburg faxed the following letter to Lockyer over the weekend. Dan has given permission to circulate the letter, which is copied below. The Albion Monitor online newspaper has covered the Lincoln case since its first issue in August, 1995. All past articles are available free through its archives. The Monitor also maintains a Lincoln case index that covers all the stories since the beginning of the 1997 trial at http://www.monitor.net/monitor/rv/rv-background.html The Lincoln-Peters Defense Alliance will soon assume control of a Bear Lincoln support web site at http://www.monitor.net/~bear The site presently exists, but is about a year out of date. It does contain a complete transcript of the Lincoln murder trial. The group plans to bring the site up to date in the immediate future. To contact the group call the Mendocino Environmental Center at 707-468-1660. They have no e-mail address at present. ----------------------------------- Letter from Dan Hamburg January 17, 1999 Bill Lockyer, Attorney General 1300 I Street Sacramento, CA 95814 by facsimile: 916/324-5205 Dear Bill, I read with interest the recent press release from your office calling for an end to discrimination and racism in the enforcement of state and federal laws in California. Knowing of your commitment in this area, I am confident that it is only due to bureaucratic oversight that the matter of Eugene �Bear� Lincoln has not been dropped. As you know, Mr. Lincoln was acquitted in 1997 of murder and attempted murder charges pursued against him by recently defeated Mendocino County district attorney Susan Massini. Ten jurors voted for acquittal on all charges; the two who did not may well have been tainted. After her defeat in November, Ms. Massini turned the case over to the office of former attorney general Dan Lungren. It is now being handled by your deputy, Michael O�Reilly. I urge you to move for dismissal of this case. It is time to allow Mr. Lincoln, after nearly four years of unwarranted imprisonment and trial, to return to his life. Sincerely yours, Dan Hamburg Ukiah, California ### <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... 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