Free Angela and All Political Prisoners Page #9

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"Yes, that's her, right there."

And he chose Kendra.

It was an astounding moment.

And it revealed Leo's brilliant lawyering.

He set the guy up, that's really

what he did. He set the guy up.

You know these things,

the cumulative effect on the jurors.

But just the very idea

of making that argument

saying, "Eyewitness testimony is some

of the most unreliable you'll ever get."

That didn't

strike me right.

But then when you see them

cross-examine these people,

and there are these people saying,

"This is what I saw with my own eyes."

It seemed to be so...

Just tear their testimony up.

Makes you really think about

the eyewitness testimony, you know.

The prosecutor, Mr. Harris,

believed he had a case.

And I think the most powerful item

that he had

were what were referred to as "the letters."

Angela had written letters to George

when he was still in Soledad Prison.

Those letters which were, you know,

very passionate and very emotional,

and, you know, all about love,

but struggle and revolution.

It was all entangled.

But he wanted to use this

as the primary evidence of my guilt.

The defense did not

want these letters in there.

And the prosecution wanted them in there,

because they said,

"You read these letters,

you'll understand why she did this."

Here's a quote, it's from Harris.

"You will find, I think, from the letters,

a willingness on the part of the defendant

"to do whatever she felt had to be done

to free George Jackson."

It was as though the letters

were meant to, in fact, say,

"Look, I'll free you. And I'm so in love

with you, I'll do anything for you."

You know?

Leo was incensed, okay.

He was really incensed about

putting in this diary,

and particularly this part of the diary

where Angela is

expressing herself in this way.

Now, Branton, he stood on his feet,

and put his hand here, in his jacket,

and this arm was way out in front,

and he was just saying,

"These are not admissible."

So, we fought.

I mean, some of the heaviest fighting in

the case was over editing this letter.

The judge comes in

with his sweeping black robes,

and he kind of steps up the steps,

and he sits down.

The courtroom is very nervous

and sitting forward,

and no one's looking at anyone else.

Arnason takes the 18 pages,

came back with three pages.

And so he read some of the letters in court.

"I, your wife, your comrade,

who's supposed to love you,

"fight with you, fight for you,

"I'm supposed to rip off the chains.

"I'm supposed to fight your enemies

with my body,

"but I am helpless, powerless.

"I contain a rage inside

"as I re-experience this now,

my pulse beats faster.

"I begin to breathe harder. And I see myself

"tearing down this steel door,

fighting my way to you,

"ripping down your cell door

and letting you go free.

"I feel as you do, so terribly is this love."

If I had been the prosecutor,

I would try to put that in, too.

It was very painful

to have my expressions

of my deepest emotional feelings

splashed across the newspaper as a

result of having been revealed in court.

It was very difficult, yeah.

It was very difficult.

Doris Walker and Margaret Burnham

had been in charge of our witnesses.

They had a whole slew of people

lined up to testify.

And what we ultimately

decided was that

we should not appear to be defensive.

And we should only have witnesses

for very specific points

that might be confusing to the jury.

Just imagine.

This judge is taken out of the courtroom

with a shotgun

and you have someone

that buys these weapons,

but what makes that fall apart is,

why, if that was the plan,

why would she use her own

identification to purchase these weapons?

Basically, your defense is, and I think

Leo Branton said it just like this,

"Angela Davis is not stupid.

You know she's not stupid.

"She had to be stupid to buy these guns,

"knowing that we were going to know

that she bought them

"and they're going to be

the weapons in this crime."

Carefully, without emotion,

the prosecutor

wound up his case against Angela Davis.

"She conspired to kidnap and murder, "

he said,

"because of a passionate desire

"to free her lover,

Soledad Brother George Jackson."

Prosecutor Albert Harris

showed the guns she bought.

He reviewed the testimony of witnesses

who saw her with a young man

who later used those guns.

"This case is all about death, injury

and kidnapping," Harris said.

"And Angela Davis is responsible."

"Assistant Attorney General Albert W. Harris

"quietly turned from the wooden lectern

in the middle of the courtroom

"and walked a few steps to

the prosecuting attorney's table.

"He glanced down

at a pile of papers on his desk,

"and announced, undramatically,

'The People rest their case."'

He did a magnificent job

of taking all of these pieces,

and pulling them all together

and telling you what to think.

I said...

"I believe Angela's gone."

Leo told me, "See, now, Howard,

"you're gonna take the eyewitnesses.

They're yours."

So I emphasized

the presumption of innocence,

the question of reasonable doubt,

and I attacked each one

of the eyewitnesses.

Then we paused and we set up the stage,

and my brother, Leo, rose to the occasion.

I knew that I had to prove

that Angela's flight

was not evidence of guilt.

I said to the jury,

"I want you to play a role with me.

"For the next several minutes,

I want you to think black.

"I want you to be black.

"Don't worry.

"I'll let you return to being white

when this is over.

"If you're black,

"you know that your fore parents were

brought to this country as slaves.

"And the United States

Supreme Court ruled,

"'There are no rights

"'that a black person has

that a white man is bound to respect.'

"An intellectual like Angela Davis knew this.

"She also knew that during the '60s,

every time a black person raised his voice

"in support of liberty and the freedom

of the black man, he was assassinated.

"And so if you know all of those things,

"if you are Angela Davis,

"or if you're black,

"you don't wonder why she fled.

"You only wonder why in the world

did she allow herself to be caught?"

Defense attorney, Leo Branton, said

he did not know who the person was

that the prosecution witnesses

had identified as Angela Davis.

But he said it wasn't his job to find out.

"Angela Davis is no fool," he continued.

"Why would she buy a gun

to blow a judge's head off

"and buy it in her own name?

"The prosecution's theory is absurd."

The jury will begin deliberating

her guilt or innocence tomorrow.

We were sitting on the lawn.

Franklin came out

and he said, "They've reached a verdict."

And I was standing next to Mrs. Davis,

Angela's mother.

And she said to me, "I can't go in.

"I just... I can't go in." She couldn't bear it.

She wanted to be with her own thoughts,

and she obviously didn't think

she could maintain her composure.

And it was Angela who reached out to her

and said,

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