The Case of Mondo we Langa (formerly known as David Rice) and Ed Poindexter
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MONDO DIED FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 AT 11:55 PM
CST WHILE STILL LOCKED UP IN THE NEBRASKA STATE PENITENTIARY!
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| Mondo was ill with end-stage Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and had a number of urgent medical
interventions as a result. With the exception of visits to an
outside hospital, he had been in the prison infirmary since October
7, 2015. Efforts to have the
Nebraska Pardons Board (the Nebraska Governor, Attorney General, and
Secretary of State) grant Mondo a compassionate release from
prison were met with the normal bureaucratic response that such a
request would have to be processed according to the lengthy
procedures outlined in the relevant regulations. Final
arrangements are pending. Below are links to a case fact
sheet and an extensive article by Elena Carter on BuzzFeed.com
published February 11, 2016. April 17, 2016 would have marked
the 46th anniversary of Mondo's wrongful incarceration. May
his spirit rest in peace as he joins the ancestors. He
sacrificed his life for his community and for the cause of justice
for all. Shame on Nebraska and the United States!
Fact Sheet BuzzFeed Link BuzzFeed PDF |
In July, 1970, Ed Clark's 12 year old sister, Marialice Clark, was named by Alcohol Tobacco
& Firearms (ATF) agent, Tom Sledge, in an affidavit for a warrant to search the former Omaha Black Panthers' (they were known as the National Committee
to Combat Fascism then) headquarters and two years later she disappeared and has not been seen since. Please click on Marialice's picture to sign Ed's petition to the U. S. Attorney General to have his
sister's disappearance investigated.
Marialice Clark I created this website 13 years ago to support Mondo We Langa (formerly, David Rice) and Ed Poindexter's attempts to get back into court to prove their innocence. I know both of these men personally from the time that I lived in or near Omaha, Nebraska 1952-1988, which included ten years as an officer, two as Treasurer and eight out of ten as President of the Omaha NAACP. I have no doubts about Mondo and Ed's innocence, and since the courts refuse to grant them a new trial, I believe it is long past the time when the Nebraska Pardons
Board should release them. Mondo was 68 years old when he died in prison and Ed is 71.
Ed is in poor health. There is no rational reason to incarcerate Ed until death; in fact, it is a violation of Nebraska law to do so.I came to Father Flanagan’s Boys Town in 1952 as a nine-year old from rural Virginia, where I was born. After a stint in a Catholic seminary in Bay St. Louis, Miss. and Island Creek, Mass., I returned to Omaha in 1961 and enrolled in Creighton University. By 1970, I was married with two children and working at Mutual of Omaha, and later that year, for the City of Omaha. I was not politically active, just trying to finish my education, pay my bills, and raise a family. I drove a laundry/dry cleaning truck for One-Hour Martinizing, worked part-time at Skagway, Arlans, Sears, the Omaha World-Herald loading dock and taught two classes of sophomore Latin at Creighton Prep in 1964-65. David Rice was a student there, though not in my classes. From 1973 to 1977, I served as Omaha Human Relations Director, responsible for enforcing laws banning discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. My consciousness was raised in 1969, when 14-year old Vivian Strong and some friends were having a party in a vacant apartment at the Logan-Fontenelle
housing projects in Omaha’s African American ghetto. The police were called and the kids scattered. Vivian was running down the sidewalk when Omaha Police officer James Loder shot her to death with a bullet to the back of her head. Loder’s partner that night was Jimmy Smith. Jimmy and his wife lived across the street from us in the Hilltop
housing projects. Jimmy tackled Loder and disarmed him. When Loder was acquitted of manslaughter charges, the African American community was righteously angry that another caucasian police officer had gotten off with no punishment for the murder of another African American, this time a child. The following year, in 1970, the bombing happened at 2867 Ohio. Most people in the African American community who knew Mondo and Ed did not believe they were guilty. Many doubted that Duane Peak, a 15-year old, who was supposed to have placed the bomb in the house, was involved. The Omaha World Herald newspaper wholeheartedly believed the prosecution's story; and
apparently still does. I cannot believe 45 years have gone by and all the evidence of government violations of their constitutional rights, prosecutorial misconduct, perjury, and suppressed evidence have all been ignored by the courts on appeal. Yet, President Ronald Reagan pardoned two FBI agents “in case they had done anything illegal” while engaged in clearly unconstitutional activity against American citizens. Why has there been no investigation into
criminal actions by government officials against Mondo and Ed? This website is our attempt to tell a part of their story. There is a summary of the case, information on COINTELPRO, the FBI's program to target and neutralize African American “militants”, biographical information about Mondo and Ed, samples of Mondo's writings and a link to court documents and television and radio shows by their supporters. Please take a moment to analyze and question the prosecution's case. If you were innocent, would you ever give up trying to prove it? Buddy Hogan
Chatsworth, California |
