Friday 1/6 Georgia Hearing for PP Veronza Bowers

Veronza with daughter Veronica and his grandchildren

Posted by: Akinyele Umoja via Nattyreb

A status conference will be held in the Federal District Court in
Gainesville, Georgia this Friday, January 6, 2012 for former Black
Panther Veronza Bowers. Bowers was to be paroled in 2005 after
serving over three decades in prison. The Bush Administration
intervened and ordered he not be released. In September 2011, a
federal court ruled that a Bush appointed parole commissioner worked
"behind the scenes" to block the release of Veronza, which had
already been approved.

Veronza was convicted in the 1973 murder of a U.S. Park Ranger on the
word of two government informers, both of whom received reduced
sentences for other crimes by the Federal prosecutor's office. At his
trial, Veronza offered alibi testimony which was not credited by the
jury. Nor was testimony of two relatives of the informants who
insisted that they were lying. His conviction is reflective of the
manufactured convictions of Black Panther Party and other activists
of the 1960s and 70s due to the Cointelpro policy of the United
States government. The U.S. government used "any means necessary" to
eliminate a militant, grassroots Black movement. Veronza Bower's
continued incarceration is the continuation of this Cointelpro policy.

Veronza Bowers legal defense committee is asking that concerned
organizations and individuals attend the status conference to be
informed on the case and to demonstrate he has support. The hearing
will take place at US District Court 121 Spring St SE, Gainesville,
GA 30501 at 11am in the courtroom #103 of Judge Susan Cole, presiding.

Please circulate this note to other interested groups and individuals.

For more information on Veronza Bowers please go to:

http://veronza.org/home.html

New hearing for Verona Bowers in ranger killing

by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle September 3, 2011

A federal appeals court says a biased U.S. parole commissioner, a onetime aide to President George W. Bush, worked behind the scenes in 2005 to thwart the release of a former Black Panther convicted of murdering a park ranger at Point Reyes in 1973.

But, despite finding that Commissioner Deborah Spagnoli's misconduct had tainted the Parole Commission's 11th-hour decision to keep Veronza Bowers in prison, the court last month did not order his release. Instead, it ordered a new hearing before a commission that is much the same as the one that ruled against him, except for a successor to Spagnoli, who resigned in 2007.

"We believe Bowers will receive a fair and impartial hearing" when the remaining members reconsider his case, said the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, where Bowers is imprisoned. The 3-0 ruling was issued Aug. 26.

Bowers' lawyers are concerned about the commission's ability "to address the case fairly and impartially, given its track record," Charles Weisselberg, a UC Berkeley law professor and an attorney for the inmate, said Friday.

"But we're very grateful that Mr. Bowers has another opportunity for release," he added.

Bowers of Mill Valley was convicted of fatally shooting Kenneth Patrick, 40, who stopped a car of suspected bow-and-arrow deer poachers in a remote area of the Point Reyes National Seashore in August 1973.

Patrick was the first federal ranger killed on the job in California. Bowers said he had been at home at the time and has continued to maintain his innocence, but he was identified as the gunman by a witness who said he had been in the car.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 1974 under rules that required release on parole after 30 years unless the inmate was shown to be dangerous or had seriously violated prison regulations. Current law bars parole for federal prisoners sentenced since mid-1984.

Bowers tried to escape from prison in 1979. But as his 30-year date approached in 2004, a hearing officer cited his spotless record for the past 15 years and found he was unlikely to re-offend.

A few days before his scheduled parole in February 2005, Spagnoli and another commissioner moved to reopen the case. The commission's 2-2 split still would have allowed Bowers' release, but Spagnoli, a 2003 Bush appointee, then asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to intervene, the court said.

Commissioners reopened the case again, at Gonzales' request, and voted 4-0 to deny parole in June 2005, citing the escape attempt and Bowers' insistence that he was an innocent political prisoner, which the commission said showed his attitude hadn't changed since the time of the murder.

The court said a document uncovered in 2007 showed that Spagnoli had written a one-sided memo to a Gonzales deputy outlining arguments against Bowers. After the final vote, the court said, she sent an e-mail to a Justice Department official that said simply "Victory."

Spagnoli "took on an advocate's role," violating her duty of neutrality, the court said. It said her actions also breached the commission's obligation to act as an independent agency, "impermissibly tainting the Parole Commission's decision to reopen" the case.

The court told the commission to reconsider the case as it stood in May 2005, before the vote denying parole. The current commissioners include two who took part in that vote, one who disqualified himself from the case, and a new member appointed by President Obama.

Court: Panelist secretly blocked parole for former Black Panther who killed park ranger

By Greg Bluestein Associated Press Sept 2, 2011

ATLANTA -- A former Black Panther convicted of murdering a California park ranger is getting another shot at freedom after a federal appeals court found that a parole official improperly worked to keep him behind bars by secretly handing over information to Justice Department officials.

The Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision last week found that then-U.S. Parole Commissioner Deborah Spagnoli "impermissibly tainted" the board's decision to delay Veronza Bowers' release when she wrote a memo to government attorneys about the case. Her actions, the three-judge panel said, violated the commission's mandate as an independent arbiter.

Spagnoli, who resigned from the commission in 2007, said Thursday she was unaware of the ruling and refused to discuss the case.

The panel's decision stopped short of releasing Bowers, who was convicted of the 1973 killing of Kenneth Patrick at Point Reyes National Seashore in California. But the court ordered a new hearing to determine if Bowers could be released, noting that corrections officials have called him a "model prisoner."

Bowers was sentenced to life in prison in April 1974 and at the time was eligible for parole after 30 years. The U.S. Parole Commission held a hearing on his case in December 2004, when an examiner found that Bowers was not likely to commit future crimes and had "been an outstanding inmate" for the previous 15 years. The panel decided to grant him mandatory parole in February 2005.

But days before he was to be released, a commission staff member organized a new hearing that included Patrick's widow, Tomie Patrick Lee. The panel met again in May and deadlocked in a 2-2 vote on whether to release Bowers, which by law should have allowed him to leave prison.

That's when Spagnoli sent the memo to the office of then-U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who made the unprecedented decision to intervene, the ruling said. The memo, which wasn't discovered until 2007, outlined arguments for an appeal that could be used by government attorneys if Bowers was granted parole, the opinion said.

Gonzales asked the commission in June 2005 to review its decision, and days later the panel voted to temporarily delay Bowers' release. Commissioners went a step further in October 2005, voting 4-0 to keep Bowers in prison indefinitely, citing a failed escape attempt he launched with another inmate in 1979 and fears he could commit another crime.

After the decision, the court said, Spagnoli sent a one-word email to a Justice Department attorney: "Victory."

Justice Department officials did not immediately comment on the case.

The commission's then-chairman, Edward Reilly, discovered the memo in 2007 and disclosed the details to Bowers in a letter. The memo suggested Spagnoli "may not have exercised impartial judgment," Reilly wrote, but he said the votes he and other commissioners made were based on their own assessments.

Aside from the memo, Spagnoli also offered to walk one Justice Department official through the case and sent several emails to the government's "point person" on the case, the court wrote.

Bowers, meanwhile, filed a 2008 lawsuit seeking his release in federal court in Atlanta, where he is now being held. A judge rejected the complaint, but the 11th Circuit reversed the ruling and gave the Parole Commission 60 days to hold a hearing.

"The actions of Commissioner Spagnoli demonstrate she was not acting as an independent and neutral decision-maker," it said.

Bowers has maintained his innocence and contends he was targeted by prosecutors because of his political views. His defense attorney Bryan Gaynor didn't return calls seeking comment, but he has urged the courts to reverse the "arbitrary and capricious disregard for Veronza's legal right to be paroled."

Lee, the victim's widow, said she was disappointed by the decision. Her husband was the first U.S. park ranger killed in the line of duty when he was shot in August 1973. Prosecutors say Bowers and two men went to Point Reyes to hunt deer with a crossbow, and when the 40-year-old officer shined a flashlight into their car, Bowers shot him multiple times.

Lee said that she was particularly unnerved by a letter that Bowers sent her in 1990 and that she supported Spagnoli's behind-the-scenes moves to keep Bowers in prison.

"We've tried very hard to keep him in prison, and I believe we'd be in danger if he's released," said Patrick-Lee, who is 67. "It just worries me. I don't hate the man, but if he had shown any hint of remorse and admitted what he did, I probably wouldn't have worked so hard to keep him in prison."