Javad Jahi of MXGM and SF 8 defendant Harold Taylor shared some words after court a few weeks ago. Photo: Minister of Information JR

Richard Brown: And to show you how these people really are, John (Bowman) passed in December and we were arrested in January. They didn't know that John had passed, and they didn't attend the funeral. He was cremated.

And to this day, they are still running around asking questions, because they believe that he is underground or escaped. I have a granddaughter who is 12, and they have contacted her and asked her, "Where is your uncle" or "Where is John" and that type of thing. They're still looking for him, they don't want to believe that the brotha is deceased, that he died and was cremated and buried.

Harold Taylor: And also me and John was charged with this case in 1975, and a judge here in San Francisco - I never even had to appear in front of him, just on the evidence that he read and the statements that he saw and the violation of our constitutional rights, and what he read about what happened to us from the case that we had in Los Angeles pertaining to the torture where they tried to use torture evidence there, and where a judge there suppressed everything they said about New Orleans - well, the judge here saw all of that, and he dismissed the charges against me and John Bowman in 1975, and we never even appeared in front of him.

We was indicted by a grand jury and never even notified. We found out later that we had been charged with this case, but it was dismissed because of what happened in New Orleans. So really, this is like double jeopardy. Once again I am being charged with the same thing, with the same evidence that they had back then.

MOI JR: What new "evidence" do they say they have?

Richard Brown: That's tricky. To get this, they came to the D.A. (district attorney) here in San Francisco first, from what I understand, and they couldn't get them to do it. They couldn't get the FBI. So they claim that they have new evidence, and the bottom line is that they don't. We've been asked by our attorneys not to go too far off into that because the case is still pending.

What they're attempting to do is re-charge us for crimes that we've already been charged with, and served time behind us. Double jeopardy. They're also trying to bring in confessions that were obtained through torture. The judge is going to be ruling on those two things.

The only reason that six of us are out (on bail) is because there has been a tremendous amount of support around this case. People have been there and have been watching it since day one, and they cannot get away with a railroad job and with in-the-dark procedures that they are so famous for, because there is too much light and too many people paying attention.

And we've had a great deal of support from everybody, not only in San Francisco, but from all over this nation and all over the world really. I really want to thank everyone for that, from the bottom of my heart. We all do. And we want to ask people to continue to support us because we really need it.

If they could get away with torturing people and using confessions, then everybody in the world is in trouble. If they could get away with double jeopardy, everybody who has done any time before and served their time and thinks that they have put that behind them - if that could be brought back up and you can be charged with that all over again - then everybody is still in trouble. So this is going to be two rulings that everybody should be interested in and pay attention to.

SF 8 defendant Harold Taylor and Black Panther and KPOO broadcaster Terry Cotton at a SF 8 hearing.

He is the same identical person; there are no if, ands or buts about it. His name is Reuben Scott, and they know it. We all know it. His confession was suppressed because of the torture.

He admitted that he was tortured and beaten. He's come and testified on my behalf, up in Los Angeles. At the time they used statements against me, he came into court in Los Angeles in 1974 and testified to the fact of what happened in New Orleans, that we were tortured and he was beaten, and he was made to say certain things about me, and that I was made to say certain things.

So now he's back. He has perjured himself on numerous occasions in different courtrooms under oath, and he is the sole witness that got Herman Bell and Jalil Bottom in prison and had them there ever since the ‘70s.

Richard Brown: The one thing that I think that I can share is that they have been hollering about new evidence. In order for us to be arrested, they claimed they had DNA and fingerprints - new DNA and new fingerprints. They had a weapon and it took us months to get through discovery in the court to try to get to the point where - and this is all public testimony that happened in court, so I'm not revealing anything.

But it turns out that their new evidence - they do have new DNA; it just doesn't match any of us, none of us. They do have new fingerprints, that doesn't match any of us. And the murder weapon that they claim they have, they are saying now that they've lost it.

MOI JR: So they "lost" the murder weapon?

Richard Brown: Yes.

MOI JR: But they have eight of y'all on trial with the potential that if John Bowman would have been here, it would've been nine of y'all on trial, and they claim that they have lost the murder weapon?

Email POCC Minister of Information JR at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and visit www.blockreportradio.com, hiphopwarreport.com and myspace.com/blockreportfilm. This series is also posted at www.sfbayview.com.

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