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Court Report from Monday
April 4 – Day 1
of the Dallas 6 Trial in Wilkes-Barre, PA
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Trial began after six
years
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Unredacted video will be
shown in court although the men may not have seen it despite court
orders
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The judge has not ruled on
"justification" - whether the men will be allowed to say why they took the
action they did.
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Jury selected and, with
alternates, includes nine women and five men, including three women of
color
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Duane Peters retained
attorney Michael Wiseman (Carrington Keys' stand-by attorney) to represent
him
After nearly six years –
the incident took place on April 29, 2010 – the long-delayed trial of the three
remaining "Dallas 6" began on Monday, April 4. The day began with a press conference on the steps of the courthouse where
mother of Dallas 6 member Carrington Keys spoke about the trial starting on the
anniversary of the assassination of MLK. Supporters raised that the court had
already dismissed these ridiculous riot charges once, but were only brought
again by then attorney Lisa Gelb who was running for judge. Now Judge Gelb is
presiding over the case.
About 15 supporters
attended the start of the trial, a multi-racial group drawn mainly from the families, a women's
group (Global Women's Strike), the religious community (members of Mishkan
Shalom and Germantown Friends Meeting in Philadelphia), and Payday men's
network. Most of the day was spent on jury selection, behind closed doors – no
one was allowed in the courtroom presumably because of lack of space. But the
day began with the men – Carrington Keys, Duane Peters, and Andre Jacobs –
raising questions about why none of them got the same version of the cell
extraction videos, and Judge Gelb laying out what would be allowed to raise to
the jury and responding to the defendants' witness lists.
The men raised with the
judge again that they have never received the original, unredacted videos of
their cell extractions -- the beatings by guards for which they are accused of
"rioting". They were only
able to see the video once, and each of them saw different versions. This is a
violation of their right to evidence and amounts to tampering with and hiding
evidence. How can they adequately prepare their defense without having the
original videos? The judge said that she had ordered the DA to send them the
original videos and they told her they had. The DA and the judge said,
outrageously, that "they have no control over the DOC (Department of
Corrections)" – a bad precedent, which the men challenged. However, the judge
said that all the original videos would be shown during the trial. Andre Jacobs
also asked for a paper trail of who, when, and how the videos were redacted. The
DA revealed the name of the attorney who ordered the redaction (Hogan) and the
detective who did it – Charles Ballow (sp?). They may be called as witnesses.
On the witnesses, those
who were present at Dallas prison during the incident were accepted. Several
character witnesses that Duane Peters requested were struck down because they were not at Dallas at the
time, even though they could speak to the reasons Duane was sent to solitary at
Dallas in the first place. The judge would not serve any subpoenas on behalf of
the men – particularly those related to Carrington's criminal complaint, such as
Superintendent Mooney – but said they can subpoena them now.
Tuesday began with
opening statements. Carrington and Andre are representing
themselves, while Attorney Michael Wiseman is now representing Duane. The trial
is expected to last a week. Stay tuned for a report from today’s hearing,
which went very well! TV coverage from today can be found here.
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ANYONE WHO CAN ATTEND THE TRIAL ANY DAY
THIS WEEK, PLEASE CONTACT US!
WE URGENTLY NEED AS MANY SUPPORTERS AS
POSSIBLE TO BE PRESENT IN THE COURTROOM.
Now is the time
to help these brave prisoner whistleblowers win a major victory for prisoners
across Pennsylvania and across the US!
Please
do the check-in below if you want to come or contact by email or phone. Rooms
are available in the area.
If
you cannot attend, PLEASE, do the call-in/fax-in. There are links taking
you to the instructions and letter templates for emailing or faxing.
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CAN YOU
COME?
Trial is expected to last five days. Cars
will be coming from Philly daily but you need to COMPLETE THE ONLINE CHECK-IN
if you need a ride or can provide a ride from Philly or Pgh, and/or would
like to stay overnight - http://tinyurl.com/dallas6check-in
CAN'T COME? WE STILL NEED YOUR
HELP!
DROP THE CHARGES!
For those who can’t
make it to the trial but want to show support, please take part in a
CALL-IN/FAX-IN to the DA demanding she drop charges. Details and talking points
at - http://tinyurl.com/dallas6letter
Dallas 6 online:
Twitter - Follow
@madinah7 for trial updates
Twitter Hashtags
- #Dallas6 #Justice4Dallas6
Contact: Shandre Delaney, mother of one of the
Dallas 6; Human Rights Coalition 412-403-6101
Phoebe Jones, Justice for the Dallas 6
Support Campaign; Global Women’s Strike 610-505-4944
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