SF 8 - Court Update - Monday, June 18

June 18, 2007

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Waiting outside the courtroom today.

Hi Friends. A large crowd gathered in front of the SF Courthouse at 850 Bryant Street at 8 am Monday morning calling for the release of the SF 8 and the dropping of all charges. If you can, come to the court Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. It is likely that the hearing continue to the end of each day, so if you can only come in the afternoon, please do. Wednesday will probably be bail reduction hearings, so may be the best day to show continuing solidarity.


Despite the 9am court hearing being delayed two hours, with many supporters having to leave for work or other obligations, the courtroom was packed. The hearing was held in a high-security courtroom in which supporters are separated from the courtroom by a ceiling high plastic barrier and screen - making it difficult to hear the proceedings and creating the sensation of a caged, dangerous and criminalized process. In a dramatic moment, Michael Burt, the attorney for Ray Boudreaux whose bail reduction motion was to be argued first, asked that the judge acknowledge that people had made a concerted effort to appear in support of a motion to reduce bail for Ray. At that point Burt asked that all those who supported Ray’s motion rise – the entire courtroom rose and stood in support of the motion and the SF 8, and remained standing for several minutes. This show of unity strengthened everyone and gave a great sense of community commitment to the court and the 8 themselves.



Further hearings were scheduled for 10 am Tuesday, Wednesday and possibly Thursday which will include legal arguments about discovery, challenging the shackling of the 8 in court, demurs which challenge the jurisdiction of the court to proceed given that some of the 8 would be tried again for some of the charges in the complaint, and motions to reduce the $3 million bail set for 6 of the 8 that will begin on Wednesday with testimony from Professor Craig Haney of UC Santa Cruz about the absence of danger to the community from these men who are now in their late 50s to early 70s.

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For continuing information and updates, go to www.cdhrsupport.org/

Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR)

PO Box 90221

Pasadena, CA 91109

(415) 226-1120

FreetheSF8@riseup.net