Eric McDavid Denied Vegan Food....AGAIN

From:    sacprisonersupport@riseup.net
Date:    Wed, September 5, 2007 10:38 pm

Hello everyone,

Please read on for the latest on Eric and his upcoming trial...

Eric denied vegan food....again
Eric is still being denied a healthy diet.  As of Friday night, the jail
stopped bringing Eric breakfast and dinner trays that he could eat.  The
only vegan food the jail was bringing Eric was a bagged lunch with a
peanut butter sandwich and fruit.  Now, they have stopped providing him
ANY vegan meals - not even the bagged lunch.  This means that the only
food available to Eric is what he is able to order from commissary and the
food on his trays that happens to be vegan (usually a little fruit and
bread each day).    Obviously, this is not enough to meet his body's
needs.  No one can be healthy on just bread and fruit, there are few vegan
options from the commissary, and he only has access to commissary once a
week. Eric has exhausted all official channels for having his meals
restored.  It is difficult to believe the timing of this dramatic and
abrupt change in his diet is merely a coincidence. With less than a week
to trial, Eric is now struggling to take care of his physical health as
well as maintaining his emotional and mental health.  With all of Eric's
options for redress being exhausted, we need your help!  Please call the
Sacramento County Jail and request that they provide Eric with complete
vegan meals immediately. The have been giving him vegan food for the last
15 months and they can do it again. Please call the jail at:  916.874.6752

Fundraising
The last of the matching funds have been met!  This means that we have
surpassed our goal of $15,000.  Our biggest thanks to all of you who
helped make this possible.  All of the money raised will go directly to
Eric's legal defense.  We still do not have a final figure from Eric's
lawyer about how much money we will actually need to get all the way
through trial - the $15,000 was an estimate that he gave us many months
ago.  While we hope this will be enough to pay for all of the legal fees,
we won't be certain for another couple of weeks.  Please stay tuned and be
ready - we might need your help again in the future!


In Limine Hearing
On Friday, Eric will have his final hearing before trial begins on Monday.
This hearing is very important, as the government has filed two motions
that seek to deny Eric the ability to choose his own defense strategy.
The first motion is a motion to preclude the use of the entrapment
defense.  The second motion is to preclude the defense from "raising
previously decided legal issues" - which would include all of the issues
raised in virtually all of the pre-trial defense motions that Eric's
lawyer filed in December/January.  We are working on posting the
government's In Limine motions on Eric's website.


Trial in less than a week!
Eric's trial begins on Monday, September 10.  The first day will be jury
selection, with opening arguments probably beginning on September 11.  We
have been told that court will only be in session Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday of each week.  This means that we will (probably) be in court
September 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, etc.  Originally the government was
speculating that trial would last 10-14 days - now they are only
projecting 6.  This means that we could possibly be done with closing
arguments after the second week, although that seems somewhat unlikely.
It seems more likely that trial will run into the third week - September
24, 25, and 26.  However,  nothing is certain.  For those of you who are
planning on attending trial, please keep in mind that Eric's preference is
 for people to be there, if possible, at the end of trial.  We realize
this is complicated by the fact that we don't actually know WHEN that
might be...  We'll keep everyone updated as trial progresses and we should
have a better sense of the timeline as things move along.  And please
remember, if you are planning on attending trial make sure that you are
dressed appropriately for court.

List Volume
Thanks to all of you who have stuck with us for the almost 20 months of
this ordeal.  Up until now, the volume on this list has been very low, but
as trial approaches we will continue sending out more frequent updates.
Once trial arrives we will be trying to send updates every day about the
court proceedings.  If this is NOT something you are interested in, please
let us know before Monday so we can remove you from the list.  If you know
others who ARE interested in receiving this information, but are not on
the list, please have them email us and we will add them.  We will also be
posting our updates on various Indymedia sites, as well as on Eric's
website at www.supporteric.org

After almost 20 months in Total Separation, Eric is very ready for his
trial to get started.  His strong heart and good spirits have constantly
amazed us - he often seems to handle things better than those of us who
are not locked behind steel doors and concrete walls.  And while he is
aware that this will not be an easy fight, he remains steadfast and secure
in his decision to move forward with integrity and to fight these
outrageous charges against him.  Thank you all for standing with him, for
supporting him, for sharing your love, your joy, and your outrage at
injustices suffered.

Yours,
SPS