Supes ask AG to drop last SF8 charges

From:    "SF-8 case" <cdhrsupport@freedomarchives.org>
Date:    Wed, September 2, 2009

Sfbg.com

By C. Nellie Nelson

Late last week, three members of the Board of Supervisors signed a
letter urging Attorney General Jerry Brown to drop the charges
against the remaining defendant of
the<http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/06/sf8_case_postponed_supervisors.html>
San Francisco 8. The letter, signed by Supervisors Eric Mar, John
Avalos and Chris Daly, calls the prosecution misguided: "Based on
'confessions' and other testimony extracted by torture and denial of
right to counsel, this prosecution has been a disservice to the
people of San Francisco." They point out that the case has cost the
city millions of dollars already.

In June Sup. Mar introduced a similar resolution urging the attorney
general to drop the charges against the seven men (one had had
charges dropped previously) to the Board's Government Audit and
Oversight Committee. The Committee opted to send the resolution to be
heard by the full Board,
but<http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/06/vote_on_resolution_to_drop_sf8.html>
ended up postponing when budget disagreements literally overtook City Hall.

Then in early July, the prosecution agreed
to<http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/07/charges_dismissed_against_most.html>
drop the charges against five of the men, and allowed two men to
accept much lesser charges, where they were credited with time served
and received only probation. The one remaining defendant is Francisco
Torres, who declined an offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge.

The case being largely dismissed, the board tabled the resolution. As
there is now just one attorney and assistant, compared with an
original team of sixteen attorneys, so the next hearing on the case
was postponed to October 9.

The Attorney General's office had not responded to the Guardian's
request for comment by Monday evening.

August 31, 2009 06:15 PM
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