Friday 1/6 Georgia Hearing for PP Veronza Bowers

Veronza with daughter Veronica and his grandchildren

Posted by: Akinyele Umoja via Nattyreb

A status conference will be held in the Federal District Court in
Gainesville, Georgia this Friday, January 6, 2012 for former Black
Panther Veronza Bowers. Bowers was to be paroled in 2005 after
serving over three decades in prison. The Bush Administration
intervened and ordered he not be released. In September 2011, a
federal court ruled that a Bush appointed parole commissioner worked
"behind the scenes" to block the release of Veronza, which had
already been approved.

Veronza was convicted in the 1973 murder of a U.S. Park Ranger on the
word of two government informers, both of whom received reduced
sentences for other crimes by the Federal prosecutor's office. At his
trial, Veronza offered alibi testimony which was not credited by the
jury. Nor was testimony of two relatives of the informants who
insisted that they were lying. His conviction is reflective of the
manufactured convictions of Black Panther Party and other activists
of the 1960s and 70s due to the Cointelpro policy of the United
States government. The U.S. government used "any means necessary" to
eliminate a militant, grassroots Black movement. Veronza Bower's
continued incarceration is the continuation of this Cointelpro policy.

Veronza Bowers legal defense committee is asking that concerned
organizations and individuals attend the status conference to be
informed on the case and to demonstrate he has support. The hearing
will take place at US District Court 121 Spring St SE, Gainesville,
GA 30501 at 11am in the courtroom #103 of Judge Susan Cole, presiding.

Please circulate this note to other interested groups and individuals.

For more information on Veronza Bowers please go to:

http://veronza.org/home.html