Post by marion on Jun 27, 2006 14:05:06 GMT -5
'Best of the worst' testify at gang trial
Aryan Brotherhood trial enters a fourth month
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Posted: 1711 GMT (0111 HKT)
SANTA ANA, California (AP) -- Convicted murderers, gang members and jailhouse informants have paraded past jurors for nearly four months in the U.S. government's racketeering case against the notorious Aryan Brotherhood prison gang.
Now, with the trial about to enter its final weeks, the jury will soon have to decide who to believe: the government, whose case rests on the testimony of admitted killers, or attorneys for the white supremacists accused of plotting and ordering many of those murders from behind bars.
Even the defense team, which has chided the U.S. Attorney's Office for its reliance on jailhouse snitches, plans to present testimony this week from a rival gang member and other inmates in a trial peppered with tales of violence and racial strife.
Attorneys on both sides are "using and choosing from the best of the worst," said Melissa Carr, an Anti-Defamation League special projects investigator monitoring the trial.
"There were a couple instances where I caught jurors rolling their eyes and looking around for confirmation, like 'Did I just hear that? Did he say what I thought he said?"'
Huge U.S. death penalty case
The trial resumed Tuesday after a break of nearly three weeks. Closing arguments are expected early next month.
The four defendants are alleged Aryan Brotherhood leaders implicated in many of the 32 murders and attempted murders detailed in the federal indictment against the white supremacist gang.
Of the 40 men initially charged, as many as 16 could face the death penalty in a series of trials that together make up one of the biggest federal death penalty cases in U.S. history.
Barry "The Baron" Mills is accused
with others of orchestrating a race
war at a federal prison.
Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham could face
the federal death penalty if convicted
of racketeering.
On trial in Santa Ana are Barry "The Baron" Mills, Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham, Edgar "The Snail" Hevle and Christopher Overton Gibson. Among other things, Mills and Bingham are accused of ordering a 1997 race war at a prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, that led to the deaths of two black inmates.
From the beginning, the testimony has been disturbing.
Jurors have heard graphic descriptions of dozens of murders and attempted murders, including one in which the attacker licked the dead man's blood from his hands while laughing hysterically.
Nearly all of the witnesses have been former members of the Aryan Brotherhood. In their testimony, they described schemes to transmit messages in invisible ink made from urine and the use of "runners" -- usually inmates' female friends -- who hid knives and drugs in their rectums or genitals when they visited.
Witness admitted killing 21 people
The government's first witness, Clifford Smith, took the stand wearing an eye patch and casually admitted killing 21 people, including a man whom he said he stabbed 37 times for calling him a "punk" in front of his daughter.
Smith also admitted -- under vigorous cross-examination by the defense -- that he had perjured himself while testifying for the government in a death penalty case involving the Hells Angels.
"I would stick with the script that we had wrote and try to sell whatever we was trying to sell," Smith said. "You caught me _ what can I do?"
Trial-watchers said the government had little choice about using the witnesses but wonder if the jury will buy their testimony. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
Defense lawyers have portrayed their clients as aging inmates who were forced to join a gang to survive. The men arrive in court each day wearing tortoise-shell eyeglasses and shirts with button-down collars. All have graying handlebar mustaches.
Aryan Brotherhood trial enters a fourth month
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Posted: 1711 GMT (0111 HKT)
SANTA ANA, California (AP) -- Convicted murderers, gang members and jailhouse informants have paraded past jurors for nearly four months in the U.S. government's racketeering case against the notorious Aryan Brotherhood prison gang.
Now, with the trial about to enter its final weeks, the jury will soon have to decide who to believe: the government, whose case rests on the testimony of admitted killers, or attorneys for the white supremacists accused of plotting and ordering many of those murders from behind bars.
Even the defense team, which has chided the U.S. Attorney's Office for its reliance on jailhouse snitches, plans to present testimony this week from a rival gang member and other inmates in a trial peppered with tales of violence and racial strife.
Attorneys on both sides are "using and choosing from the best of the worst," said Melissa Carr, an Anti-Defamation League special projects investigator monitoring the trial.
"There were a couple instances where I caught jurors rolling their eyes and looking around for confirmation, like 'Did I just hear that? Did he say what I thought he said?"'
Huge U.S. death penalty case
The trial resumed Tuesday after a break of nearly three weeks. Closing arguments are expected early next month.
The four defendants are alleged Aryan Brotherhood leaders implicated in many of the 32 murders and attempted murders detailed in the federal indictment against the white supremacist gang.
Of the 40 men initially charged, as many as 16 could face the death penalty in a series of trials that together make up one of the biggest federal death penalty cases in U.S. history.
Barry "The Baron" Mills is accused
with others of orchestrating a race
war at a federal prison.
Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham could face
the federal death penalty if convicted
of racketeering.
On trial in Santa Ana are Barry "The Baron" Mills, Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham, Edgar "The Snail" Hevle and Christopher Overton Gibson. Among other things, Mills and Bingham are accused of ordering a 1997 race war at a prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, that led to the deaths of two black inmates.
From the beginning, the testimony has been disturbing.
Jurors have heard graphic descriptions of dozens of murders and attempted murders, including one in which the attacker licked the dead man's blood from his hands while laughing hysterically.
Nearly all of the witnesses have been former members of the Aryan Brotherhood. In their testimony, they described schemes to transmit messages in invisible ink made from urine and the use of "runners" -- usually inmates' female friends -- who hid knives and drugs in their rectums or genitals when they visited.
Witness admitted killing 21 people
The government's first witness, Clifford Smith, took the stand wearing an eye patch and casually admitted killing 21 people, including a man whom he said he stabbed 37 times for calling him a "punk" in front of his daughter.
Smith also admitted -- under vigorous cross-examination by the defense -- that he had perjured himself while testifying for the government in a death penalty case involving the Hells Angels.
"I would stick with the script that we had wrote and try to sell whatever we was trying to sell," Smith said. "You caught me _ what can I do?"
Trial-watchers said the government had little choice about using the witnesses but wonder if the jury will buy their testimony. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
Defense lawyers have portrayed their clients as aging inmates who were forced to join a gang to survive. The men arrive in court each day wearing tortoise-shell eyeglasses and shirts with button-down collars. All have graying handlebar mustaches.