Judi Bari: Jury Still Out on 12th Anniv of FBI Bombing Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - MichaelP Judi Bari - No report yet of expected jury verdict Jury was scheduled until 1:30 today, the last day before holiday weekend The Official Judi Bari Home Page URL: http://www.monitor.net/~bari/ Noon Rally Friday, May 24, 2002, Oakland Federal Building Today is the 12th anniversary of the bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. It's also the first celebration of Judi Bari Day honoring the late environmental, labor and social justice organizer. The rally also celebrates the end of the trial, and our legal team will speak, including Dennis Cunningham, Tony Serra, Bob Bloom, Bill Simpich and Alicia Littletree. Folksinger Utah Phillips and fiddler Morgan Fichter will host the Fiddle Down the FBI event, referring to the FBI seizing Judi's childhood fiddle as evidence and never giving it back. Musicians include Utah Phillips, Laurie Lewis, and Darryl Cherney. The Federal Building is located on Clay St. between 12th and 14th Sts., one block from the Oakland City Center - 12th St. BART station. Jury Watch Update 5/24/02 Jury deliberations continue, but we're hoping for a favorable verdict during today's rally. Jurors should be highly motivated to wrap up the case today, Friday before Memorial Day weekend, and if they don't reach a verdict earlier in the day, they are scheduled to quit at 1:30 PM, while the rally is still in progress. Thursday morning, May 23, began with a court session to deal with answering a juror's question: "If we concluded that initially there was probable cause for arrest, but later after obtaining additional information there wasn't probable cause to 'maintain' the arrest and the parties should have been released but were not, is this a violation of the 4th Amendment?" Of course the answer to that question is yes, but after hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Wilken decided to tell the jurors to rely on the written instructions already given. Later Thursday morning a juror requested copies of two sections of the Penal Code which were cited by number on the arrest forms and other documents. One section was PC 12355, which forbids possession of a booby trap. That section was crossed out and replaced with the section forbidding transportation of an explosive device. We believe citing the booby trap section at 3PM, when Judi and Darryl were arrested, shows the police knew the bomb under Judi's driver's seat was triggered by a ball-bearing, motion-sensing device, indicating that it was intended to kill her when she was driving, and that she was the target of the bomb, not knowingly carrying a live, armed, fragmentation bomb with a motion-trigger under her own car seat. Again the judge told the jurors to rely on her written instructions and their memories and notes of testimony during the trial. Recap earlier updates: The historic trial of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney vs. FBI agents and Oakland Police officers went to the jury on Friday, May 17, after six weeks in federal court in Oakland California. The 8 woman, 2 man jury immediately elected a woman foreperson and began deliberations shortly after 1 PM. Two days before, Judge Claudia Wilken dismissed the case against two of the FBI defendants after ruling that there was insufficient evidence that they had any "animus" against the plaintiffs or Earth First!, and so they were immune from being sued. The four remaining FBI defendants are Frank Doyle, John Reikes, Stockton Buck and Phillip Sena. The three Oakland Police defendants are Michael Sims, Michael Sitterud and Robert Chenault. Attorneys for both sides are on call during deliberations to appear on 10 minutes notice in the event jurors have any questions. Monday, May 20 -- As the second day of jury deliberations began on , jurors requested copies of the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which the defendants are accused of violating by false arrest, unlawful search and conspiracy to interfere with free speech. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, federal and Oakland defense attorneys objected. Judge Wilken overruled the objection and read those amendments to the jury, but did not give the jury a written copy to take back to the jury room. "Their agents obviously havent read the Constitution, so why would they want anyone else looking at it?" said Darryl Cherney. Later Monday the jury sent a note saying, "We want to see the nails -- all of them." They were provided with the bags of roofing nails and framing nails found in the back of Judi Bari's station wagon and evidence bags of finishing nails recovered from the crime scene that had been taped to the bomb to increase the bodily injury it would cause. There were also finishing nails removed from Judi Bari's house that police falsely claimed matched the bomb nails. Notably lacking was any bag of finishing nails found in Judi's car which were "identical" to the bomb nails, as falsely claimed in the sworn police affidavit used to persuade a judge to sign a search warrant for Judi's and Darryl's homes. The jury also asked why two of the FBI defendants were not listed on their verdict forms. The judge said she could only tell them that the two were no longer defendants in this case, and that they must not speculate about why, or consider it in their deliberations. Tuesday, May 21 -- The jury requested a bottle of white-out. Since the jury must fill in blanks on the official verdict form, so one could speculate that they need to make corrections to that form, indicating that the jury has already decided some of the issues. Also on Tuesday the jury announced their deliberation schedule for the rest of the week, saying their hours on Wednesday will be 8:30 am to 3:30 pm, and Thursday and Friday 8:30 am to - 1:30 pm. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytenv-05.24.02-23:48:09-23250