Evidentiary Hearing May 8, 2007
for Ed Poindexter

Ed Poindexter's evidentiary hearing begins May 8—a critical moment, as his supporters hope to bring forth evidence they say will undermine the certainty of his conviction.

“I think it's very clear that at the minimum, there are serious questions about the legal proceedings (Poindexter and Rice) faced at the time,” said Patrick Jones, a UNL assistant professor of ethnic studies and faculty adviser to UNL's Nebraskans for Peace.

“I know an officer died … But that doesn't mean we just get to put the closest two people in jail.”

Justice for the Omaha Two
by Joe Allen • www.dissidentvoice.org
January 7, 2007

Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa are not names familiar to most Americans. The longest-serving political prisoners in the United States, these two former Black Panthers have spent more than 35 years behind bars for a crime they did not commit—the 1970 murder of Omaha, Nebraska, police officer Larry Minard.

The American media and the political establishment scoff at the very idea that there are political prisoners in the United States. Yet many '60s militants—especially Black and Native American revolutionaries—were deliberately framed by the police and FBI in their efforts to suppress the radical movements of that period. The Omaha Two were also caught in that dragnet. It has been known for decades that they were targets of the FBI's infamous Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), but it is only lately that long, thought-to-be-destroyed evidence has emerged that could lead to a new trial for Ed Poindexter.

A breakthrough in Poindexter's case could have important ramifications for Mondo we Langa (formerly known as David Rice), who exhausted his appeals thirty years ago. Amnesty International has classified Mondo we Langa and Ed Poindexter—known as the Omaha Two at the time of their trial in 1971—as “prisoners of conscience.” The Omaha police and the political leadership of Nebraska have labeled them “cop killers” and have blocked efforts at commuting their sentences or getting them new trials for decades.

Racism in the Heartland
It is a testament to the vibrancy and breadth of the civil rights and Black Power movements that even small cities like Omaha, Nebraska, felt it's impact. North Omaha has long been the center of the Black community in the city, where racism is a daily fact of life. Many of Omaha's Black residents faced job and housing discrimination, in addition to police brutality. During the course of the 1960s a small but vocal movement arose to combat these issues.

The racial situation in Omaha became more polarized during the course of 1968, when arch-segregationist George Wallace made a stop in the city during his independent campaign for president. White racists attacked Blacks and whites protesting the notorious bigot at one of his campaign rallies. Later that night, Omaha cops killed a local Black high school student. The following month, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, leading to uprisings in 100 American cities. The Black Panther Party (BPP) became the prime target of the FBI's COINTELPRO operations with the stated goal of “neutralizing” their leadership.

Mondo we Langa and Ed Poindexter were community activists in North Omaha at the time. They joined the BPP in 1969 and were soon recognized as the leaders of the party in Nebraska. Poindexter, like a growing number of Panthers, was also a Vietnam veteran. The situation in Omaha got even bloodier in 1969. Vivian Strong, a fourteen-year-old Black teenager, was shot in the back of the head and killed by the police in June of that year. The police officer who killed her, patrolman John Loder, was found not guilty of manslaughter by an all-white jury and was reinstated to the Omaha Police Department (OPD) with back pay and benefits. “Among the most vocal critics of such police abuse of power,” according to Rutger's law professor Lennox Hinds, “were members of the local chapter of the Black Panther party and its successor, the National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF).” Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa left the Panthers and founded the NCCF in 1970, with Mondo as chairman and Poindexter as minister of information. They were repeatedly harassed and arrested by the Omaha police for their political activities.

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