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Two Attica Brothers Convicted; FBI Exposed

By VVAW

On April 5th, two Attica Brothers, John (Dacajeweiah) Hill and Charley Joe Pernasilice were found guilty of charges in connection with the death of Williams Quinn, an Attica guard. Dacajeweiah was convicted of murder and Charley Joe of 2nd degree assault; bond was revoked for both men and they were returned to prison. The state and its tools -- the prosecution, the judge, the police -- knew it was essential to get a conviction in this case (earlier trials of Brothers have resulted in acquittals or dropping of charges) and went to blatant extremes both inside and outside the courtroom.

In the court the prosecution and judge restricted the evidence to the 15 minute period when Quinn was killed; they refused to admit testimony dealing with the Rebellion, the reasons for it, and the atrocities that followed the end of the Rebellion. The defendants were prohibited from speaking in their own defense. A move to subpoena Nelson Rockefeller who, as governor of New York ordered the massacre, was denied. The fact that a number of potential witnesses to Quinn's death had been systematically killed was kept from the jury, as was the admission of guilt by another prisoner, now dead. Prosecution witnesses included ex-prisoners who had been bribed and threatened to tell the prosecution story, and guards whose interests clearly lay entirely with the prosecutors.

Even with all these tricks, the evidence against Charley Joe was so weak that the judge was forced to drop the charge against him from murder to assault. The blatant racism and illegalities of the proceedings give ample grounds for appeal.

The lessons of Attica live on, despite the state's futile attempts. The unity of the 1100 men who, for 4 days controlled their own lives in Attica's D-Yard, was such a threat to the state and its governor, that they sent in storm troopers and murdered 43 men. Mass support for the prisoners' right to rebel has spread around the country, and with it, a growing understanding of the uses of the American prison system as a weapon of the state to attack poor and minority people. Since Rockefeller and his stooges could not crush the spirit of the Rebellion with bullets, they decided, after 3 years of maneuvering and manipulating, to use the courts and the so-called "justice" system.

That tactic won't work. The cover-up which the state has tried to hang on to for 3 and a half years is cracking. Members of the original prosecution are exposing the state's refusal to hear the evidence against the guards who murdered the men in D-Yard; other eye-witnesses are talking about how their testimony about the brutality following the massacre was ignored by the state. Investigations into the guilt of the police and the prosecution have begun, and the real criminal -- Rockefeller who commanded the attack, the troopers, and the system which they represent -- will be identified. Final judgement will come from the people, and through the peoples' struggle the Brothers will be freed.