Assata: An Autobiography

by Assata Shakur

  I decided that i wanted Stanley Cohen and Evelyn to work together on the case. This turned out to be a mistake, since they were not exactly in love with each other. Neither Stanley nor Evelyn was a new jersey lawyer and we had to get a new jersey lawyer to be on the case. Ray Brown was busy with other commitments and couldn't possibly do it. Stanley asked a young white new jersey lawyer named Stuart Ball, and, after some reservations, he agreed to be the admitting lawyer. Stanley also wanted a young lawyer, Lawrence Stern, to act as his assistant. Even though Evelyn was involved in the defense and Lennox was handling the civil suit around my prison conditions, the Conference of Black Lawyers assigned a young Black lawyer from Mississippi named Lewis Myers to work on the case. I was delighted. Everyone knew that the new jersey trial was the big one and that my chances of receiving a fair trial were about slim to none. So the strategy was to try to surround the defense team with as much resources and expertise as possible.

  It sounded like a good idea, but if there was ever a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, this case was it. Almost from the beginning the defense team was beset by personality conflicts. The problems were magnified greatly by the fact that nobody was being paid. The lawyers were having problems covering even their bare expenses. It seemed like every other month one or another of the lawyers was asking the judge to be relieved from the case.

  We were in dire need of experts. We needed to find a ballistics expert and a forensic chemist, among others, to refute the state's charges. We were also in desperate need of an investigator to locate some of the doctors who had treated me while i was hospitalized and other potential witnesses. We fought and harped on this point until finally the judge, Theodore Appleby, issued an order that the state pay for the experts. But once we got the order, we found that we were in the same position that we started from. Without exception, everybody that we went to for help turned us down. The types of experts we needed almost always are police or are working for police agencies. Because my case involved the murder of a police officer, none of them would touch the case. The most crucial part of the prosecutor's case was the "scientific testimony" alleging that i had huge amounts of the dead state trooper's blood on me. We wanted someone who knew what they were doing to go over every inch of those clothes, to check out what was on them and also to check out what had been done to them. But we could not find one forensic chemist to work for us, let alone testify for us. If they had, they would never again have been able to work in peace for any police agency. People never hear about this side of a trial. But there is no place a defendant in a criminal trial can go to find "experts" in sciences commonly known as "police sciences." The police can virtually write up a report saying anything they want, and there is no way of refuting it. And there have been cases where "experts" have been double agents: working for a defendant while secretly working with the prosecutor.

  One of the amazing things was the number of student support ers who gave their time and energy to help us. They volunteered to index and organize past transcripts and, together with political activists, did a survey of prospective jurors in Middlesex County. Members of the defense committee published a bulletin to keep people informed about what was happening in the case and also did speaking engagements and fundraising. People circulated petitions and demonstrated in front of the kourtroom. They volunteered to do typing, handle the telephones, etc. Entertainers like Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee performed at fundraising benefits. Poets like June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Sonia Sanchez, among others, gave poetry readings. Political activists like Angela Davis and Amiri Baraka worked hard to educate the people about what was happening in new jersey. When Angela Davis came to new jersey to do a speaking engagement on my behalf, the new jersey prosecutor's office ambushed her and her party, harassing them until the moment they left the state. She tried to visit me at the jail, and not only did the judge forbid her to visit me but he stopped all of my other visits as well.

  One of the most moving statements i have ever heard was a speech Judge Bruce Wright made at a fundraising rally for me. Judge Bruce Wright is a Black judge who was removed from the criminal court bench in New York because he was too fair and honest, and he did something that was unforgivable-he set poor people's bail at amounts they could afford to pay. The kourts will never be anything but a tool of repression until there are judges like Bruce Wright presiding over Black people's trials.

  There were many, many people who i never got to meet, even though they worked so hard on my behalf. And even though i never got a chance to thank all the Black people, white people, Third World people, all the students, feminists, revolutionaries, activists, etc., who worked on the case, i thank you now.

  A lot of the pretrial conferences had to do with nothing more than the defense making motions and the judge denying them. Every time we went to kourt the judge made a point of reading into the record that i had refused to stand up for him. He was one of those racist white dogs who really believed he was massa. He really took that "your honor" stuff seriously. If he could have made people bow to him and kiss his hand he would have done it. He claimed that he was a "stickler for the decorum of his courtroom." Plenty of decorum but not a bit of justice. Stand for him? It was out of the question. He was a real died-in-the-wool craka. The kind they could send to wipe out the "natives" in Africa, make Central America safe for United Fruit Company, or run a sterilization center in Puerto Rico.

  Stanley Cohen came to see me. He was excited and upbeat. His good news was that he had found an investigator, an old friend of his who owed him a favor. His friend had contacts with the new jersey state police and thought they might be able to come up with some information on Harper, the police officer who was the main witness. He was also making progress in finding a forensic chemist. We both felt that at least some of the scientific reports had been fudged by the new jersey state troopers. We talked about this and a million things before the visit ended. He was so positive. He said he had a plan, something he wanted to check out, but he didn't want to discuss it and raise my hopes prematurely. That was the last time i saw Stanley Cohen.

  A few days later i received a phone call. Stanley was dead. His body had been found in his home with evidence of trauma. No body, with the exception of the police and Stanley's family, knows to this day the cause of death. The newspapers stated Stanley died of natural causes. But a friend of Stanley's, a doctor, told me he had talked to the coroner's office and had been given conflicting stories. No one knows for sure how Stanley died and we probably never will. The one thing we do know is that after his death, all the legal papers on my case came up missing. Evelyn talked to Phyllis, Stanley's widow, and she gave her every legal paper she could find that had something to do with my case, but the bulk of the material was still missing. Finally, Evelyn found out that the New York City police had my legal papers. "How did they get them?" i asked her. "I don't even want to think about it," she answered.

  I could hardly believe all this was happening. It felt so strange. The New York police claimed they had taken my legal papers from Stanley's house as evidence. "Evidence of what?" i asked Evelyn. Apparently, my legal papers were the only property the New York Police Department had removed from his house. It took more than a month to get some of them back. Some were never recovered. None of the notes about the investigator or the forensic chemist were found. All the notes on trial strategy we had mapped out were missing. It was weird. I thought of Stanley's family and what they must have been going through. The circumstances of his death were so strange. I walked around with an empty feeling in my stomach for a long time.

  After Stanley's death, William Kunstler joined the defense team. The first thing the judge did after admitting Kunstler to the case was to rescind the order for state-paid experts, claiming the lawyers had failed to move fast enough to get them. I became more suspicious than before. I couldn't understand why Appleby, all of a sudden, was so anxious we not have expert witnesses. It was obvious that without some financial help i w
ould never be able to afford expert witnesses. I didn't have a thin dime to my name.

  Appleby's strategy was to completely intimidate the lawyers, to harass them, threaten them until they became fearful of mounting any significant opposition to the legal lynching that was supposed to be my trial. Since there were no funds to pay for anything, the defense committees and the lawyers were forced to launch a fundraising campaign. The first time Bill Kunstler spoke in new jersey, Appleby attempted to have him thrown off the case, charging him with "improper conduct" and "conduct that was prejudicial to the administration of justice." The improper conduct was giving a lecture at Rutgers University during which he said that we needed money for expert witnesses, that the conditions of my confinement were detrimental to my aiding in my defense, and that under the law i was presumed innocent until proven guilty.

  Appleby's Order to Show Cause why Bill should not be thrown off the case accomplished what it intended. Instead of preparing for trial, the lawyers were forced to spend time and energy preparing for the two-day hearing that would determine whether or not Bill stayed on the case. Appleby finally decided Bill would remain, but only after we had spent a month dealing with that madness. The implication of the hearing was clear. Any at tempt the lawyers made to defend me would be met with the judge's hostility. Appleby threatened every single one of the lawyers with contempt, not once or twice but regularly. Lew Myers at tended a fundraising cocktail party at which Angela Davis spoke. Someone sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury in Washington and, approximately ten days later, he was under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Evelyn was repeatedly harassed by Appleby. Not one day went by when the so-called impartial judge failed to show his hostility to the defense team.

  The lawyers uncovered evidence that the offices across from the courthouse that they and the defense team were using were bugged. Motions for an investigation were denied. During a press conference, Lennox Hinds had the courage to call the trial exactly what it was, "a legal lynching and a kangaroo kourt." Appleby cited him for contempt and an effort was made to disbar him. Only after he took his appeal to the highest kourt in new jersey was he permitted to continue practicing as a lawyer in the state of new Jersey.

  The trial began on January 17, 1977, the same day Gary Gilmore was shot in Utah. Gary Gilmore was the first person legally executed since the death penalty was struck down by the u.s. supreme kourt in the early 1970s. His execution set the climate for the trial. The judge had denied almost every one of our motions, including my right to defend myself and act as co-counsel, a change of venue, a motion to review Harper's police record, a motion to introduce evidence that i had been victimized by the government's counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO), etc. Even though the National Jury Project had done a study of Middlesex County and had found that eighty-three percent of the people had heard about my case in the media and seventy percent had already formulated an opinion about my guilt, the kourt maintained that i could receive a fair trial. The judge said he would question the jurors and make sure they were "fair and impartial."

  Appleby took great pains to avoid asking potential jurors whether they thought i was guilty, electing to ask them instead whether they could "put their opinions aside." He carefully avoided asking their opinions about me, the Black Liberation Army, the Black Panther Party, Black militants, or anything else that had been negatively and biasedly reported in newspapers. The trial lawyers had no right to question jurors. Appleby's voir dire was designed to make sure the most hypocritical, opinionated jurors stayed on the jury. Here are two examples taken directly from the transcript:

  Q. And have you heard about this case?

  A. Yes, I have.

  Q. From what source may you have heard about the case?

  A. Newspapers.

  Q. And have you discussed it with other people?

  A. Occasionally.

  Q. And based upon whatever you may have heard from any source whatsoever, do you feel that you have already in your own mind formed an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of this defendant?

  A. Well, to be perfectly honest, I think I would be a little biased.

  Q. Let me ask you another question. In the event that you were to be chosen to serve, do you feel that you could sit and listen to all the evidence in the case and then judge it fairly and impartially and apply the law that the judge gives to you and put aside completely any previous opinions or conceptions or ideas about anything in the case and then do you believe that you could render a fair verdict as to the guilt or innocence of this defendant?

  A. I think I could.

  Q. Do you believe that you could?

  A. I think so.

  Example number two:

  Q. Do you feel that based upon whatever information you may have accumulated about the case from any source whatsoever that you have already formed an opinion in your mind as to the guilt or innocence of this defendant?

  A. I would think-yeah, I would think that she was guilty, yeah.

  Q. You feel that she's guilty?

  A. Yes.

  Q. And let me ask you another question. In the event that you might be selected to serve as a juror in this case, do you feel that you could sit and listen to the evidence and judge it impartially, apply the law the judge gives you, set aside this opinion that you have already formed?

  A. Yes, I probably could.

  Q. And then still judge impartially whether she's guilty or innocent?

  A. Yeah. Depending on the evidence and all that.

  These were typical of the answers given. The judge refused to remove the above two jurors for cause (on the basis of bias that would prevent them from being fair and impartial jurors) and our peremptory challenges were quickly exhausted. Remaining on the final jury were two friends, one girlfriend, and two nephews of new jersey state troopers. The so-called jury selection process was the biggest farce in legal history.

  About halfway through the so-called jury selection process i was ready to call it a day. As bad as this jury sounded, it looked even worse. I didn't want to participate. But almost everyone on the defense team thought not participating was a mistake. "If you don't, we'll never get anything on the record. You'll never even be able to convince an appeal court of anything. You've got to get up there and tell your side of the story. We can prove by the medical testimony that you were shot in the back with your hand raised in the air. We can prove that Harper shot first. We can prove hat after you were shot, your hand was paralyzed and, from the location of his gunshot wound, it would have been impossible for you to have shot him with your left hand. We can prove that Harper shot first. We can prove this if you take the stand. We can prove…”

  I was tired of this case. I damn sure didn't believe that any appeals kourt was going to free me or that any racist white, prejudiced jury was either. It was obvious i didn't have one chance in a million of receiving any kind of justice. The financial problems, expert witness problems, personality problems among the lawyers, in addition to rotting away in solitary confinement, had taken their toll on me. Every day when i entered the kourtroom i felt like i was entering the theater of the absurd. I wanted no part of it. The lawyers said that i could create a political climate which, they thought, would force the appeal court to give in if i participated in the trial and put on the record the fact that i was innocent. They were convinced that at the last minute the forensic chemist they were trying to locate in Canada was going to come in and save the day. I didn't put any stock in that, but i knew that keeping the momentum going around what was happening was important. I decided to remain and participate, even though it was killing me.

  The trial went absurdly on. An all-white jury was selected, based on the advice of Kunstler and the Jury Project, who decided that even though the jurors seated in the panel were horrible, the others were worse. Not only did the judge deny my motion to act as co-counsel, he refused to permit the lawyers to read my opening statement to the jury. The defense team's headquarters, located in New Bru
nswick, was broken into, papers rummaged through and stolen, and the judge refused to investigate, calling the motion "frivolous." The state's witnesses, almost all of whom were pigs, got up and said whatever they were told to say. We had no expert witnesses to refute or even evaluate their testimony. The main witness, Harper, the state trooper i was supposed to have shot, testified he had told an "untruth" on direct examination but denied it was a lie.

  I spent most of the trial looking up at the ceiling and hating myself for sitting there in the first place. When the time came for me to testify, i was shocked. I had thought i would be able to go into everything-being a fugitive, how i became a fugitive, the entire political scenario that led to being in the kourtroom. But then they told me something about "opening the door." Opening the door, it was explained, was like opening Pandora's box. If i gave the political reasons for my being a fugitive, the prosecutor could then introduce all kinds of prejudicial "evidence" that had nothing to do with what happened on the turnpike in order to show my "criminal intent." If i "opened the door," the prosecutor would be able to introduce manuals of guerrilla warfare and a whole stack of other material they found in the car that had nothing to do with this trial. In the absence of political witnesses (whose subpoenas for their appearance the judge had refused to issue) who would have testified about COINTELPRO's systematic attack on the Black Liberation movement, and on Blacks in general, my testimony would have been distorted. I wanted to back out completely, denounce the trial, but it was too late. The only way out was to testify, get my side of what happened on the record, and avoid "opening the door." The year of solitary confinement had made me almost mute. As i testified, i held on to a small picture of my child.