LETTERS

Bear Lincoln

Thank you for covering the Bear Lincoln story so well.

"Ishkoday"

Leonard Peltier Medical Crisis

Thanks -- it is a well done and thoroughly researched article. Kudos to the writer.

Ishgooda Tehweshon'on (Wyandot Nation of Kansas)

The Leonard Peltier case has dragged on so long that many of us forget that he is still in prison. Thank you for reminding us of this important miscarriage of justice. We should demand every politician running this year to say where they stand on his case.

"Lanny"

I am so pleased to see you covering Peltier. I cannot believe the ignorance in this country on this issue. I say that kindly as ignorance is simply not being aware. To keep this in the forefront is what the country needs now. If we want a fair government then we should not "forget" great injustices that have been done. Sweeping them under the rug like so many other things. Clinton's affairs may be interesting, but those are small wrongs compared to letting this travesty go on.

Pat Lee (Illinois)

The Indonesia Crisis

I have family and friends in Indonesia, so I have closely followed recent events there. I found your web pages through a search program and thought at first that your reporter was exaggerating how bad things really were -- after all, these problems were barely mentioned in the Los Angeles Times or in magazines. In the wake of May's events, it turns out that you were the only reporters in this country that described what really was happening. You pegged it months before anyone else caught on, and deserve congratulations.

Nancy Theis (Los Angeles)

Enough Sinatra, Already

Great article. He was a thug first, singer second.

Tom Johnsen

There are quite a few subjects that I won't take the time to read or view on TV, but when I saw Joyce's article, I felt it was worth reading. I, too, distrusted him, and after reading her article, I see where some of that mistrust stemmed from.

Sylvia Hayes (Michigan)

Frank Sinatra was the greatest singer of our time, period. If his politics weren't "liberal" enough, too bad.

"J. S."

Caveat Emptor

I find the Justice Department going after Microsoft a waste of the taxpayers money and a waste of the consumers purchase power. Over twenty years ago, I remember my father, then employed by IBM, coming home and discussing the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuits, which charged that they were monopolizing the computer market. This lasted from 1969 to 1982, when the government finally dropped their charges. Why? Because the competition within the industry grew to a point that IBM no longer had the edge.

What did this cost? First, I know one local retired resident of Bodega Bay who spent ten years of his IBM career working on this case. This individual's skills and talents could have been used for more productive tasks than defending IBM from the U.S. Government. He is only one of thousands who participated in this case.

Secondly, the amount of money that is spent by both parties is charged back to all. The taxpayer's deep, deep pockets pay the Justice Department's bill through taxes. When consumers purchase products by these companies, these fees are charged back in the price of goods.

This seems to be a no-win situation for all and if the natural flow within the computer market continues, competition will win out again -- i.e. Apple's introducing two new computers that are nicely priced. Let's let the consumer be the ultimate judge, not the Justice Department.

Mark Johnson

Peron for Sainthood

I have been thinking about [S.F. Cannabis Club founder and medical marijuana advocate] Dennis Peron, and have realized that he is an outstanding example to those who wish to follow in Christ's footsteps.

He has tremendous compassion, and in his presence, and in the people around him, one can feel the sympathy for those that suffer, and a sincere desire to help ease their pain.

He is surrounded by outcasts, people who are despised or who make others uncomfortable, can find a place where they are accepted and loved. The outcast and downtrodden come to him, because he accepts all who come to him, with an open heart.

He does not care what the powers that be proclaim as the law of the land, but works ever to make the world a more compassionate, loving place. He fights against the existing government in favor of those who suffer, not because it is acceptable, but because it is right.

Yes, indeed, he is a fine example of a righteous and loving follower of Christ's way.

L. Deerfield

Running as a GOP candidate for governor in California's "open primary" (voters can choose any candidate from any party), Peron received 71,362 votes, or slightly above 1 percent of the total. He will not be in a November runoff with Republican Dan Lungren, who easily won the GOP position with nearly two million votes.

-- Editor

Mendocino Enviros Should Oppose DA Massini

Some in the Mendocino environmentalist community recently endorsed Susan Massini for reelection as Mendocino County District Attorney on the basis of her appointment of a grant-funded deputy DA to prosecute environmental law violations.

If Massini had filed criminal charges against the big timber corporations and their executives for their piratical destruction of the public trust resources of our county, I might be inclined to give her credit for enforcing the environmental laws. But she hasn't done so, and as the late Judi Bari pointed out, environmental justice and social justice are two sides of the same coin. Judi was a strong and active supporter of justice for Bear Lincoln.

Far outweighing any good Massini has done on the environmental front, she conspired with Sheriff Tuso to blatantly scapegoat Bear Lincoln for the deaths of Lincoln's friend Acorn Peters and Tuso's friend, deputy sheriff Bob Davis in April 1995. Massini outrageously threw the book at Lincoln, charging him with capital murder of Davis, even trying to blame him for the death of his friend, who was killed by the deputies. She approved charging Lincoln with every "enhancement" and aggravating circumstance possible under the law, including lying in wait. This was a classic case of blaming the victim, as it was Lincoln and Peters who were walking up the road in the dark, and the two deputies who were lying in wait, watching for Peters' brother, who was the suspect in an earlier homicide.

Of the four men at the scene of the shootings, only two, Lincoln and deputy Dennis Miller survived, and their accounts of the events differed sharply. The jury in Lincoln's murder trial acquitted him of the two murders and all the other trumped-up charges, except they hung 10-2 for acquittal on the lesser manslaughter charge.

The jurors have spoken publicly to say they believe Miller lied on the stand and that Lincoln told the truth, and that he acted in legitimate self-defense. Both of the holdout jurors who hung the jury on the manslaughter charge revealed in deliberations that they had a bias against Lincoln before the trial started. Both were concerned about how they would face their friends and associates if they voted for total acquittal when so many of the public had been persuaded of Lincoln's guilt by prejudicial and biased reporting in the Press-Democrat and, at least before the trial started, the Ukiah Daily Journal.

Despite the acquittal on murder charges, despite the 10-2 jury vote for acquittal on manslaughter, despite being told of the holdout jurors' bias, despite the lack of credibility of both her star witness and her primary investigator, despite the weakness or absence of the evidence against Lincoln, despite the jurors telling her they believe the deputies opened fire on Peters and Lincoln without identifying themselves as law officers, despite the jurors telling her they believe there was no evidence Lincoln's bullet struck Davis and that it was probably Miller's bullet that killed him ... despite all of this, Susan Massini decided to retry Lincoln on the manslaughter charge. Lincoln spent more than two years in jail for a crime he did not commit, yet Massini has decided to put him through the burden of a second trial, which has zero chance of producing a conviction.

Clearly her motivation for the retrial is political and not based on the evidence. She chose to ignore the feedback given her by the jury, and over 1200 signatures on petitions and postcards from the public urging her not to subject Bear Lincoln to the injustice of another trial.

After announcing her decision to retry Lincoln, Massini gave this statement to Bruce Haldane of radio station KZYX: "After considering the evidence and talking to many, many, many people including jurors and witnesses and countless people, and having a great deal of time to think and evaluate, I believe this is the right decision and I'm going to go forward with it." These are her exact words transcribed from the broadcast tape, and this is the only statement she made about the subject before again hiding behind the shield of the renewed gag order, which she herself sought.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Department and Mendocino County are being sued in a federal civil rights case for the blatantly racist and terrorist, "cowboys and Indians" treatment they gave the Round Valley Indian Reservation and other Native American rancheria residents in the period after the shootings. Massini has done nothing about seeking justice for those victims of police abuse.

In summary, the little good that Massini has done on the environmental front is far outweighed by her abuse of discretion in the outrageous and ongoing persecution of Bear Lincoln.

Following is my May 28 letter to the Press Democrat, which was not published:

The May 27 story and editorial about the Mendocino DA candidates mentioned DA candidate Norm Vroman's tax conviction, but omitted the fact that DA Susan Massini was convicted last October 12 of contempt of court, sentenced to five days in jail and fined $500 for violating the gag order in the Bear Lincoln case by talking about it to the Press Democrat.

The story said the Lincoln jury voted 10-2 for acquittal. Wrong! They voted unanimously for acquittal on first and second degree murder and attempted first and second degree murder. Only on manslaughter were there two votes against acquittal, and according to other jurors one of the holdouts was the wife of DA candidate Al Kubanis.

Kubanis says either the DA's office assessed the evidence wrongly in charging Lincoln with capital murder or else the prosecutor bungled presenting the case to the jury. Apparently Kubanis believes it's the latter, but the jurors have spoken clearly that the evidence was not even close to supporting the murder charges.

Based on their public statements, the majority of jurors believe Bear Lincoln acted in self-defense after seeing his friend Acorn Peters shot dead in front of him by unseen assailants. They believe surviving deputy Dennis Miller did not tell the truth about what happened that night, and that Miller probably accidentally shot deputy Bob Davis. Jurors met with Massini after the trial and told her that the evidence was not there for a retrial, and that star witness Miller and head investigator Sgt. Roy Gourley were caught in falsehoods on the witness stand.

It's clear to me that Massini's decision to retry Lincoln on the manslaughter charge is political, based not on evidence but on her ambition to be reelected and her need to placate the sheriff's department. Sheriff Tuso has made it clear that he refuses to accept the jury's verdict, and has even promoted Miller to sergeant. At least Tuso has wisely chosen not to run for reelection. Too bad Massini didn't follow his example.

I suggest voting for Norm Vroman. Despite his other flaws, he's the only candidate who says he would not retry Bear Lincoln.