A press conference was held in Omaha this morning by Bob Bartle, the attorney for Ed Poindexter, who was wrongfully convicted in 1970 along with Mondo we Langa (formerly, David Rice) for the murder of Omaha police officer Larry Minard.

Recently, Bartle got a court oder to compel Duane Peak, the then-15 year old, who said that he made the 9-1-1 call that lured officer Minard to his death and that he had been put up to it by Mondo and Ed. The 9-1-1 tape was suppressed at the trial on the advice of the FBI [the FBI letter was later secured under a Freedom of Information request].

An Omaha police deparment employee with a conscience turned over the 9-1-1 tape years later after the prosecution had alleged that it had been destroyed. Anyone listening to the tape can tell that it is not the voice of a 15 year old boy. Anyway, Peak's voice "exemplar" was obtained in Seattle recently, examined by an forensic examiner and determined with a degree of scientific certainty that Peak did not make the 9-1-1 call.

The examiner, by the way, is the same person retained by the U. S. government to confirm the voice of Osama Bin Laden on tape. A reporter at the press conference this morning asked Bartle how he could be sure that an analysis of a 30 year old voice recording was accurate. Ever heard a reporter ask whether the analysis of a 30 year old fingerprint is accurate?

They just won't accept the possibility that there was prosecutorial misconduct and that the FBI and the Omaha Police department conspired to frame Mondo and Ed. The FBI , for its part, has admitted that it conducted a program called "COINTELPRO" to do just that, not only to Mondo and Ed but to many others whom it determined were a clear and present danger to the security of the United States. President Ford pardoned the FBI criminals who conducted this unconstitutional program but nobody has provided relief to its victims.

Bartle has asked for a new trial for Ed [Mondo exhausted his post conviction relief some time ago]. The prosecution will vigorously oppose a new trial. So much for the tired euphemism that the judicial system is engaged in a search for the truth.

They know that no court would convict these men today on the perjured testimony of Peak and the mountain of evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel. Sorry for the long e-mail. Here is the brief story posted by Omaha radio station KFAB a couple of hours ago:

Poindexter Requests A New Trial

An amended petition was filed Tuesday with the District Court in Douglas County requesting a new trial for Edward Poindexter, who is serving a life sentence for the 1970 bombing death of Omaha police officer Larry Minard.

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Attorney Robert Bartle says a voice analysis by a renowned expert in voice identification, audio and video authentication and tape enhancement concludes the man who implicated Poindexter, Duane Peak, did not make a 9-1-1 call following the bombing, after testifying that he did. The petition for post- conviction relief also says evidence will show grounds for prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance in counsel in Poindexter's previous trial.

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