SF 8 - Court Update - Monday, June 18

A large crowd gathered in front of the SF
Courthouse at 850 Bryant Street at 8 am Monday
morning calling for the release of the SF 8 and the dropping of all charges.



Despite the 9am court hearing being delayed two
hours, with many supporters having to leave for
work or other obligations, the courtroom was
packed. The hearing was held in a high-security
courtroom in which supporters are separated from
the courtroom by a ceiling high plastic barrier
and screen - making it difficult to hear the
proceedings and creating the sensation of a
caged, dangerous and criminalized process. In a
dramatic moment, Michael Burt, the attorney for
Ray Boudreaux whose bail reduction motion was to
be argued first, asked that the judge acknowledge
that people had made a concerted effort to appear
in support of a motion to reduce bail for Ray. At
that point Burt asked that all those who
supported Ray’s motion rise – the entire
courtroom rose and stood in support of the motion
and the SF 8, and remained standing for several
minutes. This show of unity strengthened everyone
and gave a great sense of community commitment to
the court and the 8 themselves.



Further hearings were scheduled for 10 am
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday which will
include legal arguments about discovery,
challenging the shackling of the 8 in court,
demurs which challenge the jurisdiction of the
court to proceed given that some of the 8 would
be tried again for some of the charges in the
complaint, and motions to reduce the $3 million
bail set for 6 of the 8 that will begin on
Wednesday with testimony from Professor Craig
Haney of UC Santa Cruz about the absence of
danger to the community from these men who are
now in their late 50s to early 70s.

_______________________________________________
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Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR)
PO Box 90221
Pasadena, CA 91109
(415) 226-1120
FreetheSF8 [at] riseup.net