70
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Nation/World
University Daily Kansan
Monday, April 7, 1986
Trial begins after 14 years
From Kansan wires
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Opening arguments begin today in the trial of an activist lawyer and former Peace Corps volunteer charged with murder and conspiracy in a prison bloodbath that left six people dead and sparked his disappearance 14 years ago.
Stephen Bingham, 44, son of a wealthy and politically prominent Connecticut family, is accused of providing the weapon that triggered a deadly San Quentin prison breakout attempt by prison revolutionary George Jackson.
Bingham's life underground, which started when he told friends he wouldn't be back for dinner and included trips to Europe, ended July 9 when he surreptitiously with the help of former Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
He returned to San Francisco saying he had fled because he feared he would not get a fair trial.
"Ten years ago, people might not have listened," he said. "I feel more comfortable now that I will get a fair hearing. I don't mind at all going to trial because it gives me a chance to clear my name."
Prosecutors contend that, as an idealistic young lawyer, Bingham used a tape recorder to smuggle a 9mm automatic pistol and ammunition to
Jackson, a prison reform leader and author. They say Jackson stashed the contraband under a wig and returned to his cell.
Defense attorneys say Jackson was set up by the government and others in an impossible escape plot, and that Bingham was chosen as a scapegoat.
His trial, on two counts of murder and one of conspiracy, is expected to last four to six months.
Bingham has elicited financial and moral support from writer Jessica Mitford, state sen. Julian Bond, from Georgia, and others. Free on bail, Bingham has worked periodically at an Oakland law firm.
While a student at Yale, Bingham helped register voters in Mississippi. Later, he and his first wife, Gretchen Mayson, of Sierra Leone with the Peace Corps.
He worked on a legal aid program for farm workers and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley at Baskell Hall Law School. In 1968, he worked on Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign.
Bingham was helping Jackson with a federal civil rights suit charging inhumane prison conditions during the summer of 1971. Jackson, serving time for robbery, was the author of "The Prison Letters" and "Soledad Brothers."
hours, the violent Blood Saturday melee erupted. When the smoke cleared, officials found 26 inmates had been released from their cells, and Jackson, two other inmates and three guards had been killed.
Bingham visited Jackson at San Quentin on Aug. 21, 1971. Within
The San Quentin warden said he had conclusive evidence that Bingham was part of the breakout attempt. Three days later, Bingham told friends at a Berkeley commune he wouldn't be back for dinner. He roared off on his motorcycle and vanished.
Bingham says he was stunned by comments that there was proof linking him to the prison violence.
"Was it rational for me to believe I might be a victim of a careful cover-up?" he asked shortly after his surrender. "I certainly believed so on Aug. 21, and I think so even more strongly today."
The state's case will be argued by Terrance Boren, a deputy district attorney who concedes his case is largely circumstantial.
Bingham the defense will be handled by M. Gerald Schwartzbach of San Francisco and associates Bruce E. Cohen and Susan Rutberg. During preliminary hearings, Bingham was represented by Leonard Weissglass of Los Angeles, a prominent civil rights attorney.
"I believe it will be very difficult for the jury to find him guilty.
ATHENS, Greece — Police said yesterday that they questioned Arabs and other foreigners at the Athens airport about the TWA jetliner bombing that killed four Americans, but that a Lebanese woman remained their only suspect.
Athanassios Zafeiris, security police chief for the Athens area, said the airport interrogations were part of a general inquiry.
The Associated Press
1 bombing suspect remains
"We're not searching for any specific people or investigating any specific actions." he said. "No one has been arrested or is being held."
Police said they still suspected that a Lebanese woman named May Elias Mansur planted the bomb on the Trans World Airlines Boeing 727 on a flight Wednesday from Cairo to Athens. The plane went on to Rome. The bomb exploded as the plane was flying back to Athens and Cairo, and was 15,000 feet over southern Greece.
A woman identifying herself as the suspect spoke with The Associated Press on Saturday in Tripoli, Lebanon. She said she flew on the plane from Cairo to Athens, but denied planting the bomb.
A Greek senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday, "We still suspect this woman."
News reports have said that Greek police picked up an Arab identified as Mohammed Youssef for questioning Friday in the transit lounge at the international terminal.
The reports said Youssef bought a plane ticket March 30 in Nicosia, Cyprus, to fly to Athens with a connecting flight to Beirut.
Zafeiris said police questioned at least one Arab man who arrived at Athens airport from Nicosia, but refused to say whether the man was named Youssef.
According to TWA's passenger list, someone identified as M. Youssef occupied seat 1A on TWA Flight 840 from Rome to Athens, on which the bomb exploded. Youssef was scheduled to continue to the flight's termination point in Cairo.
It was not known whether the man listed on the passenger list was the man reported to have traveled to Athens from Cyprus.
A TWA spokesman has said the bomb exploded under seat 10f and that Miss Mansur sat in that seat during the earlier flight from Cairo. The woman interviewed in Tripoli denied sitting in 10F.
A preliminary examination Saturday by an Athens coroner of the body of Alberto Ospino, a Colombian-born American who died in the blast, indicated the bomb exploded under him, according to a spokesman for the coroner's office who spoke on condition of anonymity. Ospino, of Stratford, Conn., sat in seat 19F during Flight 840.
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The Sua Special Events Committee is continuing it's tradition of bringing quality musical entertainment to K.U. Be a part of an enthusiastic, responsible, hardworking team. Interviews for the following positions on the 1986-87 Special Events Committee will be held TONIGHT:
The Fantasy and Science Fiction Club will meet at 8 p.m. today in the Regionalist Room.
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To apply: sign up for an interview today at the SUA office on the 4th floor of the Kansas Union. Deadline is TODAY, at 5 p.m.
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