US prison-gang case based on liars: defense

By Tori Richards

SANTA ANA, Calif (Reuters) – Defense lawyers winding up a
landmark conspiracy and racketeering case against the Aryan
Brotherhood prison gang accused the U.S. government on
Wednesday of basing its case on “a parade of perjurers.”

Defense lawyer Mark Fleming said in closing arguments that
many of the prosecution witnesses at the four-month-old trial
were former Aryan Brotherhood members who cooperated with the
government in exchange for cash and promises of parole.

The government’s bid to break the Brotherhood’s
stranglehold on the U.S. prison system was based on “a parade
of perjurers who are bought and paid for by the government to
come in here,” Fleming said.

He said the case was about “a lot of horrific murders, a
lot of dead bodies, but that’s the world they (the defendants)
live in.”

Convicted killer and suspected Aryan Brotherhood chief
Barry “The Baron” Mills, his alleged top lieutenant Tyler “the
Hulk” Bingham, Christopher Gibson and Edgar “Snail” Hevle have
been on trial in California since March. It is the government’s
first salvo in a legal war that prosecutors hope will destroy
the 40 year-old gang, which has a reputation for ruthlessness.

Taking laws previously used against the Mafia in the United
States, prosecutors have alleged that the Brotherhood
orchestrated 32 murders or attempted murders over a 30-year
period from behind the bars of some of America’s toughest
prisons.

Bingham and Mills, already serving long prison terms, could
face the death penalty if convicted.

Fleming ridiculed one of the prosecution’s star witnesses
– former Brotherhood member Clifford Smith — as the
“professor of perjury.” Smith turned informant after admitting
to 21 murders.

Another informant, Glen “Speedy” West, was given $79,000
over the years as well as parole after agreeing to testify
against Mills, Fleming said.

“These guys have nothing better to do. What’s at stake? To
get out of these horrific hell holes we have heard about,” he
said.

The trial has relied heavily on testimony from former gang
members and convicted killers who described orders written in
urine and weapons hidden in the genitals of prison visitors.

The Aryan Brotherhood began as a mostly white group of
inmates who banded together at California’s San Quentin state
prison in the 1960s to protect themselves against black and
Hispanic prisoners.

Forty people were charged in the case in 2002. Up to 16
could face the death penalty if convicted. Nineteen have struck
plea bargains, one defendant has died and trials are pending
for the rest.