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US prison-gang case based on liars: defense

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 July 2006, 14:08 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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