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Jun-11-98 01:32P ky aliance 502 7788130 P.12

Part 3

The Misuse of the Courts & Criminal Charges to Deal with a Political Struggle

If the investigation and indictments of African American voters and organizers were a sincere effort on the part of state and federal law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to insure honest and clean elections, there would be widespread investigations of complaints of voter fraud against whites in Alabama. This has not happened. Below we cite briefly some incidents in which complaints have been made but no investigation followed. These situations will be outlined more fully in a supplementary document later.

1. In Greene County, the only people charged with crimes have been those affiliated with the Alabama New South Coalition and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

It must be understood that there are clearly two political factions in Greene County at this time. One of them is the Alabama New South Coalition. This is part of a statewide organization by the same name that was formed in the 1980s. Although it is very open to and encourages white membership (and has white members in some counties), it was organized and is led by African Americans. One of the most important rights won by African Americans when they won the right to vote in this century is the right to form their own organizations, set their own goals and shape their own destiny. The Alabama New South Coalition plays that role in that state.

The other political faction in Greene County is an organization called Citizens for a Better Greene County. It was organized and is controlled by the old white power structure and includes a number of African Americans who have joined its ranks. Although it is often pictured in the white Alabama news media as an example of healthy "interracialism." it is clearly not a vehicle through which African Americans can shape their own destiny.

We are not suggesting that the U.S. Attorney General should take sides in this political struggle. Our point is that the struggle between Alabama New South and Citizens for a Better Green County is precisely that --- a political struggle that should be waged by votes at the polls. However when one side has access to the power to bring a criminal investigation and indictments and send people to prison, that process is destroyed, and democracy is destroyed.

For this reason, it is highly significant that although complaints of voting law violations have been made against the Better Greene County group, there has been no investigation of these and no criminal charges brought. As a matter of fact, FBI agents and representatives of the U.S. District Attorney's office in Birmingham are often seen fraternizing and engaged in friendly conversation with members of the Better Greene County group in the courtroom and on the streets of the town of Eutaw in Greene County.

2. The 1994 Alabama Supreme Court race between Perry Hooper and Sonny Hornsby. There were 2,000 absentee ballots across the state that were involved in a challenge. Those absentee ballots were not properly signed or witnessed and therefore could not be counted. In several counties across the state, including Winston, those questionable ballots were counted, which led to a prolonged election challenge. To our knowledge, neither the agency of the government, including the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office, checked into those ballots as they did into hundreds of those cast in Greene County in 1994.

3. Municipal Election in Greensboro in Hale County in August 1997. The Black challenger, John Owens, was forced into a run-off with incumbent Mayor John Jay because the [Page Break]