Local judge says U.S. officials botched parole case

The federal Parole Commission denied clemency to a former Black Panther imprisoned in Atlanta to score political points that would extend the commission’s life, a federal judge said.

U.S. Magistrate Susan Cole also wrote in a final report and recommendation order that U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales improperly meddled in the case.

Cole recommended to a federal judge in Atlanta that Veronza Bowers Jr., be paroled immediately, having served more than 34 years of a life sentence for killing a federal park ranger near San Francisco in 1973.

Hearing examiners and commissioners twice agreed Bowers should be paroled — the first time in November 2004 — but political pressures caused commissioners to reverse themselves, Cole wrote. The magistrate observed that Bowers’ case was the first time the U.S. attorney had asked the commission to review its vote and “render a new decision on whether to grant or deny parole for Bowers.”

Gonzales intervened after receiving a 14-page memo from then-U.S. parole Commissioner Deborah Spagnoli, a former White House aide, asking whether the attorney general should appeal the commission’s decision to parole Bowers.

Cole wrote, however, that Gonzales had no authority to get involved.

“The impartiality of the Commission as a whole was affected by the actions of Commissioner Spagnoli, the Attorney General and others,” Cole wrote. “The taint on the Commission’s decision-making could not be eradicated simply by an order from this Court directing the Commission to grant (Bowers) a new parole hearing.”

Cole determined that the decision to keep Bowers imprisoned “cannot stand.”

Cole’s findings are a recommendation to U.S. District Judge Charles Moye, who is assigned Bowers’ 2008 lawsuit. The case is in the federal court in Georgia’s northern district because Bowers, 63, is incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta.

Bowers and two other men were on U.S. Park Service land near San Francisco, with the intention of poaching deer, on April 26, 1974, when park ranger Kenneth Patrick stopped them. Bowers shot and killed the ranger.

Bowers has “steadfastly maintained his innocence” and insisted he was a “political prisoner” prosecuted because of his affiliation with the Black Panthers.

A commission spokesman declined to comment when contacted Friday by the Washington Post. Bowers’ attorney, Charles Weisselberg, told the Post Bowers’ has always maintained his innocence and he is confident the federal court will rule in his favor.