Settling in Imbaseni Village

After living in Ngaramtoni for five years, Charlotte and Pete buy a vacant piece of rocky land in Embaseni village near Arusha, in the tribal land of the Meru people. Pete and Charlotte O’Neal construct a multi-building compound consisting of their home, guest house, dormitories for visiting students, dining facility, classrooms, workshops, and a home for over twenty underprivileged Tanzanian children. They establish friendly relations with the Meru and work to bring piped water and electricity to parts of the village. With financial help from Omar Jamal, a Washington, D.C., businessman, they create the United African American Community Center to promote Tanzanian development and share Tanzanian traditions with Americans. In separate interviews, Pete and Charlotte assess their lives and experience raising a family in Tanzania. Pete also describes meeting attorney Paul Magnarella and asking him to review his 1970 trial.

Evidence of Perjury and a New Petition

Attorney Paul Magnarella filed another petition with the Federal District Court asserting that during O’Neal’s 1970 trial, Jean Young, a key witness for the prosecution, had falsely claimed to have forgotten that she had received numerous payments from the FBI for information. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Agent James Moore lied on the witness stand when he said he had not heard of Jean Young receiving FBI payments for information. FBI records established that Jean M. Young had gone by at least seven different surnames, had been arrested three times by Kansas City, Missouri, police, had received a total of fourteen payments from the FBI for information, and had provided information to the FBI on Pete O’Neal. ATF agent Moore testified that he did not know of Young’s paid informant status, even though he later would write that both Young and an FBI agent had told him before the 1970 trial that Young was a paid informant. Magnarella argued that the prosecution was required to reveal to the judge, jury, and defense any evidence that reflects negatively on its witnesses. Failure to do so should result in a new trial.

Life Then and Now

Paul Magnarella describes his first meeting with the O’Neals and summarizes their experiences and accomplishments in Tanzania and abroad. Through the UAACC the O’Neals have organized free workshops and classes on health and nutrition, conservation, AIDS education, writing, art appreciation, crafts, history, and computer skills to well over 100 Tanzanian youths annually. They established a student-exchange program with De LaSalle Academy in Kansas City, a Sister City relationship between Arusha and Kansas City, as well as linkages with several study-abroad programs in the U.S. Their supporters have donated needed medical supplies and equipment to Arusha hospitals. The UAACC and the Kuji Foundation, created by Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, hired a South African company to drill a deep well for the village community. Geronimo’s Fugi Foundation also donated an ambulance truck to the UAACC. With support from the Fugi Foundation, the Center trained several young, mixed-gender Tanzanian teams to install solar panels in 85 village homes that had no electricity. Charlotte O’Neal has become a recognized visual and spoken-word artist, musician, and filmmaker. She travels the world giving performances and spreading the news of the UAACC. Both she and Pete O’Neal have received many awards and recognitions for their communal work.

From The Hague to Arusha to Kansas Federal Court

Paul Magnarella describes his legal work with the UN Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and his travel to Arusha, Tanzania, to work with the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He describes meeting the O’Neals and agreeing to become Pete O’Neal’s attorney. After examining Pete’s court records and trial transcript, Magnarella concludes that the presiding judge, Arthur J. Stanley, made a number of crucial errors that resulted in Pete’s wrongful conviction. Magnarella examines Judge Stanley’s previous famous case involving George John Gessner, a private first-class nuclear weapons specialist. Judge Stanley’s court found Gessner guilty of communicating restrictive data to a foreign nation. Federal appellate judges overturned the conviction, ruling that the U.S. military had coerced Gessner’s confession and the Stanley court had suspended Gessner’s constitutional protections to satisfy the needs of government.

Justice Denied

Judge Van Bebber invoked the fugitive disentitlement doctrine and denied the latest petition for a new trial. He stated that O’Neal should not be able to benefit by a positive adjudication of his claims without submitting himself to the risks of an unfavorable decision. However, O’Neal had sworn in his affidavit that he would return to the United States for a new trial and thereby face the risks of an unfavorable decision. Magnarella critiques both Judge O’Connor and Judge Van Bebber for valuing the preservation of judicial resources over justice by refusing to take the time to carefully examine the merits of O’Neal’s petitions. Magnarella regards the judges’ invocation of the fugitive disentitlement doctrine as cover-up for the judicial errors, prosecutorial irregularities, and constitutional violations that characterized O’Neal’s unfair trial in 1970. O’Neal reacted to the latest petition denial with deep disappointment.

Introduction

The introduction establishes the setting for Pete O’Neal’s life in the United States. It describes the social turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s, including that period’s civil strife, racial discrimination, national and urban unrest, and black power movements. It discusses the formation and ideologies of the Black Panther Party and the strained relations between the police and black citizens, as well as the racially uneven employment picture in Kansas City, Missouri, the city of Pete O’Neal’s formative years.

Leaving Algeria and Living in Tanzania

In 1972 Pete and Charlotte O’Neal and their young son left Algeria for Tanzania where some African Americans from the mid-West had immigrated in response to the Tanzanian ambassador’s invitation to contribute to Tanzania’s building. On the way, Pete meets with Libya’s Muammar Khadafi, who gives him a ring and monetary aid. After a brief stay in Dar es Salaam, the O’Neals move to Ngaramtoni and become farmers. Charlotte explains why she wanted to leave Algeria in favor of Tanzania. In 1974 Tanzanian officials arrest many of the African American immigrants after discovering a small number of undeclared firearms in a shipment of household goods sent to them from the U.S. Police also arrest Pete O’Neal for possessing a walkie-talkie. The arrest and incarceration experience, known as the “Big Bust,” caused many of the Americans to leave Tanzania.

Black Panther Party–Community Relations

Pete O’Neal describes the Black Panther Party’s various community support programs in Kansas City, Missouri. They include a pre-school breakfast program for inner-city children, as well as clothing, food, medical support, and job and family counseling for people in need. O’Neal explains how these programs were supported by local churches and businesses. O’Neal describes ways the Panthers joined forces with other civil rights organizations such as Soul Inc., the Black Youth of America, and Students for a Democratic Society to protest city policies they deemed to be unfair to inner-city residents and to expose persons who took advantage of these same people. O’Neal also describes the Panthers’ confrontation with a “white” inner-city church (Linwood United Methodist Church) and the resulting reconciliation between the church and the Black Panther Party.

Submission, Responses, and Final Orders

Attorney Austin Shute delivered attorney Magnarella’s petition to the Federal District Court in Kansas. Judge Arthur J. Stanley had retired, and his long-time colleague Judge Earl E. O’Connor had taken over Pete’s case. He accepted the petition, directed the U.S. Attorney to file a response, and allowed O’Neal’s counsel to file a reply. A U.S. Assistant Attorney responded to the petition by arguing, without legal support, that the writ of coram nobis was all but extinct and recommended that the judge invoke the fugitive disentitlement doctrine. The presiding judge refused to examine the merits of the petition. He invoked the fugitive disentitlement doctrine, saying that O’Neal could have litigated his legal issues on appeal in 1970. Because O’Neal had fled the jurisdiction of the court back in 1970, the judge said he was not entitled to any court resources.

Life’s Transitions to the Black Panther Party

Pete O’Neal describes his failed first marriage and his inability to adapt to a standard working-class life style. Once free from marriage he achieves his 12th Street ideal by becoming a pimp, only to experience a mental and spiritual breakdown. He commits himself to working for the black community and forms the Black Vigilantes to protect blacks from police abuse. He travels to the Black Panther Party headquarters in Oakland, California, to train and then get permission to form a branch of the Party in Kansas City. He describes the Party’s personnel, structure, and workings in Kansas. Pete marries fellow member Charlotte Hill, and years later both recollect their first meeting and how the Party saved their lives.