Ex-Fugitive Bingham Faces Trial in Deaths of 6

SAN RAFAEL —  Stephen M. Bingham, the lawyer who spent 13 years as a fugitive from charges arising out of an escape attempt at San Quentin prison in which black militant George Jackson and five others were killed, was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on murder and conspiracy charges.

Bingham, 42, said he was not surprised that Marin County Municipal Judge William H. Stephens ordered him to face trial.

The Yale-educated attorney, a member of a prominent Connecticut family, acknowledged that the prosecution has a “circumstantial case” against him, but he maintains his innocence.

After hearing 56 witnesses, Stephens concluded that there was enough evidence to warrant a trial on charges that on Aug. 21, 1971, Bingham smuggled a gun in a tape recorder to Jackson, a San Quentin inmate and self-described revolutionary, who hid it between the netting and imitation hairs of a wig.

When the gun was discovered, a bloody uprising ensued, and three guards and three inmates--including Jackson--died.

Bingham vanished that night. He did not reappear until last July, when he turned himself in, announcing at a San Francisco press conference that he knew he would have to stand trial but that he believed that he would be acquitted.

Stephens ordered a reduction in Bingham’s bail on Wednesday from $400,000 to $300,000.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Terrence R. Boren of Marin County opposed the reduction, saying Bingham has not revealed to authorities where he stayed during the 13 years, suggesting that he has a proven escape route that he might use again.

Bingham, dressed in a gray pin-striped suit, said after the hearing that there “is no conceivable way I could go back (to life as a fugitive). People know who I am, and I couldn’t go back.”

He said his decision to return to face the charges “had to do with my personal life.” He would not elaborate, except to say, “I had to live another life. There was pain in that.”

Bingham added that the political climate has changed since 1971 and that in the wake of Watergate and disclosures about civil rights abuses by intelligence agencies, jurors may be more willing to believe what his lawyer, Leonard Weinglass, called a “conspiracy of officialdom” to set up and kill Jackson, thereby framing Bingham. That apparently will be the basis of Bingham’s defense during the trial, expected later this year.

“Maybe 10 or 12 years ago, people would not have listened to this--the idea that the state can do wrong and does do wrong,” Bingham said.

Stephens, while binding Bingham over for a trial, agreed that there were “gaps” in security surrounding Jackson, which were not explained during the hearing.

But the judge said there was no evidence to support another charge by Weinglass--that Jackson was executed, perhaps by a guard who was the first to reach him while the inmate lay bleeding on the prison grounds.