Biography
David Rice and his co-defendant, Ed Poindexter, were Black Panter members who were charged with the killing of police officer Larry Minard with a fake 911 call to a house containing an explosive device.
The witness who implicated Rice and Poindexter, initially denied any known involvement or Rice or Poindexter, but eventually at a hearing Peak changed his story and implicated the two. He appeared to have been beaten and claimed that he was threatened during the court recess. Additionally, both Rice and Poindexter had alibis during the time when this witness claimed to have seen them build the bomb.
Poindexter and Rice were tried together with an all-white-except-for-one-person jury. (The black man only agreed to vote guilty if Rice and Poindexter didn't receive the death sentence, which the other jurors were in support of.)
The state also brought forth as EVIDENCE political literature written by David Rice. In the words of Frank B. Morrison, Poindexter's attorney, "They weren't convicted of murder. They were convicted of rhetoric. The only thing these young fellas did was try to combat all the racial discrimination of the time the wrong way."
Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa (David Rice) was a leader of Omaha's Black Panther affiliate. With Ed Poindexter — the "Omaha Two" — he was convicted of the 1970 bombing murder of Omaha police officer Larry Minard, in a case tainted by COINTELPRO and widely considered a frame-up. He died in prison on March 11, 2016 after 44 years.
