BY EDWIN FRUIT

PITTSBURGH - On October 11, nearly 100 people marched in a candlelight vigil from the city-county building to a service at the Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh to commemorate the one year anniversary of the death of Jonny Gammage at the hands of suburban Pittsburgh police. Gammage, who was Black, was severely beaten and asphyxiated by five cops after a routine traffic stop.

Three of the cops are being tried for involuntary manslaughter, even though a coroner's jury recommended unanimously that all five be charged with homicide. The case has received national attention because of the ongoing mobilizations organized locally demanding "Justice for Jonny Gammage" and because Gammage was the cousin and business manager of Ray Seals, a lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.

The case against the cops is being prosecuted by the Allegheny County District Attorney's office, which is headed by Bob Colville, a former member of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).

As a result of all the publicity around the case, presiding Judge David Cashman decided that he would get a jury from outside Allegheny County. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court chose Lackawanna and Chester Counties as the site of the jury pools. The jurors will be transported to Pittsburgh for the proceedings.

Pittsburgh NAACP president Tim Stevens protested this procedure. Allegheny Country is almost 12 percent Black and the city of Pittsburgh is 26 percent Black. The population of Chester County, near Philadelphia, where the jury for the first trial was selected, is only 6 percent Black.

The jury pool of 56 people in Chester County had included three Blacks and one Asian but these four were excused by the defense team. So the first trial of two officers in the case will be heard by an all white jury from a largely suburban and rural county.

According to the October 13 issue of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Stevens said, "You cannot escape the fact that race in America is a significant issue.... These people will by their history have a very positive leaning to police."

A picket line is scheduled for October 17 in front of the City-County Building and a major action is being planned for October 26 to demand that justice be done.

Edwin Fruit is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1976 and is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for General Assembly in the 22nd district.  
 
 
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