crossposted from
unbossed.
Every federal prosecutor - criminal or administrative agency - knows that you will reach a point in the trial where you have to turn over your Jencks material - pre-trial statements by a witness - to the defendant. Why? Because that's what the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500, requires.
But have you ever wondered: Who was Jencks?
This is his story, one that matters to those of us who support civil liberties, the right to a fair trial, the right to join and be active in organizations, such as unions, and the right to dissent.
It is also a memorial to the man, who died this past week, much respected, much loved.
The Jencks Act codified the conclusions of a US Supreme Court case,
Jencks v. US, 353 U.S. 657 (1957).
Clint Jencks was the president of a labor union, the Western Federation of Miners, in the 1950's. At that time the law required officers of labor unions to file affidavits that they were not members of the Communist Party. In that case, the government prosecuted Clint Jencks for filing an affidavit that falsely stated that he was not a member of the Communist Party or affiliated with it.
Jencks was convicted based on testimony against him by two paid undercover FBI agents, Ford and Matusow. When they were cross-examined, the agents said that they had made regular oral or written reports to the FBI on the matters about which they had testified. Jencks' attorney moved for production of the reports so he could use them to impeach their testimony. The motions were denied by the trial court.
That decision, and Jencks' conviction were overturned by the Supreme Court. The court said:
The crucial nature of the testimony of Ford and Matusow to the Government's case is conspicuously apparent. The impeachment of that testimony was singularly important to the petitioner. The value of the reports for impeachment purposes was highlighted by the admissions of both witnesses that they could not remember what reports were oral and what written, and by Matusow's admission: "I don't recall what I put in my reports two or three years ago, written or oral, I don't know what they were."
Every experienced trial judge and trial lawyer knows the value for impeaching purposes of statements of the witness recording the events before time dulls treacherous memory. Flat contradiction between the witness' testimony and the version of the events given in his reports is not the only test of inconsistency. The omission from the reports of facts related at the trial, or a contrast in emphasis upon the same facts, even a different order of treatment, are also relevant to the cross-examining process of testing the credibility of a witness' trial testimony.
This result was then codified in the Jencks Act.
But that is not all
Jencks did so much more than be a defendant whose case went to the Supreme Court. A few months ago, when Clint Jencks fell seriously ill, unbossed posted news on the status of Clint Jencks' health. There are many links there to information about his life.
To summarize, Jencks was a union organizer in a tough, lawless industry - mining in the Southwest. The links above give those details, a story worthy of a movie.
And, in fact it is. The events were made into a low-budget film still known in progressive circles: Salt of the Earth. Jencks plays himself in it. If ever a movie deserved a remake, it is this one. While the story is an exciting one, the acting is, well, mostly the acting of nonactors.
Jencks eventually went on to get a Ph.D. in economics and to teach at San Diego State University. There, he was an inspiration to many students.
And last week, he died. Here are recollections in remembrance of Clint Jencks from his friends and daughter.
From Herb Shore:
San Diego DSA regrets to announce that our esteemed member Clint Jencks died on December 15, 2005. Clint was 87 and was a Professor Emeritus of Economics at San Diego State University, having retired from SDSU in 1986. Y
ounger DSA members and friends may not know that in Clint Jencks we had a legendary figure from the American labor movement and the struggles against McCarthyism. In 1950, Clint was a leader of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in southwest New Mexico. He led a strike of mostly Latino zinc miners in Silver City, NM.
Shortly after this strike, in the midst of the Hollywood red scare, a group of blacklisted film industry artists formed their own production company and were looking for a story about American working people. They chose a story based on the IUMMSW strike, and used the actual participants in the strike as actors. Clint essentially played himself. Every step in the production of the film, processing, editing, etc. encountered determined opposition from the industry. It was almost impossible to find theaters that would show the film, but in 1954 "Salt of the Earth", starring Clint Jencks opened to very, very limited distribution.
Times changed. Salt of the Earth was ultimately recognized as a national treasure, and was selected by the Library of Congress as one of 100 films to be preserved for posterity. Clint went on to get his Ph.D. in economics at U.C. Berkeley. He joined the SDSU Economics Department in 1964 and played an important role in the SDSU community and in the SDSU faculty union movement for 22 years. After retirement, Clint remained a familiar figure and participant in DSA and the San Diego progressive movement.
Members of San Diego DSA will actively participate in a memorial service for Clint on Jan. 8, 2006.
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NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: 12/15/05
I have just heard from the daughter of Clinton Jencks.
The leaves fall, but this is hard to hear.
Clinton Jencks, a major figure in Western radical labor for a generation, and then an always much appreciated professor in California, has just died at San Diego. A decorated World War II hero, and long-time International Rep. for the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers [formerly the Western Federation of Miners] for more than a decade following World War II, he did much of his gifted organizing work in Southwestern New Mexico. Many have seen him and his late spouse [Virginia] as Frank and Ruth Barnes in the great labor/civil rights/women's rights film, SALT OF THE EARTH [1953-54.]
This film, designated several years ago by the Library of Congress as one of the most significant ever made in this country. is based on the famous Empire Zinc strike which lasted from October 1950 to February 1952, a struggle in which Clint played a major role as The Organizer.
Named as a "Communist" by the infamous Fink, Harvey Matusow, Clint was charged by the Federal government with "perjury" vis-a-vis the infamous "Non-Communist affidavits" mandated by the venomously anti-labor Taft Hartley Act. Convicted in a hysterical Federal trial at El Paso, he was sentenced to a long prison term. Free on appeal, he and his multitude of supporters fought resolutely through the Federal courts, Matusow eventually recanted and, in that context, wrote his fascinating confessional, FALSE WITNESS; and in 1957, in Jencks v U.S., the USSC exonerated Clint and ruled that the FBI henceforth must provide the defendant with written and oral informers' reports. Clinton Jencks went on to secure the appropriate graduate degrees in economics and taught for many rich and productive years at San Diego State University.
His monument is a great many of us over decades -- for whom he was a major inspiration as we came of age as radical labor activists. It is higher than the Rockies above his native Colorado Springs.
See this for information on the life and times of Clinton and the much embattled Maurice Travis, also of Mine-Mill.
On the witch-hunting attacks against both men and Mine-Mill as a whole, look here.
Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]
>From Clinton Jencks' daughter to Hunter Gray: 12/15/05
I just got a call from his wife. I am Clint's daughter. He died last night. They found him dead on the floor next to the bed this morning, "he hit his head on the bed." He should never have been left alone, he was terribly frail. He might not have made it many weeks more, but I hoped to see him in January (I live in Michigan).
His body will be cremated tomorrow, Friday, and the service will be held Saturday in San Diego. . . I'm sorry to say good-bye to our brave Colorado boy.
I thought you would want to know. I'm glad I found your website.
Linda Jencks O'Connell [Note by HG: daughter of Clinton and the late Virginia Jencks.]
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
www.hunterbear.org
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