from the New York Times
Condemned Killer Claims Innocence 25 Years Later
By Reuters
Published: December 23, 2006
Filed at 9:06 a.m. ET
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Condemned killer Mumia Abu-Jamal isn't getting his hopes up.
The former radio reporter who was convicted of murdering a Philadelphia policeman in 1981 is appealing his death sentence on grounds that his lawyer Robert Bryan says offer his best chance yet of a new trial.
But the former Black Panther who has spent almost a quarter-century on Death Row for a crime he says he did not commit -- and become an international cause celebre for the anti-death penalty movement -- says he knows better than to pin his hopes on the latest twist in a long legal saga.
``I have learned over the years to not get into the prediction business, and I have learned that the hard way,'' he said in an exclusive interview with Reuters from a state prison near Waynesburg in western Pennsylvania.
His earlier hopes were dashed in 1989 when his attorneys went before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and returned full of optimism.
``They came back and reported to me, 'You got it, you won,' and of course I believed them. Obviously, that was not the case,'' the 52-year-old said.
Abu-Jamal, who is black, was convicted and sentenced to death in July 1982 for killing Daniel Faulkner, a white policeman, in Philadelphia on December 9, 1981.
He has maintained his innocence, saying he was framed in a city that had a reputation for police brutality and where he had antagonized officials with his reporting on alleged police corruption.
Critics including the Fraternal Order of Police argue that several eyewitnesses identified Abu-Jamal as the killer, that the bullet that killed the policeman was of the same type used in Abu-Jamal's gun and that Abu-Jamal confessed to the killing while recovering from his wounds, according to testimony of a hospital security guard.
``What more do you need?'' said Peter Wirs, a Philadelphia Republican whose local party branch recently filed a lawsuit against the mayor of Paris for making Abu-Jamal an honorary citizen of the city. ``It's an open-and-shut case.''
RACIST JUDGE?
The city council in Paris made Abu-Jamal an honorary citizen, while Paris suburb St. Denis has named a street after him.
Abu-Jamal also has attracted support from Amnesty International, the European Parliament and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who say they believe he was a victim of police and judicial racism and deserves at least a new trial.
Among other evidence, his backers cite a statement by the now-deceased trial Judge Albert Sabo, who sentenced Abu-Jamal to death and who, according to court documents, was overheard saying, ``Yeah, and I'm going to help 'em fry the nigger.''
Wirs denied Sabo's statement indicates the trial was racially biased. ``He was just expressing the general sentiment of most Philadelphians. He was biased and prejudiced against criminals,'' he said.
Faulkner's widow, Maureen, could not be reached for comment. The Philadelphia District Attorney, whose office prosecuted Abu-Jamal, declined to comment because the case is under appeal.
In Abu-Jamal's latest appeal, expected to be heard in early 2007, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia will decide whether his trial was tainted by racial discrimination and whether he is entitled to a new trial.
For now, Abu-Jamal remains on Death Row because of appeals against another judge's lifting of the death sentence in 2001.
In a telephone interview lasting 15 minutes, the most allowed by prison authorities, Abu-Jamal said he lives a largely solitary life.
``The day can be encapsulated in the word 'isolation,''' he said. ``For 22 hours a day, you are in a cell by yourself. That's where you eat, that's where you sleep, that's where you do your ... bodily functions.''
The only possibility of contact with others is a two-hour exercise period at the maximum-security prison. But even that is often solitary during the winter because many inmates avoid the cold, he said.
In his cell, Abu-Jamal said he reads, writes columns on topics such as politics, the death penalty and the war in Iraq for a Web site run by his supporters and makes radio broadcasts for a San Francisco-based organization called Prison Radio.
Contact with his family is largely limited to phone calls because they live some 300 miles away in Philadelphia.
``My people are poor,'' he said. ``I don't see them often, maybe once or twice a year if we can manage it but sometimes not even that.''
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
House of Representatives Resolution Passed Against Mumia
Dear Friends,
The stealth vote in the House of Representatives denouncing Saint-Denis for naming a street in honor of Mumia, introduced by suspending the usual congressional process of going through the Judiciary Committee and limiting debate, will not go to the Senate and has no power of implementation. Yet it achieved an important goal for the "fry Mumia" camp. It succeeded in intimidating Philadelphia's House Representative Chaka Fattah. Fattah, who represents the district Mumia comes from, led the original Congressional Black Caucus Letter of June 1995 demanding: a stay of the then scheduled August 17th execution, a new trial for Mumia, and a recusal of Hanging Judge Albert Sabo. It also stated that there was strong evidence of Mumia's innocence. Fattah recently announced that he will give up his seat in the Congress and seek the Mayoralty of Philadelphia. No sooner had he announced his intentions to become Mayor, when the Fraternal Order of Police began its attack on him as a supporter of a new trial for "cop-killer" Mumia Abu-Jamal. The FOP actually sent an observer to the House when the vote on the Saint-Denis came up. Sadly, Chaka Fattah collapsed under that pressure and voted "yes" -- to support the anti-Mumia resolution. He said he still supported the idea of a new trial for Mumia, but felt it was wrong to honor someone convicted of so horrible a crime. Logical? Certainly not. A victim of police intimidation? Certainly, yes. The FOP has stated that they will still not support Fattah even though they were pleased with his vote, because he supports a new trial for Mumia. What can we expect next?
The Free Mumia Coalition is sending letters of appreciation to the 31 Congressional Representatives who opposed the Resolution. See the list of votes linked below. And we are urging all Mumia supporters to check out how their reps votes. If they supported the resolution send them a letter of criticism. The sample letter linked below, by Mark Taylor is an example of an excellent letter you can feel free to use. Pam Africa is out of the country, attending a political prisoners/torture/isolation conference in Athens, with Ramona. She was part of this discussion before leaving, and feels strongly that we
should "educate" and challenge those who went along with that ridiculous yet outrageous resolution.
A LUTA CONTINUA, ona move!
Suzanne Ross, Co-chair, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coaliltion (NYC)
TO VIEW THE LIST OF CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES WHO VOTED FOR AND AGAINST THE RESOLUTION AND FOR THE SAMPLE LETTER PLEASE GO TO:
http://www.freemumia.com/houseofreps.html
The stealth vote in the House of Representatives denouncing Saint-Denis for naming a street in honor of Mumia, introduced by suspending the usual congressional process of going through the Judiciary Committee and limiting debate, will not go to the Senate and has no power of implementation. Yet it achieved an important goal for the "fry Mumia" camp. It succeeded in intimidating Philadelphia's House Representative Chaka Fattah. Fattah, who represents the district Mumia comes from, led the original Congressional Black Caucus Letter of June 1995 demanding: a stay of the then scheduled August 17th execution, a new trial for Mumia, and a recusal of Hanging Judge Albert Sabo. It also stated that there was strong evidence of Mumia's innocence. Fattah recently announced that he will give up his seat in the Congress and seek the Mayoralty of Philadelphia. No sooner had he announced his intentions to become Mayor, when the Fraternal Order of Police began its attack on him as a supporter of a new trial for "cop-killer" Mumia Abu-Jamal. The FOP actually sent an observer to the House when the vote on the Saint-Denis came up. Sadly, Chaka Fattah collapsed under that pressure and voted "yes" -- to support the anti-Mumia resolution. He said he still supported the idea of a new trial for Mumia, but felt it was wrong to honor someone convicted of so horrible a crime. Logical? Certainly not. A victim of police intimidation? Certainly, yes. The FOP has stated that they will still not support Fattah even though they were pleased with his vote, because he supports a new trial for Mumia. What can we expect next?
The Free Mumia Coalition is sending letters of appreciation to the 31 Congressional Representatives who opposed the Resolution. See the list of votes linked below. And we are urging all Mumia supporters to check out how their reps votes. If they supported the resolution send them a letter of criticism. The sample letter linked below, by Mark Taylor is an example of an excellent letter you can feel free to use. Pam Africa is out of the country, attending a political prisoners/torture/isolation conference in Athens, with Ramona. She was part of this discussion before leaving, and feels strongly that we
should "educate" and challenge those who went along with that ridiculous yet outrageous resolution.
A LUTA CONTINUA, ona move!
Suzanne Ross, Co-chair, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coaliltion (NYC)
TO VIEW THE LIST OF CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES WHO VOTED FOR AND AGAINST THE RESOLUTION AND FOR THE SAMPLE LETTER PLEASE GO TO:
http://www.freemumia.com/houseofreps.html
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Legal Update
Dear Friends:
Two weeks ago the District Attorney of Philadelphia filed a brief in reply to our most recent brief filed on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Even though this was to be the last of the briefs before oral argument, we felt obligated to respond due to the complexity of the issues and the government's factual misrepresentations. Attached is the Response of Appellee and Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, to Sur-Reply Brief, submitted this week to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
This case is of enormous consequence. It concerns the political repression of an outspoken journalist known globally as the "Voice of the Voiceless," the right to a fair trial, and the struggle against the death penalty. The authorities want to kill my client in order to silence his voice and pen. We must not let that occur. Racism and politics are threads that have run through this case since his arrest on December 9, 1981, and continue today.
Each of the issues under consideration by the federal court are of great constitutional significance. They include:
* The prosecutor's exclusion of African Americans from sitting on the jury.
* The bias and racism of the trial judge, Albert F. Sabo, who stated that he was going to "help'em fry the nigger."
* The prosecutor's "appeal after appeal" argument that essentially called upon the jurors to disregard the right to the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and err on the side of guilt.
* The judge's unfair and skewed jury instructions and verdict form that resulted in the death penalty, since jurors were precluded from considering any mitigating evidence unless they all agreed on the existence of a particular special circumstance.
We will be presenting oral argument before a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals. Even though no date has been set, this will likely occur within the next few months.
My purpose remains to win this life-and-death struggle, gain a new and fair trial, and see my client walk out of jail a free person. However, as I have warned, Mr. Abu-Jamal remains in great danger.
Thank you for your concern in this campaign for justice.
With best wishes,
Robert
=========
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
View the document at:
http://www.freemumia.com/pdfs/2006legal.pdf
Two weeks ago the District Attorney of Philadelphia filed a brief in reply to our most recent brief filed on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Even though this was to be the last of the briefs before oral argument, we felt obligated to respond due to the complexity of the issues and the government's factual misrepresentations. Attached is the Response of Appellee and Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, to Sur-Reply Brief, submitted this week to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
This case is of enormous consequence. It concerns the political repression of an outspoken journalist known globally as the "Voice of the Voiceless," the right to a fair trial, and the struggle against the death penalty. The authorities want to kill my client in order to silence his voice and pen. We must not let that occur. Racism and politics are threads that have run through this case since his arrest on December 9, 1981, and continue today.
Each of the issues under consideration by the federal court are of great constitutional significance. They include:
* The prosecutor's exclusion of African Americans from sitting on the jury.
* The bias and racism of the trial judge, Albert F. Sabo, who stated that he was going to "help'em fry the nigger."
* The prosecutor's "appeal after appeal" argument that essentially called upon the jurors to disregard the right to the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and err on the side of guilt.
* The judge's unfair and skewed jury instructions and verdict form that resulted in the death penalty, since jurors were precluded from considering any mitigating evidence unless they all agreed on the existence of a particular special circumstance.
We will be presenting oral argument before a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals. Even though no date has been set, this will likely occur within the next few months.
My purpose remains to win this life-and-death struggle, gain a new and fair trial, and see my client walk out of jail a free person. However, as I have warned, Mr. Abu-Jamal remains in great danger.
Thank you for your concern in this campaign for justice.
With best wishes,
Robert
=========
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
View the document at:
http://www.freemumia.com/pdfs/2006legal.pdf
Friday, December 01, 2006
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case After 25 Years
From Counterpunch
December 1, 2006
A CounterPunch Special Report
THE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL CASE AFTER 25 YEARS
Still More Keystone Kops Antics
By Linn Washington, Jr.
W hether the fundamental errors riddling recent actions by opponents of Pennsylvania death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal constitute mere mistakes or malicious misrepresentations, these errors resemble sequels to the Keystone Kops silent film-era comedy series.
These error filled antics occur as Abu-Jamal approaches the 25th Anniversary of his December 9, 1981 arrest for fatally shooting a Philadelphia policeman and as a pivotal legal action moves forward in federal appeals court revolving around whether Abu-Jamal received a fair trial in 1982.
The latest faux pas by Abu-Jamal opponents regards errors in an October letter sent to officials in Paris requesting that they rescind the honorary citizenship granted three years ago to the death row inmate viewed globally as a victim of injustice in America.
This letter states that a delegation of Philadelphia City officials, including the Police Commissioner, planned a late-November trip to Paris to negotiate rescinding the honorary citizenship in exchange for these officials getting Abu-Jamal's death sentence cancelled.
However, the four Philadelphia officials listed as delegation members all deny knowing anything about either the trip or the deal.
Further, these officials have no power to cancel Abu-Jamal's death sentence.
Peter J. Wirs, the Philadelphia figure behind the delegation/deal, says he is surprised by the errors in that letter prepared on his behalf by a lawyer in Paris.
"I haven't done anything yet to formalize the delegation or the planned trip. We haven't raised any money," Wirs said recently, adding that he "hasn't seen" the letter sent on his behalf.
Wirs also distanced himself from the deal proposed in that letter.
"An offer to pull the death penalty is so ridiculous. We have no authority to take the death penalty off the table," said Wirs, a minor figure in Philadelphia's Republican Party, a party that represents only sixteen percent of the city's registered voters.
Wirs dismissed errors in that letter as minor mistakes probably resulting from "translations from English to Frenchtoo many chefs' hands in this soup"
That October letter also contains the erroneous claim that Abu-Jamal shot Officer Daniel Faulkner five times in the face, a claim contradicted by police, prosecutors and judicial findings throughout the quarter-century tenure of this case.
That October letter prompted a written response to Parisian officials from Abu-Jamal attorney, Robert R. Bryan.
Bryan wrote that the letter is "appalling since it contains material misrepresentations and errors."
Ironically, errors by police, prosecutors, jurists and other authorities during the arrest, conviction and state court appeals of Abu-Jamal fuel the worldwide belief that Abu-Jamal did not receive a fair trial and is thus unjustly convicted.
These errors include police failing to give Abu-Jamal the standard hand test after his arrest to determine if he actually fired a gun, prosecutors failing to provide Abu-Jamal's trial attorney with compelling evidence indicating his innocence and the notoriously pro-prosecution trial judge making racist remarks.
"Only in America could a trial judge say"I'll help them fry the Nigger," and be considered fair," Abu-Jamal stated in a letter to Parisian officials.
"The trial featured lies, just as the threatening letter to you did," Abu-Jamal's letter stated. "If the trial was truly fair, why would the Philadelphia letter propose a deal?"
Prior to that error-filled October letter, Philadelphia area legislative leaders mounted equally error-filled actions against the Paris suburb of St. Denis for naming a street in honor of Abu-Jamal.
The anti-St. Denis Resolution approved by Philadelphia's City Council at the end of May, for example, contains the erroneous declaration that "Mumia Abu-Jamal has exhausted all legal appeals"
Since the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals, headquartered in Philadelphia, approved Abu-Jamal's request for an appeal in late 2005, it is factually incorrect to contend that Abu-Jamal "has exhausted" all of his appeals.
Not only did the 3rd Circuit agree to hear the appeal claim of that prosecutors used racial discrimination while selecting the jury for Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial, the Circuit Court also took an unusual step in granting appeal on other items like allegations of judicial bias during a 1995 appeals hearing for Abu-Jamal.
The intensity of the bias exhibited by Judge Albert Sabo during that 1995 hearing offended even Philly's normally anti-Mumia mainstream news media to the point of their publishing editorials condemning Sabo for both making a mockery of justice and providing Abu-Jamal supporters with additional ammunition to back their claims of gross injustice.
Interestingly, Peter Wirs does not dispute that Sabo made the racist pre-trial remark and Wirs readily admits that police did not follow proper forensic standards while investigating the murder.
Yet, Wirs contends Abu-Jamal is guilty as charged, despite seeming violations of his constitutional rights.
"When you look at Sabo's statements and his rulings in the trial, they are not perfect but they are fair," Wirs claims. "The errors and problems with the criminal justice system in this case do not mitigate against the fact that Abu-Jamal's gun was found at the scene. That is the heart of this case."
The fact that police could not conclusively match bullet fragments removed from the slain officer to Abu-Jamal's gun is immaterial according to Wirs.
"This is a circumstantial evidence case," said Wirs, acknowledging that he is working with Philadelphia's police union, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the prime group pushing for Abu-Jamal's execution.
That Philadelphia City Council Resolution supported a congressional Resolution introduced in mid-May by two Philly area Congresspersons, Republican Michael Fitzpatrick and Democrat Allyson Schwartz.
This congressional Resolution contains fundamental errors.
The Fitzpatrick/Schwartz Resolution, in recounting facts of the case, makes the erroneous claim that "Mumia Abu-Jamal struck Officer Faulkner four times in the back with his gun"
This claim contradicts the scenario presented at trial by the prosecutor and this claim contradicts the version of events on the official Justice for Daniel Faulkner Web site. This site, according to its founders, exists to provide "an accurate source of information"
Pa Republican U.S. Senator Rich Santorum also introduced an anti-St. Denis resolution in the Senate mimicking the congressional resolution.
"No one ever claimed Mumia struck Faulkner's back four times. While this may evoke the image of a heroic officer striking back against all odds, it is sheer fantasy," noted Dr. Michael Schiffmann, the German author of a new book on the Abu-Jamal case, "Race Against Death. Mumia Abu-Jamal: a Black Revolutionary in White America."
According to Schiffmann, "One might say such "details" are unimportant, but if they are so unimportant, why bring them up?"
Answering his rhetorical question, Schiffmann says this erroneous information makes "something these law and order representatives know nothing about seem more real."
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, states Keystone Kops is a term used to criticize any group for its mistakes, particularly if the mistakes happen after a great deal of energy and activity, or if there is a lack of coordination among members of the group.
Dr. Schiffmann's book presents new, startling information on this controversial case.
Schiffmann provides information blowing big holes in the ballistics evidence presented by prosecutors and police.
Further, Schiffmann's book presents previously unpublished pictures taken by a press photographer who arrived at the 1981 crime scene before police photographers that show police personnel tampering with evidence and manipulating the crime scene.
Peter Wirs recently filed a lawsuit in France, asserting that officials' in Paris and its St. Denis suburb violated French criminal law by respectively issuing the citizenship to a convicted murderer and placing his name on a street.
St. Denis officials did not complain in 2001 when local and state officials renamed most of Philadelphia's Roosevelt Blvd. "Daniel Faulkner Memorial Highway."
The intense reaction in Philadelphia to the street naming in far off St. Denis stuns former St. Denis Mayor, Patrick Braouezec, who sees the reaction as surreal.
"By doing this, we are just contributing to the possibility of Mumia having a new and fair trial and put the issue of the death penalty on the table," Braouezec said during an interview while visiting Philadelphia in September where the city's mayor refused to meet with Braouezec about the street naming.
"There was no intention on our part to provoke or offend the memory of the slain officer or his family," said Braouezec, currently a member of the French National Assembly, the Congress of France.
Patrick Braouezec finds it difficult "to conceive that with the problems in the American criminal justice system and issues in the Abu-Jamal case that the level of resistance to this man receiving a fair trial is so intense."
The intense resistance, Braouezec said, "is political. There have been lesser cases with lesser doubts that received new trials."
Few either opposed to or supportive of Abu-Jamal remember the case of Neil Ferber; a Philadelphia man arrested six months before Abu-Jamal's December 1981 arrest.
Philadelphia police and prosecutors framed Ferber for a mob related murder, sending him to death row for 1,375-days before his release.
A court ruling in lawsuit Ferber filed over his false imprisonment declared that "this case presents a Kafkaesque nightmare of the sort which we normally would characterize as being representative of the so-called justice system of a totalitarian stateunfortunatelyit happened here in Philadelphia."
This ruling noted that a "variety of Philadelphia police" engaged in a litany of misconduct "for the singular purpose of obtaining Ferber's arrest and subsequent conviction on first degree murder charges.
Evidence also showed that the jail-house snitch whose testimony sealed Ferber's conviction had flunked a lie-detector test ordered by prosecutors but prosecutors withheld this information from Ferber's trial attorney.
Philadelphia officials bitterly opposed Ferber's lawsuit for compensation.
Ferber eventually received a million dollar-plus settlement for his false incarceration, however, authorities penalized no police officer or prosecutor involved in the framing of Ferber.
Didier Paillard, St. Denis' current mayor, declared during the street naming ceremony this spring that the Abu-Jamal case is not just a "symbol" in the struggle for justice.
Paillard said Abu-Jamal's struggle symbolizes "resistance against a system which has the arrogance to reign over the world in the name of those same human rights that it tramples with complete impunity on its own soil."
Linn Washington Jr. is a Philadelphia journalist who has reported on the Abu-Jamal case since December 1981. Washington is a columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune newspaper.
December 1, 2006
A CounterPunch Special Report
THE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL CASE AFTER 25 YEARS
Still More Keystone Kops Antics
By Linn Washington, Jr.
W hether the fundamental errors riddling recent actions by opponents of Pennsylvania death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal constitute mere mistakes or malicious misrepresentations, these errors resemble sequels to the Keystone Kops silent film-era comedy series.
These error filled antics occur as Abu-Jamal approaches the 25th Anniversary of his December 9, 1981 arrest for fatally shooting a Philadelphia policeman and as a pivotal legal action moves forward in federal appeals court revolving around whether Abu-Jamal received a fair trial in 1982.
The latest faux pas by Abu-Jamal opponents regards errors in an October letter sent to officials in Paris requesting that they rescind the honorary citizenship granted three years ago to the death row inmate viewed globally as a victim of injustice in America.
This letter states that a delegation of Philadelphia City officials, including the Police Commissioner, planned a late-November trip to Paris to negotiate rescinding the honorary citizenship in exchange for these officials getting Abu-Jamal's death sentence cancelled.
However, the four Philadelphia officials listed as delegation members all deny knowing anything about either the trip or the deal.
Further, these officials have no power to cancel Abu-Jamal's death sentence.
Peter J. Wirs, the Philadelphia figure behind the delegation/deal, says he is surprised by the errors in that letter prepared on his behalf by a lawyer in Paris.
"I haven't done anything yet to formalize the delegation or the planned trip. We haven't raised any money," Wirs said recently, adding that he "hasn't seen" the letter sent on his behalf.
Wirs also distanced himself from the deal proposed in that letter.
"An offer to pull the death penalty is so ridiculous. We have no authority to take the death penalty off the table," said Wirs, a minor figure in Philadelphia's Republican Party, a party that represents only sixteen percent of the city's registered voters.
Wirs dismissed errors in that letter as minor mistakes probably resulting from "translations from English to Frenchtoo many chefs' hands in this soup"
That October letter also contains the erroneous claim that Abu-Jamal shot Officer Daniel Faulkner five times in the face, a claim contradicted by police, prosecutors and judicial findings throughout the quarter-century tenure of this case.
That October letter prompted a written response to Parisian officials from Abu-Jamal attorney, Robert R. Bryan.
Bryan wrote that the letter is "appalling since it contains material misrepresentations and errors."
Ironically, errors by police, prosecutors, jurists and other authorities during the arrest, conviction and state court appeals of Abu-Jamal fuel the worldwide belief that Abu-Jamal did not receive a fair trial and is thus unjustly convicted.
These errors include police failing to give Abu-Jamal the standard hand test after his arrest to determine if he actually fired a gun, prosecutors failing to provide Abu-Jamal's trial attorney with compelling evidence indicating his innocence and the notoriously pro-prosecution trial judge making racist remarks.
"Only in America could a trial judge say"I'll help them fry the Nigger," and be considered fair," Abu-Jamal stated in a letter to Parisian officials.
"The trial featured lies, just as the threatening letter to you did," Abu-Jamal's letter stated. "If the trial was truly fair, why would the Philadelphia letter propose a deal?"
Prior to that error-filled October letter, Philadelphia area legislative leaders mounted equally error-filled actions against the Paris suburb of St. Denis for naming a street in honor of Abu-Jamal.
The anti-St. Denis Resolution approved by Philadelphia's City Council at the end of May, for example, contains the erroneous declaration that "Mumia Abu-Jamal has exhausted all legal appeals"
Since the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals, headquartered in Philadelphia, approved Abu-Jamal's request for an appeal in late 2005, it is factually incorrect to contend that Abu-Jamal "has exhausted" all of his appeals.
Not only did the 3rd Circuit agree to hear the appeal claim of that prosecutors used racial discrimination while selecting the jury for Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial, the Circuit Court also took an unusual step in granting appeal on other items like allegations of judicial bias during a 1995 appeals hearing for Abu-Jamal.
The intensity of the bias exhibited by Judge Albert Sabo during that 1995 hearing offended even Philly's normally anti-Mumia mainstream news media to the point of their publishing editorials condemning Sabo for both making a mockery of justice and providing Abu-Jamal supporters with additional ammunition to back their claims of gross injustice.
Interestingly, Peter Wirs does not dispute that Sabo made the racist pre-trial remark and Wirs readily admits that police did not follow proper forensic standards while investigating the murder.
Yet, Wirs contends Abu-Jamal is guilty as charged, despite seeming violations of his constitutional rights.
"When you look at Sabo's statements and his rulings in the trial, they are not perfect but they are fair," Wirs claims. "The errors and problems with the criminal justice system in this case do not mitigate against the fact that Abu-Jamal's gun was found at the scene. That is the heart of this case."
The fact that police could not conclusively match bullet fragments removed from the slain officer to Abu-Jamal's gun is immaterial according to Wirs.
"This is a circumstantial evidence case," said Wirs, acknowledging that he is working with Philadelphia's police union, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the prime group pushing for Abu-Jamal's execution.
That Philadelphia City Council Resolution supported a congressional Resolution introduced in mid-May by two Philly area Congresspersons, Republican Michael Fitzpatrick and Democrat Allyson Schwartz.
This congressional Resolution contains fundamental errors.
The Fitzpatrick/Schwartz Resolution, in recounting facts of the case, makes the erroneous claim that "Mumia Abu-Jamal struck Officer Faulkner four times in the back with his gun"
This claim contradicts the scenario presented at trial by the prosecutor and this claim contradicts the version of events on the official Justice for Daniel Faulkner Web site. This site, according to its founders, exists to provide "an accurate source of information"
Pa Republican U.S. Senator Rich Santorum also introduced an anti-St. Denis resolution in the Senate mimicking the congressional resolution.
"No one ever claimed Mumia struck Faulkner's back four times. While this may evoke the image of a heroic officer striking back against all odds, it is sheer fantasy," noted Dr. Michael Schiffmann, the German author of a new book on the Abu-Jamal case, "Race Against Death. Mumia Abu-Jamal: a Black Revolutionary in White America."
According to Schiffmann, "One might say such "details" are unimportant, but if they are so unimportant, why bring them up?"
Answering his rhetorical question, Schiffmann says this erroneous information makes "something these law and order representatives know nothing about seem more real."
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, states Keystone Kops is a term used to criticize any group for its mistakes, particularly if the mistakes happen after a great deal of energy and activity, or if there is a lack of coordination among members of the group.
Dr. Schiffmann's book presents new, startling information on this controversial case.
Schiffmann provides information blowing big holes in the ballistics evidence presented by prosecutors and police.
Further, Schiffmann's book presents previously unpublished pictures taken by a press photographer who arrived at the 1981 crime scene before police photographers that show police personnel tampering with evidence and manipulating the crime scene.
Peter Wirs recently filed a lawsuit in France, asserting that officials' in Paris and its St. Denis suburb violated French criminal law by respectively issuing the citizenship to a convicted murderer and placing his name on a street.
St. Denis officials did not complain in 2001 when local and state officials renamed most of Philadelphia's Roosevelt Blvd. "Daniel Faulkner Memorial Highway."
The intense reaction in Philadelphia to the street naming in far off St. Denis stuns former St. Denis Mayor, Patrick Braouezec, who sees the reaction as surreal.
"By doing this, we are just contributing to the possibility of Mumia having a new and fair trial and put the issue of the death penalty on the table," Braouezec said during an interview while visiting Philadelphia in September where the city's mayor refused to meet with Braouezec about the street naming.
"There was no intention on our part to provoke or offend the memory of the slain officer or his family," said Braouezec, currently a member of the French National Assembly, the Congress of France.
Patrick Braouezec finds it difficult "to conceive that with the problems in the American criminal justice system and issues in the Abu-Jamal case that the level of resistance to this man receiving a fair trial is so intense."
The intense resistance, Braouezec said, "is political. There have been lesser cases with lesser doubts that received new trials."
Few either opposed to or supportive of Abu-Jamal remember the case of Neil Ferber; a Philadelphia man arrested six months before Abu-Jamal's December 1981 arrest.
Philadelphia police and prosecutors framed Ferber for a mob related murder, sending him to death row for 1,375-days before his release.
A court ruling in lawsuit Ferber filed over his false imprisonment declared that "this case presents a Kafkaesque nightmare of the sort which we normally would characterize as being representative of the so-called justice system of a totalitarian stateunfortunatelyit happened here in Philadelphia."
This ruling noted that a "variety of Philadelphia police" engaged in a litany of misconduct "for the singular purpose of obtaining Ferber's arrest and subsequent conviction on first degree murder charges.
Evidence also showed that the jail-house snitch whose testimony sealed Ferber's conviction had flunked a lie-detector test ordered by prosecutors but prosecutors withheld this information from Ferber's trial attorney.
Philadelphia officials bitterly opposed Ferber's lawsuit for compensation.
Ferber eventually received a million dollar-plus settlement for his false incarceration, however, authorities penalized no police officer or prosecutor involved in the framing of Ferber.
Didier Paillard, St. Denis' current mayor, declared during the street naming ceremony this spring that the Abu-Jamal case is not just a "symbol" in the struggle for justice.
Paillard said Abu-Jamal's struggle symbolizes "resistance against a system which has the arrogance to reign over the world in the name of those same human rights that it tramples with complete impunity on its own soil."
Linn Washington Jr. is a Philadelphia journalist who has reported on the Abu-Jamal case since December 1981. Washington is a columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune newspaper.
Update On The Situation in France
November 30, 2006
Sisters and Brothers,
The right wing forces of Philadelphia and wherever else were not able to pull off their attempt to intimidate the French with threats of a legal suit, with offers of life in prison without parole (which they had no power to enforce), and after being prepared for in France, both in Saint-Denis and in Paris, with Pam Africa and Ramona Africa right there, with a series of meetings with the mayors, with demonstrations, and a press conference -- backed off completely and never even showed up!
All Power to the People! The international solidarity movement for Mumia just won a great victory in forcing the enemy to back down.
See the message below from Saint-Denis. Also, check out Mumia's perfectly pronounced French message to the press conference tomorrow in Paris on www.prisonradio.org, under messages. [Or here it, and all of Mumia's commentaries, on his podcast. Go to http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/ for more info]
-Suzanne Ross, Co-Chair of the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC
Here's the latest letter from Saint Denis city hall in response to the "non-existant delegation" and their demands... We just got it today:
Press release
The city hall of Saint Denis denounces the manipulations of certain ultra-conservative pressure groups, and reasserts its commitment in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The city hall of Saint Denis re-affirms yet again its support to the women and men who are demanding Mumia Abu-Jamal be treated with fairness and justice. The picket this 30th day of November 2006 has been organized to protest against the pressure brought to bear on the city of Saint Denis by members of the american extreme right in order to bring about the cancellation of our decision to name one of our streets after an African American militant who has been unfairly incarcerated and sentenced to the death penalty.
This ultra conservative pressure group, based in Philadelphia, has not hesitated to make use of the grossest manipulations. Thus, the widely disseminated information according to which the city of Philadelphia is suing the cities of Saint Denis and Paris, because of their commitment in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal - is nothing but a lie. The Mayor of Philadelphia, as well as the president of its city council, informed the city of Saint Denis that they never intended to file any kind of suit, and have absolutely nothing to do with this campaign.
This manipulation was unmasked, and it should be know that the Philadelphia politician who initiated it, though a member of George Bush's party, was defeated during the recent american elections.
Whatever the case may be, the city hall of Saint Denis is proud to have named a street of this city in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has become one of the symbols, of the struggle for justice and the abolition of the death penalty in the US and throughout the world.
It is not the first time that an international mobilization has taken place in favor of American citizens who are unfairly sentenced in their own country. Such was the case for Nicola Sacco, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, between 1920 and 1927, for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who died on the electric chair in 1953, and subsequently in 1972 for Angela Davis initially sentenced for murder, before being acquitted of all charges.
The city hall of Saint Denis will steadfastly pursue the struggle to save Mumia Abu-Jamal, so that this man incarcerated for a quarter of a century for a crime he has always claimed he did not commit - be reinstated in his human rights.
Saint Denis 30th of November 2006
Sisters and Brothers,
The right wing forces of Philadelphia and wherever else were not able to pull off their attempt to intimidate the French with threats of a legal suit, with offers of life in prison without parole (which they had no power to enforce), and after being prepared for in France, both in Saint-Denis and in Paris, with Pam Africa and Ramona Africa right there, with a series of meetings with the mayors, with demonstrations, and a press conference -- backed off completely and never even showed up!
All Power to the People! The international solidarity movement for Mumia just won a great victory in forcing the enemy to back down.
See the message below from Saint-Denis. Also, check out Mumia's perfectly pronounced French message to the press conference tomorrow in Paris on www.prisonradio.org, under messages. [Or here it, and all of Mumia's commentaries, on his podcast. Go to http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/ for more info]
-Suzanne Ross, Co-Chair of the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC
Here's the latest letter from Saint Denis city hall in response to the "non-existant delegation" and their demands... We just got it today:
Press release
The city hall of Saint Denis denounces the manipulations of certain ultra-conservative pressure groups, and reasserts its commitment in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The city hall of Saint Denis re-affirms yet again its support to the women and men who are demanding Mumia Abu-Jamal be treated with fairness and justice. The picket this 30th day of November 2006 has been organized to protest against the pressure brought to bear on the city of Saint Denis by members of the american extreme right in order to bring about the cancellation of our decision to name one of our streets after an African American militant who has been unfairly incarcerated and sentenced to the death penalty.
This ultra conservative pressure group, based in Philadelphia, has not hesitated to make use of the grossest manipulations. Thus, the widely disseminated information according to which the city of Philadelphia is suing the cities of Saint Denis and Paris, because of their commitment in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal - is nothing but a lie. The Mayor of Philadelphia, as well as the president of its city council, informed the city of Saint Denis that they never intended to file any kind of suit, and have absolutely nothing to do with this campaign.
This manipulation was unmasked, and it should be know that the Philadelphia politician who initiated it, though a member of George Bush's party, was defeated during the recent american elections.
Whatever the case may be, the city hall of Saint Denis is proud to have named a street of this city in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has become one of the symbols, of the struggle for justice and the abolition of the death penalty in the US and throughout the world.
It is not the first time that an international mobilization has taken place in favor of American citizens who are unfairly sentenced in their own country. Such was the case for Nicola Sacco, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, between 1920 and 1927, for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who died on the electric chair in 1953, and subsequently in 1972 for Angela Davis initially sentenced for murder, before being acquitted of all charges.
The city hall of Saint Denis will steadfastly pursue the struggle to save Mumia Abu-Jamal, so that this man incarcerated for a quarter of a century for a crime he has always claimed he did not commit - be reinstated in his human rights.
Saint Denis 30th of November 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Is Honoring Mumia a Crime?
Philadelphia Mayoral Reception Room when the French received miniature liberty bells from the mayor's assistant. Africa is holding a picture of the late actor and Mumia supporter Ossie Davis. February 11, 2005.Hans Bennett begins his new blog, INSUBORDINATION Photo-Journalism, with coverage of efforts by Philadelphia politicians to punish French officials and activists for honoring Mumia:
Philadelphia's 59th Republican Ward Executive Committee files criminal charges against French cities supporting black death-row prisoner.
Is it a crime to publicly honor black death-row prisoner and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal (convicted of killing white Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in a 1982 trial that Amnesty International has declared a "violation of minimum international standards that govern fair trial procedures and the use of the death penalty")? Future Philadelphia mayoral candidate Peter J. Wirs thinks so. read more
Monday, November 13, 2006
Philly Officials Attempt to Withdraw Awards Given to Mumia
Dear Friends,
The movement to free Mumia in France as well as the movement in this country must be doing the right thing! The City Council of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Police Department are working on trying to get the City of Paris and the City of Saint-Denis to withdraw the respective honors they bestowed on Mumia. They are sending a delegation consisting of four city council members and the chief of police of Philadelphia, later this month to try to persuade the French to do their bidding. The document linked below demonstrates their totally hypocritical and damned lying arguments for withdrawing these awards, claiming they themselves do not support the death penalty. Rather, they say, waving the carrot before Mumia
supporters and supposedly Mumia, they believe he should get life in prison without parole! Will they try to get the street naming project in Harlem stopped as well? Or have they aleady tried?
The movement in France is prepared to greet this delegation. And we are surely ready to continue the struggle here.
Click here for a copy of the document.
Ona Move,
Suzanne Ross
Co-chair, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC
PS Additional materials will be available on our website: www.freemumia.com
The movement to free Mumia in France as well as the movement in this country must be doing the right thing! The City Council of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Police Department are working on trying to get the City of Paris and the City of Saint-Denis to withdraw the respective honors they bestowed on Mumia. They are sending a delegation consisting of four city council members and the chief of police of Philadelphia, later this month to try to persuade the French to do their bidding. The document linked below demonstrates their totally hypocritical and damned lying arguments for withdrawing these awards, claiming they themselves do not support the death penalty. Rather, they say, waving the carrot before Mumia
supporters and supposedly Mumia, they believe he should get life in prison without parole! Will they try to get the street naming project in Harlem stopped as well? Or have they aleady tried?
The movement in France is prepared to greet this delegation. And we are surely ready to continue the struggle here.
Click here for a copy of the document.
Ona Move,
Suzanne Ross
Co-chair, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC
PS Additional materials will be available on our website: www.freemumia.com
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
25 Years of Resistance
From The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC:
Sisters and Brothers:
Saturday, December 9th, will mark the 25th year of Mumia's incarceration, and the 25th year of his RESISTANCE, right in the bowels of the Beast. What an example of resistance Mumia has provided -- refusing to be silenced, learning, teaching, encouraging, engaged in struggle and strategy for resistance every minute of his life.
We, too, are part of that resistance!
Let's join together on Saturday December 9th in Philadelphia to mark this extremely important anniversary, when the enemy decided to make its ultimate move on a heroic revolutionary brother and leader.
We will be gathering at 12 noon at Philadelphia's City Hall to march to the AFSC building on 15th Street and Cherry.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Petition Drive to name a street in Harlem in honor of Mumia
HARLEM Can Help SAVE MUMIA!
Petition Drive to name a street in Harlem in honor of
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Kick-Off Petitioning Drive :
Saturday, November 11th at Noon
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
521 West 126th Street
in the Village of Harlem
This sign of the street named for Mumia in a prominent Parisian suburb demonstrates the French will to free Mumia.
And now Harlem's strong resolve to give Mumia a place in its heart will help set him free.
Cultural Performances by songbird duo: Desiree Gorndon & Sala Cyril
This would be a good time to wear your Mumia button and t-shirt.
Come out and make history! We're going to hit the streets—so bring your clipboards & pens—and wear comfortable shoes!
(Nearest subway is #1 to 125th Street.)
Petition Drive to name a street in Harlem in honor of
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Kick-Off Petitioning Drive :
Saturday, November 11th at Noon
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
521 West 126th Street
in the Village of Harlem
This sign of the street named for Mumia in a prominent Parisian suburb demonstrates the French will to free Mumia.
And now Harlem's strong resolve to give Mumia a place in its heart will help set him free.
Cultural Performances by songbird duo: Desiree Gorndon & Sala Cyril
This would be a good time to wear your Mumia button and t-shirt.
Come out and make history! We're going to hit the streets—so bring your clipboards & pens—and wear comfortable shoes!
(Nearest subway is #1 to 125th Street.)
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Pam Africa Turns Sixty!
Pam Africa, Director of International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, is turning 60!Come celebrate this revolutionary sister/warrior at a fundraiser,
Saturday, November 18th from 5-9pm at the Salem United Methodist Church at 129th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Harlem, NYC.
Donate to the work of ICFFMAJ, checks payable to:
Pam Africa
PO Box 19709
Philadelphia, 19143
The program will include Camille Yarbrough, The Welfare Poets, and many others.
Dinner will be available between 5 and 6pm
For more information visit www.freemumia.com.
or call (212)330-8029
Download the flyer for the event here.
Legal Update
Mumia's attorney, Robert R. Bryan, recently announced the filing of a new brief in the case.
From Atty. Bryan's letter:
On October 23, 2006, the Fourth-Step Reply Brief of Appellee and Cross-Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal was submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. (Abu-Jamal v. Horn, U.S. Ct. of Appeals Nos. 01-9014, 02-9001.) It is attached...
The brief is of enormous consequence since it goes to the essence of our client's right to a fair trial, due process of law, and equal protection of the law, guaranteed by the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
To read the brief in full, go to http://www.freemumia.com.
From Atty. Bryan's letter:
On October 23, 2006, the Fourth-Step Reply Brief of Appellee and Cross-Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal was submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. (Abu-Jamal v. Horn, U.S. Ct. of Appeals Nos. 01-9014, 02-9001.) It is attached...
The brief is of enormous consequence since it goes to the essence of our client's right to a fair trial, due process of law, and equal protection of the law, guaranteed by the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
To read the brief in full, go to http://www.freemumia.com.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Revisioning John Brown
REVISIONING JOHN BROWN — paper prepared by Mumia Abu Jamal
“HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON” for a public discussion at Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Oct. 2, 2006
John Brown poses difficult and undeniable problems for us. For some like Staughton Lynd his violence and his authoritarian nature, indeed his profoundly disturbing certainty of his mission ordained by god, makes him a troubling model for the challenges of our hour. This is especially so, for many of us who feel the urgent need for Black and White social movements providing the energy for true social change. At the cross roads stands the shade of John Brown who blocks the way forward unless and until we can make peace with the ghost of this uniquely American warrior. That is because we have tended to remember Brown, if at all, as this God intoxicated mad man. In our minds his eyes flash lighting and his white beard flows with his rage, his teeth barred with malevolence. For if he is indeed mad then he may be safely jettisoned to the netherworld of otherness for we are sane. John Brown was mad.
But are we not selective in our revulsion at needless violence? In Washington DC the imperial capital, there stands a statue — petina green with time — honoring none other than Nathan Bedford Forrest who as a confederate general in the civil war staged the infamous Fort Pillow massacre on April 13th 1864 where mostly Black union soldiers were murdered in cold blood, after their surrender. Moreover Forrest became a leading force in the post war US terrorist group known as the Ku Klux Klan. Yet there his statue stands to this very day on honored ground. Why one wonders should we bring up Forrest when discussion Brown? What could this possibly mean when thinking of Blacks and Whites working together to build a social change movement?
If we are honest then we must recognize that the common nexus is violence, but that is not all. The central theme is race. General Nathan Bedford Forrest fought both during and after the Civil War for White Nationalism and Black subordination. He fought for the freedom to enslave others. John Brown fought both in Kansas and in Harpers Ferry against slavery and for Black freedom. Only in a nation deeply committed to white nationalism and white supremacy would Forrest have statues built to his memory enshrined in the national capital no less, and Brown be remembered—if at all—as a madman. It is only in this context that Brown’s immense contribution can be discussed, for to do otherwise is to speak of him and of violence in a vacuum. Staughton Lynd straightforwardly addressed the John Brown of Pottawatomie Kansas and his group’s slaughter of five pro slavery men in May 1856. We should note, however, that Brown and his boys were part of a war in bleeding Kansas, a war to determine whether the territory would become a free state, or a slave state. And that violence, indeed horrific violence, was rampant on both sides. And the pro slavery side was winning. By using ruthless racist violence, terrorism and fear Kansas was tilting toward being a pro slavery state. Then came John Brown. Of Pottawatomie Workers World writer Shelly Ettinger recently wrote “At Pottawatomie on the night of May 24-25, 1856, John Brown led an armed band in a lightning raid against an encampment where he knew he’d find several of the worst of the Border Ruffians who were terrorizing the territory. When Brown and company rode off, they left the dead bodies of five racist thugs. The criminals Brown and his band killed had been responsible for many assaults and murders; they were also known for capturing Native women and forcing them into prostitution and sexually assaulting Free State women.” [Workers World, September 14, 2006) Pottawatomie changed the temper of the times. Kansas was still bleeding Kansas but it was not only anti-slavery blood that flowed.
It is not about violence. It is about on which side the violence was utilized. Violence in support of slavery was invisible. Violence in support of freedom was horrible. Speaking of slavery what was that but violence? It was violence made acceptable and invisible by the verbal violence of the law. The John Brown who worked for several months writing the Chatham constitution knew this. And in the preamble to that document made it abundantly clear what he thought of slavery. A position by the way that was agreed to by the scores of Black men who met with him at the Chatham convention in Canada.
Indeed this Chatham constitution did not merely contemplate freedom and slavery. In a call that reflects its foresight, it called for sexual equality; a remarkable achievement considering it was written and voted for in 1858.
In his words expressed in the declaration of liberty Brown observed that “slavery from its earliest inception was none other than a most barbarous unprovoked and unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens upon another portion” unquote. This constitution was a declaration of war between two irreconcilable sides, slavery and freedom. John Brown chose freedom. Nor did he speak of something that would be alien in Black hearts; none other than Frederick Douglas eight years before the Chatham convention described enslaved captives as “prisoners of war in an enemy’s country, of a war too that is unrivaled for its injustice, cruelty and meanness.” Douglass unabashedly called for war against the slavery system and even after the civil war began he was a persistent and unrelenting critic of Lincoln for his failure to call for Black troops. And what of Lincoln? Lincoln, the man honored today as the great emancipator, derided Brown and took pains to distance himself and his party from Brown’s efforts. In a speech at the Cooper Institute in New York City on February 1860. Lincoln argued:
“You charge that we stir up insurrection among your slaves. We deny it. And what is your proof? Harpers Ferry. John Brown. John Brown was no republican and you have failed to implicate a single a republican in his Harpers Ferry enterprise.” Lincoln went on to compare Brown to lunatics and rageacides, drawing from glaring flawed examples abroad. Lincoln argued:
“John Brown’s effort was peculiar — it was not a slave insurrection, it was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves in which the slaves refused to participate. In fact it was so absurd that the slaves with all their ignorance saw plainly enough that it would not succeed. That affair in its philosophy corresponds with the many attempts related in history of the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by heaven to liberate. He ventures the attempt which ends in little else than his own execution. Orsini’s.attempt on Louie Napoleon and John Brown’s attempt at Harpers Ferry were in their philosophy precisely the same.” — That was Abraham Lincoln.
Two years before his Cooper Institute speech in September 1858, Lincoln would exclaim, “I do not suppose that the most peaceful ultimate extinction [of slavery] would occur in less than a hundred years at the least.” As the famed Black historian Lerone Bennet has written if Lincoln had had his way: Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King jr., Jessie Jackson senior, Lena Horn, Booker T Washington, Thurgood Marshall, Duke Ellington, Muhammad Ali, Jessie Owens, Louie Armstrong, WC Handy, Hank Aaron, Maya Angelou, Debbie Allen, Benjamin Quarles, Josephine Baker, Mary McCloud Bethune, Ralph Bunch, Malcolm X. Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Bessie Smith, Walter White, Madame CJ Walker, Maxine Waters, Count Basie, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ida B Wells-Barnett, Richard Wright, Alex Haley, and even Clarence Thomas, would have been born in slavery.
John Brown changed that. His sole surviving comrade Osborn Anderson in his remarkable book “A Voice from Harpers Ferry” writes a far different history than the professionals. For one thing he was there. And barely escaped with his life. For another he was a revolutionary who knew the principals. He argues that Harpers Ferry could have had a completely different ending for those men and the nation had Brown been less solicitous of his hostages. Anderson wrote “that hundreds of slaves were ready and would have joined in the work had Captain Brown’s sympathies not been aroused in favor of the families of his prisoners, and that a very different result would have been seen in consequence there is no question. There was abundant opportunity for him and the party to leave a place in which they held entire sway and possession before the arrival of the troops, and so cowardly were the slave holders proper that from Colonel Lewis Washington the descendant of the father of his country (General George Washington) they were easily taken prisoners. They had not pluck enough to fight nor to use the well loaded arms in their possession. But were concerned rather in keeping a whole skin by parlaying or by spilling cowardly tears to excite pity, as did Colonel Washington and as in that way escape merited punishment. No, the conduct of the slaves was beyond all praise, and could our brave old captain have steeled his heart against the entreaties of his captives or shut up the fountains of his sympathies against their families, could he for the moment have forgotten them in the selfish thought of his own friends and kindred, or by adhering to the original plan, have left the place and thus looked forward to the prospective freedom of the slaves, hundreds ready and waiting would have been armed before 24 hours had elapsed.”— Osborn Anderson, as one of the Black and White revolutionaries who tried to seize Harpers Ferry and thus fully cognizant of the failures of that effort, yet also saw the national impact of Brown’s work as setting the light to the fuse that would blast slavery into the trash can of history.
In Anderson’s words published in 1859, “As it was even the noble old man’s mistakes were productive of great good. The fact of which the future historian will record without the embarrassment attending its present narration. John Brown did not only capture and hold Harpers Ferry for 20 hours, but he held the whole south, he captured President Buchanan and his cabinet, convulsed the whole country, killed Governor Wise and dug the mine and laid the train which will eventually dissolve the union between freedom and slavery, the rebound reveals the truth, so let it be. Two years after Anderson’s words were on the page, uniformed men were marching with John Brown’s name on their lips as the Civil War dissolved the union between freedom and slavery.
If we go into any Black neighborhood today whether north south, Midwest or west, and asked the question which three white men are most admired I would wager that most would answer with perhaps the following 1) Jesus 2) John F Kennedy and three John Brown. I grew up in a project home where my mother had a painting of a blue eyed Jesus next to a photo of John F Kennedy on the living room wall. Only after his 1968 assassination did the face of Martin Luther King Jr. get placed in the middle. The point is that in Black memory John Brown holds a treasured place. His example, his sacrifice, and yes, his fight against slavery, made him a name that would not be forgotten. That is because blacks know almost instinctively that whites who would put their lives on the line for Blacks are rare creatures. Yet whites try their damndest to forget him, remember “he’s crazy.” How we reconcile his memory and his meaning for America will go a long way toward determining, whether, how and indeed if we work together to try to go about social change. Comes down to something that is also incredibly rare and that is trust. During the 60’s as Staunton Lynd remembers, Blacks in SNCC or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, urged their white members to leave for a few years while both Blacks and Whites “got it together.” As he notes those few years turned into decades and don’t seem any closer even as we open a new century. Later in the 60’s and early 70’s a group tried to aspire to John Brown’s high standard: the SDS or the students for a democratic society. As a member of the formation has recently noted, it broke from within chiefly because of the toxin of white supremacy. David Gilbert, writing of the split informs us, “SDS split apart along the basic fault line of the US bedrock of white supremacy. Between the desire for a potential majority base among white Americans and the urgent need for militant solidarity with Black and other third world struggles, one side invoking a Euro centric Marxism, said that the “revolution was about the working class” and used that as a left cover for retreat from fighting alongside Vietnam and the Panthers, claiming all nationalism is reactionary. The other side inspired by Marxist- led third world struggles rightly saw solidarity with national liberation as a priority for any revolutionary movement worthy of that name. However we wrongly abandoned efforts to organize significant numbers of white people, which also limited our base for anti-racist activism.” “That is from No Surrender — writings from an anti-imperialist, David Gilbert. The children who claim John Brown’s paternity could not measure up to the man. As long whites can opt out of a true revolutionary movement and the state will provide every opportunity, then they will do so, especially when the forces of repression ratchet up the pressure. In the MOVE organization when the conflict between the state and the organization hardened we saw whites and other races peel away from the movement, leaving its mostly Black core. When the going gets rough Whites get going, it seems.
That was the meaning and intent of the killing of a white housewife from Detroit named Viola Liuzzo slain by the Klan in Alabama but also defamed by the FBI for the capital crime of being like John Brown, a nigger lover. In a white supremacist state there is no greater crime than a white national can commit. Consider if you will the main offense for which John Brown was convicted, sentenced and executed for “treason” — this for a man who fought successfully for the inclusion of an article in the 1858 Chatham Constitution over objection which forbade any attempt to overthrown any state or the federal government. Brown in defense of article 46 argued “the old flag is good enough for me; under it freedom was won from the tyrants of the old world for white men, now I intend to make it do duty for Black men. By so doing he betrayed whiteness and earned the moniker ‘mad’”
John Brown certainly lacked a democratic sense — one that is virtually always lacking in a military structure. He was also a man drunk with a certainty of his mission from god. Yet so too was Martin Luther King. Staughton Lynd’s Zapatista visions, does give us valuable insight into another way of living in the world. It is refreshing such democracy as practiced not by the people so much as so called leaders; we see such things so rarely today. We can all learn from the struggles in the south, from Latin America, where we find indigenous led and women led formations that are deeply rooted in the community. The ghost of John Brown stands between us even after one hundred and fifty years. How we remember him, and indeed —if —we remember him has impact on what future we will have. Was he mad? Or was he inspired by the burning fire of freedom? How we answer that question will determine whether he will go in peace or continue to haunt us into our future.
From death row this is Mumia Abu Jamal.
“HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON” for a public discussion at Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Oct. 2, 2006
John Brown poses difficult and undeniable problems for us. For some like Staughton Lynd his violence and his authoritarian nature, indeed his profoundly disturbing certainty of his mission ordained by god, makes him a troubling model for the challenges of our hour. This is especially so, for many of us who feel the urgent need for Black and White social movements providing the energy for true social change. At the cross roads stands the shade of John Brown who blocks the way forward unless and until we can make peace with the ghost of this uniquely American warrior. That is because we have tended to remember Brown, if at all, as this God intoxicated mad man. In our minds his eyes flash lighting and his white beard flows with his rage, his teeth barred with malevolence. For if he is indeed mad then he may be safely jettisoned to the netherworld of otherness for we are sane. John Brown was mad.
But are we not selective in our revulsion at needless violence? In Washington DC the imperial capital, there stands a statue — petina green with time — honoring none other than Nathan Bedford Forrest who as a confederate general in the civil war staged the infamous Fort Pillow massacre on April 13th 1864 where mostly Black union soldiers were murdered in cold blood, after their surrender. Moreover Forrest became a leading force in the post war US terrorist group known as the Ku Klux Klan. Yet there his statue stands to this very day on honored ground. Why one wonders should we bring up Forrest when discussion Brown? What could this possibly mean when thinking of Blacks and Whites working together to build a social change movement?
If we are honest then we must recognize that the common nexus is violence, but that is not all. The central theme is race. General Nathan Bedford Forrest fought both during and after the Civil War for White Nationalism and Black subordination. He fought for the freedom to enslave others. John Brown fought both in Kansas and in Harpers Ferry against slavery and for Black freedom. Only in a nation deeply committed to white nationalism and white supremacy would Forrest have statues built to his memory enshrined in the national capital no less, and Brown be remembered—if at all—as a madman. It is only in this context that Brown’s immense contribution can be discussed, for to do otherwise is to speak of him and of violence in a vacuum. Staughton Lynd straightforwardly addressed the John Brown of Pottawatomie Kansas and his group’s slaughter of five pro slavery men in May 1856. We should note, however, that Brown and his boys were part of a war in bleeding Kansas, a war to determine whether the territory would become a free state, or a slave state. And that violence, indeed horrific violence, was rampant on both sides. And the pro slavery side was winning. By using ruthless racist violence, terrorism and fear Kansas was tilting toward being a pro slavery state. Then came John Brown. Of Pottawatomie Workers World writer Shelly Ettinger recently wrote “At Pottawatomie on the night of May 24-25, 1856, John Brown led an armed band in a lightning raid against an encampment where he knew he’d find several of the worst of the Border Ruffians who were terrorizing the territory. When Brown and company rode off, they left the dead bodies of five racist thugs. The criminals Brown and his band killed had been responsible for many assaults and murders; they were also known for capturing Native women and forcing them into prostitution and sexually assaulting Free State women.” [Workers World, September 14, 2006) Pottawatomie changed the temper of the times. Kansas was still bleeding Kansas but it was not only anti-slavery blood that flowed.
It is not about violence. It is about on which side the violence was utilized. Violence in support of slavery was invisible. Violence in support of freedom was horrible. Speaking of slavery what was that but violence? It was violence made acceptable and invisible by the verbal violence of the law. The John Brown who worked for several months writing the Chatham constitution knew this. And in the preamble to that document made it abundantly clear what he thought of slavery. A position by the way that was agreed to by the scores of Black men who met with him at the Chatham convention in Canada.
Indeed this Chatham constitution did not merely contemplate freedom and slavery. In a call that reflects its foresight, it called for sexual equality; a remarkable achievement considering it was written and voted for in 1858.
In his words expressed in the declaration of liberty Brown observed that “slavery from its earliest inception was none other than a most barbarous unprovoked and unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens upon another portion” unquote. This constitution was a declaration of war between two irreconcilable sides, slavery and freedom. John Brown chose freedom. Nor did he speak of something that would be alien in Black hearts; none other than Frederick Douglas eight years before the Chatham convention described enslaved captives as “prisoners of war in an enemy’s country, of a war too that is unrivaled for its injustice, cruelty and meanness.” Douglass unabashedly called for war against the slavery system and even after the civil war began he was a persistent and unrelenting critic of Lincoln for his failure to call for Black troops. And what of Lincoln? Lincoln, the man honored today as the great emancipator, derided Brown and took pains to distance himself and his party from Brown’s efforts. In a speech at the Cooper Institute in New York City on February 1860. Lincoln argued:
“You charge that we stir up insurrection among your slaves. We deny it. And what is your proof? Harpers Ferry. John Brown. John Brown was no republican and you have failed to implicate a single a republican in his Harpers Ferry enterprise.” Lincoln went on to compare Brown to lunatics and rageacides, drawing from glaring flawed examples abroad. Lincoln argued:
“John Brown’s effort was peculiar — it was not a slave insurrection, it was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves in which the slaves refused to participate. In fact it was so absurd that the slaves with all their ignorance saw plainly enough that it would not succeed. That affair in its philosophy corresponds with the many attempts related in history of the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by heaven to liberate. He ventures the attempt which ends in little else than his own execution. Orsini’s.attempt on Louie Napoleon and John Brown’s attempt at Harpers Ferry were in their philosophy precisely the same.” — That was Abraham Lincoln.
Two years before his Cooper Institute speech in September 1858, Lincoln would exclaim, “I do not suppose that the most peaceful ultimate extinction [of slavery] would occur in less than a hundred years at the least.” As the famed Black historian Lerone Bennet has written if Lincoln had had his way: Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King jr., Jessie Jackson senior, Lena Horn, Booker T Washington, Thurgood Marshall, Duke Ellington, Muhammad Ali, Jessie Owens, Louie Armstrong, WC Handy, Hank Aaron, Maya Angelou, Debbie Allen, Benjamin Quarles, Josephine Baker, Mary McCloud Bethune, Ralph Bunch, Malcolm X. Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Bessie Smith, Walter White, Madame CJ Walker, Maxine Waters, Count Basie, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ida B Wells-Barnett, Richard Wright, Alex Haley, and even Clarence Thomas, would have been born in slavery.
John Brown changed that. His sole surviving comrade Osborn Anderson in his remarkable book “A Voice from Harpers Ferry” writes a far different history than the professionals. For one thing he was there. And barely escaped with his life. For another he was a revolutionary who knew the principals. He argues that Harpers Ferry could have had a completely different ending for those men and the nation had Brown been less solicitous of his hostages. Anderson wrote “that hundreds of slaves were ready and would have joined in the work had Captain Brown’s sympathies not been aroused in favor of the families of his prisoners, and that a very different result would have been seen in consequence there is no question. There was abundant opportunity for him and the party to leave a place in which they held entire sway and possession before the arrival of the troops, and so cowardly were the slave holders proper that from Colonel Lewis Washington the descendant of the father of his country (General George Washington) they were easily taken prisoners. They had not pluck enough to fight nor to use the well loaded arms in their possession. But were concerned rather in keeping a whole skin by parlaying or by spilling cowardly tears to excite pity, as did Colonel Washington and as in that way escape merited punishment. No, the conduct of the slaves was beyond all praise, and could our brave old captain have steeled his heart against the entreaties of his captives or shut up the fountains of his sympathies against their families, could he for the moment have forgotten them in the selfish thought of his own friends and kindred, or by adhering to the original plan, have left the place and thus looked forward to the prospective freedom of the slaves, hundreds ready and waiting would have been armed before 24 hours had elapsed.”— Osborn Anderson, as one of the Black and White revolutionaries who tried to seize Harpers Ferry and thus fully cognizant of the failures of that effort, yet also saw the national impact of Brown’s work as setting the light to the fuse that would blast slavery into the trash can of history.
In Anderson’s words published in 1859, “As it was even the noble old man’s mistakes were productive of great good. The fact of which the future historian will record without the embarrassment attending its present narration. John Brown did not only capture and hold Harpers Ferry for 20 hours, but he held the whole south, he captured President Buchanan and his cabinet, convulsed the whole country, killed Governor Wise and dug the mine and laid the train which will eventually dissolve the union between freedom and slavery, the rebound reveals the truth, so let it be. Two years after Anderson’s words were on the page, uniformed men were marching with John Brown’s name on their lips as the Civil War dissolved the union between freedom and slavery.
If we go into any Black neighborhood today whether north south, Midwest or west, and asked the question which three white men are most admired I would wager that most would answer with perhaps the following 1) Jesus 2) John F Kennedy and three John Brown. I grew up in a project home where my mother had a painting of a blue eyed Jesus next to a photo of John F Kennedy on the living room wall. Only after his 1968 assassination did the face of Martin Luther King Jr. get placed in the middle. The point is that in Black memory John Brown holds a treasured place. His example, his sacrifice, and yes, his fight against slavery, made him a name that would not be forgotten. That is because blacks know almost instinctively that whites who would put their lives on the line for Blacks are rare creatures. Yet whites try their damndest to forget him, remember “he’s crazy.” How we reconcile his memory and his meaning for America will go a long way toward determining, whether, how and indeed if we work together to try to go about social change. Comes down to something that is also incredibly rare and that is trust. During the 60’s as Staunton Lynd remembers, Blacks in SNCC or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, urged their white members to leave for a few years while both Blacks and Whites “got it together.” As he notes those few years turned into decades and don’t seem any closer even as we open a new century. Later in the 60’s and early 70’s a group tried to aspire to John Brown’s high standard: the SDS or the students for a democratic society. As a member of the formation has recently noted, it broke from within chiefly because of the toxin of white supremacy. David Gilbert, writing of the split informs us, “SDS split apart along the basic fault line of the US bedrock of white supremacy. Between the desire for a potential majority base among white Americans and the urgent need for militant solidarity with Black and other third world struggles, one side invoking a Euro centric Marxism, said that the “revolution was about the working class” and used that as a left cover for retreat from fighting alongside Vietnam and the Panthers, claiming all nationalism is reactionary. The other side inspired by Marxist- led third world struggles rightly saw solidarity with national liberation as a priority for any revolutionary movement worthy of that name. However we wrongly abandoned efforts to organize significant numbers of white people, which also limited our base for anti-racist activism.” “That is from No Surrender — writings from an anti-imperialist, David Gilbert. The children who claim John Brown’s paternity could not measure up to the man. As long whites can opt out of a true revolutionary movement and the state will provide every opportunity, then they will do so, especially when the forces of repression ratchet up the pressure. In the MOVE organization when the conflict between the state and the organization hardened we saw whites and other races peel away from the movement, leaving its mostly Black core. When the going gets rough Whites get going, it seems.
That was the meaning and intent of the killing of a white housewife from Detroit named Viola Liuzzo slain by the Klan in Alabama but also defamed by the FBI for the capital crime of being like John Brown, a nigger lover. In a white supremacist state there is no greater crime than a white national can commit. Consider if you will the main offense for which John Brown was convicted, sentenced and executed for “treason” — this for a man who fought successfully for the inclusion of an article in the 1858 Chatham Constitution over objection which forbade any attempt to overthrown any state or the federal government. Brown in defense of article 46 argued “the old flag is good enough for me; under it freedom was won from the tyrants of the old world for white men, now I intend to make it do duty for Black men. By so doing he betrayed whiteness and earned the moniker ‘mad’”
John Brown certainly lacked a democratic sense — one that is virtually always lacking in a military structure. He was also a man drunk with a certainty of his mission from god. Yet so too was Martin Luther King. Staughton Lynd’s Zapatista visions, does give us valuable insight into another way of living in the world. It is refreshing such democracy as practiced not by the people so much as so called leaders; we see such things so rarely today. We can all learn from the struggles in the south, from Latin America, where we find indigenous led and women led formations that are deeply rooted in the community. The ghost of John Brown stands between us even after one hundred and fifty years. How we remember him, and indeed —if —we remember him has impact on what future we will have. Was he mad? Or was he inspired by the burning fire of freedom? How we answer that question will determine whether he will go in peace or continue to haunt us into our future.
From death row this is Mumia Abu Jamal.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Legal Update
Dear Friends:
Pursuant to a recent order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, the 4th-Step Reply Brief will be filed October 23, 2006 on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Our objective is to win a new and fair trial in this case. At the conclusion of the retrial I want my client to walk out of the courtroom a free person.
We are grateful for your support in this great struggle against the death penalty and justice.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Pursuant to a recent order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, the 4th-Step Reply Brief will be filed October 23, 2006 on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Our objective is to win a new and fair trial in this case. At the conclusion of the retrial I want my client to walk out of the courtroom a free person.
We are grateful for your support in this great struggle against the death penalty and justice.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Call on NAACP's Crisis Magazine to Publish Mumia's Commentaries
During the months leading up to the execution of Stanley Williams, Bruce Gordon, the new President of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People visited with the former Cripps leader turned advocate against gang violence saying he would do everything within his power to save his life. He also said upon his release, he could come and work for them in some capacity.
Well, as you know, he was executed on December 13th 2005 in spite of him being a redeemed man turned peacemaker and credited with saving thousands of lives by keeping tens of thousands of young people away from gang violence and away from the burgeoning prison industrial complex. Now obviously, the governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to do whatever was politically in his best interest and the NAACP cannot be held responsible for the cold-blooded execution of Mr. Williams, however, it is our contention that the NAACP leadership and organization did to little to late to help save his life. We don't want to see that same scenario played out in Mumia's.case. The NAACP passed a strong Emergency Resolution reaffirming its opposition against the death penalty and in affirmation of Mumia's right to a fair trial and subsequent release thereafter.
The Free Mumia Coalition deems it more than appropriate at this time in Mumia's case for the NAACP's Crisis magazine to begin publishing Mumia's weekly commentaries. If they are serous about taking crucial steps that could get out the word about who Mumia is and what he represents to our people, then they shouldn't have the slightest problem about adding his gut wrenching columns to their monthly periodical. If a left wing radio station like Pacifica's WBAI can and has been doing so for number of years than why not the Crisis.
If you feel as we do, then draw up a brief courteous letter stating how you feel the readers would enjoy seeing what Mumia has to say on many of the important issues of the day. Write to Victoria L. Valentine at: thecrisiseditorial@naacpnet.org or
The Crisis
7600 Georgia Avenue NW Suite 405
Washington, DC 20012
It's crucial the NAACP and anyone connected to it not run and hide behind this issue. As a people can cannot afford it if we expect to receive any sort of justice within our own lifetime.
No Justice No Peace!
Well, as you know, he was executed on December 13th 2005 in spite of him being a redeemed man turned peacemaker and credited with saving thousands of lives by keeping tens of thousands of young people away from gang violence and away from the burgeoning prison industrial complex. Now obviously, the governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to do whatever was politically in his best interest and the NAACP cannot be held responsible for the cold-blooded execution of Mr. Williams, however, it is our contention that the NAACP leadership and organization did to little to late to help save his life. We don't want to see that same scenario played out in Mumia's.case. The NAACP passed a strong Emergency Resolution reaffirming its opposition against the death penalty and in affirmation of Mumia's right to a fair trial and subsequent release thereafter.
The Free Mumia Coalition deems it more than appropriate at this time in Mumia's case for the NAACP's Crisis magazine to begin publishing Mumia's weekly commentaries. If they are serous about taking crucial steps that could get out the word about who Mumia is and what he represents to our people, then they shouldn't have the slightest problem about adding his gut wrenching columns to their monthly periodical. If a left wing radio station like Pacifica's WBAI can and has been doing so for number of years than why not the Crisis.
If you feel as we do, then draw up a brief courteous letter stating how you feel the readers would enjoy seeing what Mumia has to say on many of the important issues of the day. Write to Victoria L. Valentine at: thecrisiseditorial@naacpnet.org or
The Crisis
7600 Georgia Avenue NW Suite 405
Washington, DC 20012
It's crucial the NAACP and anyone connected to it not run and hide behind this issue. As a people can cannot afford it if we expect to receive any sort of justice within our own lifetime.
No Justice No Peace!
RBG Street Scholars "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal" Tribute
Go to youtube page
Check out the RBG Street Scholars Free Mumia Tribute Blog at:
rbgstreetscholarsthinktank.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Mumia Supporters Confront Philadelphia City Council on False Statements
On September 21, 2006 a group of activists representing the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) came to the City Council of Philadelphia to demand that Council members rescind a resolution they passed last May. That resolution denounced the naming of a street in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal on April 29, 2006 in Saint-Denis, France and included false and prejudicial material about Jamal.
Read more
Read more
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Activists Demand Philly City Council Rescind Resolution
Mumia supporters are travelling to Philadelphia today to demand that the City Council Rescind its May 25 Resolution.
On May 25, 2006 the City Council of Philadelphia unanimously passed a resolution supporting US HouseCongressional Resolution 407 which denounced the naming of a street in Mumia's honor in Saint-Denis, France, called for rescinding the name, and demanded that the French Government force Saint-Denis to withdraw the name rue Mumia Abu-Jamal if it refused to do so on its own.
Additionally, the Philadelphia resolution presented several lies without any challenge, fully prejudicing the public's view of Mumia's, presenting him as a cold-blooded murderer who has exhausted all his constitutional rights to appeal, and is now legally supposed to be executed.
-- the scenario the House Resolution presents of how Mumia shot Officer Faulkner in the back four times with his gun has never before been presented and is a newly concocted version meant to create a vicious image of Mumia.
-- the House Resolution states that Mumia was convicted and sentenced by a jury of his peers, a statement that contradicts Amnesty International's view (and the view of many other human rights and legal organizations) that Mumia was denied the right to have proportional representation of African-Americans on his jury by systematic and illegal exclusion of Black jurors, a practice that has been ruled by the US Supreme Court a basis for a new trial (the Batson ruling). In fact, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, on December 5, 2006 granted Mumia the right to appeal the issue of racial bias in jury selection, and that issue is now the center of Mumia's appeal.
-- the Philadelphia City Council's assertion that Mumia has "exhausted all legal appeals" flies in the face of the reality that the case is currently being appealed before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and three issues have been granted by that court for appeal.
Neither ignorance nor prejudice justifies the outrageous falsehoods asserted in a a resolution, that though ridiculous in challenging another government's sovereignty, does harm to public support for Mumia's right to have a new and fair trial. The House of Representatives, the City Council of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Senate Resolution all contain serious distortions of the reality of Mumia Abu-Jamal's case and embody reckless language and practice by elected legislators. They are meant to deny internationally honored political prisoner and death row inmate, Mumia Abu-Jamal, his right, based on well-documented denial of his rights by US Constitution and International Law, to a new and fair trial.
On May 25, 2006 the City Council of Philadelphia unanimously passed a resolution supporting US HouseCongressional Resolution 407 which denounced the naming of a street in Mumia's honor in Saint-Denis, France, called for rescinding the name, and demanded that the French Government force Saint-Denis to withdraw the name rue Mumia Abu-Jamal if it refused to do so on its own.
Additionally, the Philadelphia resolution presented several lies without any challenge, fully prejudicing the public's view of Mumia's, presenting him as a cold-blooded murderer who has exhausted all his constitutional rights to appeal, and is now legally supposed to be executed.
-- the scenario the House Resolution presents of how Mumia shot Officer Faulkner in the back four times with his gun has never before been presented and is a newly concocted version meant to create a vicious image of Mumia.
-- the House Resolution states that Mumia was convicted and sentenced by a jury of his peers, a statement that contradicts Amnesty International's view (and the view of many other human rights and legal organizations) that Mumia was denied the right to have proportional representation of African-Americans on his jury by systematic and illegal exclusion of Black jurors, a practice that has been ruled by the US Supreme Court a basis for a new trial (the Batson ruling). In fact, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, on December 5, 2006 granted Mumia the right to appeal the issue of racial bias in jury selection, and that issue is now the center of Mumia's appeal.
-- the Philadelphia City Council's assertion that Mumia has "exhausted all legal appeals" flies in the face of the reality that the case is currently being appealed before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and three issues have been granted by that court for appeal.
Neither ignorance nor prejudice justifies the outrageous falsehoods asserted in a a resolution, that though ridiculous in challenging another government's sovereignty, does harm to public support for Mumia's right to have a new and fair trial. The House of Representatives, the City Council of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Senate Resolution all contain serious distortions of the reality of Mumia Abu-Jamal's case and embody reckless language and practice by elected legislators. They are meant to deny internationally honored political prisoner and death row inmate, Mumia Abu-Jamal, his right, based on well-documented denial of his rights by US Constitution and International Law, to a new and fair trial.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
A Quarter Century Stolen - Mumia Must Be Free!
This December 9th will mark 25 years since the Philadelphia police shot and brutally beat Mumia nearly to death. For the last quarter century he has been on death row for a crime he did not commit. Now, the struggle for his life is at a more critical point than ever. On December 9, 2006, at 12:00 noon, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal will hold a national rally at Philadelphia's City Hall. Mark your calendars now, get the word out about this important date. Make plans to be in Philadelphia on December 9th. (Download the flyer HERE.)
Thursday, September 07, 2006
A message from Mumia about Prison Radio
Ona MOVE!
A few words in support of the efforts of Prison Radio and Noelle Hanrahan its executive director, to raise funds to keep the wolf from the door. If you are a long time listener to my commentaries you have prison radio to thank for them. In 1992 Prison Radio began recordings from the state dungeon at Huntingdon Pennsylvania. If you walked in on us you would have thought you were in the control booth of a funky radio station. We did good work together, so good that NPR asked us to share our work with them, until they got scared off. But prison radio has done far more than pass me the mic, it has given us the haunted voices of jail juveniles, incarcerated kids, those who are truly rarely heard. It has also told the story of women behind bars, for example AIDS patients and survivors at the women’s dungeon in Chowchilla California. In short Prison Radio has brought you the voices of those behind the walls, the fastest growing public housing development in America. For this and its other works it deserves your generous financial support.
Thanks,
for Prison Radio;
this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
To donate, to to www.prisonradio.org
A few words in support of the efforts of Prison Radio and Noelle Hanrahan its executive director, to raise funds to keep the wolf from the door. If you are a long time listener to my commentaries you have prison radio to thank for them. In 1992 Prison Radio began recordings from the state dungeon at Huntingdon Pennsylvania. If you walked in on us you would have thought you were in the control booth of a funky radio station. We did good work together, so good that NPR asked us to share our work with them, until they got scared off. But prison radio has done far more than pass me the mic, it has given us the haunted voices of jail juveniles, incarcerated kids, those who are truly rarely heard. It has also told the story of women behind bars, for example AIDS patients and survivors at the women’s dungeon in Chowchilla California. In short Prison Radio has brought you the voices of those behind the walls, the fastest growing public housing development in America. For this and its other works it deserves your generous financial support.
Thanks,
for Prison Radio;
this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
To donate, to to www.prisonradio.org
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Catch Mumia update on Democracy Now Thursday 9/7
Members of the French delegation which traveled to Philadelphia today to meet with Mayor Street and to hold a major Town Hall Meeting will appear tomorrow on the award-winning national radio program Democracy Now. The delegation included Julia Wright, daughter of legendary writer Richard Wright and leading spokesperson for Mumia in France; Patrick Braouezec, Representative for Saint Denis in the National Assembly of France and former Mayor of Saint Denis; and Raphael Barontini, Coordinator of the Mumia Committee in Saint-Denis and Coordinator of the ceremony naming a Saint Denis street for Mumia, Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Monday, September 04, 2006
URGENT MESSAGE FROM International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal!
TOWN HALL MEETING IN PHILADELPHIA
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2006
AFSC, 15th and CHERRY STREET, PHILADELPHIA
This event is critical towards beating back an F.O.P. inspired attack on Mumia that is designed to lead to his legalized, sanitized murder, which is most serious and escalating by the day!!
At this critically urgent stage in the fight for Mumia's life the Fraternal Order of Police have been waging a vicious campaign to try to kill him. When the city of Saint-Denis, France named a street in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal the FOP went crazy. Racist, conservative politicians introduced resolutions laced with dangerous lies in Philadelphia City Council, The House and Senate aiming to bully the French government to change the name of the street. "
Old news? Hell no! The aforementioned bullying now includes blatant lies that are falsifying documents to get Mumia executed, AND a statement that Mumia hit Officer Daniel Faulkner several times before allegedly shooting him. They are COUNTING on us to SLEEP on this and it's OUTRAGEOUS!! Hold up... As if that weren't enough.... this
blood-thirsty lynch mob is also stating that Mumia has exhausted all appeals, when he in fact has a handful of appeals left, therefore misleading many to believe that he is going to be executed anyway, so why not aquiesce to the F.O.P.'s demands!! TRICKNOLOGY IS IN FULL EFFECT, STRUGGLE PEOPLE!!!!
CHECK IT: This bullying has also included attacks on French Mumia supporters, including Sis. Julia Wright, whose HOME suffered an attempted break-in and frightening unidentified surveillors sitting outside of her home. Further intimidation has included men dressed as police officers tearing down the street signs honoring Mumia and vandalizing sites designated by the French activists in support of Mumia!!
FURTHERMORE, H. Con. Res. 407 is being purported as being in the "people's" name ... and we MUST let them know before they resume session on SEPTEMBER 15 that they are not speaking for ANY of us, they are speaking for the F.O.P.!!!! BEFORE SEPTEMBER 15!!!
The ICCFMAJ needs YOU to be at the very important meeting on SEPTEMBER 6 IN PHILADELPHIA. Don't worry about food, cuz food and refreshments will be provided for FREE! Just show up, bring whoever! There will even be free documentary DVD's given away on the case of Mumia.
WE NEED YOU to be ready to fight back against the mounting offensive against
Mumia and his supporters WORLD-WIDE. The French Delegation is EMERGENTLY flying back here to obtain much-needed support and WE GOTTA BE ON POINT. YOUR support is needed to beat back the F.O.P. attempts at anti-Mumia legislation!!
Join us, Wednesday, September 6th at the AFSC at 15th and Cherry in Center City Philly. Stand in solidarity with the delegation who will fly into Philly from France in order to put pressure on US officials and to clear the air about the lies surrounding the street naming for Mumia. Come at 5:30 pm to view The Framing of an Execution - a documentary on Mumia featuring Danny Glover and Angela Davis. Then at 6:30 join us for a work oriented town meeting to strengthen the international struggle for Mumia and all political prisoners.
The Delegation from France includes: Patrick Braouezec, Representative of the French National Assembly, Julia Wright, ICFFMAJ spokesperson in France and daughter of acclaimed author Richard Wright and Rafael Barontini, Coordinator of the Mumia Committe of Saint-Denis. Speakers will include the above as well as Death Row exonoree Harold Wilson,
Attorney Michael Coard, Tonya McCleary and others.
CHAKA FATAH, WHERE ARE YOU NOW? YOU SUPPORTED MUMIA BEFORE!!! WE NEED YOU TO SPEAK OUT NOW !!!!
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2006
AFSC, 15th and CHERRY STREET, PHILADELPHIA
This event is critical towards beating back an F.O.P. inspired attack on Mumia that is designed to lead to his legalized, sanitized murder, which is most serious and escalating by the day!!
At this critically urgent stage in the fight for Mumia's life the Fraternal Order of Police have been waging a vicious campaign to try to kill him. When the city of Saint-Denis, France named a street in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal the FOP went crazy. Racist, conservative politicians introduced resolutions laced with dangerous lies in Philadelphia City Council, The House and Senate aiming to bully the French government to change the name of the street. "
Old news? Hell no! The aforementioned bullying now includes blatant lies that are falsifying documents to get Mumia executed, AND a statement that Mumia hit Officer Daniel Faulkner several times before allegedly shooting him. They are COUNTING on us to SLEEP on this and it's OUTRAGEOUS!! Hold up... As if that weren't enough.... this
blood-thirsty lynch mob is also stating that Mumia has exhausted all appeals, when he in fact has a handful of appeals left, therefore misleading many to believe that he is going to be executed anyway, so why not aquiesce to the F.O.P.'s demands!! TRICKNOLOGY IS IN FULL EFFECT, STRUGGLE PEOPLE!!!!
CHECK IT: This bullying has also included attacks on French Mumia supporters, including Sis. Julia Wright, whose HOME suffered an attempted break-in and frightening unidentified surveillors sitting outside of her home. Further intimidation has included men dressed as police officers tearing down the street signs honoring Mumia and vandalizing sites designated by the French activists in support of Mumia!!
FURTHERMORE, H. Con. Res. 407 is being purported as being in the "people's" name ... and we MUST let them know before they resume session on SEPTEMBER 15 that they are not speaking for ANY of us, they are speaking for the F.O.P.!!!! BEFORE SEPTEMBER 15!!!
The ICCFMAJ needs YOU to be at the very important meeting on SEPTEMBER 6 IN PHILADELPHIA. Don't worry about food, cuz food and refreshments will be provided for FREE! Just show up, bring whoever! There will even be free documentary DVD's given away on the case of Mumia.
WE NEED YOU to be ready to fight back against the mounting offensive against
Mumia and his supporters WORLD-WIDE. The French Delegation is EMERGENTLY flying back here to obtain much-needed support and WE GOTTA BE ON POINT. YOUR support is needed to beat back the F.O.P. attempts at anti-Mumia legislation!!
Join us, Wednesday, September 6th at the AFSC at 15th and Cherry in Center City Philly. Stand in solidarity with the delegation who will fly into Philly from France in order to put pressure on US officials and to clear the air about the lies surrounding the street naming for Mumia. Come at 5:30 pm to view The Framing of an Execution - a documentary on Mumia featuring Danny Glover and Angela Davis. Then at 6:30 join us for a work oriented town meeting to strengthen the international struggle for Mumia and all political prisoners.
The Delegation from France includes: Patrick Braouezec, Representative of the French National Assembly, Julia Wright, ICFFMAJ spokesperson in France and daughter of acclaimed author Richard Wright and Rafael Barontini, Coordinator of the Mumia Committe of Saint-Denis. Speakers will include the above as well as Death Row exonoree Harold Wilson,
Attorney Michael Coard, Tonya McCleary and others.
CHAKA FATAH, WHERE ARE YOU NOW? YOU SUPPORTED MUMIA BEFORE!!! WE NEED YOU TO SPEAK OUT NOW !!!!
Support Mumia and greet the French Delegation for their courage in confronting the U.S. Government's determination to execute Mumia!
As soon as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals granted Mumia the right to appeal on issues that could lead to a new trial, the Fraternal Order of Police and its allies began waging a vicious campaign on the internet and in the media to prevent the possibility of a new trial.
They made up a new version of what happened on December 9, 1981; they insisted that Mumia's case is closed and that no further appeals are possible, despite the recent ruling of the Third Circuit which clearly stated that the case was NOT closed; and they presented Mumia as a cold-blooded cop-killer. They then introduced resolutions in the City Council of Philadelphia, the Senate of Pennsylvania, and the US Congress denouncing Saint-Denis and France for naming a street after Mumia, insisting that the name be withdrawn, and threatening sanctions. (The resolutions were passed both in the City Council and the State Senate). Let us stand with the French, united for justice and refusing to be intimidated by the bullying of the FOP and their elected cronies and media hacks.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
AFSC, 15TH AND CHERRY STREET, PHILADELPHIA
5:30pm-6:30pm
Framing an Execution
-a documentary on Mumia featuring Danny Glover and Angela Davis
6:30pm-8:30pm
Town Meeting
- to strengthen the international work and efforts to free Mumia
SPEAKERS:
Patrick Braouezec, representative to the French National Assembly,
Julia Wright, Paris ICCFMAJ/Mumia spokesperson in France,
Rafael Barontini, Coordinator of Mumia Committee of Saint-Denis
PLUS - Harold Wilson; Attorney Michael Coard; Tonya McCleary, AFSC;
and others!
For more information please contact the:
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
(215) 476-8812 - www.mumia.org
Download the flyer at:
http://www.freemumia.com/pdfs/sep6.pdf
They made up a new version of what happened on December 9, 1981; they insisted that Mumia's case is closed and that no further appeals are possible, despite the recent ruling of the Third Circuit which clearly stated that the case was NOT closed; and they presented Mumia as a cold-blooded cop-killer. They then introduced resolutions in the City Council of Philadelphia, the Senate of Pennsylvania, and the US Congress denouncing Saint-Denis and France for naming a street after Mumia, insisting that the name be withdrawn, and threatening sanctions. (The resolutions were passed both in the City Council and the State Senate). Let us stand with the French, united for justice and refusing to be intimidated by the bullying of the FOP and their elected cronies and media hacks.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
AFSC, 15TH AND CHERRY STREET, PHILADELPHIA
5:30pm-6:30pm
Framing an Execution
-a documentary on Mumia featuring Danny Glover and Angela Davis
6:30pm-8:30pm
Town Meeting
- to strengthen the international work and efforts to free Mumia
SPEAKERS:
Patrick Braouezec, representative to the French National Assembly,
Julia Wright, Paris ICCFMAJ/Mumia spokesperson in France,
Rafael Barontini, Coordinator of Mumia Committee of Saint-Denis
PLUS - Harold Wilson; Attorney Michael Coard; Tonya McCleary, AFSC;
and others!
For more information please contact the:
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
(215) 476-8812 - www.mumia.org
Download the flyer at:
http://www.freemumia.com/pdfs/sep6.pdf
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Hear Mumia's latest radio commentaries at prisonradio.org
Hear Mumia's latest radio commentaries at prisonradio.org
Address Given by Didier Paillard, Mayor of Saint-Denis
Address Given by Didier Paillard, Mayor of Saint-Denis, France at Inauguration of Street Honoring Mumia Abu-Jamal
Saturday, April 29, 2006, 11 AM
Deputy Mayor, Elected Representatives, dear friends who have come from the United States, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is very rare for a city to name a street after someone who is still alive. We are doing that today because of these exceptional circumstances. For over a quarter of a century, in the most powerful country in the world, a man who was sentenced to death, is in danger at any moment of being executed, despite assertions of his innocence.
In this struggle for his survival, Mumia Abu-Jamal has already won a victory: he has broken the wall of silence, and has little by little become a symbol.
It is a symbol for justice, for the abolition of the Death Penalty, for the respect of the fundamental rights of a human being.
It is a symbol of resistance against a system which has the arrogance to reign over the world in the name of those same human rights which it tramples with complete impunity on its own soil.
It is a symbol of absolute opposition to racial discrimination, which we know still exists today when it is the African-American population which has the highest rate of poverty, of homelessness, of incarceration, and of AIDS.
In naming a street in honor of Mumia Abu Jamal in Saint-Denis, we solemnly express our solidarity with the ongoing struggle for this man.
The inauguration which brings us together today gives continuity to a commitment on the part of the city of Saint-Denis to everything related to human dignity.
This morning, we sponsored the citizenship of 80 private citizens granting them the legal status and dignity that the law prevented them from receiving under the authority of France.
Tomorrow, we will meet again to commemorate the national day of deportation, paying homage to the victims of the Nazi barbarity.
In several weeks, in this same square, we will salute the memory of the Spaniards of Saint-Denis who participated in the Resistance (ed. note: referring to the anti-Franco resistance).
The action which brings us together today continues a fundamental tradition in the history of the social and political movement of our country. Over time, generations identified themselves with the struggles carried out by courageous freedom fighters. The names and the periods have changed but the profound spirit of these movements remain universal. Today it is Mumia, yesterday it was Sacco and Vanzetti, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Angela Davis, Victor Jara, Nelson Mandela.
The dynamism of the Saint Denis Committee to Free Mumia also brings honor to our city. When the activists petitioned us to give special recognition to this particular struggle, naturally the city granted the request.
Tradition calls for the names of places or streets to commemorate a page in our collective history. In Saint-Denis we thus have:
- numerous names of streets that are the names of resisters from the Second World War era
- a Place Julian Grimau, the name of a militant condemned to death by the Franco dictatorship
- a Che Guevara Avenue
- a Bobby Sands Street
In addition, very recently, we named two streets Kateb Yacine and Mohamed Dib, two great Algerian writers who embody the struggle against the obscurantism of fundamentalism.
Next we will be naming a street Cecile Brunschviecg, the name of this activist who was one of the first women to enter the government under the Popular Front, in an era when women were still denied the right to vote.
These names commemorate a work or a struggle that we wish to inscribe in the collective memory.
The city of Saint Denis is the first in France, and perhaps elsewhere, to name a Mumia Abu-Jamal Street.
This initiative takes on special importance at a moment when international pressure can create the possibility of a significant advance, thus eliminating the risk of killing an innocent person.
It is completely intentional that this street is situated in a section of Saint-Denis that is in the midst of being transformed, a section in which new residents are moving in, where there is growing economic activity, a section resolutely facing the future,
Rue Mumia Abu Jamal is thus beside:
- Human Rights Square,
- Children’s Rights Square
- the street Rol Taguy, the liberator of Paris in 1944
- the street Eleanor Rubiano, an anti-Nazi resister who was deported.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am certain that behind the bars of his cell, at this very moment, despite the time difference, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is aware of this inauguration is with us in his thoughts.
In the name of all of you, in the name of the residents of Saint-Denis, we salute Mumia, we salute your courage, and we hope to find you very soon, among us, a free man.
Saturday, April 29, 2006, 11 AM
Deputy Mayor, Elected Representatives, dear friends who have come from the United States, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is very rare for a city to name a street after someone who is still alive. We are doing that today because of these exceptional circumstances. For over a quarter of a century, in the most powerful country in the world, a man who was sentenced to death, is in danger at any moment of being executed, despite assertions of his innocence.
In this struggle for his survival, Mumia Abu-Jamal has already won a victory: he has broken the wall of silence, and has little by little become a symbol.
It is a symbol for justice, for the abolition of the Death Penalty, for the respect of the fundamental rights of a human being.
It is a symbol of resistance against a system which has the arrogance to reign over the world in the name of those same human rights which it tramples with complete impunity on its own soil.
It is a symbol of absolute opposition to racial discrimination, which we know still exists today when it is the African-American population which has the highest rate of poverty, of homelessness, of incarceration, and of AIDS.
In naming a street in honor of Mumia Abu Jamal in Saint-Denis, we solemnly express our solidarity with the ongoing struggle for this man.
The inauguration which brings us together today gives continuity to a commitment on the part of the city of Saint-Denis to everything related to human dignity.
This morning, we sponsored the citizenship of 80 private citizens granting them the legal status and dignity that the law prevented them from receiving under the authority of France.
Tomorrow, we will meet again to commemorate the national day of deportation, paying homage to the victims of the Nazi barbarity.
In several weeks, in this same square, we will salute the memory of the Spaniards of Saint-Denis who participated in the Resistance (ed. note: referring to the anti-Franco resistance).
The action which brings us together today continues a fundamental tradition in the history of the social and political movement of our country. Over time, generations identified themselves with the struggles carried out by courageous freedom fighters. The names and the periods have changed but the profound spirit of these movements remain universal. Today it is Mumia, yesterday it was Sacco and Vanzetti, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Angela Davis, Victor Jara, Nelson Mandela.
The dynamism of the Saint Denis Committee to Free Mumia also brings honor to our city. When the activists petitioned us to give special recognition to this particular struggle, naturally the city granted the request.
Tradition calls for the names of places or streets to commemorate a page in our collective history. In Saint-Denis we thus have:
- numerous names of streets that are the names of resisters from the Second World War era
- a Place Julian Grimau, the name of a militant condemned to death by the Franco dictatorship
- a Che Guevara Avenue
- a Bobby Sands Street
In addition, very recently, we named two streets Kateb Yacine and Mohamed Dib, two great Algerian writers who embody the struggle against the obscurantism of fundamentalism.
Next we will be naming a street Cecile Brunschviecg, the name of this activist who was one of the first women to enter the government under the Popular Front, in an era when women were still denied the right to vote.
These names commemorate a work or a struggle that we wish to inscribe in the collective memory.
The city of Saint Denis is the first in France, and perhaps elsewhere, to name a Mumia Abu-Jamal Street.
This initiative takes on special importance at a moment when international pressure can create the possibility of a significant advance, thus eliminating the risk of killing an innocent person.
It is completely intentional that this street is situated in a section of Saint-Denis that is in the midst of being transformed, a section in which new residents are moving in, where there is growing economic activity, a section resolutely facing the future,
Rue Mumia Abu Jamal is thus beside:
- Human Rights Square,
- Children’s Rights Square
- the street Rol Taguy, the liberator of Paris in 1944
- the street Eleanor Rubiano, an anti-Nazi resister who was deported.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am certain that behind the bars of his cell, at this very moment, despite the time difference, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is aware of this inauguration is with us in his thoughts.
In the name of all of you, in the name of the residents of Saint-Denis, we salute Mumia, we salute your courage, and we hope to find you very soon, among us, a free man.
New pictures from the naming of Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal
View the latest pictures from the naming of "Rue Mumia
Abu-Jamal" at:
Picture of the Mayor of Saint Denis
Picture of Free Mumia Coalition Co-Chair and Ossining NAACP Vice
President in Saint-Denis
Picture of Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal
Abu-Jamal" at:
Picture of the Mayor of Saint Denis
Picture of Free Mumia Coalition Co-Chair and Ossining NAACP Vice
President in Saint-Denis
Picture of Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal
Monday, May 15, 2006
Video Podcast of the naming of Rue Mumia Abu Jamal
Download and check out the new video podcast of the naming of a street in St. Denis, France, in honor of journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal. The naming of Rue Mumia Abu Jamal is part of an ongoing struggle to free Mumia, who sits on Pennsylvania's death row.
Download the Video from Peoples Video Network at www.peoplesvideo.tv/bm/
Download the Video from Peoples Video Network at www.peoplesvideo.tv/bm/
Harry Belafonte speaks out on the naming of Rue Mumia Abu Jamal
Actor, singer and social justice activist Harry Belafonte speaks on the naming of Rue Mumia Abu Jamal in St. Denis, France.
VIEW THE VIDEO
VIEW THE VIDEO
Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal Video
On April 29, 2006, a newly constructed street in Saint-Denis, (a town of 100,000 bordering Paris), was named Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal. In attendance was the mayor, deputy mayors, representatives of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC), and a large and very diverse group of individuals and organizations from France and the Carribean. Julia Wright, daughter of the lated noted writer Richard Wright, speaks of the significance of this event as well as the 2003 granting of honorary citizenship to Mumia by the City of Paris, in the following video.
VIEW THE VIDEO
VIEW THE VIDEO
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Free Mumia Abu Jamal
A large delegation of US activists will travel to France April 27 – 29 to join a ceremony in the French city of Sainte Denis to name a newly constructed street in honor of Mumia Abu Jamal. The new street, built spefically to bring attention to Mumia's struggle for justice, leads to the Nelson Mandela Stadium, the largest stadium in France.
Members of the delegation include Pam Africa, director of International Concerned Families and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, Ramona Africa of MOVE, a survivor of the 1985 massacre of MOVE members at the hands of US police, Leslie Jones, of Youth for Mumia, Suzanne Ross, of the New York City Free Mumia Coalition and activists Sundiata Sadiq, Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr., Akua Njeri, Sam Jordan and videographer Johnnie Stevens.
Check back here for reports and photos from the delegation members, beginning April 27.
Members of the delegation include Pam Africa, director of International Concerned Families and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, Ramona Africa of MOVE, a survivor of the 1985 massacre of MOVE members at the hands of US police, Leslie Jones, of Youth for Mumia, Suzanne Ross, of the New York City Free Mumia Coalition and activists Sundiata Sadiq, Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr., Akua Njeri, Sam Jordan and videographer Johnnie Stevens.
Check back here for reports and photos from the delegation members, beginning April 27.
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