Mumia Teach-In May 16

EMAJ
EDUCATORS FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
12 Years Educating and Organizing for Abu-Jamal and Justice

Contacts:
Professor Mark Taylor, Princeton Theological Seminary, 845 893-5721, at mark.taylor @ ptsem.edu;
Prof. Johanna Fernandez (Carnegie Mellon), jfernan1 @ andrew.cmu.edu;
Tameka L. Cage, (Bucknell Univ), tlc022 @ bucknell.edu
Institutions for identification purposes only.

EDUCATORS TO HOLD TEACH-IN ON MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

SCHOLARS OF HISTORY, LAW, JOURNALISM, LITERATURE, AND RELIGION GATHER IN PHILLY

May 16 Teach-In on
Eve of Key Arguments in Courthouse on May 17

Princeton, NJ. May 11, 2007. Key scholars from Pennsylvania and around the country will meet in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, May 16, to conduct a Teach-In on the controversial case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1982 for the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner, in a trial so controversial that public outcries for Abu-Jamal's new trial, and even release, have become ever more frequent in human rights communities. Amnesty International wrote that "justice would be best served by a new trial."

One of the Teach-In organizers, Mark Taylor of Princeton, said, "It is important that the U.S. Third Circuit Court will be hearing, on May 17, three of Mumia's claims about his denial of due process in the original trial." Another organizer of the EMAJ conference, Johanna Fernandez of Carnegie Mellon University, added, "In his case, the pillars that guarantee a fair trial were terribly broken: The presiding judge was openly racist, and Abu-Jamal was convicted without hard evidence."

Present at the Teach-In will be German literature professor, Michael Schiffman of the University of Heidelberg, who has published information on photos taken early at the crime scene, potentially exculpatory for Abu-Jamal, which were not used by police and prosecutors at the original trial. Also present will be Kathleen Cleaver (law professor, Emory University), Linn Washington (journalism, Temple University), Joy James (Africana Studies, Williams College), Tameka L. Cage (English, Bucknell University, also on the EMAJ advisory council) and Dave Lindorff (independent journalist)
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