Saturday, December 08, 2007
Audio from the December 4 press conference
The audio from the December 4 press conference is now online. The video will be available soon at www.abu-jamal-news.org.
Veronica Jones Letter to the Today Show
Below is a link to a letter written by Veronica Jones, a witness in Mumia's case, to the Today Show. This letter was written last week to encourage them to show both sides of the story. It is a very moving letter that gives insight into the injustice that Veronica faced in trying to speak the truth.
http://www.freemumia.com/pdfs/Veronica Jones Letter to the Today Show 12-07.pdf
http://www.freemumia.com/pdfs/Veronica Jones Letter to the Today Show 12-07.pdf
Was Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner really "Murdered By Mumia"?
--Journalists and activists present evidence of innocence and an unfair trial in the death-penalty case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The news conference organized by Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal featured an exclusive slide-show presentation of newly discovered crime scene photos, as well as presentations by local journalists David A. Love and Dave Lindorff, and Pam Africa of The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
INVITATION: This week marks the 26th anniversary of the December 9, 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner and the arrest of radical journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal. December 6 will mark the release of a new book titled "Murdered By Mumia," written by Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish. The Philadelphia Inquirer has already begun a three-part series that features excerpts from "Murdered By Mumia." The media-attention will continue this week with "Murdered By Mumia" scheduled to be featured on such news programs as The Today Show, The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and many more.
In light of this significant week, the news conference was organized to present "the other side of the story," to the media so that it can be fairly balanced alongside the story presented by Faulkner, Smerconish, and others who argue that Mumia does not deserve a new trial and should be executed. Come and hear from activists and award-winning journalists who have thoroughly researched the case and concluded that Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial was blatantly unfair, and that there is considerable evidence suggesting that Abu-Jamal is innocent, as he has always maintained.
For the national media, and others unable to make it to the news conference, audio and video documentation has been made available via the internet.
CONTACT US: For more information, email: hbjournalist@gmail.com
This news conference featured:
SLIDESHOW PRESENTATION OF NEWLY DISCOVERED CRIME SCENE PHOTOS
Philadelphia journalist Hans Bennett presented a slideshow displaying the crime scene photos recently discovered by German linguist, Michael Schiffmann (University of Heidelberg). Dr. Schiffmann has disclosed his discovery of 26 photographs (never seen by the 1982 jury), taken by press photographer Pedro P. Polakoff, which suggest more evidence that basic investigative protocol was violated by police from the earliest moments of the killing. Schiffmann and Bennett's website, Abu-Jamal-News.com, displays four of the photos to make these key points about the new evidence:
1. Mishandling the Guns - Officer James Forbes holds both Abu-Jamal's and Faulkner's guns, his bare hand touching the metal parts, suggesting perjury when he testified to properly preserving the guns' ballistics evidence.
2. The Moving Hat - Faulkner's hat is moved from the roof of Billy Cook's VW and placed on the sidewalk, where it remained for the official police photo.
3. The Missing Taxi - Robert Chobert testified to parking directly behind Faulkner's car, but the space is empty.
4. The Missing Divots – On the sidewalk, where Faulkner was found, there are no large bullet divots, or destroyed chunks of cement, which should be visible in the pavement if the prosecution scenario was accurate, according to which Abu-Jamal shot down at Faulkner – and allegedly missed several times – while Faulkner was on his back. Dr. Michael Schiffmann writes: "It is thus no question any more whether the scenario presented by the prosecution at Abu-Jamal's trial is true. It is clearly not, because it is physically and ballistically impossible."
DAVID A. LOVE
In October, 2007, Philadelphia-based lawyer and journalist, David A. Love, wrote about the new crime scene photos for The Black Commentator news website. Love's article titled "Photos Bolster Claims of Mumia’s Innocence and Unfair Trial" was featured in the national Black newspaper, The SF Bay View, where one of the photos was published for the very first time in the US. Love spoke at the news conference about why the new crime scene photos are an important and worthy story for the media to cover. (see above)
DAVE LINDORFF
Dave Lindorff is the author of "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal" (Common Courage Press, 2003), an independent examination of this important capital case. In his December 2, 2007 article titled "Maureen Faulkner and Mumia: Vengeance Isn't Sweet," Lindorff responds to the first in a three-part series in The Philadelphia Inquirer, that features experts from Maureen Faulkner's new book, written with Michael Smerconish, titled "Murdered By Mumia." He writes that Faulkner "is entitled to her anger and her grief," but "we are all diminished when justice is so willingly cast aside in the wrongheaded name of vengeance, as has clearly happened in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. No amount of sympathy for Faulkner's widow should be permitted to sway society or the courts from a commitment to justice, and there has been no justice in this case."
At the press-conference, Lindorff addressed the summary of evidence against Abu-Jamal, presented at the "Murdered By Mumia" website, that "Mumia Abu-Jamal was unanimously convicted of the crime by a racially mixed jury based on: the testimony of several eyewitnesses, his ownership of the murder weapon, matching ballistics, and Abu-Jamal's own confession."
--Award-winning investigative reporter Dave Lindorff has been working as a journalist for 34 years. A regular columnist for CounterPunch, he also writes frequently for Extra! and Salon magazine, as well as for Businessweek, The Nation, and Treasury & Risk Magazine. Over the years he has written for such publications as Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Village Voice, Forbes, The London Observer and the Australian National Times.
PAM AFRICA
Pam Africa is the head of The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ). Africa will provide an update on the current media-activist campaign to "ensure fairness" for Abu-Jamal on the December 6 NBC Today Show, which spotlighted the release of the book "Murdered By Mumia." Africa and ICFFMAJ are asking that the The Today Show fairly show both sides of the Abu-Jamal / Faulkner story, and give equal time to an expert sympathetic to Abu-Jamal's case for a new trial.
--Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal (Abu-Jamal-News.com) was co-founded in May, 2007 by Philadelphia journalist Hans Bennett and German linguist Dr. Michael Schiffmann (University of Heidelberg), who is the author of the new German book about Abu-Jamal's case, "Race Against Death." For more information, please email: hbjournalist@gmail.com
You can download the 50 page PRESS PACK at the link below:
http://www.abu-jamal-news.com/pr/PressPackNov07.pdf
The news conference organized by Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal featured an exclusive slide-show presentation of newly discovered crime scene photos, as well as presentations by local journalists David A. Love and Dave Lindorff, and Pam Africa of The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
INVITATION: This week marks the 26th anniversary of the December 9, 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner and the arrest of radical journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal. December 6 will mark the release of a new book titled "Murdered By Mumia," written by Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish. The Philadelphia Inquirer has already begun a three-part series that features excerpts from "Murdered By Mumia." The media-attention will continue this week with "Murdered By Mumia" scheduled to be featured on such news programs as The Today Show, The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and many more.
In light of this significant week, the news conference was organized to present "the other side of the story," to the media so that it can be fairly balanced alongside the story presented by Faulkner, Smerconish, and others who argue that Mumia does not deserve a new trial and should be executed. Come and hear from activists and award-winning journalists who have thoroughly researched the case and concluded that Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial was blatantly unfair, and that there is considerable evidence suggesting that Abu-Jamal is innocent, as he has always maintained.
For the national media, and others unable to make it to the news conference, audio and video documentation has been made available via the internet.
CONTACT US: For more information, email: hbjournalist@gmail.com
This news conference featured:
SLIDESHOW PRESENTATION OF NEWLY DISCOVERED CRIME SCENE PHOTOS
Philadelphia journalist Hans Bennett presented a slideshow displaying the crime scene photos recently discovered by German linguist, Michael Schiffmann (University of Heidelberg). Dr. Schiffmann has disclosed his discovery of 26 photographs (never seen by the 1982 jury), taken by press photographer Pedro P. Polakoff, which suggest more evidence that basic investigative protocol was violated by police from the earliest moments of the killing. Schiffmann and Bennett's website, Abu-Jamal-News.com, displays four of the photos to make these key points about the new evidence:
1. Mishandling the Guns - Officer James Forbes holds both Abu-Jamal's and Faulkner's guns, his bare hand touching the metal parts, suggesting perjury when he testified to properly preserving the guns' ballistics evidence.
2. The Moving Hat - Faulkner's hat is moved from the roof of Billy Cook's VW and placed on the sidewalk, where it remained for the official police photo.
3. The Missing Taxi - Robert Chobert testified to parking directly behind Faulkner's car, but the space is empty.
4. The Missing Divots – On the sidewalk, where Faulkner was found, there are no large bullet divots, or destroyed chunks of cement, which should be visible in the pavement if the prosecution scenario was accurate, according to which Abu-Jamal shot down at Faulkner – and allegedly missed several times – while Faulkner was on his back. Dr. Michael Schiffmann writes: "It is thus no question any more whether the scenario presented by the prosecution at Abu-Jamal's trial is true. It is clearly not, because it is physically and ballistically impossible."
DAVID A. LOVE
In October, 2007, Philadelphia-based lawyer and journalist, David A. Love, wrote about the new crime scene photos for The Black Commentator news website. Love's article titled "Photos Bolster Claims of Mumia’s Innocence and Unfair Trial" was featured in the national Black newspaper, The SF Bay View, where one of the photos was published for the very first time in the US. Love spoke at the news conference about why the new crime scene photos are an important and worthy story for the media to cover. (see above)
DAVE LINDORFF
Dave Lindorff is the author of "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal" (Common Courage Press, 2003), an independent examination of this important capital case. In his December 2, 2007 article titled "Maureen Faulkner and Mumia: Vengeance Isn't Sweet," Lindorff responds to the first in a three-part series in The Philadelphia Inquirer, that features experts from Maureen Faulkner's new book, written with Michael Smerconish, titled "Murdered By Mumia." He writes that Faulkner "is entitled to her anger and her grief," but "we are all diminished when justice is so willingly cast aside in the wrongheaded name of vengeance, as has clearly happened in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. No amount of sympathy for Faulkner's widow should be permitted to sway society or the courts from a commitment to justice, and there has been no justice in this case."
At the press-conference, Lindorff addressed the summary of evidence against Abu-Jamal, presented at the "Murdered By Mumia" website, that "Mumia Abu-Jamal was unanimously convicted of the crime by a racially mixed jury based on: the testimony of several eyewitnesses, his ownership of the murder weapon, matching ballistics, and Abu-Jamal's own confession."
--Award-winning investigative reporter Dave Lindorff has been working as a journalist for 34 years. A regular columnist for CounterPunch, he also writes frequently for Extra! and Salon magazine, as well as for Businessweek, The Nation, and Treasury & Risk Magazine. Over the years he has written for such publications as Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Village Voice, Forbes, The London Observer and the Australian National Times.
PAM AFRICA
Pam Africa is the head of The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ). Africa will provide an update on the current media-activist campaign to "ensure fairness" for Abu-Jamal on the December 6 NBC Today Show, which spotlighted the release of the book "Murdered By Mumia." Africa and ICFFMAJ are asking that the The Today Show fairly show both sides of the Abu-Jamal / Faulkner story, and give equal time to an expert sympathetic to Abu-Jamal's case for a new trial.
--Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal (Abu-Jamal-News.com) was co-founded in May, 2007 by Philadelphia journalist Hans Bennett and German linguist Dr. Michael Schiffmann (University of Heidelberg), who is the author of the new German book about Abu-Jamal's case, "Race Against Death." For more information, please email: hbjournalist@gmail.com
You can download the 50 page PRESS PACK at the link below:
http://www.abu-jamal-news.com/pr/PressPackNov07.pdf
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Evidence of Innocence and an Unfair Trial
[The following are remarks made at a December 4, 2007 press conference held in Philadelphia by The International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ), and Journalists for Mumia. The purpose of the press conference was to discuss newly discovered crime scene photos in the Mumia Abu-Jamal death penalty case, which were not seen by the jury, yet point to his innocence and the need for a new trial. Abu-Jamal, journalist, former Black Panther and death row inmate, was convicted of the 1981 murder of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Participants in the press conference included Hans Bennett of Journalists for Mumia, Philadelphia journalists Linn Washington, Dave Lindorff, Pam Africa of ICFFMAJ, and David A. Love of Black Commentator. In its October 18, 2007 cover story, titled Photos Bolster Claims of Mumia’s Innocence and Unfair Trial, Black Commentator broke the story regarding the photos.]
My name is David A. Love, editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com, a weekly online magazine covering issues affecting the Black community, with a monthly readership of 300,000. My Color of Law column appears weekly. I wrote an article in the October 18, 2007 edition of the Black Commentator entitled “ Photos Bolster Claims of Mumia’s Innocence and Unfair Trial.” The piece re-printed for the Independent Media Center, and the San Francisco Bay View, a national Black newspaper, which published the photos. In the article, I discussed these new photos of the crime scene where Officer Faulkner was killed, but also analyzed the larger implications for the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the problem of racism in the criminal justice system, and the disturbing application of the death penalty in the United States.
To be sure, these photos are important because they suggest that someone, presumably the police, tampered with evidence at the crime scene, removed evidence and switched evidence around, perhaps out of incompetence, perhaps in order to subvert justice and bring about a particular desired outcome. We can only speculate. But we would be misled if we were to believe that these photos are the only evidence pointing to a setup, pointing to Mumia’s innocence and the need for a new trial. The photos, when viewed in combination with the other problems with the case, bolster an already convincing argument that official misconduct took place. For example:
The prosecutor had a history of excluding African American jurors, and struck 10 of 14 Black potential jurors, but only 5 of 25 whites.
In a sworn statement, a court stenographer said she overheard the trial judge, Albert Sabo, saying he would help the prosecution "fry the nigger."
For twelve years, prosecutors withheld evidence that the driver's license of a third man was found in Faulkner's pocket at the crime scene.
Defense witnesses who testified that someone other than Abu-Jamal killed Faulkner were intimidated.
Five of the seven members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which denied his appeal, received campaign contributions from the Fraternal Order of Police, the primary group that has advocated for the execution of Mumia, whom they regard as an unrepentant cop killer.
It should also be noted that in 1981, the year Mumia was arrested, five men were framed by the Philadelphia Police Department for murder and exonerated years later. Two of the innocent men spent as much as 20 years in prison before their release, and one man spent 1,375 days on death row before he became a free man. A legacy of police corruption, brutality and intimidation of poor people, communities of color and political activists haunts the city to this day, at a time when better police-community relations are needed to stem a tide of gun homicides.
The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal sheds light on the racial inequities in the law. Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system is unfair and unequal. An Associated Press investigation in 2000 revealed that Blacks in Pennsylvania are more likely to receive prison sentences, or longer ones, than white defendants accused of the same crimes. Further, the black incarceration rate is 14 times that of whites, the greatest racial disparity in the nation. African Americans, 10 percent of Pennsylvania's population, are 56 percent of the inmates, with most of them coming from the city of Philadelphia.
And we cannot discuss Mumia without looking at the death penalty, given that he is the most well known death row inmate in America and the world, and his case demonstrates all that is wrong with the death penalty, a system that was not meant to be fixed because it was not meant to be fair and just. Executions are a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, whether they take the form of beheading, stoning, gas chamber, electric chair, lethal injection, what have you. Like lynching, the death penalty is barbaric, arbitrary and infected with racism, placing an emphasis on expediency over due process. In fact, capital punishment is lynching brought into the court system, in an effort to legitimize the practice.
It is no accident that 90 percent of executions take place in the South, where Jim Crow lynchings and racial violence were the norm. It should not be surprising that the most important factor that determines whether someone will get the death penalty is the race of the victim. Over the past 30 years, an overwhelming majority of people executed in the United States - more than 80 percent - were convicted of killing a white victim, according to Amnesty International. African-Americans, however, are about half of all murder victims. And one-third of America's death row is black. And according to a study published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies in March 2004, a black person convicted of murdering a white victim is two and a half times as likely to be sentenced to death as a white person convicted of murdering a white victim.
And there are other inherent flaws in capital punishment. Each locality has its own standards, and each prosecutor decides whether to seek death. Only 2 percent of those who are eligible for a death sentence actually receive death. Codefendants may receive different sentences for the same crime, with one receiving death and the other receiving jail time.
Ninety-five percent of death row prisoners cannot afford an attorney and must take a court-appointed attorney, who often is overworked, underpaid, lacks experience in capital cases or, in extreme cases, falls asleep in court.
And since 1973, according to Amnesty International and the Death Penalty Information Center, 124 people in 25 states have been released from death row because they were wrongfully convicted. And we will never know how many innocent people have been sent to their deaths.
Moreover, the death penalty offends international human rights standards. Only six countries carry out 91 percent of the world’s executions: China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the United States. Indeed, you are judged by the company you keep. And we should note that Amnesty International and many others in the international community condemn capital punishment, and have called for a new trial for Mumia, based on the mountain of evidence.
In conclusion, I think of the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who said, “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” I believe that journalism is at its best when it seeks to get to the bottom of the matter, not regurgitate the official line and shut down the discussion. This is what is necessary for democracy and a free society. As we know in this country, accepting as fact everything that is told to us, and refusing to dig deeper, has cost lives, whether in a senseless war in Iraq or here at home. We are here to discuss the photos that demand a new trial for Mumia. But this is also bigger than Mumia, because Mumia’s case shines the light on official corruption and racism in America’s justice system, and the judicial form of lynching that is the death penalty.
Note: Below Mr. Love’s bio information you will find text taken from the information packet made available to the news media prior to and during the news conference in Philadelphia on Tuesday, December 4, 2007.
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member David A. Love, JD is a lawyer and prisoners’ rights advocate based in Philadelphia, and a contributor to the Progressive Media Project, McClatchy-Tribune News Service and In These Times. He contributed to the book,
States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons (St. Martin's Press, 2000). Love is a former Amnesty International UK spokesperson, organized the first national police brutality conference as a staff member with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and served as a law clerk to two Black federal judges. His blog is davidalove.com. Click here to contact Mr. Love.
My name is David A. Love, editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com, a weekly online magazine covering issues affecting the Black community, with a monthly readership of 300,000. My Color of Law column appears weekly. I wrote an article in the October 18, 2007 edition of the Black Commentator entitled “ Photos Bolster Claims of Mumia’s Innocence and Unfair Trial.” The piece re-printed for the Independent Media Center, and the San Francisco Bay View, a national Black newspaper, which published the photos. In the article, I discussed these new photos of the crime scene where Officer Faulkner was killed, but also analyzed the larger implications for the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the problem of racism in the criminal justice system, and the disturbing application of the death penalty in the United States.
To be sure, these photos are important because they suggest that someone, presumably the police, tampered with evidence at the crime scene, removed evidence and switched evidence around, perhaps out of incompetence, perhaps in order to subvert justice and bring about a particular desired outcome. We can only speculate. But we would be misled if we were to believe that these photos are the only evidence pointing to a setup, pointing to Mumia’s innocence and the need for a new trial. The photos, when viewed in combination with the other problems with the case, bolster an already convincing argument that official misconduct took place. For example:
The prosecutor had a history of excluding African American jurors, and struck 10 of 14 Black potential jurors, but only 5 of 25 whites.
In a sworn statement, a court stenographer said she overheard the trial judge, Albert Sabo, saying he would help the prosecution "fry the nigger."
For twelve years, prosecutors withheld evidence that the driver's license of a third man was found in Faulkner's pocket at the crime scene.
Defense witnesses who testified that someone other than Abu-Jamal killed Faulkner were intimidated.
Five of the seven members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which denied his appeal, received campaign contributions from the Fraternal Order of Police, the primary group that has advocated for the execution of Mumia, whom they regard as an unrepentant cop killer.
It should also be noted that in 1981, the year Mumia was arrested, five men were framed by the Philadelphia Police Department for murder and exonerated years later. Two of the innocent men spent as much as 20 years in prison before their release, and one man spent 1,375 days on death row before he became a free man. A legacy of police corruption, brutality and intimidation of poor people, communities of color and political activists haunts the city to this day, at a time when better police-community relations are needed to stem a tide of gun homicides.
The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal sheds light on the racial inequities in the law. Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system is unfair and unequal. An Associated Press investigation in 2000 revealed that Blacks in Pennsylvania are more likely to receive prison sentences, or longer ones, than white defendants accused of the same crimes. Further, the black incarceration rate is 14 times that of whites, the greatest racial disparity in the nation. African Americans, 10 percent of Pennsylvania's population, are 56 percent of the inmates, with most of them coming from the city of Philadelphia.
And we cannot discuss Mumia without looking at the death penalty, given that he is the most well known death row inmate in America and the world, and his case demonstrates all that is wrong with the death penalty, a system that was not meant to be fixed because it was not meant to be fair and just. Executions are a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, whether they take the form of beheading, stoning, gas chamber, electric chair, lethal injection, what have you. Like lynching, the death penalty is barbaric, arbitrary and infected with racism, placing an emphasis on expediency over due process. In fact, capital punishment is lynching brought into the court system, in an effort to legitimize the practice.
It is no accident that 90 percent of executions take place in the South, where Jim Crow lynchings and racial violence were the norm. It should not be surprising that the most important factor that determines whether someone will get the death penalty is the race of the victim. Over the past 30 years, an overwhelming majority of people executed in the United States - more than 80 percent - were convicted of killing a white victim, according to Amnesty International. African-Americans, however, are about half of all murder victims. And one-third of America's death row is black. And according to a study published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies in March 2004, a black person convicted of murdering a white victim is two and a half times as likely to be sentenced to death as a white person convicted of murdering a white victim.
And there are other inherent flaws in capital punishment. Each locality has its own standards, and each prosecutor decides whether to seek death. Only 2 percent of those who are eligible for a death sentence actually receive death. Codefendants may receive different sentences for the same crime, with one receiving death and the other receiving jail time.
Ninety-five percent of death row prisoners cannot afford an attorney and must take a court-appointed attorney, who often is overworked, underpaid, lacks experience in capital cases or, in extreme cases, falls asleep in court.
And since 1973, according to Amnesty International and the Death Penalty Information Center, 124 people in 25 states have been released from death row because they were wrongfully convicted. And we will never know how many innocent people have been sent to their deaths.
Moreover, the death penalty offends international human rights standards. Only six countries carry out 91 percent of the world’s executions: China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the United States. Indeed, you are judged by the company you keep. And we should note that Amnesty International and many others in the international community condemn capital punishment, and have called for a new trial for Mumia, based on the mountain of evidence.
In conclusion, I think of the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who said, “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” I believe that journalism is at its best when it seeks to get to the bottom of the matter, not regurgitate the official line and shut down the discussion. This is what is necessary for democracy and a free society. As we know in this country, accepting as fact everything that is told to us, and refusing to dig deeper, has cost lives, whether in a senseless war in Iraq or here at home. We are here to discuss the photos that demand a new trial for Mumia. But this is also bigger than Mumia, because Mumia’s case shines the light on official corruption and racism in America’s justice system, and the judicial form of lynching that is the death penalty.
Note: Below Mr. Love’s bio information you will find text taken from the information packet made available to the news media prior to and during the news conference in Philadelphia on Tuesday, December 4, 2007.
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member David A. Love, JD is a lawyer and prisoners’ rights advocate based in Philadelphia, and a contributor to the Progressive Media Project, McClatchy-Tribune News Service and In These Times. He contributed to the book,
States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons (St. Martin's Press, 2000). Love is a former Amnesty International UK spokesperson, organized the first national police brutality conference as a staff member with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and served as a law clerk to two Black federal judges. His blog is davidalove.com. Click here to contact Mr. Love.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
UPDATES! Picket at the Today Show tomorrow morning!
The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) calls on everyone who can join us on Thursday December 6th at 7:15 AM to please come to 48th Street and Rockefeller Plaza. We will be picketing the planned hit job on Mumia by Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish in discussing their new book, MURDERED BY MUMIA, on NBC's TODAY SHOW. We have demanded "equal time" but as yet have gotten no agreement to that by the TODAY SHOW. Stand there with us in solidarity with Mumia!
PICKET AT THE TODAY SHOW
DATE: Thursday Dec. 6th
TIME: 7:15 AM
PLACE: 48th Street and Rockefeller Plaza (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
-------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Suzanne Ross (917) 584-2135
Justin Lumumba (347) 267-8259
Picket to Be At NBC's Today Show, December 6, for Innocent Man on Death Row
The New York Post's typically inflammatory language promotes confrontation outside NBC's Today Show on December 6 with their fabricated story (12/3/07) that the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) is "threatening to storm the streets of Rockefeller Center." The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) has called for a picket across the street from NBC on December 6 as part of a campaign to demand equal time on the Today Show, which is scheduled to host Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish on that day to promote their new book, Murdered by Mumia.
In writing an article highlighting the scheduled picket at NBC, the Post never contacted the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition but, instead, provided yet another platform for Maureen Faulkner to express her desire for vengeance. Faulkner is the widow of Office Daniel Faulkner, who was killed on the night of December 9, 1981; his murder was a crime for which Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted in a highly controversial trial. Amnesty International (AI), in a 2000 report, stated that the trial "failed to meet minimum standards safeguarding the fairness of legal proceedings" and that numerous factors "render the verdict and sentence fundamentally unsound." AI called for a new and fair trial. Michael Smerconish is a Philadelphia talk show host, long allied with the Fraternal Order of Police and its campaign for the execution of Jamal.
Pam Africa and Cortnee Anderson of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke last Friday with Jaclyn Levine, who is producing the December 6 program. They presented information dealing with the importance, in the interest of fairness and accuracy, of getting "equal time" on the Today Show. Levine promised to get back to them, but has yet to do so.
Press reviews of the book have already referred to Jamal, an author of five published books and a recipient of hundreds of honors and awards, including Honorary Citizenship of Paris in 2004, as a "thug." Given ABC's widely denounced 20-20 "hatchet job" of Jamal in 1998, Jamal supporters anticipate a similar presentation on the Today Show. Faulkner played a key role in the 20-20 program, as well, working closely with the Fraternal Order of Police, as the producer of that show acknowledged in writing. In several interviews in the past week, Faulkner has stated unequivocally that she wants to see Jamal dead, nothing short of that, and has given a hint of the distortions and lies that are to come by stating that he had "a jury of his own choosing." Racial bias on the part of the prosecutor in the selection of the jury is a critical issue being given serious consideration by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, where Jamal's case is current being reviewed. If racial bias is judged by this federal court as present in the selection of the jury, Jamal would be granted a new trial.
Journalistic fairness and accuracy call for "equal time" for those who have information that refutes the view that will be aired when Faulkner and Smerconish are on the show.
The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition will have a picket across the street from NBC in support of Jamal, in support of evidence that challenges what Faulkner and Smerconish regularly promulgate, and in support of fair media that allows the public to hear important information rather than only a very biased and distorted picture in a campaign for executing someone regardless of guilt or innocence.
For additional information see: www.freemumia.com or www.journalistsformumia.com.
PICKET AT THE TODAY SHOW
DATE: Thursday Dec. 6th
TIME: 7:15 AM
PLACE: 48th Street and Rockefeller Plaza (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
-------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Suzanne Ross (917) 584-2135
Justin Lumumba (347) 267-8259
Picket to Be At NBC's Today Show, December 6, for Innocent Man on Death Row
The New York Post's typically inflammatory language promotes confrontation outside NBC's Today Show on December 6 with their fabricated story (12/3/07) that the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) is "threatening to storm the streets of Rockefeller Center." The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) has called for a picket across the street from NBC on December 6 as part of a campaign to demand equal time on the Today Show, which is scheduled to host Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish on that day to promote their new book, Murdered by Mumia.
In writing an article highlighting the scheduled picket at NBC, the Post never contacted the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition but, instead, provided yet another platform for Maureen Faulkner to express her desire for vengeance. Faulkner is the widow of Office Daniel Faulkner, who was killed on the night of December 9, 1981; his murder was a crime for which Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted in a highly controversial trial. Amnesty International (AI), in a 2000 report, stated that the trial "failed to meet minimum standards safeguarding the fairness of legal proceedings" and that numerous factors "render the verdict and sentence fundamentally unsound." AI called for a new and fair trial. Michael Smerconish is a Philadelphia talk show host, long allied with the Fraternal Order of Police and its campaign for the execution of Jamal.
Pam Africa and Cortnee Anderson of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke last Friday with Jaclyn Levine, who is producing the December 6 program. They presented information dealing with the importance, in the interest of fairness and accuracy, of getting "equal time" on the Today Show. Levine promised to get back to them, but has yet to do so.
Press reviews of the book have already referred to Jamal, an author of five published books and a recipient of hundreds of honors and awards, including Honorary Citizenship of Paris in 2004, as a "thug." Given ABC's widely denounced 20-20 "hatchet job" of Jamal in 1998, Jamal supporters anticipate a similar presentation on the Today Show. Faulkner played a key role in the 20-20 program, as well, working closely with the Fraternal Order of Police, as the producer of that show acknowledged in writing. In several interviews in the past week, Faulkner has stated unequivocally that she wants to see Jamal dead, nothing short of that, and has given a hint of the distortions and lies that are to come by stating that he had "a jury of his own choosing." Racial bias on the part of the prosecutor in the selection of the jury is a critical issue being given serious consideration by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, where Jamal's case is current being reviewed. If racial bias is judged by this federal court as present in the selection of the jury, Jamal would be granted a new trial.
Journalistic fairness and accuracy call for "equal time" for those who have information that refutes the view that will be aired when Faulkner and Smerconish are on the show.
The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition will have a picket across the street from NBC in support of Jamal, in support of evidence that challenges what Faulkner and Smerconish regularly promulgate, and in support of fair media that allows the public to hear important information rather than only a very biased and distorted picture in a campaign for executing someone regardless of guilt or innocence.
For additional information see: www.freemumia.com or www.journalistsformumia.com.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Pam Africa Update: December 6 Protests/New Petition, Flyer, Press Conference
(Abu-Jamal-News.com)
MEDIA-ACTIVIST CAMPAIGN: Two weeks ago, Journalists for Mumia (in conjunction with The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia and Educators for Mumia) initiated a media-activist campaign to ensure fairness for Mumia on the Dec. 6 NBC Today Show, which is scheduled to feature Michael Smerconish and Maureen Faulkner as they release their new book titled Murdered By Mumia.
UPDATE FROM PAM AFRICA: As a result of our campaign, The Today Show scheduled a telephone conference with Pam Africa (of the ICFFMAJ) for this past Friday. Following this conference, Pam Africa reported that she spoke with the show and provided them with our Press Pack of background information on Mumia's case. The Today Show did not make an official decision regarding our request, but said they would look at the information and contact Pam Africa this week with their official response to our desire to have equal representation on The Today Show.
PROTEST AT THE TODAY SHOW: As reported at FreeMumia.com, "The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) calls on everyone who can join us on Thursday December 6th at 7:15 AM to please come to 48th Street and Rockefeller Plaza.... We have demanded "equal time" but as yet have gotten no agreement to that by the TODAY SHOW. Stand there with us in solidarity with Mumia!"
NEW PETITION: As this campaign heats up, sending emails to The Today Show (today@msnbc.com) is more important than ever, so NBC knows that people around the word are demanding fairness, and paying close attention to the upcoming Dec. 6 show. Fortunately, a new petition assisting these efforts has just been created. Please sign onto it and share with others. Sign the petition here.
NEW FLYER: Journalists for Mumia has just completed a new flyer responding to Smerconish and Faulkner's new book. Download the flyer and spread the word!
PRESS CONFERENCE: The formal press-release announcement of Journalists for Mumia's press conference on Tuesday, November 4, in Philadelphia, at NOON, at The A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Avenue (featuring a slide show presentation of the newly discovered crime scene photos, and journalists David Lindorff & David A. Love) will be released on Sunday.
MASS DEMONSTRATION IN PHILADELPHIA DEC. 8: Download the flyer here
In Solidarity,
Hans Bennett, Journalists for Mumia
Abu-Jamal-News.com
MEDIA-ACTIVIST CAMPAIGN: Two weeks ago, Journalists for Mumia (in conjunction with The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia and Educators for Mumia) initiated a media-activist campaign to ensure fairness for Mumia on the Dec. 6 NBC Today Show, which is scheduled to feature Michael Smerconish and Maureen Faulkner as they release their new book titled Murdered By Mumia.
UPDATE FROM PAM AFRICA: As a result of our campaign, The Today Show scheduled a telephone conference with Pam Africa (of the ICFFMAJ) for this past Friday. Following this conference, Pam Africa reported that she spoke with the show and provided them with our Press Pack of background information on Mumia's case. The Today Show did not make an official decision regarding our request, but said they would look at the information and contact Pam Africa this week with their official response to our desire to have equal representation on The Today Show.
PROTEST AT THE TODAY SHOW: As reported at FreeMumia.com, "The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) calls on everyone who can join us on Thursday December 6th at 7:15 AM to please come to 48th Street and Rockefeller Plaza.... We have demanded "equal time" but as yet have gotten no agreement to that by the TODAY SHOW. Stand there with us in solidarity with Mumia!"
NEW PETITION: As this campaign heats up, sending emails to The Today Show (today@msnbc.com) is more important than ever, so NBC knows that people around the word are demanding fairness, and paying close attention to the upcoming Dec. 6 show. Fortunately, a new petition assisting these efforts has just been created. Please sign onto it and share with others. Sign the petition here.
NEW FLYER: Journalists for Mumia has just completed a new flyer responding to Smerconish and Faulkner's new book. Download the flyer and spread the word!
PRESS CONFERENCE: The formal press-release announcement of Journalists for Mumia's press conference on Tuesday, November 4, in Philadelphia, at NOON, at The A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Avenue (featuring a slide show presentation of the newly discovered crime scene photos, and journalists David Lindorff & David A. Love) will be released on Sunday.
MASS DEMONSTRATION IN PHILADELPHIA DEC. 8: Download the flyer here
In Solidarity,
Hans Bennett, Journalists for Mumia
Abu-Jamal-News.com
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Journalists Decry Racism in Media Coverage of Mumia
On Thursday, November 29, Pacifica Radio/KPFK Los Angeles show Uprising Radio focused on NBC's plans to feature extremely biased coverage of Mumia's case on the December 6 edition of the Today Show. Uprising Radio highlighted the media justice campaign being organized with Educators for Mumia and The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ).
Listen to the program online.
This program comes at an important time in the campaign. Pam Africa of ICFFMAJ was scheduled to talk with The Today Show to push for equal coverage. People are urged to please take a minute and contact The Today Show to express as much support as possible for these efforts.
A major demonstration is being organized in Philadelphia for December 8. Please download the flier and spread the word).
Also, Journalists for Mumia is organizing a press conference next week (DATE AND LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON) which will feature a slide show of the newly discovered crime scene photos, Pam Africa, and several Philadelphia journalists who have covered the Abu-Jamal case.
-- Hans Bennett (Abu-Jamal-News.com)
Listen to the program online.
This program comes at an important time in the campaign. Pam Africa of ICFFMAJ was scheduled to talk with The Today Show to push for equal coverage. People are urged to please take a minute and contact The Today Show to express as much support as possible for these efforts.
A major demonstration is being organized in Philadelphia for December 8. Please download the flier and spread the word).
Also, Journalists for Mumia is organizing a press conference next week (DATE AND LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON) which will feature a slide show of the newly discovered crime scene photos, Pam Africa, and several Philadelphia journalists who have covered the Abu-Jamal case.
-- Hans Bennett (Abu-Jamal-News.com)
Protest Today Show's twisted coverage of Mumia's Case
The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) calls on everyone who can join us on Thursday December 6th at 7:15 AM to please come to 48th Street and Rockefeller Plaza. We will be protesting the planned hit job on Mumia by Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish in discussing their new book, MURDERED BY MUMIA, on NBC's TODAY SHOW. We have demanded "equal time" but as yet have gotten no agreement to that by the TODAY SHOW. Stand there with us in solidarity with Mumia!
PROTEST AT THE TODAY SHOW
DATE: Thursday Dec. 6th
TIME: 7:15 AM
PLACE: 48th Street and Rockefeller Plaza (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
For more info or to leave a message, call (212) 330-8029.
ONA MOVE! FREE MUMIA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
PROTEST AT THE TODAY SHOW
DATE: Thursday Dec. 6th
TIME: 7:15 AM
PLACE: 48th Street and Rockefeller Plaza (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
For more info or to leave a message, call (212) 330-8029.
ONA MOVE! FREE MUMIA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
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