Thursday, December 17, 2009

US Supreme Court will not Rule on Mumia before January 11

Michael Schiffman, a leading activist in Heidelberg, Germany, and also a member of Journalists for Mumia, generously translated a statement Mumia's attorney, Robert Bryan, gave at the International Defense Committee in Bremen on December 14, 2009.

Breaking News: No Decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal before January 11, 2010

Dec. 15, 2009 (IVK, Bremen): The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that we feared would come even before the X-mas and New Year holidays has been deferred. The U.S. Supreme Court will resume its work not before Jan. 11, 2010. We are publishing here the breaking news from attorney Robert R. Bryan from Dec. 14, which reached us last night.

Statement by Robert R. Bryan, lead attorney of Mumia Abu-Jamal, San Francisco:

Today, on Dec. 14, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken its last decisions for this year, taking X-mas holidays till January 11, the day it will officially resume its work.

Surprisingly, in the case of my client Mumia Abu-Jamal the Supreme Court hasn't yet taken a decision whether he will live and get a new jury trial determing his sentence, or whether he will die under the hands of the executioner. Actually, we had won a partial victory last year before the U.S. Appeals Court since the federal judges with their March 27, 2008 decision held out the prospect of a conversion of the death verdict into a life sentence. All the same, Mumia is still on death row because the prosecution filed an appeal wit the Supreme Court in order to push through his execution. Mumia is now in the greatest danger to be executed since his arrest on December 9, 1981.

Robert R Bryan