Monday, August 09, 2010

Legal Update

There are new developments regarding Mumia Abu-Jamal, the journalist who has been on Pennsylvania's death row for nearly three decades.

Federal Litigation:  A major step has been taken in the ongoing litigation to save my client's life. On July 28 we filed the Brief on Remand from the Supreme Court of the United States, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. (Abu-Jamal v. Beard, No. 01-9014.) It is attached. At stake is whether Mumia will be executed, or granted a new jury trial on the question of the death penalty. We previously won on this issue, but early this year the Supreme Court ordered that the case be again reviewed by the federal court.

Petition to President Barack Obama (Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty):  Over 23,000 people from around the world have signed the petition, including three Nobel Prize winners. We need many more for this to benefit Mumia. Some of the signers are:  Desmond Tutu, South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984); Günter Grass, Germany (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999); Elfriede Jelinek, Austria (Nobel Prize in Literature, 2004); Danielle Mitterrand, Paris (former First Lady of France); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Colin Firth (Academy Award Best-Actor nominee, 2010); Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor); Mike Farrell (actor); Robert Meeropol (son of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor); Mike Farrell (actor); Michael Radford (director of the Oscar winning film Il Postino); members of the European Parliament; members of the German Bundestag; European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights; & Reporters Without Borders, Paris.

How to Help:  For information on how to help, both by signing the Obama petition & donating funds, please go to Mumia's website  (http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).

Conclusion:  Mumia is in great danger. I will not stop until he is saved.

Yours very truly,Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan2088 Union Street, Suite 4San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal 
http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org

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