Monday, December 26, 2011

Major British Trade Union Supports Mumia

In a demonstration of international solidarity, a major British union, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, recently made a substantial contribution to the struggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.  We are posting a typescript of its letter below, and apologize for the technical errors which omitted it in previous posts:

"The plight of Mumia Abu-Jamal is one that has touched many people around the world.  RMT is a British Transport Union representing people employed mainly on the railways, shipping and road transport."

We are a proud union that firmly believes in striving to achieve justice in the workplace and in the wider society.  We also firmly believe that international boundaries should not be a barrier to demonstrating our solidarity with others in their fight for justice.  The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is one such instance of this.

Earlier this year Mumia's plight was the subject of debate at our Annual General Meeting after first being raised at our Black & Minority Ethnic Members' Conference.  It was decided that we could assist the campaign for justice by donating 250 Pounds to the cause.  I am therefore pleased to enclose a cheque for this amount.  I do sincerely hope that this donation will in some way assist the fight for Mumia's freedom."

This letter was written by the General Secretary, Robert Crow.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Mumia's Case Symbolic to Blacks in the U.S.

From dreadtimes.com:

by Tagni John Bogle

Some people are celebrating the recent decision of the Philadelphia DA's Office, not to seek a new trial, thereby placing Mumia in general population for life with no chance of parole. Nonetheless, that was a clear political move by city who feared a new trial for Mumia would prove his innocence, indict and embarrass certain individuals who claim to have an iron clad case against him, like DA Williams and the FOP. They are liars and deceivers. If it was so definitive that Mumia was guilty then they would have no hesitation in supporting the launch of a new death penalty trial. Life in prison with no chance of parole is still a death sentence. Furthermore, it puts Mumia in a similar position  as General George Jackson. The prison officials killed George Jackson because of his relentless pursuit of teaching the people about this foul and rotten system and his organizing ability. They feared George as they fear Mumia. I have no misunderstanding of history in this country or its methodology of exacting brutal attacks and preemptive murder of our people based on their fear. In the final analysis, I stand far from concluding that this is a victory for Mumia which would exonerate him (and by that, proving his innocence as he has been trying to show for now thirty years of his life).

Mumia is legally not guilty and factually innocent. Mumia's case is symbolic to all Black people in the u.s., all Black people in the u.s. are potentially targets of this unjust and rotten system whether those Black folks know it, acknowledge it or deny it; we are not politically free nor do we have real political power nor do we control our resources or have any in this country to control. Until we organize around the common issues that effect our lives here, state mechanisms of repression, will continue to maintain the strangle hold on us all. Since early colonial periods in this country our people have remained under colonial subjectivity in different forms. First with direct chattel enslavement, to Black Codes, to Vagrancy Laws and Convict leasing (new forms of Chattel Slavery through the instrument of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution), to Sharecropping, to Omnibus Crime Bill to The Anti-Riot Bill to The McCarran Act of 1950, to The War On Drugs, which lead to our current new Jim Crow and Mass incarceration and the War on Terror and all the various acts done nationally and locally to repress our people, like operation safe streets, and operation pressure point here in Philadelphia, etc.. (all used through the court systems of this country to ensure and maintain a relationship of subjectivity, colonial domination and slavery of our people).

This is bigger than Mumia, it is about the way the system handles our people. Both revolutionaries and reformist know that the system they call justice, for us is 'just-this,' same old boy slavery politics. And for all those Negroes, kissing master's rear-end only makes your lips browner and affirms to him his ability to be able to manipulate our people for some promise of material gain thrown from his plate. This is apropos for all those Negro politicians playing their poly-tricks.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Live Stream and Footage from Dec. 9 at Constitution Center

For those of you who could not attend last Friday's historic gathering at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia but attempted to view the stream live online, we would like to apologize for any difficulties in connecting.  Especially to those overseas who planned on viewing this stream, we apologize if you experienced any viewing problems.  Due to a number of reasons there were compatibility and connectivity issues which made our stream cut out at times.  We were well aware of these issues and worked hours on end through the night to attend to them.  We apologize to all who had difficulties in viewing and thank you for sticking with it.

During the event, our official Facebook and Twitter profiles were active, posting updates, information and pictures the entire night.  We received a high volume of shares, likes and tweets.  Our website, www.freemumia.com also received record high hits during the event, where updated information was present.

Since the event, video and photo footage from the evening has been posted to www.freemumia.com.  This building collection of footage (including the speeches of Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Ramona Africa, Marc Lamont Hill, Immortal Technique, Goldii and others) can be viewed at
http://www.freemumia.com/?p=627

Also, a DVD of the entire evening will soon be available.  When it is, this will be announced on freemumia.com

Thank you for your continued support.

Jeremy
www.freemumia.com

Report on Mumia's Status and Call to the DA

From Sis. Johanna Fernandez:

Dear Friends:

I visited Mumia yesterday, December 15, in the new prison that houses him, SCI Mahanoy. Even though he has been released from death row, he remains in Administrative Custody while he awaits transfer to general population. Because he is still in Administrative Custody and not yet in general population,  visits still take place behind the plexiglass barrier characteristic of the no-contact visits to prisoners on death row. 

Mumia boarded a vehicle to SCI- Mahanoy in the early morning hours of December 14th at 4AM. Despite the dehumanizing character of the heavily armored vehicle that transported him from SCI Greene to SCI Mahanoy, Mumia delighted in the opportunity to see cows, horses, and Pennsylvania's beautiful landscape during the 7 hour ride to Frackville, PA.

He described the last number of days as a "crazy whirlwind."  Last Friday alone, he spent 6 hours packing up books, letters, and other belongings in preparation for what he believed was a move into general population at  SCI Greene. But the Department of Corrections had other plans in mind. As you know, that same day, December 9, his call came through at the National Constitution Center.  At the prompting of Pam Africa, the last 30 seconds of that call turned into a rousing ovation to Mumia by the 1,100 people in attendance. This is was he wrote in a letter about his experience that very same night on December 9, "It's been minutes since I've hung up the phone, and I'm still buzzing from the loving vibes zapping through the phone. It's really electric!"

While in Administrative Custody at Mahanoy, Mumia is technically in  "the hole." This means that he has absolutely no human contact; absolutely no belongings in his cell other than a rubber pen,  8 sheets of paper and 8 envelopes  (4 of which he has used to write letters to family and friends);  he gets only one hour in the yard and one visitor a week; and at night the lights in his small cell are dimmed only slightly, and otherwise remain on all day.

Mumia noted that he missed the knock of his next door neighbor on the Row at SCI Greene,  Sugarbear, who called for him through a knocked on the wall "at least 20 times a day."

Mumia noted that as he was being escorted to his cell at Mahanoy, the majority of prisoners he saw in "the hole" were black and he immediately thought of Michelle Alexander's evocative analysis and descriptions of mass black imprisonment nationwide.

Mumia is committed to remaining mindful of the challenges of this new period. He remains strong and hopeful about the possibilities of this next phase of struggle, both in his personal day-to-day life,  and in the movement. He welcomes and is prepared for the change.  Below please also note a special note he dictated to OWS.

Mumia reiterated that despite his isolation and the alienating character of his transfer to Mahanoy, he feels vibrations of love around him.

We await, impatiently, Mumia's transfer to general population and call on the DA's office to complete the transfer immediately. PLEASE NOTE: The DA's number and address below.

Let us remind the DA that Mumia should have been in general population since 2001 when Judge Yohn overturned the death penalty in his case; but the DA's office held him on death row for a decade while it filed losing appeals. By law, Mumia should be in general population, not in "the hole." We demand his immediate transfer.

With love and solidarity,

Johanna Fernandez


::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
SETH WILLIAMS, Philadelphia DA

Three South Penn Square
Corner of Juniper and South Penn Square
Philadelphia, PA 19107-3499
215-686-8000

http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/contact.html

Hear Mumia Speak about his Removal from Death Row

Listen to the audio at http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia-democracy-now-12-12-2011

Mumia on Democracy Now! 12-12-2011

Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaks About His Removal From Death Row
Hundreds of supporters of the imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal gathered on Friday in Philadelphia to mark the 30th anniversary of his arrest for the killing of a white police officer. The event occurred just two days after Philadelphia prosecutors announced they will no longer seek the death penalty for Abu-Jamal. On Friday, Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, called it to the event to make his first public remarks since the prosecutor’s decision was announced.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: “I am for the first time, in almost 30 years, I’m not on death row physically. I’m in a new block, called an AC block. The cells are somewhat identical to death row but no one on this block is on death row, including myself. It takes some getting used to, you see, I’m still acclimating myself.”

Abu-Jamal was also asked about his reaction to having his death sentence converted to life without parole.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: “I must admit to some surprise because I was expecting the hearing–by that I mean a sentencing hearing–even though many friends and supporters and even lawyers said there probably wouldn’t be one. I believed there would be one. And I continued to feel this way until I heard the news. I will be talking to my lawyers in a matter of days and we will be going over precisely those kinds of questions. Because there will not be a hearing there is some disappointment because we thought we could make some things happen in that hearing and really give a good fight, but we’ll have to fight in other ways. I want to thank everybody that really supported us for so many years.”

Mumia Events in Mexico + Vienna


Dear activists for the freedom of Mumia Abu Jamal!

On December 9th, 2011 the Committee for the Freedom of Mumia Abu Jamal/Vienna organized a rally on the busy Mariahilfer Street. In the Christmas hurly-burly we announced our message that we are pleased with the repurchase of the death penalty on the one hand but we vehemently fight "against the creeping death" of Mumia Abu Jamal (Desmond Tutu) of life imprisonment" on the other hand. So we demanded again and again the freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal! 75 persons signed our petition for freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal. Three of them want to cooperate with our committee!

Please add our video report to your other reports on the international actions on December 9th, 2011:

http://www.labournetaustria.at/MumiaKundgebung%209.12.11b.htm

In solidarity

Free Mumia

Karl
http://www.labournetaustria.at/mumia.htm


Mexico City Activists and Musicians say "Bring Mumia Home"

From Amig@s de Mumia de México:

On December 9, 30 years after Mumia Abu-Jamal was kidnapped by the Philadelphia police gang and railroaded for the homicide of Daniel Faulkner, around 200 activists and musicians held an 8 hour event in his support outside the US Embassy in Mexico City. With love for a free spirit who has always had the courage to tell the truth even while spending all this time in the clutches of the enemy, we celebrated the setback suffered by the Philadelphia DA's office in their drive to murder Mumia under cover of law, and made it perfectly clear that we will not stand for his slow death in prison or any attempt on his life once he has been moved into general population.

Among us were people who have supported Mumia since the 90's and were arrested and beaten for marching for his freedom in December, 1999. Many more know who he his and what he stands for because they've read his writings in the independent news media, and dozens have only recently learned of his struggle and the high price he's paid for being true to his commitment to Black Liberation and worldwide revolutionary changes for all. In any case, we hope our rebellious, high-energy vibes have floated through to Mumia. And we also want authorities in the United States to know that there are people in far parts of the world who say ¡NO! to their crimes of State against Mumia and the political prisoners of MOVE, Leonard Peltier, Sundiata Acoli, Jalil Muntaqim, Herman Bell, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Sekou Odinga, Marshall Eddie Conway, Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace, Veronza Bowers, David Gilbert, Oscar López Rivera, the Cuban 5, Daniel McGowan, Bradley Manning and dozens more.

The statement read by Amig@s de Mumia de México said, in part:

"On Wednesday, December 7, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office gave up on its 20 year campaign to murder Mumia Abu-Jamal through the court system. At a press conference, DA Seth Williams said that he will no longer seek a death sentence. We celebrate his defeat in this terrain… brought about by the pressure from a worldwide movement of which Mumia himself is very much a part… and hope it will be one step forward towards his freedom.

But this does not mean that Philadelphia officials no longer want Mumia's death. ICFFMAJ and the MOVE Organization have sounded the alert that his enemies have never stopped hating him and are furious about the international support he has. They suspect that authorities will try to kill him in prison, just as they murdered George Jackson and tried to use other prisoners to kill Leonard Peltier.

The tone of an anti-Mumia event held last night at the Keswick Theatre in Philadelphia was threatening…. Maureen Faulkner, who has functioned as a spokesperson for the Fraternal Order of Police for years, emphasized that she will tolerate no "special treatment" for Mumia once he is moved to general population and that she longs for the day when "Abu-Jamal stands before his ultimate judge", which now "doesn't seem so far off."

Seth Williams has said that Mumia will stay in prison for the rest of his life and would have us believe that this sentence is infallible. Yet we remember a constant theme in Mumia's writings ––that no empire lasts forever––, and we might say the same about court decisions. When there are enough organized people in the streets, Mumia will walk free. Let's bring him home."

Our joy over a possible advance in Mumia's case was tinged with the anger and pain we feel over the recent murders of Mexican activists Trinidad de la Cruz Crisóstomo just days ago, and Pedro Leyva two months before ––two courageous comrades with a total commitment to the recovery and defense of Nahua lands in Xayakalan, Ostula, Michoacán. We hold the United States government responsible for their deaths due to their financing and training of police, military, and paramilitary forces that operate with impunity in Mexico.

We felt honored by the presence of two relatives of political prisoner Alberto Patishtán, who has been locked up for eleven years for struggling for a decent life for the indigenous peoples of Chiapas and for organizing La Voz del Amate and other prisoner groups inside the prisons of his state. His cousin Beatriz detailed the numerous transfers of Alberto from one prison to another to block his educational, social and organizing efforts, including his most recent transfer to the Guasave prison in the state of Sinaloa, 1,200 miles from home. We are happy to join in the struggle to make sure this comrade with an unbreakable commitment to his people walks free in his own lands once again.

We also felt stronger due to the presence of a contingent from the Peoples' Front in Defense of the Land of San Salvador Atenco, who came to the event with a message of solidarity for Mumia: "Freedom knows no color, respects no borders, and has no limits. It angers us to know that yet another comrade is being held prisoner because he wants to change the future. We are with him all the way. We deeply appreciate his solidarity with us and today we are here in solidarity with him…"

We will never forget that the Mexican government planned to subject Felipe Álvarez and Nacho del Valle to slow death in prison with sentences of 67 ½ and 112 ½ years respectively, but they couldn't do it, and they couldn't break down their spirit of struggle either. Last Friday, Felipe Álvarez said that "as members of the Peoples' Front, we keep on struggling after we were set free by the support of national and international organizations and so many people, so many activists, including compañero Mumia, who is still held in captivity. We send our brotherly greetings to this freedom fighter and want him to know that we will keep on fighting for his freedom. ¡Zapata vive. La lucha sigue!"

Nacho del Valle said: "Mumia is an example of dignity, an example of integrity. Today he's been in prison for 30 years. How long did it take me to say 30 years? Three seconds. Two seconds. Thirty years of indomitable consciousness! When we were in prison, we heard that he was supporting us. Somebody told me, "This man is struggling for you from a long way away". That tells us that he is not bound by prison walls even though he is locked up in a stinking dungeon. His freedom lies in his consciousness, in his love for others….Comrades, we know what repression is…It's true we may feel fear because fear is part of our existence. But that kind of fear is different than the kind that makes a person subservient, that makes one a slave of the powerful…Here in our Mexico we are living through some of the most perverse atrocities ever wreaked by human hands, and the figures don't even begin to tell the story. More than 50,000 deaths in recent years. That's more deaths than in many wars fought by armies! How is such a thing possible? But, well, we know that's what's happening. But even though it may seem like our numbers are small, we have here today the best this country has to offer, people with the consciousness it takes to produce hopes and expectations. And from this very spot, we must construct hopes and expectations of the freedom we want for our brothers and sisters who are struggling behind bars…We know that repression is mainly and selectively aimed at people struggling for freedom and justice, at those who dare to say enough is enough! But that shouldn't intimidate us. There are thousands of us. There are millions of hearts and souls, millions of people of conscience demanding freedom for this man who is a living example of integrity, freedom, and above all, dignity. We know they have not beaten him down in 30 years and that we have a struggle ahead…¡Mumia vive! ¡La lucha sigue! Free all political prisoners!"

The Other Culture presented a performance that brought out the history of Mumia with the Black Panthers and fashioned several installations, including one to the memory of baby Life Africa who was trampled to death by the Filadelfia police in 1976; his parents are Janine and Phil África of the MOVE 9 who have been held behind bars for 33 years for defending life in all its forms.

Rappers, sonideros, reggae bands and acoustic musicians made beautiful music straight from the heart. Thanks to the Mexikan Sound System, ARH Al Intifadah, Jorge Salinas, MC Xozulu, La Otra Acústica, Youalli, Van-T, Nehualyome Dub, Lírika Podrida, el Indio Sin Dios, Sangre Maíz, Luna Negra, Ollin Roots, y los Dub Riders de Reggae AmbulanT Sonidero Cultural Sin Fronteras, our event had a lively beat and songs of struggle, ranging from "Corrido de Gabino Barrera" to "No voto y no me callo", "Alta Resistencia", "Sata Massagana" "Libertad a Mumia Abu-Jamal" and "Wirikuta", among many others.

Ever since she got out of prison, Edith Rosales, ex Atenco prisoner and plaintiff against the impunity for sexual torture that she and others experienced on May 4, 2006, has been present at each and every event in support of Mumia. In her message she reminded us that "Political prisoners never shut up…Mumia keeps on denouncing government crimes from his cell. It's part of his struggle. And it's really admirable, compañeros, because you can't imagine how hard it is to write when you're locked up, how hard it is to coordinate your thoughts. We must keep on struggling for him. All political prisoners must be freed from those dungeons."

Jaime spoke for Anarchist Black Cross: "Once again we're here in front of this embassy that represents an empire that massacres and murders people all over the world. Once again we're here to demand freedom for the revolutionary activist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Now they've been forced to back down on the death penalty due to international solidarity. And it's a beautiful thing to see the energy here today and know that solidarity is being stepped up to get him out of prison. We have to free all the political prisoners in Mexico, too, like Alberto Patishtán and the prisoners of the Voz del Amate who were on hunger strike in Chiapas for more than a month. From his small cell, Mumia never has stopped denouncing the U.S. prison system, a control mechanism of one class over another charged with hatred and racism, a mechanism used to publish all who rebel… We're with Mumia and all the prisoners in this country and in the world. Prisoners to the streets!

Hilda spoke about the need to oppose the militarization of the country and to demand the live appearance of the thousands of disappeared people in the country. She also spoke of the threat that autonomous indigenous communities pose for capitalism and invited everyone to participate in a march in solidarity with the Trique people displaced from the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, from Huajuapan de León to the Zócalo of the City of Oaxaca next December 19.

A preliminary analysis begun by Tania and Miguel of the privatization of prisons in Mexico was read. It brings out that the large majority of people in Mexican prisoners are "poor youth, who in most cases are there for stealing less than five thousand pesos, or are effectively kidnapped because they can't pay the ransom called "bail"… The privatization of prisons should put us on alert that corporations profit from people who are deprived of their freedom and turn justice into big business… Once this is done, it's necessary to keep the prisons full, which necessarily implies a constant inflow of captives…"

A message from Nodo Solidale was read, which says in part, "One of the tasks we have as a social movement is to never forget our prisoners, not a single one. And much less those who continue to speak out and set an example, like Mumia Abu Jamal on death row in the United States or Alberto Patishtán Gómez in Mexico… Let's keep on weaving organization, constructing alliances, looking for new freedom roads in the name of Mumia, Alberto, the Mapuches locked up in Chile, the 5,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, the anarchists pursued by every State, the insubordinate Arabs in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and women like Rosa Díaz López in Chiapas, who from their jail cells, denounce the injustices they experience and witness. We must grow stronger in the name of a world where there will be no prisons because there will no longer be rich people getting richer and poor people punished."

This December 9, there were also marches, rallies and events in other parts of the world, including a big event in the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, with music, dance, theatre, and speeches, as the para-police motorcycle gang Centurions shouted slogans of hate outside. Among many other messages, arguments were made that Seth Williams has the obligation to free Mumia Abu-Jamal now. The question was raised: If the Supreme Court declared the death sentence unconstitutional, why is there reason to believe that the same judge, the same DA and the same jury didn't violate Mumia's constitutional rights when they found him guilty of murder? And it was further argued that for 30 years Mumia Abu-Jama has been subjected to the cruel and unusual punishment of isolation, now recognized by many psychologists and human rights defenders as torture, and for this reason must be immediately released from prison with credit for time served.

In one place after another, the struggle continues, now with fresh energy, to bring Mumia Abu-Jamal home.

See more photos and audios of portions of the event by Multimedios Cronopios:
http://www.multimedioscronopios.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1433:evento-pot-la-libertad-de-mumia-abu-jamal&catid=36:mumia-abu-jamal&Itemid=11


Important Presentation by Sis. Ramona Africa December 9, 2011




Thousands Rally in Phila. to Demand Mumia's Release

From info@freemumia.com
Mon, 12 Dec 2011


The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition of New York wishes to thank and congratulate the thousand people who turned out Friday night in Philadelphia to give substance to the demand that Mumia be freed.  This pathbreaking event was held at the National Constitution Center, located directly across the mall from Independence Hall.

For more coverage, please go to our website, www.freemumia.com.  Below is an article on the rally by Philadelphia journalist Dave Lindorff.


No Execution for Mumia: 30 Years After a Police Shooting, Abu-Jamal Backers Vow to Free Him from Life in Prison

By Dave Lindorff

The mood was both celebratory and angry among a 1000-plus overflow audience packed into the balcony space of the Constitution Center in Philadelphia on the evening of Dec. 9.

The crowd of supporters of Philadelphia journalist and black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal had come to denounce the over 29 years that he has spent locked in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania's grim death row since his conviction for the shooting of a white police officer, Daniel Faulkner. But they were also there to celebrate the surprise decision, announced two days earlier by Philadelphia DA Seth Williams, not to seek to reinstate Abu-Jamal's death sentence, which had been permanently vacated by a recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Technically, the Supreme Court, last Oct. 11, had decided not to review a decision by a Third Circuit Court panel that had upheld a 2001 Federal Judge's ruling declaring his 1982 death sentence to have been unconstitutional. The Federal Court and Appeals Court decisions had been appealed by the district attorney's office for years, all the way to the Supreme Court.

The event at the Constitution Center had initially been planned to mark the 30th anniversary of the shooting incident that had led to Abu-Jamal's arrest and to his trial and conviction. But only two days before, Williams, who had 180 days from the Supreme Court's ruling to decide whether to request a new jury trial to attempt to win a new death sentence, had held a press conference to announce that he would not take that step, and would instead allow Abu-Jamal's penalty to revert automatically to life in prison without parole.

Read the full article at NationofChange

ALERT: Mumia Transferred to SCI-Mahanoy

From Ramona Africa:

ONA MOVE, Everybody!  We've received news that Mumia has now been transferred to SCI-Mahanoy, another prison in Pennsylvania.  He is in "Administrative Segregation", he is not in general population yet. We need to let those administrators know, immediately, that we know Mumia is there and that the WORLD is watching.  People need to flood the prison with calls and flood Mumia with postcards (Mumia needs to know that we have his back). ----Ramona

Mumia Abu Jamal
AM-8335
SCI-Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA. 17932

Superintendent John Kerestes
Deputy Superintendent Bernadette Mason
570 773-2158

This is no time to relax, we must be ever-vigilent!!!

Report on The Free Mumia Abu Jamal Protest in London on 9th December 2011. Free Mumia Now !

From www.dreadtimes.com
From Sis. Emma Lewis:

Action called by Free Mumia Abu Jamal Defense Campaign UK: Sixty people protested outside the US Embassy 5- 7 pm, to demand the immediate and unconditional release on Mumia Abu Jamal.

A sizeable number of the protesters marched from Speakers Corner, along Oxford Street calling for freedom for Mumia and for all political prisoners, before joining others at the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square.

Initiallly we shared the space immediately outside the Embassy with other activists who were calling for action to tackle climate change.

Speakers from the Irish Political Prisoners, FRFI, Pan African, UHURU, and others brought support from their organisations. Linn Washington from Philadelphia campaign joined us.

The campaign is delighted with the news that the state will not be seeking to reimpose the death penalty. But a message from MOVE reminded us this does not mean they do not want Mumia dead. The Police Federation and other reactionary forces are already threatening his rights and his safety in prison. Russia Today TV was there to record the protest and interview participants about why Mumia's case is important and why we believe he must be released immediately.

Members of the campaign then went on to a public meeting in support of Mumia held at Metrolpolitan University where comrade Togogara was speaking on behalf of the campaign.

Article from:
http://libcom.org/news/report-free-mumia-abu-jamal-protest-london-december-9th-2011-10122011

Mumia Abu-Jamal: "To My Friends of OWS"

Thursday, December 15, 2011
Message to OWS dictated today while in Administrative Custody at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, PA.


My Friends of OWS,

My message will have to be brief. But let not this brevity take from it, its strength.

You are the central movement of the hour. You're raising questions that are in the hearts of millions. Your motto, "We are the 99%," has been heard, heeded, and responded to by millions. You can be certain that the 1% have heard you clearest of all.

Your work, however, is just beginning. You must deepen, strengthen, and further your work until it truly reaches the 99%, almost all of us: workers, black folk, Latinos and Latinas, LGBTs, immigrants, Asians, artists, all of us, for we are integral parts of the 99%. I salute you and hope fervently that you will grow beyond number.

Though I speak to you today by proxy, I'm confident that you will here my voice soon.

Love, fun and music,

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia's address to the USHRN 2011 National Human Rights Conference

December 15, 2011
From Kali Akumo: 

Greetings All,

Enclosed is a messaged delivered by Mumia Abu Jamal to the US Human Rights Network 2011 National Human Rights Conference and Membership Meeting on Friday, December 9th. December 9th marked Mumia's 30th year on Death Row (even despite the partial victory of December 8th).

Please listen and pass along:

http://www.ushrnetwork.org/MumiaAddress

In Unity and Struggle,
Kali

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Prof. Mark Taylor Op-Ed for Mumia's Release in Philly News

from dreadtimes.com

Why freedom for Abu-Jamal makes even more sense nowBy Mark Lewis Taylor

'Free Mumia" is more than a chant heard at rallies in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal. There's a renewed logic to the refrain. After almost 30 years on Pennsylvania's death row, and after Philadelphia prosecutors last week backed away from pursuing a death sentence and seek now to leave Abu-Jamal in prison for life, it makes good sense to release him.

Read more:
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20111211_Why_freedom_makes_even_more_sense_now_.html


Cornell West Video + More - Over 1000 come out for MUMIA

from dreadtimes.com

Photos & Videos (including Cornell West speech)

GO TO: http://www.freemumia.com/?p=627

Mainstream Media + Videos on Jam-packed Mumia Event

from dreadtimes.com

CBS Philly
Supporters Of Mumia Abu-Jamal Mark 30th Anniversary Of His Conviction With Rally At NCC


http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/12/09/supporters-of-mumia-abu-jamal-mark-30th-anniversary-of-his-conviction-with-rally-at-ncc/

By Dan Wing and Natasha Brown

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Nearly 1,000 people gathered at the National Constitution Center on Friday night to mark the 30th anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s incarceration, and to continue to fight for his release from Pennsylvania’s death row.

Supporters came together to call for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and to discuss basic human equality issues. In addition to a number of speakers such as Professor Cornell West and Poet Laureate Amiri Baraka, the crowd also listened in to a live phone conference with Mumia Abu-Jamal himself, who offered advice for youth trying to fight for equality and justice.

“I would say follow your heart, and do the right thing. Because 9 times out of 10, you’re doing the right thing.”

The event also took time to discuss the next steps in fighting for Mumia’s release from prison altogether.

Earlier in the day, a memorial service was held to honor the memory of slain officer Daniel Faulkner.

Outside the constitution center a small number of police and bikers gathered to show their support for the family of Officer Faulkner, the man that Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing.




WPVI-TV Philadelphia
Mumia-Faulkner 30th anniversary spark protests


http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8462130

PHILADELPHIA - December 9, 2011 (WPVI) -- The controversial case of Mumia Abu Jamal has caused some demonstrations and some tense moments Friday evening, on this, the 30th anniversary of the fatal shooting of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Two opposing protests converged in Center City Friday night. It is one case that has divided and angered so many.

Friday night, the National Constitution Center was standing room only as hundreds marked the 30th anniversary of Mumia Abu Jamal's arrest for the killing of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

"The fact that he's behind bars for so long without the proper conviction process being held," said Candice Benford.

"I believe in the cause, and I believe in fighting injustices," said Tarisse Iriarte.

Inside the room, Abu Jamal's supporters who have called his incarceration racial injustice reinvigorated their movement by listening to speakers.

Motorcyclists from different biker groups roared and revved their engines outside as they rallied for the slain officer and against the man they believe should die for killing him.

A federal appeals court found Abu Jamal's death sentence unconstitutional and District Attorney Seth Williams decided not to pursue a new death penalty phase trial.

"We're just showing our support to an officer that was killed in cold blood by a murderer, who is still alive today, who shouldn't be on this earth anymore," said Brian Thomas.

More than 100 bikers could be seen from Chopper 6 circling the block; outraged that they event was held at the Constitution Center.

"These people are anarchist. They don't believe in the rule of law," said Bill Walls.

Those inside turned their backs to the protest.

"Those people out there kind of made me laugh," said Sue Kelly. "I think they thought that they were making so much noise, they would disrupt our program. But they didn't realize that this place is pretty sound proof."

Friday, December 09, 2011

Free Mumia Event in the Oakland - December 11th


Audio Stream + Report from WE THE PEOPLE MUMIA Event Streaming Live RIGHT NOW

If the video stream down, the audio stream is at http://bit.ly/vuSzMR -- The Event is truly historic!

One reporter states:

At the Mumia event in Philly. Cops attempting to intimidate by flying their helicopter around in circles with the lights on the building. Several off duty ones and assorted white supremacist sympathizers rode their motorcycles in front of the building revving their engines. But the huge crowd inside couldn't hear it and didn't notice it cause the youth of the Impact Dance Theater Ensemble was bringing down the roof. Mumia just called in and Amiri Baraka is on now. Goto freemumia.com to watch the live stream right now. 30 years of unjust imprisonment.   Folks stay on the lookout for footage and news from this event. The energy is amazing. Babylon got no juice.


Urgent! Call PA Governor and US :Attorney General!

From the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)
Fri, 09 Dec 2011 6:27

Last night, Maureen Faulkner (widow of policeman Mumia is falsely accused of murdering) called on the governor of Pennsylvania to stop Mumia's call to the event tonight.  This follows her vicious and threatening comments at the Thursday press conference where she came very close to demanding for Mumia to be subjected to the criminality of prisoners in general population.

Last night, she gave this number for people to call:  717 783-1116. 

If we get a new number we will send it out to you.  You can also try to locate some alternative numbers for the governor on the internet if this one does not work.

Also call the US Attorney General's Office:

202 514-2001  Attorney General Eric Holder
202-514-2151 US Civil Rights Divisio

Protest the threatening nature of Maureen Faulkner's statement on December 7, the fact that her call was tantamount to encouraging other prisoners to hurt Mumia.

Demand of that governor that Mumia's phone call not be blocked, that a vigilante atmosphere is something he must stop as governor and not encourage and feed further by conceding to her demand.

Call on the Attorney General to intervene in this bloodthirsty atmosphere and to guarantee that Mumia not be hurt or denied his rights.

Suzanne Ross, for the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition

Dec 10: Post-Event Fundraiser

After the event held at the Constitution Center on December 9 there will be a post-event fundraiser.

WE THE PEOPLE PART II

DECEMBER 10:  Germantown Event Center
5245 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA

Tickets are $8.00/ $5.00 w/ school ID

12:00pm-3:30pm- Youth Activities
3:30-4:30pm- (Film) Justice On Trial: The Case Of Mumia Abu-Jamal
4:30-6:00pm- Mumia Abu-Jamal Case Panal Discussion
6:00-6:30pm- Intermission
6:30-8:00pm- Abuse Of Women & Peace Org. Jobs Forum
8:00-10:00pm- Hip Hop Poetry, Spoken Word, Open Mic
10:00pm-1:00am- Showcase Performances

FEATURING: Pam Africa, C-Rayz Walz, Rebel Diaz, Maria Africa, Sandra Jones, Dr. Muhammad Ahmad aka Maxwell Stanford, Dr. Monteiro, Professor Griff, Mujahid The Real, ASAP, Jasiri X, Paradise (X-Clan), Shalowe Bey and many more.

Freedom song to Mumia from Samuel Legitimus in France

Dear Friends.

Just before the great event of Decembrer 9 (and the good news - after all - of wednesday) :

Here is the video of FREEDOM ROAD a tribute song (or a letter) I wrote to honor the 30th anniversary of Mumia's incarceration ( which displays pictures of the 5th anniversary of Mumias Street in Saint-Denis  last April:



http://youtu.be/M4HB5r99YcM

The song will soon be freely downloadable on this myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/parissydney

I hope you'll enjoy.

Take care,

Samuel

Mumia Interview at 'Life + Times'

From DREAD TIMES - Dedicated to the free flow of information - http://www.dreadtimes.com

Excerpt: ‎"MAJ: Black love itself, in a profoundly Negrophobic nation such as ours, is a radical thing, for it opposes the mainstream trajectory of U.S. life, policy and culture. We need to deepen and expand that ethos, so that it becomes a social force that has the power to attract, and with it, build. As in the discussion on church, social movements – especially radical and revolutionary movements – changes social reality in other spheres of life. It changes consciousness. Deep, caring, holistic love among our People can therefore make us more whole in all our relationships in our community. That’s because love is inclusive; while hatred is exclusive. There is power in love, which knows no limitations. That, I’m convinced, is our greatest treasure"

Read the full interview at: http://lifeandtimes.com/lock-my-body-cant-trap-my-mind

New Book by Mumia Abu-Jamal and Marc Lamont Hill

The Classroom and The Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America
By Mumia Abu-Jamal and Marc Lamont Hill
The Classroom and The Cell is the latest future bestseller from Third World Press. This book delves into the problems of Black life in America and offers real, concrete solutions.
“This poignant volume gives voice to what is rarely heard: African American men speaking for themselves, without barriers or filters, about the many forces impacting their lives. From their discussions about love to those about the state of emergency of our educational is in, Marc Lamont Hill and Mumia Abu-Jamal offer us an important gift of insight and analysis and we must treasure it.”

- Susan L. Taylor
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Essence Magazine; Founder, National CARES Mentoring Movement


“Mumia Abu-Jamal and Marc Lamont Hill have consistently challenged and inspired me. Now, with this book of conversations, the entire world can see their brilliance, courage and deep love for Black people. This book will change your life!”

- Talib Kweli
For more info, go to http://www.freemumia.com/?p=684


1Hood Media's Jasiri X Interviews Marc Lamont Hill About The Classroom And The Cell



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppma6nN6vws

Excellent WURD Radio Interview w/Mumia, Pam Africa, Johanna Fernandez

From DREAD TIMES - Dedicated to the free flow of information - http://www.dreadtimes.com


TalkingDrum on WURD: Barbara Grant, Mumia (call's into the radio station), Pam Africa and Dr. Johanna Fernandez, calls up to WURD to discuss his current outlook on life, the case, and his future pertaining to Mumia. The fight to free Mumia and to get him a new trial is not over. Speaking about the up and coming event on December 9th 2011 at The Constitution Center in Philadelphia broadcast around the world hat will include Michelle Alexander, Amiri Baraka, Cornell West, Johanna Fernandez, Marc Lamont-Hill, Pam Africa, Ramona Africa, Michael Coard and others. Oppose the death penalty in the u.s., and free all political prisoners like Mumia.



 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY6DKucb4K0

Rebel Diaz Tribute to Mumia -- Free Download


Check out Rebel Diaz' Tribute to Mumia - "Never a Prisoner"at

http://soundcloud.com/agentofchange/free-download-rebel-diaz-never

Analysis/background on Mumia decision by D.A.

From Jeff Mackler, Coordinator of the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (Bay Area, Cal.):


Pennyslvania DA Will NOT Seek Mumia Execution


Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced today, Wednesday, December 7, 2011, that he would NOT seek a new sentencing hearing to execute innocent death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. On October 11, 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court, affirming two federal court decisions in the same case, effectively ruled that the sentencing portion of Mumia's 1982 trial was a violation of the U.S. Constitution. This mandated that Williams either conduct a new sentencing hearing OR place Mumia Abu-Jamal in the general prison population to serve a life term without possibility of parole. Williams and Pennsylvania officials chose the latter, thus eliminating the possibility of Mumia's being executed.

Mumia's attorneys and supporters are now focused on the fight for a new trial before a new jury where evidence of Mumia's innocence can for the first time be presented in full public view. Mumia's 1982 racist frame-up trial has been widely condemned, with organizations ranging from Amnesty International, the European Parliament and the NAACP to heads of state in France and South Africa demanding a new trial.

Winning a new trial for anyone convicted of murder is no easy task. Mumia's legal team must meet an extremely high legal standard. This includes presenting "compelling and not been previously litigated new evidence" that could not have been "previously discovered through due diligence." A special investigator and associated team has been hired to begin this difficult and arduous process.

We have reached the end of one struggle and the beginning of another. But, better to fight on for Mumia's freedom in the context of a threat of execution NOT hanging over his head.

In truth, the recent Supreme Court action, essentially affirming previous decisions of the Federal District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that Mumia's death sentence was unconstitutional, was a political decision as well as an affirmation of the "letter of the law," one that was 30 years in coming and one that never would have come had it not been for a massive national and international effort on Mumia's behalf.

A Philadelphia, if not national decision, was obviously made at the highest levels to avoid a new sentencing hearing where evidence of innocence could have been presented that would have exposed the entire racist and frame-up nature of Mumia's 1982 trial.

Such a hearing, the DA likely judged, might have led to a level of public outrage and exposure of the criminal "justice" system sufficient in itself to force a new trial despite formal legal restrictions to the contrary. The risk to an institution where the racism inherent in U.S. society, expressed in the actions and mentality of corrupt police officers, judges, prosecutors and reactionary laws, makes justice for the poor and oppressed an impossibility, was too great to contemplate. Mumia's trial and "conviction" classically revealed all of the elements of a rigged racist and classist judicial system. Philadelphia officials chose to avoid any further risk to its credibility.

One fact is certain. After 30 years of insisting that justice has been done - that Mumia's rights were fully protected - the State of Pennsylvania has been proven, through state institutions of its own choosing, to have violated the U.S. Constitution. Mumia has been unconstitutionally held in a tiny death row cell, in virtual isolation from all family and friends - all physical contact barred - for thirty years

This constitutional violation was scored by Mumia's legal team almost three decades ago when Mumia's first appeal included the simple assertion that the presiding Judge Albert Sabo violated the law by falsely instructing the jury regarding their deliberation. This is the same "hanging judge" Sabo who stated before two witnesses in his private antechambers that he was "going to help 'em fry the n****r."

Sabo falsely told the jury that in order to not execute Mumia and instead arrive at a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole, they had to be unanimous with regard to considering any and all mitigating circumstances. Contrary to Judge Sabo the law states clearly in the Supreme Court's 1988 Mills v. Maryland case, that a single juror is sufficient to place any mitigating circumstance sufficient to negate a death penalty decision, before the jury for its consideration.
Sunday, December 11 at 2:00 pm is set for a mass meeting to open a new phase in the struggle for Mumia's freedom. Join us at the Laney College Forum, Oakland, CA at 2 pm. (one block from the Lake Merritt BART station). Speakers include: Angela Davis, Ramona Africa, Barbara Becnel, Jeff Mackler, Boots Riley, Crystal Bybee, Bishop Desmond Tutu (via video) and Michelle Alexander (via video). Admission free for Peralta students. All others $10 sliding scale. See attached flyer.

In Philadelphia, a parallel meeting featuring Cornel West is set for Friday, Dec. 9, 7:30 PM at the National Constitution Center.

On the West Coast contact Jeff Mackler for further information: 510-268-9429 jmackler@lmi.net In Philadelphia contact: 267-760-7344

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

DA Will Not Seek Retrial in Mumia's case

From freemumia.com

PRESS RELEASE

RESPONSE TO DA SETH WILLIAMS DECISION ON THE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL CASE


For Interview Contact
Dr. Johanna Fernandez, 917.930.0804
Dr. Suzanne Ross, 917.584.2135
Dr. Mark Taylor, 609.638.0806

Archbishop Desmond Tutu Calls for Mumia Abu-Jamal's Release
"Now that it is clear that Mumia should never have been on death row in the first place, justice will not be served by relegating him to prison for the rest of his lifeâ€"yet another form of death sentence. Based on even a minimal following of international human rights standards, Mumia must now be released. I therefore join the call, and ask others to follow, asking District Attorney Seth Williams to rise to the challenge of reconciliation, human rights, and justice: drop this case now, and allow Mumia Abu-Jamal to be immediately released, with full time served."

The news that the DA's Office of Philadelphia is no longer seeking the death penalty for Mumia is no news to supporters of the nearly 30 year Pennsylvania Death Row prisoner. However, because Mumia has for thirty years been subjected to torture on death row and because he is innocent, justice for Mumia will not be served by life imprisonment, but by his release from prison.

Mumia's case is like thousands of other cases in Philadelphia in which the prosecutor, the judge, and the police conspired to obtain a conviction. One of the most important and least known facts of this case is the existence of a fourth person at the crime scene, Kenneth Freeman. Within hours of the shooting, a driver's license application found in Officer Faulkner's shirt pocket led the police to Freeman, who was identified as the shooter in a line-up. Yet Freeman's presence at the scene was concealed, first by Inspector Alfonso Giordano and later, at trial, by Prosecutor Joe McGill. Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice asserted that withholding evidence of innocence by the prosecutor warrants the overturning of a conviction.

The police investigation that led to Mumia's conviction was also riddled with corruption and tampering with evidence. The recently discovered Polokoff photographs that were taken at the crime scene, reveal that officer James Forbes, who testified in court that he had properly handled the guns allegedly retrieved at the crime scene, appears holding the guns with his bare hands. The photos also discredit cabdriver Robert Chobert as a witness; his taxi, contrary to his testimony, is pictured facing away from the fallen officer's car. This evidence hasn't been reviewed by any court.

Our call to Seth Williams is that he honor DA Lynn Abraham's 1995 promise to the city of Philadelphia that she would discard any cases where evidence surfaces that even one of the officers involved in an investigation lied in court or in written reports.

The D.A. may think that the case can be laid to rest by sending Mumia off to life in prison. But an aroused public, with the Supreme Court ruling the death sentence to be unconstitutional, is ready to challenge anew the entire trial. The same judge, jury, and DA that were involved in the unlawful sentencing process committed equally egregious violations in the conviction. This is not an ending, it is a new beginning for the movement supporting Abu-Jamal's quest for release.

The December 9 forum at the National Constitutional Center, featuring Prof. Cornel West, will be preceded by an 11:30 a.m. Press Conference, at the American Friends Service Committee building, 1501 Cherry Street.  Then the following day there will be a full-day of organizing and fundraising activities, Saturday December 10, at the Germantown Event Center, 5245 Germantown Avenue, beginning at 12 Noon.


From NAACP Legal Defense Fund

(New York, NY) -- Today, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office announced that it will not seek another death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal.  Pennsylvania law now requires Mr. Abu-Jamal to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for his controversial 1982 murder conviction in the shooting death of a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), along with Widener Law Professor Judith Ritter, represents Mr. Abu-Jamal in his appeals of the murder conviction and death sentence.  John Payton, Director-Counsel of LDF stated, "The District Attorney did the right thing.  After three long decades, it was time to bring the quest for a death sentence for Mr. Abu-Jamal to an end."  Prof. Ritter added, "There is no question that justice is served when a death sentence from a misinformed jury is overturned.  Thirty years later, the District Attorney' s decision not to seek a new death sentence also furthers the interests of justice."

Mr. Abu-Jamal will be formally resentenced to life without parole in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.  The final sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

Monday, November 28, 2011

An Important Message from International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)

Sisters and Brothers,

We're sure you were relieved on October 11, 2011, as were we, when the US Supreme Court affirmed several lower court rulings since 2001 that Mumia should never have been sentenced to death. That decision is a tribute to the amazing international movement that has fought all these years for justice for Mumia. But we write to you now calling on you to help in this critical next stage of the struggle to gain Mumia's final release from prison.

Instructions given to the jury, in violation of US law, that biased the jury toward a death sentence provided the basis for both the lower court and US Supreme Court rulings. Mumia has, in other words, spent the last 30 years on Death Row despite the fact that he should never have even been there for one day! The Philadelphia DA's office has been relentless in pursuing the death sentence, insisting that Mumia remain on Death Row these last 10 years despite the lower court ruling in 2001 that he should not have been sentenced to death, filing appeal after appeal to overturn that lower court decision. It appears that they will now stop fighting this consistent judgment of the courts, because that battle at this point would require a new sentencing hearing that might expose the rampant police, prosecutorial, and judicial misconduct in this case. And this might possibly open the door for a new trial on the issue of guilt and innocence, potentially leading to Mumia's release. The forces that have fought for Mumia's execution, "Fry Mumia" they screamed, with such viciousness for 30 years are seemingly resigned to cutting their losses and having Mumia remain in prison for the rest of his life.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, FOR US, AND WE'RE SURE FOR YOU AS WELL, HAVING MUMIA ROT IN PRISON FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.

Mumia has been subjected to torture, as defined by international law, for these past 30 years by being kept in isolation in a small, bathroom-sized, windowless cell and not being able to touch his mother, wife, children, or grandchildren, let alone anyone else other than the guards who handcuff and shackle him. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture recently asserted that solitary confinement beyond 15 days (!) constitutes torture. This on top of the fact that Mumia's imprisonment on Death Row was unconstitutional.

Given this picture, Mumia should not have to spend any more time in prison. Putting Mumia in general population can hardly be considered compensation for what he has had to endure all these years. He should be released. In most countries, even if he were guilty of the crime for which he was convicted, and he is innocent, he would have been released by now given his outstanding record of accomplishments and service to the community while in prison. Our campaign must now be to demand that Mumia serve no more time in prison, having been subjected to 30 years of unjust placement on Death Row and having been a victim of torture as defined by international standards of human rights.

December 9, 2011, marks the beginning of a campaign to finally free Mumia. We must now wage a much-reinvigorated battle for justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal. On the eve of International Human Rights Day, a major event marking the 30th year of Mumia's incarceration and his subsequent unconstitutional sentence to Death Row for almost three decades, will be taking place at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center. Speakers and performers will include: CORNEL WEST, IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE, VIJAY PRASHAD, RAMONA AFRICA, MICHELLE ALEXANDER (by video), AMINA AND AMIRI BARAKA, ATTORNEYS MICHAEL COARD AND LENNOX HINDS, THE IMPACT REPERTORY THEATRE AND THE AFRICAN DANCE AND DRUM ENSEMBLE.

To make this high-profile event – well-known personalities in a very prestigious government venue – a success and to launch the campaign that is essential in its aftermath, WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW. We need significant financial help for NYC to Philly buses to provide reduced rate seats for those who cannot afford to pay (and today that includes a very large number of people); for transporting speakers and performers to Philadelphia; for flyers and palm cards; for producing educational literature for the event; and for so many unexpected costs. We know these are hard times and that most of us are struggling simply to survive. But for those of you who can help, we would truly appreciate as large a contribution as you can make. 

Tax-deductible checks should be made out to: FMAJC/IFCO, PO Box 16, College Station, New York, NY 10030.  Or go to www.freemumia.com, click the "Donate" link at the top of the home page.  That will lead you to a paypal section where you can contribute with a credit card.

Join us in making December 9th at the Constitution Center a success so that we can effectively launch this final stage of the struggle. Mumia has touched the hearts of millions of people around the world. His case represents so much of what we the 99% stand for versus what the 1% stand for. Get your bus ticket! Come to Philadelphia! Send your contributions in TODAY!

With the deepest appreciation for your past support and help, and in solidarity in our common struggle for justice, let us free Mumia and all our political prisoners!

Pam Africa, Chairperson, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Suzanne Ross, Co-chair, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Greetings from Mexico for December 9th

From sis Carolina in Mexico

Hi all,

I'm sending a poster for our event in Mexico City to demand immediate freedom for Mumia this coming December 9. We will be out in front of the US Embassy for about 8 hours with a lot of music, street theatre and messages of support for Mumia and other political prisoners, especially MOVE 9, Leonard Peltier, Angola 3, Sundiata Acoli, Mutulu Shakur, Jalil Muntaqim and more in the US and Alberto Patishtán in México; calls for the abolition of the US criminal justice / prison system and its implementation in Mexico; and support for the demands of recent prison hunger strikes in California, Chiapas, Chile and occupied Palestine.

We are also calling for an end to the militarization of Mexico and the adoption of ever more fascist national security laws, the US training of Mexican military and police forces, and the overall war against the Mexican people (supposedly a war on drugs) unleashed by the Mexican government and directed and backed by the US government through the Merida Initiative and other programs, which has resulted in 40,000 people killed, 60,000 disappeared and 120,000 displaced during the Calderón administration. Furthermore, we will be denouncing the recent murders of university student activist Carlos Cuevas and one of the leaders of the recovery and defense of Nahua lands in Xayakalan, Ostula, Michoacán --Pedro Leyva.

We hope it will be a great day.

OnaMOVE,

Carolina
Amig@s de Mumia de México

Message from Germany

Dear all,
On Saturday, December 10 will be a demonstration for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the abolition of the death penalty in Nüremberg, Germany (start 4pm).

The night before - Dec. 9. - will be numerous info events on Mumia all around the country, eg. in Berlin, Heidelberg, Dresden, Kaiserslautern among others. In December is an info-tour including ten dates on Mumia in Switzerland, too.

There is a new german website to coordinate activities in support of Mumia in Germany: http://www.freiheit-fuer-mumia.de

For the last 2 months there have been events around the the country on a weekly basis: http://www.freiheit-fuer-mumia.de/termine.htm

Here is a video from a recent "Act In" infront of the International Bookfair in Frankfurt: http://www.freiheit-fuer-mumia.de/actin.htm

We wish you a huge success on Dec. 9 in Philadelphia!

International Solidarity - FREE MUMIA!

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Now: 30 Unconstitutional Years on Death Row are Enough!

From thiscantbehappening.net
Sun, 10/23/2011
by: Dave Lindorff and Linn Washington, Jr.

With Mumia Abu-Jamal’s sentence of death now formally vacated, thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision last week not to consider an appeal by the Philadelphia District Attorney of a Third Circuit Court panel’s ruling that that sentence had been unconstitutional thanks to flawed jury instructions from the trial judge and a flawed jury ballot form, many of those who have long called for his execution are now saying, fine, let him rot in prison for the rest of his life.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, the leading newspaper in his hometown of Philadelphia, in more genteel language, said essentially the same thing in an unsigned October 13 editorial, opining that with the death penalty vacated, the default sentence of life in prison without parole was “appropriate” and “in the best interest of justice.”

The editorial urged DA Seth Williams not to exercise his right within the next 180 days to seek to obtain a new death sentence by asking for a new jury trial on the penalty only. The paper made this plea not because the editors felt such an effort to re-sentence him would be unseemly, but because of the cost to the struggling city of Philadelphia.

But hold on here. Putting aside for a moment the matter of whether Abu-Jamal was even fairly convicted in a trial that was viewed as a shameful farce at the time in 1982 even by the editors of the Inquirer, is it really “in the best interest of justice” or in any way “appropriate” for Abu-Jamal to simply be switched over from a death sentence to a sentence of life in prison without parole, now that, as the Inquirer correctly noted in its editorial, “four federal judges have ruled that Abu-Jamal’s 1982 death sentence was unconstitutional,” and that “he was denied a fair sentencing at his original trial.”

No. It is manifestly not just or appropriate!
Abu-Jamal no longer has a death sentence, but remains on solitary on death row thanks to a vengeful or gutless DAAbu-Jamal no longer has a death sentence, but remains in solitary on death row thanks to a vengeful, or gutless, DA and supine judges

The unconstitutional sentence of death voted out by confused jurors back in 1982 has meant that Abu-Jamal, for nearly 30 years, has been held in a Super Max death row prison called SCI-Greene in western Pennsylvania, where he is confined in a tiny windowless cell in solitary confinement, separated at all times form even other inmates. It means that unlike other prisoners, as a death row inmate he has for all those years been unable to have any physical contact with friends and loved ones -- even his little grandchildren, or his late mother, whose funeral he was barred from attending. Death row prisoners, on the rare occasions when they are allowed to see visitors, are brought, cuffed and manacled dispite the impossibility of escape, to a “visiting room,” and must communicate through a thick plexiglass window. Abu-Jamal was even kept in this hellish condition during the last 10 years, after Federal District Judge William Yohn, in December 2001, initially overturned his death sentence, because the vindictive and sadistic then DA Lynn Abraham asked the court to keep him there for the duration of the appeal process on that issue. Yohn’s decision was never overturned in all that time, yet even now that Yohn’s ruling has been finally confirmed by the Supreme Court and can no longer be challenged, Abu-Jamal remains in that death row cell, thanks to the continued vindictiveness or political cowardice of Abraham’s successor.

But Abu-Jamal should never have been there in the first place! The federal courts, since 2001, have established, over and over, and now with finality, that the jury back in 1982 was misinformed by trial Judge Albert Sabo about the absoluteness of the “life without possibility of parole” alternative to death. They were further confused by the jury ballot form he gave them, which a series of federal courts has established likely confused them about the rules on “mitigating circumstances” that they might consider would argue against voting for a death sentence.

In order for someone to be sentenced to death, it is not enough that someone simply kills another person. Rather, a jury must unanimously find at least one “aggravating circumstance” in the commission of that murder. But for there to be at least that one “aggravating” factor, the law says all 12 jurors must agree to it. They cannot say it exists if there is a single dissenting vote. But in the case of mitigating factors, which might lead a juror to decide against death and for life without parole, the rule is that any single juror can find one, and can then apply it to his or her own decision. The jury form, the courts found, improperly made it sound like they had to also agree unanimously about the existence of any mitigating circumstance before any one of them could consider it. The likelihood is that at least one of those 12 jurors could have felt there was a mitigating circumstance, such as that Abu-Jamal had no prior convictions, or that witnesses testified that he was a good father to his small children, etc. But thanks to the flawed jury form, and flawed instructions from Sabo, they did not feel they could legally take any of that into consideration because others didn’t agree.

So because of these unconstitutional flaws in the penalty phase of his trial, Abu-Jamal spent not a month, not a year, not two years, but 30 years on death row, all the time waiting for the state to kill him. That is a heavy punishment for any man.

It might be one thing if this error had been corrected in a short time following his trial, but instead, the D.A.’s office has fought tooth and nail every step of the way over three decades and right up to the Supreme Court against the finding of error, and has even fought to keep him on death row after a federal judge had rendered his decision overturning the sentence.

It’s not “appropriate” at this point, now that the error has been confirmed, to just say, “So what?” and to convert the sentence to life in an ordinary prison without the possibility of parole, as though nothing worse had happened.

Justice demands that there be some kind of recognition of the fact that Abu-Jamal has been put through 30 years of a true hell that he did not deserve, and that, moreover, his death sentence was unconstitutional.

Many convicted murderers in the United States have been released after far less than 30 years in jail. It would be appropriate at this point for the D.A. to admit that this particular prisoner has suffered not just enough, but more than was constitutionally appropriate, and to ask the court to release him on time served.

Meanwhile, if he is not released and is instead “left to rot” in jail for life, his new legal team, headed up by Christina Swarns of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, would have to discover new avenues for further challenges to his conviction. The difficulty for Abu-Jamal is that all the constitutional challenges to his original trial, and to the corrupted appeals process to which he was subjected, have already been rejected by the federal courts. In order to win a new trial at this point, then, he and his legal team would have to discover evidence of innocence which he “could not reasonably have been expected to have discovered earlier through due diligence.” Such evidence might include recanting witnesses, newly discovered witnesses, or perhaps more crime scene photos that raise questions about the original evidence. But they all would face that high hurdle of being either new, or not earlier discoverable, if they are to be grounds for a possible new trial.

On the other hand, as I wrote earlier, if D.A. Williams is brash enough or pressured enought by groups like the Fraternal Order of Police to attempt to retry the penalty phase, there is a much easier route for Abu-Jamal to bring in new evidence of innocence. Since many of the alleged witnesses to the shooting incident that led to Faulkner’s death were also used by the prosecution to portray the crime as a kind of a cold-blooded execution, those witnesses -- at least the ones who are still alive -- could be subpoenaed to appear at a penalty hearing by the defense, where their veracity could be challenged. At that point evidence such as ballistics tests to show that it would have been impossible for Abu-Jamal to have fired directly downward four times at Officer Daniel Faulkner while straddling him, hitting him only once, without there being any bullet marks in the surrounding sidewalk. Or evidence--photographic and otherwise--that there was never any taxi cab parked directly behind Faulkner’s squad car, where purported eye-witness Robert Chobert said he was parked when the shooting occurred. Or perhaps a new witness decisively claiming that there was never a confession shouted out by Abu-Jamal in the Jefferson Hospital ER, or that the prosecutor hid exculpatory evidence at trial.

Should any of these things happen during a new penalty phase trial it could be a whole new ballgame in terms of the conviction itself.

That would be the best outcome at this point. It is what Amnesty International, in a Feb. 17, 2000 report on the case which only merited a one-paragraph notice in the Inquirer at the time, concluded when it called for a new trial, saying that the first one has been “in violation of minimum international standards that govern fair trial procedures.” Clearly the Inquirer’s current editorial writers don’t bother to check their paper’s own morgue. If they had, they’d have seen that back on July 16, 1995, their predecessors had editorialized during a Post Conviction Relief Act hearing on the case that was being held before the original trial judge Albert Sabo, that the “whole truth” of the case may “never be found.” Those same editorial writers wrote back then that the behavior of the Judge Sabo at the 1982 trial was “disturbing,” and in the 1995 fact-finding PCRA appeal Sabo “did not give the impression to those in the courtroom of fair-mindedness.” How one gets from there to saying his current fate is in any way “appropriate” or “in the best interest of justice” we cannot fathom.

If DA Williams wants to do the right thing here, but does not have the political courage to just release Abu-Jamal on time served, given the huge political power of the FOP, which has been unethically lobbying for, and even bribing judges to execute him for years, he could short-circuit all of this, as Linn Washington wrote earlier in ThisCantBeHappening!, by offering Abu-Jamal an Alford Plea deal.

Under the terms of an Alford Plea, a convicted person may continue to claim her or his innocence, while conceding that the prosecutor probably has the evidence to convict. Upon being freed, the individual remains a convicted murderer, but both sides can claim to have won on some level.

It would be a messy end to a very messy case, but it would be far more “appropriate” and would be far more “in the interest of justice,” than just throwing Abu-Jamal into Graterford Prison for life without possibility for parole after he has already unconstitutionally endured 30 agonizing years on death row.

http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/866

Friday, October 21, 2011

December 9: All Out For Mumia at Philly Constitution Center

No Life in Prison!
 

Free Mumia Now!

On the 30th anniversary of Mumia Abu Jamal's incarceration and on the eve of International Human Rights Day, we say NO to life in prison for this innocent, revolutionary, and celebrated journalist.

Honor Troy Davis
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal


December 9, 2011
7:30-10:30 pm
Constitution Center,
Philadelphia



SPEAKERS:
Cornel West
Michelle Alexander (by video)
Ramona Africa
Michael Coard
Vijay Prashad
Louisa Hanoune
Mark Lamont Hill
Immortal Technique
And more

INVITED GUEST:
Arundhati Roy
  • No to the racist death penalty!
  • Stop the massive incarceration of the poor and oppressed!
  • End torture and police terrorism!
  • Free all political prisoners!
  • Free Mumia!
PERFORMERS:
IMPACT Youth Repertory Theatre, African Dance Ensemble, others T.B.A.

Info and bus reservations:
PHILA: 267-760-7344
NYC: 212 -330-8029.

www.freemumia.com
www.emajonline

Monday, October 17, 2011

Lydia Barashango Reception

From Noelle Hanrahan:
Lydia Barashango  Reception

October 22  -- noon to 4:00 pm
at

H and H Catering
2036 E. Haines Street
Philadelphia, PA 19138
215.424.2703

Listen to Mumia's tribute to his sister at www.prisonradio.org:
Lydia Barashango - Presente!
http://www.prisonradio.org/10-9-11LydiaBarashangoPresente.html

Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial
Lydia Barashango, 64; nurse, sister of Mumia Abu Jamal


September 29, 2011

Lydia Barashango, 64, a nurse and social worker who was the sister of Mumia Abu Jamal, died Wednesday, Sept. 29, in Maryland after a long battle with breast cancer.
Mrs. Barashango was a strong defender of her younger brother, Mumia Abu-Jamal, 57. The former Philadelphia radio reporter and Black Panther who was born, Wesley Cook, was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury in 1982 for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

On Dec. 9, 1981, Officer Faulkner was conducting a traffic stop on a vehicle belonging to William Cook, Abu-Jamal's younger brother. During the traffic stop, Abu-Jamal's taxi was parked across the street. Shots were fired and both Abu-Jamal and Faulkner were wounded. Faulkner died. Police arrived on the scene and arrested Abu-Jamal, who was found with a shoulder holster, a revolver and spent cartridges in his revolver. He was later charged with first degree murder.

Supporters and opponents disagree on the appropriateness of the death penalty, whether Abu-Jamal was guilty or whether he received a fair trial.

Mrs. Barashango was interviewed in 2000 for an A&E documentary about the case. She said the day after the shooting she didn't recognize Abu-Jamal at the hospital because he had been "brutalized" by police. When she him if he was all right, he told her, "I'm innocent. I'm innocent."

In 1999, Mrs. Barashango participated in a march around City Hall in Philadelphia with 10,000 of her brother's supporters, many waving "Free Mumia" signs.

She told the crowd, "This rally takes our struggle to a whole new level." We aren't playing anymore. We are demanding a new trial."

Mrs. Barashango was married to Ishakamusa Barashango, a minister and African American scholar. He died in 2004.

According to friends, she had recently been living in Baltimore. Arrangements for services in Baltimore and Philadelphia are pending.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Video of Linn Washington/Judith Ritter on Mumia's recent appeals court ruling

DemocracyNow.org video of Linn Washington and Judith Ritter on appeals court decision on Mumia Abu-Jamal at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odt7EZ8y7UM



The case of Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal took a surprising turn Tuesday when the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously declared his death sentence unconstitutional—it is the second time the court has agreed with a lower judge who set aside Abu-Jamal's death sentence after finding jurors were given confusing instructions that encouraged them to choose death rather than a life sentence. Now Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and journalist, could get a new sentencing hearing in court. Democracy Now! interviews Abu-Jamal's co-counsel, Judith Ritter, and Linn Washington, an award-winning journalist with the Philadelphia Tribune who has followed Abu-Jamal's case for almost three decades.

For the video/audio podcast, transcript, to sign up for the daily news digest, and for today's entire show, visit http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/27/court_rules_mumia_abu_jamals_death

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

EMAJ: US Supreme Court Rejects D.A.’s Appeal in Mumia Case

From Educators For Mumia Abu-Jamal:


US Supreme Court Rejects D.A.’s Appeal in Mumia Case


For the news freshly announced, consult the report from the Legal Defense Fund here. An excellent analysis of the meaning of this is provided in Dave Lindorff’s new column.

In addition, Johanna Fernandez, EMAJ Co-Coordinator and historian at Baruch College/CUNY, sent in these words, reminding us all of the December 9 event at Constitution Center:

Today, the Supreme Court refused to hear arguments presented by the Philadelphia DA’s Office that would have challenged the Mills claim in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. That the Supreme Court refused to hear the DA’s arguments means that the high court has upheld Mumia’s Mills claim, a claim that was twice upheld previously by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. What is important about the Mills claim is that it calls for a new penalty-phase trial if defendants can prove that at trial jurors were poorly instructed on the rules governing the weighing of evidence mitigating against the death penalty, as in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

What this all means for the Abu-Jamal case is that the Philadelphia DA’s office has a limited amount of time to either call for a new penalty-phase trial or place Mumia, who is currently on death row, in general population to serve a life sentence of imprisonment without parole.

While this is confirmation on the part of the Supreme Court that Mumia’s trial was corrupt to the core and riddled with constitutional rights violations, the possibility of serving life in prison without parole is no victory for Mumia.

DECEMBER 9, 2011 is the next step in the struggle to release Mumia Abu-Jamal.

December 9th marks the 30th year-to-the-day of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s incarceration.

An innocent man, and an important humanist and revolutionary voice of our time, has been wrongfully imprisoned for 30 YEARS! 

So in the words of Joe Hill, let us “raise less corn and more hell;”  and let us take Occupy Wall Street and the struggle against the New Jim Crow to the City of Brotherly Love.

Join us at

The National Constitution Center, Philadelphia
December 9th at 7 pm


Speakers:
Cornel West
Arandhati Roy (via Video)
Michelle Alexander (via Video)
Ramona Africa
Vijay Prashad
Immortal Technique
Michael Coard
IMPACT YOUTH THEATRE OF HARLEM
and many others.

In Struggle,

Johanna Fernandez, Ph.D.
Department of History
Baruch College, City University of New York
Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Writer/Producer, Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal

No New Penalty Trial Likely: Dave Lindorff article

From the Free Mumia Coalition, NYC:  Michael Schiffman of Heidelberg, Germany, Pam Africa, and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition all agree that this is an excellent article.   For more discussion and building toward December 9th in Philadelphia, come to a meeting this Friday night, October 14,  7 pm at St. Mary's Church, 521 West 126 Street in Harlem

No New Penalty Trial Likely: 
US Supreme Court Confirms 3rd Circuit Ruling Lifting Mumia Abu-Jamal's Death Penalty

by: Dave Lindorff
10/11/2011

Here's a prediction: Seth Williams, the district attorney of Philadelphia, will decide not to seek to reimpose the death penalty on Mumia Abu-Jamal, the world-famous journalist, former Black Panther and condemned prisoner who has spent the last almost 30 years of his life on Pennsylvania's overcrowded death row.

The choice belongs to Williams, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided, on its second time dealing with the issue, not to overturn the decision of a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which had, on orders of the Supreme Court, reheard, reconsidered and reaffirmed its earlier decision upholding the tossing out of Abu-Jamal's death sentence by a lower federal district court.

For years since the dramatic 2001 decision by Federal District Judge William Yohn overturning Abu-Jamal's death sentence on grounds that the trial judge's instructions to the jury had been faulty and that the jury verdict form was dangerously misleading, Abu-Jamal has remained in brutal solitary confinement at SCI-Green. That's the super-max facility that houses Pennsylvania's condemned prisoners, where Abu-Jamal and the others who are actually facing death are denied any human contact either with each other or with close relatives and friends (visits are conducted through heavy bullet-proof plexiglass, with the inmate in chains, for no good reason beyond simple gratuitous cruelty, since escape is impossible). He was kept there for the last decade through the machinations
of a vindictive DA's office, which argued that as long as the lifting of his death sentence was on appeal, he should have to stay put as if he were facing imminent death.

Now there is no reason or excuse to keep him in that hell hole.

The only way he could face a death penalty at this point would be if the DA were to order up a new trial on the penalty phase of his case, with a new jury hearing arguments for and against sentencing Abu-Jamal to death all over again for the crime he was convicted of back in 1982: the shooting death of white Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. (There is no easy avenue for appeal of Abu-
Jamal's conviction at this point, as all his habeas claims of constitutional violations and trial errors have been rejected by the highest federal courts.)

Already, the wheels are turning against a penalty retrial.


Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Daniel Faulkner, who has been a tireless campaigner for Abu-Jamal's execution, has reportedly told a reporter from Associated Press, following word of the Supreme Court's decision, that she "wondered whether it was time to end the long-running drama." She is quoted as saying she worries about the cost of a rehearing of the penalty issue to the city of Philadelphia, and notes that "many of the relevant witnesses are dead." Plus she doesn't want to afford Abu-Jamal any more publicity, she says.

What she doesn't say, but what DA Williams surely knows, is that if there were a re-hearing of the penalty phase of this sorry case, there is virtually no way that a modern Philadelphia jury would vote to execute Abu-Jamal. First of all, it would not be possible for the DA, who in any case is himself an African-American for the first time in the city's history, to pack the jury with white people the way the prosecutor did in 1982 (and the way the DA's office routinely did in felony and especially murder trials until 1986, when the despicable practice, tantamount to lynching, was outlawed by the Supreme Court). Furthermore, Abu-Jamal has been a model prisoner for 30 years, earning a Bachelor's and a Master's degree while on death row, writing a number of highly-regarded books, including Live from
Death Row
, exposing the horrors of a life waiting for death, and of the nation's whole prison industrial complex. And of course, he has served those 30 years in prison, and still faces a future of life without possibility of parole even if he doesn't face execution. That is bound to seem punishment enough to at least one juror in a panel of 12 honestly selected individuals of the city of Philadelphia, making a unanimous death penalty sentence almost impossible to imagine.

But there is another reason I seriously doubt Williams will not retry Abu-Jamal to get the death penalty reimposed: the fear that such a court hearing could lead to a new trial on the conviction itself, which was the result of a trial process which was even more of a travesty, if that is possible, than the portion that led to his death penalty.

This is because in a penalty phase hearing, in order to refute prosecution claims to a jury that Abu-Jamal didn't just kill Officer Faulkner, but killed him in a way that was wanton and deliberate and even pre-meditated, Abu-Jamal's defense attorneys would certainly bring in witnesses, some from the original trial, and some discovered since that trial, who would raise serious questions about the veracity of the original trial's prosecution witnesses. They could do this because those witnesses were used at the trial to describe not just the supposed shooting, but the vicious manner in which it was supposedly carried out.

Just take the matter of the prosecution's depiction of an "execution-style" slaying of Faulkner, with witnesses describing Abu-Jamal standing astride the prone Faulkner, who was supposedly lying "on his back," and firing four shots downward almost point blank, hitting the officer once between the eyes.

As my colleague Linn Washington and I prove convincingly in a gun test we ran last year (see the film of our test by scanning down to the bottom of our homepage or go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hedfNPt6UQQ&feature=player_embedded [1]), this story had to have been a fabrication, because three of those shots missed Faulkner, and there is no sign of bullet impacts anywhere in the concrete sidewalk around the bloodstained spot where Faulkner's body was lying. That lack of evidence would raise questions about whether the prime witness describing that certainly brutal slaying story could actually have seen what he said he saw.

The witness in question, a young white taxi driver named Robert Chobert, claimed at the trial that he  had parked his taxi directly behind Faulkner's parked squad car. The shooting was said to have occurred on the sidewalk two cars forward of Chobert's taxi, meaning he would have been viewing it from his seat at the wheel, through both the parked squad car and a parked VW Beetle belonging to Abu-Jamal's brother Billie Cook -- this at night and with Faulkner's dome lights and tail lights flashing in his eyes. But on top of this, there is no crime scene photo showing Chobert's taxi cab parked behind Faulkner at all, and the likelihood is that he was not even a witness.

It would also certainly be presented by the defense at any penalty hearing that contrary to the trial  prosecutor's assertion to the jury that "this man" (Chobert) had "no reason to lie," he actually had  plenty of reason to do so. The original jury, thanks to a biased and clearly ludicrous decision by the  trial judge, Albert Sabo, never was informed that Chobert at the time he allegedly parked behind  Faulkner's vehicle, and at the time of the trial, was driving on a drivers and a hack license suspended for a DWI conviction, and that he was on probation for felony arson, for the fire-bombing of an elementary school! Furthermore, it only became known to the defense in 1995 that Chobert had also asked the prosecutor if he might be able to "fix" his driver's license problem (a request that the prosecutor should by law have immediately made known to the defense, and to the court, since even if he did nothing to help Chobert, it meant that Chobert was likely to have been hoping for a reward for testifying favorably for the prosecution).

Of course, this is only one example of the peril posed to the state's case against Abu-Jamal by any public rehearing on his death penalty. There are many, many more such perils, too.

While on the one hand, it is surely a relief that this atrocity of a case will almost certainly not result in Abu-Jamal's execution, thanks to the Supreme Court's decision to stay out of it, in a perverse way it is unfortunate. This is because once Abu-Jamal is sentenced to life without parole rather than to death, and is transferred to a general prison population, where he will have freer access to his loved ones and to the public, as well as to the state's huge prison population, the national and global movement to free him will likely weaken, for he will no longer be the icon of the anti-death penalty movement that he has been.

He will of course be able to combat this thanks to his journalistic skills, which will be easier to apply once he's sprung from SCI-Green and has at least occasional access to a computer and to a library. But let's face it: remaining a leading symbol of the nation's death penalty madness will be harder once the threat of execution is finally lifted.

This means that those of us who believe that Abu-Jamal's original trial was a scandal of the worse  proportions, and that his guilt was never proven thanks to the epic misconduct by the prosecution, the lying by prosecution witnesses, the clear pro-prosecution bias of the judge, the ineptness of the defense attorney, the packing of the jury, the lack of funding for any defense experts, and myriad other flaws, will have to work all the harder at trying to win this long-suffering victim of the American injustice system a new trial, not on the penalty, but on his original conviction.

DAVE LINDORFF is the author of  Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal [2] (Common Courage Press, 2006).
Source URL: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/827

Links:
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hedfNPt6UQQ&feature=player_embedded
[2] http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781567512281-6