From Robert R. Bryan, Mumia's attorney:
Mumia & I recently launched an online petition in 10 languages: Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty. It is the only petition that Mumia & I have approved. There are already over 14,500 signers, mostly from outside the U.S. The petition will eventually be presented to President Barack Obama by a distinguished international delegation. The early signers include: Desmond Tutu, South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize); Günter Grass, Germany (Nobel Prize in Literature); the first signer, Danielle Mitterrand (former Fist Lady of France); 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; Paris officials.
Please e-mail the petition link to all possible people, ideally to members of organizations. Its link is at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html The petition provides:
WE THE UNDERSIGNED petition you to speak out against the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all the men, women and children facing execution around the world. This ultimate form of punishment is unacceptable in a civilized society and undermines human dignity. (U.N. General Assembly, Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty, Resolution 62/149, Dec. 18, 2007; reaffirmed, Resolution 63/168, Dec. 18, 2008.)
Mr. Abu-Jamal, a renowned black journalist and author, has been on Pennsylvania’s death row for nearly three decades. Even though you do not have direct control over his fate as a state death-row inmate, we ask that you as a moral leader on the world stage call for a global moratorium on the death penalty in his and all capital cases. Mr. Abu-Jamal has become a global symbol, the “Voice of the Voiceless”, in the struggle against capital punishment and human-rights abuses. There are over 20,000 awaiting execution around the globe, with over 3,000 on death rows in the United States.
The 1982 trial of Mr. Abu-Jamal was tainted by racism, and occurred in Philadelphia which has a history of police corruption and discrimination. Amnesty International, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, “determined that numerous aspects of this case clearly failed to meet international standards safeguarding the fairness of legal proceedings. [T]he interests of justice would best be served by the granting of a new trial to Mumia Abu-Jamal. The trial should fully comply with international standards of justice and should not allow for the reimposition of the death penalty.” (A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int’l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco.]
As you know, the U.S. Supreme Court recently issued the long-awaited ruling in Mumia's case. It has been sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. The decision I won in 2008 for a new jury trial on the issue of the death penalty, was vacated & the federal court directed to reconsider the death penalty. My client is now much closer to being executed.
The link to Mumia's Legal Defense: http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org
We will be grateful any assistance you can provide.
Cordially yours,
Robert
_______
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Monday, February 01, 2010
UPDATED LETTER TO ERIC HOLDER FOR MUMIA
From: Mumia NYC
US Department of Justice
Washington, DC
January 2010
To Eric Holder, US Attorney General:
We write to you with a sense of grave concern and outrage about the US Supreme Court's denial of a hearing to Mumia Abu-Jamal on the issue of racial bias in jury selection, that is, the "Batson issue". Inasmuch as there is no other court to which Abu-Jamal can appeal for justice, we turn to you for remedy of a 27- year history of gross violations of US constitutional law and international standards of justice as documented by Amnesty International and many other legal groups around the world.
We call on you and the Justice Department to immediately commence a civil rights investigation to examine the many examples of egregious and racist prosecutorial and judicial misconduct dating back to the original trial in 1982 and continuing through to the current inaction of the US Supreme Court. The statute of limitations should not be a factor in this case as there is very strong evidence of an ongoing conspiracy to deny Abu-Jamal his constitutional rights.
We are aware of the many differences that exist between the case of former Senator Ted Stevens and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Still, we note with great interest the actions you have taken with regard to Senator Stevens' conviction to assure that he not be denied his constitutional rights. You were specifically outraged by the fact that the prosecution withheld information critical to the defense's argument for acquittal, a violation clearly committed by the prosecution in Abu-Jamal's case. Mumia Abu-Jamal, though not a US senator of great wealth and power, is a Black man revered around the world for his courage, clarity, and commitment and deserves no less than Senator Stevens.
Cordially,
NAME
ADDRESS
E-MAIL
RETURN TO: FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION, PO BOX 16, COLLEGE STATION, NEW YORK, NY, 10030. For more info: 330-8029 www.freemumia.com
US Department of Justice
Washington, DC
January 2010
To Eric Holder, US Attorney General:
We write to you with a sense of grave concern and outrage about the US Supreme Court's denial of a hearing to Mumia Abu-Jamal on the issue of racial bias in jury selection, that is, the "Batson issue". Inasmuch as there is no other court to which Abu-Jamal can appeal for justice, we turn to you for remedy of a 27- year history of gross violations of US constitutional law and international standards of justice as documented by Amnesty International and many other legal groups around the world.
We call on you and the Justice Department to immediately commence a civil rights investigation to examine the many examples of egregious and racist prosecutorial and judicial misconduct dating back to the original trial in 1982 and continuing through to the current inaction of the US Supreme Court. The statute of limitations should not be a factor in this case as there is very strong evidence of an ongoing conspiracy to deny Abu-Jamal his constitutional rights.
We are aware of the many differences that exist between the case of former Senator Ted Stevens and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Still, we note with great interest the actions you have taken with regard to Senator Stevens' conviction to assure that he not be denied his constitutional rights. You were specifically outraged by the fact that the prosecution withheld information critical to the defense's argument for acquittal, a violation clearly committed by the prosecution in Abu-Jamal's case. Mumia Abu-Jamal, though not a US senator of great wealth and power, is a Black man revered around the world for his courage, clarity, and commitment and deserves no less than Senator Stevens.
Cordially,
NAME
ADDRESS
RETURN TO: FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION, PO BOX 16, COLLEGE STATION, NEW YORK, NY, 10030. For more info: 330-8029 www.freemumia.com
Call Attorney General Eric Holder Now! Demand a Civil Rights Investigation!!!
From: Mumia NYC
The January 19, 2010 the Supreme Court Action of Sending Mumia's Case Back to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals Brings Mumia Closer to Execution Unless We Act Now!
U.S. Department of Justice Main Switchboard 202-514-2000
Public Comment Line 202-353-1555
U.S. Department of Justice E-Mail Address webmaster@usdoj.gov
We are continuing and escalating the Campaign for a Civil Rights Investigation to challenge the entire conspiracy to kill yet another Black revolutionary leader. As many of you have learned over the years, this conspiracy even precedes 1981 when the incident which led to Mumia's incarceration, conviction, and death sentence occurred. The FBI began its surveillance and targeting of Mumia when he was only 15 years old. At that time, Mumia had demonstrated against George Wallace, the arch-racist Alabama governor who played a strategic role in fighting the Civil Rights Movement in the South. We demand a civil rights investigation into the 28 plus years of violations of Mumia's rights in the court system, but also into that history of surveillance and targeting of Mumia when he was only a teenager. Mumia was part of the counterintelligence program that the infamous FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, initiated to "neutralize" potential Black leaders.
We urge people to continue to sign onto the petition on our website www.freemumia.com, or to download the letter which will follow and mail it to the address at the bottom, and now contact Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington, DC, by telephone and let him know that such an investigation is essential given that the courts all the way to the US Supreme Court have failed to provide any justice for Mumia.
For years we heard that the federal courts would overturn an obviously biased Pennsylvania judicial process. We have now seen the issue of racism in the trial and the state appeals process, as manifested both in the racial bias of the jury selection and in the judge's statement, "I'm going to help them fry the Nigger" ignored and denied by the federal courts all the way to the Supreme Court. And just recently, the Supreme Court even changed the standard for granting life in prison rather than execution (the Mills issue) in order to bring Mumia closer to execution. Join the movement for justice for Mumia! Call or e-mail the Justice Department immediately! Sign the petition online www.freemumia.com or sign the attached letter and mail it to the address on the bottom. And now, CALL ERIC HOLDER. LET'S FLOOD THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WITH CALLS DEMANDING A CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION.
Free Mumia and All Our Political Prisoners! Abolish the Death Penalty! Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex!
For more information on what you can do as part of the Campaign for a Civil Rights Investigation, leave your number on our hotline, 212 330-8029, come to our weekly Friday 6:30 PM meetings at St. Mary's Church, 521 West 126th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue), ORGANIZE SUPPORT!
The January 19, 2010 the Supreme Court Action of Sending Mumia's Case Back to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals Brings Mumia Closer to Execution Unless We Act Now!
U.S. Department of Justice Main Switchboard 202-514-2000
Public Comment Line 202-353-1555
U.S. Department of Justice E-Mail Address webmaster@usdoj.gov
We are continuing and escalating the Campaign for a Civil Rights Investigation to challenge the entire conspiracy to kill yet another Black revolutionary leader. As many of you have learned over the years, this conspiracy even precedes 1981 when the incident which led to Mumia's incarceration, conviction, and death sentence occurred. The FBI began its surveillance and targeting of Mumia when he was only 15 years old. At that time, Mumia had demonstrated against George Wallace, the arch-racist Alabama governor who played a strategic role in fighting the Civil Rights Movement in the South. We demand a civil rights investigation into the 28 plus years of violations of Mumia's rights in the court system, but also into that history of surveillance and targeting of Mumia when he was only a teenager. Mumia was part of the counterintelligence program that the infamous FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, initiated to "neutralize" potential Black leaders.
We urge people to continue to sign onto the petition on our website www.freemumia.com, or to download the letter which will follow and mail it to the address at the bottom, and now contact Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington, DC, by telephone and let him know that such an investigation is essential given that the courts all the way to the US Supreme Court have failed to provide any justice for Mumia.
For years we heard that the federal courts would overturn an obviously biased Pennsylvania judicial process. We have now seen the issue of racism in the trial and the state appeals process, as manifested both in the racial bias of the jury selection and in the judge's statement, "I'm going to help them fry the Nigger" ignored and denied by the federal courts all the way to the Supreme Court. And just recently, the Supreme Court even changed the standard for granting life in prison rather than execution (the Mills issue) in order to bring Mumia closer to execution. Join the movement for justice for Mumia! Call or e-mail the Justice Department immediately! Sign the petition online www.freemumia.com or sign the attached letter and mail it to the address on the bottom. And now, CALL ERIC HOLDER. LET'S FLOOD THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WITH CALLS DEMANDING A CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION.
Free Mumia and All Our Political Prisoners! Abolish the Death Penalty! Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex!
For more information on what you can do as part of the Campaign for a Civil Rights Investigation, leave your number on our hotline, 212 330-8029, come to our weekly Friday 6:30 PM meetings at St. Mary's Church, 521 West 126th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue), ORGANIZE SUPPORT!
VIDEO FOOTAGE: Harlem Supporters Protest Supreme Court Ruling On Mumia!
VIDEO FOOTAGE COURTESY OF ALLTHINGSHARLEM.COM
Supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal Take to the Streets the "Day After" in Response to Supreme Court Ruling; Critical Juncture in 28-Year-Old Death Penalty Case
VIDEO:
http://allthingsharlemproductions.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-video-nyc-mumia-supporters-rally-in.html
Speaker Include, Immortal Technique, Johanna Fernandez, Educators for Mumia, Daniel Meyers, National Laywers Guild (NYC), Orie Lumumba and others.
Supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal Take to the Streets the "Day After" in Response to Supreme Court Ruling; Critical Juncture in 28-Year-Old Death Penalty Case
VIDEO:
http://allthingsharlemproductions.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-video-nyc-mumia-supporters-rally-in.html
Speaker Include, Immortal Technique, Johanna Fernandez, Educators for Mumia, Daniel Meyers, National Laywers Guild (NYC), Orie Lumumba and others.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Pam Africa on the Supreme Court ruling against Mumia
January 20, 2010
by Minister of Information JR
Pam Africa, chairwoman of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, was a key organizer of the large demonstration outside the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals when Mumia’s case was heard there on May 17, 2007. Now the Supreme Court has ordered the case back to that court. –
On Tuesday, Jan. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal and granted the Philadelphia DA’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Basically, the Supreme Court went against the lower federal circuit court’s 2001 and 2008 rulings, which granted a new sentencing phase jury trial if the death penalty was to be reinstated in Jamal’s case. Now the case goes back down to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, who will decide whether they will re-impose the death penalty without the jury trial.
In a recent interview with the Block Report, Mumia spoke about the Spisak case, in which the death penalty has since been reinstated for the white supremacist murderer Frank Spisak. The question is how this will affect Mumia’s case since they both dealt with the Mills issue, which addresses confusing jury instructions.
We are now at the highest level of Code Red in the case of Mumia Abu Jamal. The people must come to this tireless souljah’s defense.
I interviewed Pam Africa, the chairwoman of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, about the direction of the “Free Mumia” movement at this critical time …
M.O.I. JR: Now that we have this information on how the Supreme Court wants to move on Mumia’s case, how is the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal moving? And what do they need from the people?
Pam Africa: One thing that people need to understand is that this is a very crucial time. What we’re doing today, we’re having a press conference in front of the District Attorney’s Office here in Philadelphia.
This is the first Black DA in the city of Philadelphia. His name is Seth Williams, who ran on the platform that when he became district attorney, he would execute Mumia. That’s why we’re having the demonstration there, because it eventually will end up in the hands of the district attorney.
The district attorney are the ones that are applying for this death sentence on Mumia. I know that they are battling Mills (the case concerning jury instructions) and everything else, but people must stay focused. The time is very short in dealing with the case of Mumia.
People must organize around the world. There are two petitions that are happening: One is by a group of people over in Germany with Mumia’s attorney, Robert Bryan, calling on President Obama to get involved in the case and get Mumia a new case, because he never had a trial, really.
But we’re calling on the attorney general. When I say we, I’m saying there are several groups and organizations that is spearheaded by the New York (Free Mumia Abu-Jamal) Coalition that is calling on the attorney general, because what we’re pointing out is that Mumia cannot get any fairness whatsoever.
Brewing right here is another example of what it is we’re talking about. Mumia cannot get any fairness in this court system, so we’re calling on the U.S. attorney general to do a civil rights investigation into this case, because Mumia’s civil rights from the beginning to the end, and our civil rights as citizens of this United States who have pointed out the evidence very clearly (are threatened). That nobody can get around: Mumia is innocent. He is factually innocent.
And what we’re asking people to do is to sign both of the petitions on behalf of Mumia. The one that the attorney is putting out there, because when he petitions and all, Obama, Obama’s next move is that he has to go to the U.S. attorney general. And when he comes to the U.S. attorney general, he will fully know that our last person who signed the petition for the civil rights investigation was Skip Gates, who sat down and had a beer after he was beat up by the police, you know, at the White House. I’m saying, he signed the petition. We have people that are right in the ear of Obama and the attorney general.
And I want to point out very clearly, we have no hope whatsoever in the system. Our faith, Mumia’s faith, is in the people. Will the people rise up and do what is right? Shaka Sankofa is dead because the people didn’t consistently stay on top of these people when they did wrong.
Tookie Williams, when they executed him, when they murdered him in cold-blood when the movement was moving, it should’ve continued to move that way. There are magnificent things that are happening in California around the death penalty, but everybody must unite together and move as one up against this government for the sake of Brotha (Troy) Davis, for the sake of all the brothas that’s on death row right now.
Again there is Academics for Mumia, who are at Princeton University, who is having a meeting pulling academics together, and we’re asking the academics to sign both of these petitions while they educate people. I’m telling you people, we are not without the evidence. If you go to the website at Journalists for Mumia, if you go into the Bay View, you will find all of the evidence that you need to bring the system down to its knees.
Once again, do not be duped by time; time is running out. And I know that when this next step is made, as I understand, things might be like six months and then it will go to the DA. The time might be a little bit off, but we don’t have much time. It’s time for them people to get into them churches, make them ministers get up, make these politicians get up, you know, make the people rise up, as they did in 1999, when we did Millions for Mumia. The time is now for organizing, organizing with all of the strength that you have.
And I just want to thank people like the Partisan Defense Committee, Labor for Mumia, the Mobilization for Mumia, Millions for Mumia. These people have stayed steadfast, and if I haven’t mentioned the names of other people, there is a lot of individuals – JR and the Bay View – for keeping this issue up front in the people’s eye.
The time is now for organizing, organizing with all of the strength that you have. People must pull together to abolish the death penalty. Save this brotha who has been on the front lines, from deathrow, on every issue of social justice that there is.
And I will be down (in the Bay) on Feb. 18. I’ll be in California, from the 18th to the 23rd. I’m coming down there for the brotha of the San Francisco 8 (Francisco Torres’) hearing. I’m coming down there for Brotha JR’s hearing, and I wish I could be in LA when they bring this murderous cop (who murdered) Oscar Grant there, but I’m going to be pushing for people to get there – everybody who can.
This death sentence that was handed out to this brotha; we can’t allow it, people. And I’m saying y’all have been an example to all of the people around the world of resistance (of what can be done) when people be consistent at what they do. Y’all have had something done here when y’all had that murderous monster arrested. It must continue. This dude must sit on deathrow. That is where he needs to sit with all of the other people. And let people fight to get his behind off of deathrow.
You know, it can’t be enough said: People must pull together. You must abolish the death penalty because it is wrong, all the way across the board. We must support JR and all of the brothas and sistas that was arrested. This is what Mumia is pushing for; this is what we’re pushing for.
When we come to California, we’ll be having more information about Mumia. The movement is moving real fast, so please while you are organizing for everything, tell people that they must get into the streets in order to save this brotha who has been on the front lines, from deathrow, on every issue of social justice that there is.
Email POCC Minister of Information JR, Bay View associate editor, at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com .
http://www.sfbayview.com/2010/pam-africa-on-the-supreme-court-ruling-against-mumia/
by Minister of Information JR
Pam Africa, chairwoman of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, was a key organizer of the large demonstration outside the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals when Mumia’s case was heard there on May 17, 2007. Now the Supreme Court has ordered the case back to that court. –
On Tuesday, Jan. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal and granted the Philadelphia DA’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Basically, the Supreme Court went against the lower federal circuit court’s 2001 and 2008 rulings, which granted a new sentencing phase jury trial if the death penalty was to be reinstated in Jamal’s case. Now the case goes back down to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, who will decide whether they will re-impose the death penalty without the jury trial.
In a recent interview with the Block Report, Mumia spoke about the Spisak case, in which the death penalty has since been reinstated for the white supremacist murderer Frank Spisak. The question is how this will affect Mumia’s case since they both dealt with the Mills issue, which addresses confusing jury instructions.
We are now at the highest level of Code Red in the case of Mumia Abu Jamal. The people must come to this tireless souljah’s defense.
I interviewed Pam Africa, the chairwoman of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, about the direction of the “Free Mumia” movement at this critical time …
M.O.I. JR: Now that we have this information on how the Supreme Court wants to move on Mumia’s case, how is the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal moving? And what do they need from the people?
Pam Africa: One thing that people need to understand is that this is a very crucial time. What we’re doing today, we’re having a press conference in front of the District Attorney’s Office here in Philadelphia.
This is the first Black DA in the city of Philadelphia. His name is Seth Williams, who ran on the platform that when he became district attorney, he would execute Mumia. That’s why we’re having the demonstration there, because it eventually will end up in the hands of the district attorney.
The district attorney are the ones that are applying for this death sentence on Mumia. I know that they are battling Mills (the case concerning jury instructions) and everything else, but people must stay focused. The time is very short in dealing with the case of Mumia.
People must organize around the world. There are two petitions that are happening: One is by a group of people over in Germany with Mumia’s attorney, Robert Bryan, calling on President Obama to get involved in the case and get Mumia a new case, because he never had a trial, really.
But we’re calling on the attorney general. When I say we, I’m saying there are several groups and organizations that is spearheaded by the New York (Free Mumia Abu-Jamal) Coalition that is calling on the attorney general, because what we’re pointing out is that Mumia cannot get any fairness whatsoever.
Brewing right here is another example of what it is we’re talking about. Mumia cannot get any fairness in this court system, so we’re calling on the U.S. attorney general to do a civil rights investigation into this case, because Mumia’s civil rights from the beginning to the end, and our civil rights as citizens of this United States who have pointed out the evidence very clearly (are threatened). That nobody can get around: Mumia is innocent. He is factually innocent.
And what we’re asking people to do is to sign both of the petitions on behalf of Mumia. The one that the attorney is putting out there, because when he petitions and all, Obama, Obama’s next move is that he has to go to the U.S. attorney general. And when he comes to the U.S. attorney general, he will fully know that our last person who signed the petition for the civil rights investigation was Skip Gates, who sat down and had a beer after he was beat up by the police, you know, at the White House. I’m saying, he signed the petition. We have people that are right in the ear of Obama and the attorney general.
And I want to point out very clearly, we have no hope whatsoever in the system. Our faith, Mumia’s faith, is in the people. Will the people rise up and do what is right? Shaka Sankofa is dead because the people didn’t consistently stay on top of these people when they did wrong.
Tookie Williams, when they executed him, when they murdered him in cold-blood when the movement was moving, it should’ve continued to move that way. There are magnificent things that are happening in California around the death penalty, but everybody must unite together and move as one up against this government for the sake of Brotha (Troy) Davis, for the sake of all the brothas that’s on death row right now.
Again there is Academics for Mumia, who are at Princeton University, who is having a meeting pulling academics together, and we’re asking the academics to sign both of these petitions while they educate people. I’m telling you people, we are not without the evidence. If you go to the website at Journalists for Mumia, if you go into the Bay View, you will find all of the evidence that you need to bring the system down to its knees.
Once again, do not be duped by time; time is running out. And I know that when this next step is made, as I understand, things might be like six months and then it will go to the DA. The time might be a little bit off, but we don’t have much time. It’s time for them people to get into them churches, make them ministers get up, make these politicians get up, you know, make the people rise up, as they did in 1999, when we did Millions for Mumia. The time is now for organizing, organizing with all of the strength that you have.
And I just want to thank people like the Partisan Defense Committee, Labor for Mumia, the Mobilization for Mumia, Millions for Mumia. These people have stayed steadfast, and if I haven’t mentioned the names of other people, there is a lot of individuals – JR and the Bay View – for keeping this issue up front in the people’s eye.
The time is now for organizing, organizing with all of the strength that you have. People must pull together to abolish the death penalty. Save this brotha who has been on the front lines, from deathrow, on every issue of social justice that there is.
And I will be down (in the Bay) on Feb. 18. I’ll be in California, from the 18th to the 23rd. I’m coming down there for the brotha of the San Francisco 8 (Francisco Torres’) hearing. I’m coming down there for Brotha JR’s hearing, and I wish I could be in LA when they bring this murderous cop (who murdered) Oscar Grant there, but I’m going to be pushing for people to get there – everybody who can.
This death sentence that was handed out to this brotha; we can’t allow it, people. And I’m saying y’all have been an example to all of the people around the world of resistance (of what can be done) when people be consistent at what they do. Y’all have had something done here when y’all had that murderous monster arrested. It must continue. This dude must sit on deathrow. That is where he needs to sit with all of the other people. And let people fight to get his behind off of deathrow.
You know, it can’t be enough said: People must pull together. You must abolish the death penalty because it is wrong, all the way across the board. We must support JR and all of the brothas and sistas that was arrested. This is what Mumia is pushing for; this is what we’re pushing for.
When we come to California, we’ll be having more information about Mumia. The movement is moving real fast, so please while you are organizing for everything, tell people that they must get into the streets in order to save this brotha who has been on the front lines, from deathrow, on every issue of social justice that there is.
Email POCC Minister of Information JR, Bay View associate editor, at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com .
http://www.sfbayview.com/2010/pam-africa-on-the-supreme-court-ruling-against-mumia/
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
A Supreme Court blow to anti-death penalty icon Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/content/view/print/274655
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed an appeals court ruling that would have given Mumia Abu-Jamal a chance to avoid the dealth penalty. Some opponents of capital punishment have championed Abu-Jamal's case.
By Warren Richey Staff writer
posted January 19, 2010 at 2:05 pm EST
Washington
Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose death sentence for killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981 has become an international cause célèbre for opponents of capital punishment, has suffered a significant setback at the US Supreme Court.
In a summary order issued on Tuesday, the high court reversed a 2008 federal appeals court ruling that had required a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Abu-Jamal.
The Supreme Court action sends the case back to the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to reconsider the issue in light of a similar decision handed down last week by the high court. In that case, with similar facts, the justices voted 9 to 0 to reverse an order that struck down the death sentence.
Tuesday’s action by the Supreme Court likely moves Abu-Jamal significantly closer to execution.
Abu-Jamal’s writings about his legal plight have attracted widespread attention among human rights activists and capital punishment opponents in the US and Europe. He has maintained that the police coerced witnesses to testify against him and that racial prejudice and discrimination played a role in his death sentence.
This week, supporters began circulating a petition to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder calling for an investigation into the “long history of civil rights and constitutional violations in this case.”
The case against Abu-Jamal
The case stems from a December 1981 traffic stop in which Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner pulled over a car driven by Abu-Jamal’s brother, William Cook. Abu-Jamal was a passenger in the car. A struggle broke out between Mr. Cook and Officer Faulkner.
According to witnesses, as the struggle continued Abu-Jamal ran back toward the car from a parking lot across the street and shot Faulkner in the back. The officer fell to the ground and returned fire, striking Abu-Jamal in the chest. Abu-Jamal then allegedly walked toward the officer, stood over him, and fired four more shots at close range. One shot struck Faulkner between the eyes.
He was convicted and sentenced to death. The jury found one aggravating factor – killing a police officer who was acting in the line of duty. The jury considered one mitigating factor, Abu-Jamal’s lack of a significant criminal record.
It is the sentencing phase of the trial that was under consideration in the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Confusion in sentencing?
Both a federal judge and a federal appeals court had ruled that the jury that sentenced Abu-Jamal to death might have been confused over how to properly assess mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of the trial.
At issue was whether jurors might have thought that they had to unanimously agree on each piece of mitigating evidence being weighed against the aggravating circumstances justifying a death sentence.
There is no unanimity requirement for jurors considering mitigating circumstances. They are free to consider anything that might weigh against a death sentence.
In contrast, all jurors must agree on any aggravating factors. In addition, jurors must unanimously decide that the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that those aggravating factors outweigh any mitigating circumstances.
The 'Mills standard'
In some cases jurors have been given faulty instructions by the trial judge that jurors must unanimously agree on the mitigating factors. Such instructions are inaccurate and unconstitutional under a 1988 Supreme Court decision called Mills v. Maryland.
In the Mills case the high court ruled that a defendant must receive a new sentencing hearing whenever there is a “substantial possibility that reasonable jurors … well may have thought they were precluded from considering any mitigating evidence unless all 12 jurors agreed.”
In the Abu-Jamal case, the federal appeals court ruled that Abu-Jamal should either receive a new sentencing hearing or have his death sentence be changed to a life sentence.
Last Tuesday, the high court decided a similar case, Smith v. Spisak. The case was like Abu-Jamal’s in that a state court had upheld the jury instructions and verdict form, but a federal appeals court overturned that ruling after concluding that there was a violation of the Mills standard.
Supreme Court's decision
In the Spisak case, the high court reversed the federal appeals court in a decision that will make it harder in future cases to argue possible juror confusion short of a judge actually giving the wrong instructions to the jury.
“The instructions did not say that the jury must determine the existence of each individual mitigating factor unanimously,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the majority opinion last week. “Neither the instructions nor the forms said anything about how – or even whether – the jury should make individual determinations that each particular mitigating circumstance existed.”
Justice Breyer added: “In our view the instructions and verdict forms did not clearly bring about, either through what they said or what they implied, the circumstances that Mills found critical.”
It will now be up to the Third Circuit to apply this new, tougher test to the facts of Abu-Jamal’s case.
The case is Beard v. Abu-Jamal.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed an appeals court ruling that would have given Mumia Abu-Jamal a chance to avoid the dealth penalty. Some opponents of capital punishment have championed Abu-Jamal's case.
By Warren Richey Staff writer
posted January 19, 2010 at 2:05 pm EST
Washington
Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose death sentence for killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981 has become an international cause célèbre for opponents of capital punishment, has suffered a significant setback at the US Supreme Court.
In a summary order issued on Tuesday, the high court reversed a 2008 federal appeals court ruling that had required a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Abu-Jamal.
The Supreme Court action sends the case back to the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to reconsider the issue in light of a similar decision handed down last week by the high court. In that case, with similar facts, the justices voted 9 to 0 to reverse an order that struck down the death sentence.
Tuesday’s action by the Supreme Court likely moves Abu-Jamal significantly closer to execution.
Abu-Jamal’s writings about his legal plight have attracted widespread attention among human rights activists and capital punishment opponents in the US and Europe. He has maintained that the police coerced witnesses to testify against him and that racial prejudice and discrimination played a role in his death sentence.
This week, supporters began circulating a petition to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder calling for an investigation into the “long history of civil rights and constitutional violations in this case.”
The case against Abu-Jamal
The case stems from a December 1981 traffic stop in which Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner pulled over a car driven by Abu-Jamal’s brother, William Cook. Abu-Jamal was a passenger in the car. A struggle broke out between Mr. Cook and Officer Faulkner.
According to witnesses, as the struggle continued Abu-Jamal ran back toward the car from a parking lot across the street and shot Faulkner in the back. The officer fell to the ground and returned fire, striking Abu-Jamal in the chest. Abu-Jamal then allegedly walked toward the officer, stood over him, and fired four more shots at close range. One shot struck Faulkner between the eyes.
He was convicted and sentenced to death. The jury found one aggravating factor – killing a police officer who was acting in the line of duty. The jury considered one mitigating factor, Abu-Jamal’s lack of a significant criminal record.
It is the sentencing phase of the trial that was under consideration in the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Confusion in sentencing?
Both a federal judge and a federal appeals court had ruled that the jury that sentenced Abu-Jamal to death might have been confused over how to properly assess mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of the trial.
At issue was whether jurors might have thought that they had to unanimously agree on each piece of mitigating evidence being weighed against the aggravating circumstances justifying a death sentence.
There is no unanimity requirement for jurors considering mitigating circumstances. They are free to consider anything that might weigh against a death sentence.
In contrast, all jurors must agree on any aggravating factors. In addition, jurors must unanimously decide that the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that those aggravating factors outweigh any mitigating circumstances.
The 'Mills standard'
In some cases jurors have been given faulty instructions by the trial judge that jurors must unanimously agree on the mitigating factors. Such instructions are inaccurate and unconstitutional under a 1988 Supreme Court decision called Mills v. Maryland.
In the Mills case the high court ruled that a defendant must receive a new sentencing hearing whenever there is a “substantial possibility that reasonable jurors … well may have thought they were precluded from considering any mitigating evidence unless all 12 jurors agreed.”
In the Abu-Jamal case, the federal appeals court ruled that Abu-Jamal should either receive a new sentencing hearing or have his death sentence be changed to a life sentence.
Last Tuesday, the high court decided a similar case, Smith v. Spisak. The case was like Abu-Jamal’s in that a state court had upheld the jury instructions and verdict form, but a federal appeals court overturned that ruling after concluding that there was a violation of the Mills standard.
Supreme Court's decision
In the Spisak case, the high court reversed the federal appeals court in a decision that will make it harder in future cases to argue possible juror confusion short of a judge actually giving the wrong instructions to the jury.
“The instructions did not say that the jury must determine the existence of each individual mitigating factor unanimously,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the majority opinion last week. “Neither the instructions nor the forms said anything about how – or even whether – the jury should make individual determinations that each particular mitigating circumstance existed.”
Justice Breyer added: “In our view the instructions and verdict forms did not clearly bring about, either through what they said or what they implied, the circumstances that Mills found critical.”
It will now be up to the Third Circuit to apply this new, tougher test to the facts of Abu-Jamal’s case.
The case is Beard v. Abu-Jamal.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Supreme Court ruling due on Tuesday
Supreme Court to rule on famed death penalty case
9:09am EST
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is expected on Tuesday to issue its latest decision on the fate of Mumia Abu-Jamal, arguably America's most famous death-row inmate, convicted of slaying a Philadelphia policeman, a crime he denies committing.
The court is due to rule on an appeal by the Philadelphia district attorney who is seeking to have Abu-Jamal executed and bring an end to a decades-long legal saga the inmate, a former journalist, wrote about while in prison.
Abu-Jamal, now 55, was convicted in 1982 of killing officer Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981. He has become an international cause celebre for the anti-death penalty movement whose supporters argue strenuously he did not receive a fair trial.
His backers say he was framed by police, that prosecution witnesses were coerced into false testimony and that ballistics evidence shows Abu-Jamal did not shoot Faulkner but that the murder was committed by another man who fled the scene.
Supporters also claim that Abu-Jamal, who is black, was the victim of a racist and notoriously pro-prosecution trial judge, the now-deceased Albert Sabo, who was overheard to say, "Yeah, and I'm going to help them fry the nigger," according to an affidavit by a court stenographer.
Faulkner's widow, Maureen, and Philadelphia's Fraternal Order of Police oppose any clemency for Abu-Jamal, arguing his conviction has been upheld repeatedly by numerous courts, including the Supreme Court, over three decades.
They note that bullet fragments taken from Faulkner's body match the ammunition from the gun carried by Abu-Jamal who was earning his living as a taxi driver at the time of the killing.
If the Supreme Court rules in his favor, Abu-Jamal would get a new jury trial on the sentencing, but not his conviction.
But a defeat is likely to send the case back to an appeals court, whose ruling would be based on a new Supreme Court decision on jury instructions in another case, said his attorney, Robert R. Bryan.
Abu-Jamal has been in solitary confinement on death row since the conviction, and has been held since 1995 in a western Pennsylvania prison where he has written books and contributed to international journals and radio shows.
Outside the United States, Abu-Jamal's backers include the human rights group Amnesty International, which in 2000 called for a new trial, arguing his conviction and sentence followed "contradictory and incomplete evidence" in a trial that failed to meet minimum international standards of justice.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
9:09am EST
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is expected on Tuesday to issue its latest decision on the fate of Mumia Abu-Jamal, arguably America's most famous death-row inmate, convicted of slaying a Philadelphia policeman, a crime he denies committing.
The court is due to rule on an appeal by the Philadelphia district attorney who is seeking to have Abu-Jamal executed and bring an end to a decades-long legal saga the inmate, a former journalist, wrote about while in prison.
Abu-Jamal, now 55, was convicted in 1982 of killing officer Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981. He has become an international cause celebre for the anti-death penalty movement whose supporters argue strenuously he did not receive a fair trial.
His backers say he was framed by police, that prosecution witnesses were coerced into false testimony and that ballistics evidence shows Abu-Jamal did not shoot Faulkner but that the murder was committed by another man who fled the scene.
Supporters also claim that Abu-Jamal, who is black, was the victim of a racist and notoriously pro-prosecution trial judge, the now-deceased Albert Sabo, who was overheard to say, "Yeah, and I'm going to help them fry the nigger," according to an affidavit by a court stenographer.
Faulkner's widow, Maureen, and Philadelphia's Fraternal Order of Police oppose any clemency for Abu-Jamal, arguing his conviction has been upheld repeatedly by numerous courts, including the Supreme Court, over three decades.
They note that bullet fragments taken from Faulkner's body match the ammunition from the gun carried by Abu-Jamal who was earning his living as a taxi driver at the time of the killing.
If the Supreme Court rules in his favor, Abu-Jamal would get a new jury trial on the sentencing, but not his conviction.
But a defeat is likely to send the case back to an appeals court, whose ruling would be based on a new Supreme Court decision on jury instructions in another case, said his attorney, Robert R. Bryan.
Abu-Jamal has been in solitary confinement on death row since the conviction, and has been held since 1995 in a western Pennsylvania prison where he has written books and contributed to international journals and radio shows.
Outside the United States, Abu-Jamal's backers include the human rights group Amnesty International, which in 2000 called for a new trial, arguing his conviction and sentence followed "contradictory and incomplete evidence" in a trial that failed to meet minimum international standards of justice.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
US Supreme Court will hold Friday conference about Mumia's case
Yesterday there was a huge development in Mumia's case.
According to a posting yesterday on the US Supreme Court's website, the Court has scheduled a conference for this Friday, January 15, to discuss Mumia's case. Specifically, they are looking at the Philadelphia DA's request to have Mumia executed without a new sentencing hearing.
The Supreme Court has apparently been waiting for the ruling on the Spisak case, which was also released yesterday. In Spisak, the court ruled to reinstate Spisak's death sentence, but it is still unclear what impact this ruling will have. The common thread between Mumia and Spisak is the "Mills" precedent, and the Court yesterday ruled that Spisak's case did not meet the standards of Mills.
This is the link to the Supreme Court posting:
http://origin.www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/08-652.htm
Here is a recent article by Jeff Mackler, explaining the importance of the Spisak case:
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/mumia-abu-jamal-faces-new-execution-threat
According to a posting yesterday on the US Supreme Court's website, the Court has scheduled a conference for this Friday, January 15, to discuss Mumia's case. Specifically, they are looking at the Philadelphia DA's request to have Mumia executed without a new sentencing hearing.
The Supreme Court has apparently been waiting for the ruling on the Spisak case, which was also released yesterday. In Spisak, the court ruled to reinstate Spisak's death sentence, but it is still unclear what impact this ruling will have. The common thread between Mumia and Spisak is the "Mills" precedent, and the Court yesterday ruled that Spisak's case did not meet the standards of Mills.
This is the link to the Supreme Court posting:
http://origin.www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/08-652.htm
Here is a recent article by Jeff Mackler, explaining the importance of the Spisak case:
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/mumia-abu-jamal-faces-new-execution-threat
Rosa Luxemburg Weekend in Berlin
by Victor Grossman
It was the Rosa Luxemburg weekend again in Berlin, like every January, this time with an unusual highlight. Despite the transportation delays caused by big snowstorms, two conferences and the traditional memorial march kept leftists from all over Germany and guests from other countries very busy.
The emotional peak occurred during the main conferenceon Saturday, organized by the newspaper junge Welt("Young World"), with speakers from Honduras, Cuba, France, and Canada and discussions on the recession, the role of unions in fighting back, and the campaign to withdraw German troops from Afghanistan, recently strengthened by a courageous statement by the woman who heads the Lutheran Church in Germany.
But it was lawyer Robert Bryanwho warmed the hearts of the audience in the big hall, or rather his client Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose fight for life, recalling fights of previous generations for Sacco and Vanzetti or Angela Davis, was clearly known to the over a thousand people present. A voice tape with Mumia has been featured at these annual conferences for many years. But this time Bryan had arranged for Mumia to use his 15 minutes of telephone time to speak directly to the conference. One journalist, Birgit Gaertner, described it this way:
Robert held his mobile to the microphone so that we all could hear him, and he could hear us. Immediately there was tumultuous applause, minute after minute. It was a breathtaking moment of overpowering feeling. Robert told us that Mumia was in tears. So was I. And we realized that solidarity was not only important for legal or political battles but also, very personally, for him.
Mumia was allowed to speak with Robert for fifteen minutes. Since he knew that so many were listening, he spoke of his daily life in prison and thanked everyone for the great support from Germany. His fifteen minutes were soon used up, just a brief connection with the outside world, a small link with life, and then he had to plod back into his cell, shackled and handcuffed, alone again with the chaotic feelings undoubtedly stirred by the telephone call with Berlin. Thinking about it brought new tears to my eyes.
A smaller conference on the same day brought together anti-fascist groups from all over the country to discuss how best to combat neo-Nazis who march every weekend through dozens of German cities and continue violent attacks on people who look foreign or look like leftists. A big Nazi march is planned again for February 13th in Dresden, the 65th anniversary of the destruction of that city in World War Two. In an attempt to win popular support based on this still emotionally charged event, they try to misuse it as a balance, "Dresden's Auschwitz." The city police are again expected to protect the Nazi march as "legally permitted," but the anti-fascists decided to try again to block its route under the slogan "non pasaran," "They shall not pass," recalled from the Spanish Civil War. The Nazis expect up to 10,000 in a region where they are particularly strong. The anti-fascists are intent on outnumbering them.
On Sunday, after the conferences, the participants in the march were certainly more numerous. The goal was the big memorial stone dedicated to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the great, very beloved socialists who fought to end World War One and then helped found a Communist Party just two weeks before they were murdered. Between 3,000 and 10,000, depending on who was counting, chose the longer route through the wide Karl Marx Allee, defying bitter cold and snow-filled streets. They formed a colorful bouquet of leftist groups, some from Die Linke(The Left) party, others from the Communist Party or others of many views and directions, mostly ultra-left, Maoists, groups still waving flags of the German Democratic Republic and its youth organization, one Turkish group with a banner showing Luxemburg, Liebknecht, and Lenin as well as Stalin and Mao. There were also Greek Communists, Basque supporters, Kurdish groups. The banners competed in color and size, but all the very varied groups walked peacefully together through the snow. Six blocks before the Cemetery of Socialists, their final goal, they mingled with the big crowds which had preferred to take the subway this far. After passing the many booths with their books, manifestos, petitions, or simply sausages or soup, they walked around the big stone monument with the words "The dead call to us" and placed red carnations there in the snow. The estimated number, all told, was about 40,000, less than the previous year, due to the weather, but enough to impress greatly the American and Norwegian participants I spoke to. It was a big crowd who defied snow and ice; the "old faithful" were there as ever, but there were even more young people.
For those in Die Linke, undoubtedly a majority of the main "subway" crowd, it was a crucial for showing their feelings. The party, which won a big victory in the September elections, has been upset by charges and countercharges involving various leading personalities, made possible by the absence due to illness of the key leader Oskar Lafontaine. The major media have been busy trying to heat up a quarrel between small but growing party organizations in Western Germany, most of them close to Lafontaine, and party leaders in Eastern Germany, whose support by 20 to 30 percent of the population has made it possible to join coalition governments in Berlin, Brandenburg, with good chances next year for two more. This strategy is one of the controversial issues involved. A party meeting on the Monday after the demonstration featured an attempt to sort out the differences, a vital need if the party is to make headway in the May elections in North Rhine/Westphalia, the largest state in Germany in terms of population, and a key in political directions for both the government and the opposition.
The demonstration of 40,000 left-wingers on Sunday, still devoted to the hopes and dreams of Karl and Rosa, should and may perhaps have acted as a signal. Nearly everyone expects the right-wing central government of Angela Merkel, once the May elections are over, to tear gaping new holes in the raggedy German "social net," and to expand abroad wherever possible. Strong opposition by all on the left will then be desperately urgent.
___________________________________
Victor Grossman, American journalist and author, is a resident of East Berlin for many years. He is the author of Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany(University of Massachusetts Press, 2003).
___________________________________
URL: mrzine.monthlyreview.org/grossman120110.html
It was the Rosa Luxemburg weekend again in Berlin, like every January, this time with an unusual highlight. Despite the transportation delays caused by big snowstorms, two conferences and the traditional memorial march kept leftists from all over Germany and guests from other countries very busy.
The emotional peak occurred during the main conferenceon Saturday, organized by the newspaper junge Welt("Young World"), with speakers from Honduras, Cuba, France, and Canada and discussions on the recession, the role of unions in fighting back, and the campaign to withdraw German troops from Afghanistan, recently strengthened by a courageous statement by the woman who heads the Lutheran Church in Germany.
But it was lawyer Robert Bryanwho warmed the hearts of the audience in the big hall, or rather his client Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose fight for life, recalling fights of previous generations for Sacco and Vanzetti or Angela Davis, was clearly known to the over a thousand people present. A voice tape with Mumia has been featured at these annual conferences for many years. But this time Bryan had arranged for Mumia to use his 15 minutes of telephone time to speak directly to the conference. One journalist, Birgit Gaertner, described it this way:
Robert held his mobile to the microphone so that we all could hear him, and he could hear us. Immediately there was tumultuous applause, minute after minute. It was a breathtaking moment of overpowering feeling. Robert told us that Mumia was in tears. So was I. And we realized that solidarity was not only important for legal or political battles but also, very personally, for him.
Mumia was allowed to speak with Robert for fifteen minutes. Since he knew that so many were listening, he spoke of his daily life in prison and thanked everyone for the great support from Germany. His fifteen minutes were soon used up, just a brief connection with the outside world, a small link with life, and then he had to plod back into his cell, shackled and handcuffed, alone again with the chaotic feelings undoubtedly stirred by the telephone call with Berlin. Thinking about it brought new tears to my eyes.
A smaller conference on the same day brought together anti-fascist groups from all over the country to discuss how best to combat neo-Nazis who march every weekend through dozens of German cities and continue violent attacks on people who look foreign or look like leftists. A big Nazi march is planned again for February 13th in Dresden, the 65th anniversary of the destruction of that city in World War Two. In an attempt to win popular support based on this still emotionally charged event, they try to misuse it as a balance, "Dresden's Auschwitz." The city police are again expected to protect the Nazi march as "legally permitted," but the anti-fascists decided to try again to block its route under the slogan "non pasaran," "They shall not pass," recalled from the Spanish Civil War. The Nazis expect up to 10,000 in a region where they are particularly strong. The anti-fascists are intent on outnumbering them.
On Sunday, after the conferences, the participants in the march were certainly more numerous. The goal was the big memorial stone dedicated to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the great, very beloved socialists who fought to end World War One and then helped found a Communist Party just two weeks before they were murdered. Between 3,000 and 10,000, depending on who was counting, chose the longer route through the wide Karl Marx Allee, defying bitter cold and snow-filled streets. They formed a colorful bouquet of leftist groups, some from Die Linke(The Left) party, others from the Communist Party or others of many views and directions, mostly ultra-left, Maoists, groups still waving flags of the German Democratic Republic and its youth organization, one Turkish group with a banner showing Luxemburg, Liebknecht, and Lenin as well as Stalin and Mao. There were also Greek Communists, Basque supporters, Kurdish groups. The banners competed in color and size, but all the very varied groups walked peacefully together through the snow. Six blocks before the Cemetery of Socialists, their final goal, they mingled with the big crowds which had preferred to take the subway this far. After passing the many booths with their books, manifestos, petitions, or simply sausages or soup, they walked around the big stone monument with the words "The dead call to us" and placed red carnations there in the snow. The estimated number, all told, was about 40,000, less than the previous year, due to the weather, but enough to impress greatly the American and Norwegian participants I spoke to. It was a big crowd who defied snow and ice; the "old faithful" were there as ever, but there were even more young people.
For those in Die Linke, undoubtedly a majority of the main "subway" crowd, it was a crucial for showing their feelings. The party, which won a big victory in the September elections, has been upset by charges and countercharges involving various leading personalities, made possible by the absence due to illness of the key leader Oskar Lafontaine. The major media have been busy trying to heat up a quarrel between small but growing party organizations in Western Germany, most of them close to Lafontaine, and party leaders in Eastern Germany, whose support by 20 to 30 percent of the population has made it possible to join coalition governments in Berlin, Brandenburg, with good chances next year for two more. This strategy is one of the controversial issues involved. A party meeting on the Monday after the demonstration featured an attempt to sort out the differences, a vital need if the party is to make headway in the May elections in North Rhine/Westphalia, the largest state in Germany in terms of population, and a key in political directions for both the government and the opposition.
The demonstration of 40,000 left-wingers on Sunday, still devoted to the hopes and dreams of Karl and Rosa, should and may perhaps have acted as a signal. Nearly everyone expects the right-wing central government of Angela Merkel, once the May elections are over, to tear gaping new holes in the raggedy German "social net," and to expand abroad wherever possible. Strong opposition by all on the left will then be desperately urgent.
___________________________________
Victor Grossman, American journalist and author, is a resident of East Berlin for many years. He is the author of Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany(University of Massachusetts Press, 2003).
___________________________________
URL: mrzine.monthlyreview.org/grossman120110.html
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
American Justice is Blind, But the Scales are Rigged
By Dave Lindorff
When it comes to justice in America, the scales definitely badly need a visit by an inspector from the Department of Weights and Standards.
Consider the recent decision by Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina tossing out the federal indictment of five Blackwater (Now Xe) mercenaries for the 2007 slaughter of 14 innocent Iraqis in Baghdad. The judge found that federal prosecutors had improperly used incriminating statements which he said had been "compelled" from the Blackwater personnel under "threat of job loss."
Let's compare that to how the courts have handled other cases. We might start with John Walker Lindh, the young American captured in the first days of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Indicted on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, Lindh, currently serving a 20 year sentence after a plea agreement reached with the government, never had his case thrown out, though the government's main evidence was a statement allegedly made by him (this on the word of an FBI agent) that he had been a member of the Taliban and Al Qaeda--a statement that even if actually made, had come at a time that Lindh was being kept duct-taped to a gurney and held in an unheated, unlit metal shipping container, with an untreated bullet wound in his leg, and denied access to an attorney. Surely the coercion behind this "confession"--Lindh's military captors allegedly were threatening him that he would die in Afghanistan--was at least as severe as the threat to Blackwater guards that they could lose their jobs if they didn't tell what had happened at the bloody shooting in Baghdad. Yet Lindh's charges were allowed to stand.
Or compare the Blackwater case to the case of Philadelphia journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on Pennsylvania's death row now for 27 years for the 1981 killing of a white Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal was convicted largely on the basis of testimony by two alleged "eye-witnesses": an African-American prostitute named Cynthia White and a white taxi driver named Robert Chobert. White gave wildly different accounts of what she had "seen" from her position on the sidewalk several car lengths away from the shooting. In her first statement to police, on Dec. 9, 1981, the day of the shooting, she claimed the shooter of officer Faulkner had "fired the gun at the police officer four or five times" after which "the police officer fell to the ground, started screaming." But after that initial interview, White kept being picked up again and again by police, who would bring her to homicide where she would be re-interviewed. Each time, her version of what she had seen would change, and the number of shots fired at the officer while he was standing would get lower, from "four or five shots" on Dec. 12, to "one or two shots" on Dec. 17, to just one shot on Jan. 8. Asked at trial by Abu-Jamal's attorney why her account of what she had seen kept changing, White replied, "They were asking me questions, and they asked me in a different way to explain it." Was White being coerced by police investigators into making perjured testimony? White was a prostitute. Police kept arresting her on the street and asking her the same questions over and over. At least one fellow prostitute, Veronica Jones, later testified that she had been similarly pressured by police, with the offer allegedly being made that if she said what police investigators wanted, she would be left alone and would even be protected in her street-walking activity.
Chobert, meanwhile, the taxi driver, claimed to have been parked in his taxi behind Officer Faulkner's squad car, when he witnessed the shooting two cars ahead of him. There has always been a question as to whether Chobert was really parked where he said he was. White, in two drawings of the scene done for police investigators, showed Faulkner's car, Abu-Jamal's brother's car, and a Ford that was not involved in the incident at all, but she did not show any taxi. Nor did any other witness report seeing Chobert or his cab. In any event, while Joseph McGill, the assistant DA prosecuting the case, assured the jury of Chobert's integrity ("Do you think anybody could get him to say anything that wasn't the truth?" he asked them rhetorically in his summation.), in fact, he had worked assiduously to prevent them from knowing that this witness actually was a convicted arsonist (he had thrown a molotov cocktail into an elementary school for money and was currently on out on probation for a five year sentence). McGill also convinced the judge to keep from the jury the information that Chobert was driving his cab on a license that had been suspended for a DWI conviction--something that could have been used to revoke his probation and send him to jail to serve his term. Further, McGill failed to tell either the jury or the judge or the defense that Chobert had asked him if the prosecutor could help him "fix" his license problem. Clearly, Chobert was also testifying in this controversial case under considerable coercion.
Yet through years of appeals, though the evidence of coerced testimony is clear in this case, no judge has seen fit to toss out Abu-Jamal's conviction and order a new trial.
Although it is clearly anathema to any kind of fair trial, coercion is commonplace in American "justice." Whether a judge will decide that the coercion of confessions or of witnesses requires the tossing out of an indictment, or the overturning of a conviction, though, appears to have more to do with the political connections of the defendant than with the merits of the case.
John Walker Lindh was portrayed in the months before his trial as "the American Taliban" by no less than the Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft. He was widely portrayed in the media at the time as a traitor to America, though he had actually joined up with Taliban fighters in August of 2001, a month before the 9-11 attacks at a time that the US had no troops in Afghanistan, and was actually holding governmental meetings with the Taliban government over a pipeline deal, and over efforts to attack opium growing in the country.
Abu-Jamal, since the shooting of Officer Faulkner, has been the target of a nationwide campaign by the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, to have him convicted and executed.
There is really no doubt that Blackwater "security guards" working for the US military and State Department, perhaps fearing they were under attack, went on a shooting rampage in a Baghdad intersection, mowing down 14 civilians, including women and children, and wounding many more. One of the group initially charged even confessed and is currently serving jail time for his actions. But in the view of a federal judge, the fear on the part of his colleagues that they might lose their jobs if they didn't tell investigators what had happened makes their initial confessions "coerced," and since those statements were used by federal prosecutors as a basis for their indictment of the men, the indictment was flawed and had to be tossed out.
American justice at work.
The scales are not balanced.
DAVE LINDORFF, a Philadelphia-area journalist, is the author of "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal" (Common Courage Press, 2003). His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
When it comes to justice in America, the scales definitely badly need a visit by an inspector from the Department of Weights and Standards.
Consider the recent decision by Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina tossing out the federal indictment of five Blackwater (Now Xe) mercenaries for the 2007 slaughter of 14 innocent Iraqis in Baghdad. The judge found that federal prosecutors had improperly used incriminating statements which he said had been "compelled" from the Blackwater personnel under "threat of job loss."
Let's compare that to how the courts have handled other cases. We might start with John Walker Lindh, the young American captured in the first days of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Indicted on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, Lindh, currently serving a 20 year sentence after a plea agreement reached with the government, never had his case thrown out, though the government's main evidence was a statement allegedly made by him (this on the word of an FBI agent) that he had been a member of the Taliban and Al Qaeda--a statement that even if actually made, had come at a time that Lindh was being kept duct-taped to a gurney and held in an unheated, unlit metal shipping container, with an untreated bullet wound in his leg, and denied access to an attorney. Surely the coercion behind this "confession"--Lindh's military captors allegedly were threatening him that he would die in Afghanistan--was at least as severe as the threat to Blackwater guards that they could lose their jobs if they didn't tell what had happened at the bloody shooting in Baghdad. Yet Lindh's charges were allowed to stand.
Or compare the Blackwater case to the case of Philadelphia journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on Pennsylvania's death row now for 27 years for the 1981 killing of a white Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal was convicted largely on the basis of testimony by two alleged "eye-witnesses": an African-American prostitute named Cynthia White and a white taxi driver named Robert Chobert. White gave wildly different accounts of what she had "seen" from her position on the sidewalk several car lengths away from the shooting. In her first statement to police, on Dec. 9, 1981, the day of the shooting, she claimed the shooter of officer Faulkner had "fired the gun at the police officer four or five times" after which "the police officer fell to the ground, started screaming." But after that initial interview, White kept being picked up again and again by police, who would bring her to homicide where she would be re-interviewed. Each time, her version of what she had seen would change, and the number of shots fired at the officer while he was standing would get lower, from "four or five shots" on Dec. 12, to "one or two shots" on Dec. 17, to just one shot on Jan. 8. Asked at trial by Abu-Jamal's attorney why her account of what she had seen kept changing, White replied, "They were asking me questions, and they asked me in a different way to explain it." Was White being coerced by police investigators into making perjured testimony? White was a prostitute. Police kept arresting her on the street and asking her the same questions over and over. At least one fellow prostitute, Veronica Jones, later testified that she had been similarly pressured by police, with the offer allegedly being made that if she said what police investigators wanted, she would be left alone and would even be protected in her street-walking activity.
Chobert, meanwhile, the taxi driver, claimed to have been parked in his taxi behind Officer Faulkner's squad car, when he witnessed the shooting two cars ahead of him. There has always been a question as to whether Chobert was really parked where he said he was. White, in two drawings of the scene done for police investigators, showed Faulkner's car, Abu-Jamal's brother's car, and a Ford that was not involved in the incident at all, but she did not show any taxi. Nor did any other witness report seeing Chobert or his cab. In any event, while Joseph McGill, the assistant DA prosecuting the case, assured the jury of Chobert's integrity ("Do you think anybody could get him to say anything that wasn't the truth?" he asked them rhetorically in his summation.), in fact, he had worked assiduously to prevent them from knowing that this witness actually was a convicted arsonist (he had thrown a molotov cocktail into an elementary school for money and was currently on out on probation for a five year sentence). McGill also convinced the judge to keep from the jury the information that Chobert was driving his cab on a license that had been suspended for a DWI conviction--something that could have been used to revoke his probation and send him to jail to serve his term. Further, McGill failed to tell either the jury or the judge or the defense that Chobert had asked him if the prosecutor could help him "fix" his license problem. Clearly, Chobert was also testifying in this controversial case under considerable coercion.
Yet through years of appeals, though the evidence of coerced testimony is clear in this case, no judge has seen fit to toss out Abu-Jamal's conviction and order a new trial.
Although it is clearly anathema to any kind of fair trial, coercion is commonplace in American "justice." Whether a judge will decide that the coercion of confessions or of witnesses requires the tossing out of an indictment, or the overturning of a conviction, though, appears to have more to do with the political connections of the defendant than with the merits of the case.
John Walker Lindh was portrayed in the months before his trial as "the American Taliban" by no less than the Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft. He was widely portrayed in the media at the time as a traitor to America, though he had actually joined up with Taliban fighters in August of 2001, a month before the 9-11 attacks at a time that the US had no troops in Afghanistan, and was actually holding governmental meetings with the Taliban government over a pipeline deal, and over efforts to attack opium growing in the country.
Abu-Jamal, since the shooting of Officer Faulkner, has been the target of a nationwide campaign by the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, to have him convicted and executed.
There is really no doubt that Blackwater "security guards" working for the US military and State Department, perhaps fearing they were under attack, went on a shooting rampage in a Baghdad intersection, mowing down 14 civilians, including women and children, and wounding many more. One of the group initially charged even confessed and is currently serving jail time for his actions. But in the view of a federal judge, the fear on the part of his colleagues that they might lose their jobs if they didn't tell investigators what had happened makes their initial confessions "coerced," and since those statements were used by federal prosecutors as a basis for their indictment of the men, the indictment was flawed and had to be tossed out.
American justice at work.
The scales are not balanced.
DAVE LINDORFF, a Philadelphia-area journalist, is the author of "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal" (Common Courage Press, 2003). His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
Monday, December 21, 2009
Que Viva German Solidarity!
Life Hanging by a Thread – actions for Mumia in Germany, December 2009
Around the sad and outrageous anniversary marking 28 years behind steelglass and concrete people all over Germany to the streets for Mumia. The encouraging news is that hundreds and thousands of people are showing up for Mumia's support now after years of a low activities.
Demonstrations with huge transparents took place in Stuttgart, Oldenburg, Kiel, Muenchen, Nuernberg, Hamburg, Heidelberg and Berlin.
During the weeks and months before new and old groups against the death penalty and for Mumia's freedom in many towns had organized evening events with speakers who know the case well, most of them with screeings of "In Prison My Whole Life" the 2007 documentary by British filmmaker Marc Evans. People discussed the planned actions for Mumia in case the death penalty should be re-installed. Three days after the announcement there will be a national day of action in many towns – mobilizing to a national demonstration in Berlin.
The action in Heidelberg on December 12th was a little different from all other demonstrations. We had planned to stage a scene for a photo with our town's most famous brands – the castle and the old bridge. Millions of tourists, most of them Americans, are visiting and photographing it every year.
The theme was „A Life Hanging by a Thread – Against the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal" – and so we covered the bridge towers and the handrail with crime scene tape, decorated a big part of the balustrade with our huge transparent, and hung a life size doll in an orange jumpsuit down the bridge – by a thread.
After a while we saved the death row candidate by pulling him up again – and then took the 20 meter long transparent to a spontaneous demontration through Europe's longes pedestrian mile, Heidelberg's main road, 2 kilometers long and full of shoppers and visitors.
Although just about 85 people we made it to a spectacular pic – not only for all tourists and other passengers on Saturday but into our daily paper on Monday!
We are especially proud of the fact that a lot of different groups took part in the action – from Amnesty Interntional Students to the Red Help.
We will keep working together, going for a city-council-statement in Heidelberg and for a big demonstration on January 30th.
Heidelberger Buendnis für Mumia
Also see: indymedia Germany: http://de.indymedia.org/2009/12/268610.shtml
Around the sad and outrageous anniversary marking 28 years behind steelglass and concrete people all over Germany to the streets for Mumia. The encouraging news is that hundreds and thousands of people are showing up for Mumia's support now after years of a low activities.
Demonstrations with huge transparents took place in Stuttgart, Oldenburg, Kiel, Muenchen, Nuernberg, Hamburg, Heidelberg and Berlin.
During the weeks and months before new and old groups against the death penalty and for Mumia's freedom in many towns had organized evening events with speakers who know the case well, most of them with screeings of "In Prison My Whole Life" the 2007 documentary by British filmmaker Marc Evans. People discussed the planned actions for Mumia in case the death penalty should be re-installed. Three days after the announcement there will be a national day of action in many towns – mobilizing to a national demonstration in Berlin.
The action in Heidelberg on December 12th was a little different from all other demonstrations. We had planned to stage a scene for a photo with our town's most famous brands – the castle and the old bridge. Millions of tourists, most of them Americans, are visiting and photographing it every year.
The theme was „A Life Hanging by a Thread – Against the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal" – and so we covered the bridge towers and the handrail with crime scene tape, decorated a big part of the balustrade with our huge transparent, and hung a life size doll in an orange jumpsuit down the bridge – by a thread.
After a while we saved the death row candidate by pulling him up again – and then took the 20 meter long transparent to a spontaneous demontration through Europe's longes pedestrian mile, Heidelberg's main road, 2 kilometers long and full of shoppers and visitors.
Although just about 85 people we made it to a spectacular pic – not only for all tourists and other passengers on Saturday but into our daily paper on Monday!
We are especially proud of the fact that a lot of different groups took part in the action – from Amnesty Interntional Students to the Red Help.
We will keep working together, going for a city-council-statement in Heidelberg and for a big demonstration on January 30th.
Heidelberger Buendnis für Mumia
Also see: indymedia Germany: http://de.indymedia.org/2009/12/268610.shtml
Rally for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal outside the most hated embassy in México
Sunday, December 20 2009 @ 12:02 AM CST
Contributed by: elenemigocomun
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20091220000224398
by Amig@s de Mumia, México
To the sound of drums, a little over a hundred of us demanded freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal outside the United States Embassy in Mexico City on December 9, 2009, as well as for Leonard Peltier, the men and women of MOVE, the Angola 3, Sundiata Acoli, Los Cinco, Francisco Torres, Hugo Pinnell, Ruchell Magee, Marilyn Buck, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, the Puerto Rican Independentistas, David Gilbert, Ramsey Muñiz, the environmental prisoners and all the social activists that this government intends to bury alive. We also demanded freedom for the 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners resisting torture and imprisonment in Israeli jails.
We accuse the United States government of kidnapping Mumia Abu-Jamal and holding him in conditions of torture for 28 years and of making an ongoing attempt on his life. In spite of all the evidence of racial discrimination in his trial, the Supreme Court of the United States ––the highest court in the land–– has denied him justice and, in so doing, has become party to these crimes. Despite photographic evidence that completely destroys the ridiculous scenario put forward by the Philadelphia District Attorney's office of the shooting death of policemen Daniel Faulkner in 1981, the managers of the national security state are now redoubling their efforts to execute this revolutionary journalist. If they're not able to apply the death penalty, which is nothing but premeditated murder, they plan to hold him captive in silence for the rest of his life. We support the demand for a federal civil rights investigation and all actions necessary to win his freedom.
We also accuse the United States government of fostering political prison and the extermination of the social struggle here in Mexico by training and equipping military and police forces to repress the social movements. We demand freedom for Ignacio del Valle, Felipe Álvarez, and Héctor Galindo, now held with long vengeful sentences which amount to life in prison, and freedom for the prisoners in Molino de Flores, the recently arrested comrades Victor Herrera Govea and Emmanuel Hernández Hernández, and all political prisoners in Oaxaca, Campeche, Guerrero and the entire country. We say NO to Plan México and NO to the construction of more prisons.
Our moderator Armando spoke of Mumia Abu-Jamal as a comrade we've supported for a long time, condemned to death or life in prison for "being a critic of the highly racist society of the United States, whose own Declaration of Independence refers to indigenous people as `merciless Indian savages' and which is built on the slave labor of people brought there from Africa. The history of the United States has been one of slavery, imperialism, and the robbery of the wealth of other peoples, all of which we have experienced in Mexico. And since Mumia is a good critic, he brings out these things. That's why he's in prison".
After reading Mumia's essay on Oscar Grant, whose murder by a BART policeman sparked a rebellion in the streets of Oakland at the first of the year, one of our members, Hilda, commented that although Mumia Abu-Jamal is now officially condemned to life in prison, there is a big effort to execute him and that his life is in grave danger. She explained that this essay is one of many things he has written on different issues, including Atenco, Oaxaca, the war in Iraq, from his small cell on death row where he has no physical contact whatsoever with his family or friends. She mentioned that it's a paradox to speak of this situation on the eve of the celebration of International Human Rights Day, and she also denounced the numerous human rights violations in Mexico by the Army, a body that has no business patrolling the streets.
It gave us great pleasure to have ex political prisoner Jacobo Silva Nogales with us at this rally. He and Gloria Arenas Agis, recently won their freedom after spending ten years in prison for guerrilla activity with Jacobo arguing their right to rebellion. He said: "And who is Mumia Abu-Jamal? The first time I heard that name I was in prison, and I learned that he was also in prison. I learned that he was a political prisoner, and I was also a political prisoner…. Mumia is a mirror that we're proud to look at because what we see is admired and respected; it's what the rest of us are, if only slightly and in exceptional moments. But he's also a mirror that's feared because it shows what can happen when self and duty become one and the same thing. The mirror admired and respected; that's Mumia ––an admirable struggle and a death sentence. So it also reflects those who have sentenced him. It reflects their fear of a better world for the many. That's why they want him dead; that's why we want him alive…. It may seem hard, at times, to win freedom when you're in a prison where they try to ban your very dreams, but it's possible to get out of there if the dreams from the outside come together with those on the inside…. I know this, because not long ago I was in a place like that, and I was able to get out, and so I'd like to tell him that I think he can get out, too ––that he can, that we can, win out over those bars that are blocking the freedom of his body, like he's been able to win out over those that block his freedom of spirit. By defending Mumia, we're defending our own selves!"
Also present were family members and comrades of Víctor Herrera Govea, recently arrested in the annual October 2nd march in commemoration of the Tlatelolco Massacre, simply for being young and protesting in the streets of Mexico City. His sisters invited everyone to participate in the activities in his support and read a letter that he sent to the rally, which says in part: "Today it's not only in México that we're experiencing the oppression of the prison system. This is also the case in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was once a reporter for the Black Panthers, has been in jail for 28 years, sentenced to death or life imprisonment….The way his trials have been conducted reflects the nature of the ghetto experienced in the United States, a country where 42% of the prison population is made up of African-Americans….Once again, we find ourselves under attack by the neoliberal prison system. As lovers of freedom and anarchists who defend life lived in collectivity, we are not exempt from government espionage and measures of repression and oppression….The only thing left to do is keep on struggling for our prisoners in Mexico and those outside the country like Mumia Abu-Jamal, who's been incriminated for a murder he did not commit….There's no evidence whatsoever against us, either….To Mumia, our heartfelt desire to see him free. To the government, the worst of all possible downfalls".
We read a letter recently published in La Jornada by political prisoner Felipe Álvarez of the Peoples' Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) of San Salvador Atenco: "Eight years after we launched a resistance struggle against an invasive, oppressive, murderous system, I ask you to keep on struggling. There's no torture that will ever make us give up our ideals; they can chain my body but never my consciousness. Neither can they chain the dignity and spirit of our peoples who are fighting for what belongs to them. The government still intends to dispossess us of what is ours and put it at the service of empire, taking our lands, water, oil, light, and the little wealth we have left….It's only those of us who struggle for land, natural resources and freedom who can gain the independence, sovereignty, and homeland that those who are looting our country talk so much about. Brothers and sisters, you live in my heart! Not one step backwards! Zapata lives! The Front continues!"
Doña Fili spoke: "Mumia, there are a lot of young people here who hadn't even been born when you went to jail. We, as mothers, see you as our son and demand your freedom. We will never tire of demanding your freedom. You live in a highly advanced country. Advanced, yes, but in death…You've resisted a country that has killed our peoples…In our countries, they impose tyrants, but we'll bring them down…You are part of our people, Mumia. You've marked our history. That's why we're here, Mumia. Your spirit lives in each one of us."
We appreciated the presence of the Federation of the Socialist Campesino Students of Mexico (FECSM), which has been in a struggle against government plans to convert rural teacher training schools into mere technical schools in places such as Tiripetío, Michoacán and Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. Their representative Isaías sent his greetings to Mumia, and said: "Comrades, as a Federation, we've had prisoners; as a Federation, we've been beaten; as a Federation, we've been tortured by the federal government, so we lend our solidarity to all those who struggle from below….We've seen how the imperialists have increasingly taken over our freedom and our resources. We have the same enemy and we'll struggle with you against this common enemy."
Daniel, speaking for the collective Shouts of Street Rage (GRC), said: "28 years have gone by. Those numbers may be easy to say. 28 años. But I've reached the conclusion that my mother was a child when a person, a thinker, a journalist was taken prisoner. Why? Because, as we know, the State is afraid of people who, with their words, their gaze, their actions, generate actions that destroy the system we talked about. You mothers walking by in the street, I ask you: What if Mumia Abu-Jamal were your son? What if they had taken away his freedom and what if he were locked up on death row thinking, `Damn! They could shoot me up with drugs tomorrow and end my life!? This comrade, in spite of being behind bars, not being able to see the light of day, not being able to hug his family, has stayed active and is still present in the social processes ––from inside, yes, but he's part of things. Is it right to just stand by when we see a life in danger right before our eyes? When we see false evidence, a new trial denied, the death penalty, a life sentence, total injustice and impunity? And now the question is– what are we going to do?
From Chiapas, we received greetings from the poet Xmal Ton, adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the EZLN: "This song is dedicated to all our comrade political prisoners in Abya Yala, which is America, in all the continents of the world. Thank you for your bravery and your force, which are the breath of life to us. Thank you for your spirit of struggle, which is the road we take every day. For the liberation of all of us who struggle for our great, sacred mother, which is the Earth." We read her poem "Four words," dedicated to all political prisoners and especially to the grandfather Leonard Peltier: "Four words fall from the sky. Do not be sad. Four words fall from the sky. They will heal you. Four words fall from the sky. The morning is ready for you. Four words fall from the sky. The fire will warm your heart. Four words fall from the sky. The air will pray for you…"
After reading the poem, our comrade Bisharú commented: "I feel very close to Mumia because of his words, because of the way he talks about the social movements. Sometimes I feel ashamed when I think that somebody in his conditions can be much freer than the rest of us. He has shown us that freedom is not only seen in actions, but also comes through in Mumia's words that have brought life and liberty to many of us."
We denounced the attacks against the Zapatista communities and read a recent letter from the Gómez Saragos brothers, of Bachajón, Chiapas, to all the national and international organizations, where they say: "…we belong to the organization of adherents to the other campaign of the EZLN, and we're here for defending our territory while the government wants the PRI party members to have it, but we…don't want them to take away our land because that's where we work to support our children. That's why we're prisoners. But we thank you for your valuable support and hope that you'll continue to support us in reaching our goals."
Yazmín of the Chanti Ollin spoke of the recent effort by the city government to take this occupied space away from us, and then she read the text written this past November 25 by Nzingha Shakur-Ali, daughter of political prisoner, Dr. Mutulu Shakur: "My dad goes before the parole board December 2nd. Thinking about my family and the families of other political prisoners and freedom fighters around the world… i am SO truly blessed to come from the family i do, from the Hearne clan, from the Shakur clan. It's a different way of life in many ways, being children of revolutionaries. Our parents fought, were imprisoned, were exiled, and died fighting for basic human equality; and all the while growing up in discipline and knowledge, love and respect for not only our people, but for all people. we think differently; we see the world differently…. now Mutulu is in Florence, Colorado, the #1 maximum security prison in the united states also known as the ADMAX, Supermax, or The Alcatraz of the Rockies, ADX houses the prisoners who are deemed the most dangerous and in need of the tightest control. It is the highest level security federal prison in the united states, and generally considered the most secure prison in the world. Individuals are kept for at least 23 hours each day in solitary confinement." That means he gets 1 hour, by himself, outside his cell in heavily guarded area. All of our visits are behind glass and he often handcuffed…. these things come to mind as his parole hearing draws near. They have and continue to do everything they possibly can to keep him in prison… i am humbled by those who, like mutulu, saw their difficult path before them and even still chose to stand and fight, rather than lay down and continue to be enslaved….i give thanks for the people who fought and are still fighting for freedom and equality…. My blood? is a million stories. FREE `EM ALL. Peace."
Victor of the Popular Kitchen of the Che Guevara Auditorium talked about the way prisons exemplify capitalism, commenting that for Mumia Abu-Jamal, "the American dream, for whites only, was just a prison and the Black Panther Party was his road to freedom." He quoted from Mumia's book, We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party: "I went to jail…. I was here for defending my people. I was here because I was a member of the Black Panther Party. Within a few weeks I was back, no worse for the wear. I was out of jail and back in the swing of things. I was working on the paper, selling them, and editing stuff…The days were long. The risks were substantial. The rewards were few. Yet the freedom was hypnotic. We could think freely, write freely, and act freely in the world. We knew that we were working for our people's freedom, and we loved it. It was the one place in the world that it seemed right to be." In speaking of Mumia Abu-Jamal's relationship to the MOVE organization, Victor said: "Mumia rediscovered people bent on freedom and an organization that was an alternative to the logic of the coercion and degradation of human beings by the panoptic prison. But the prison system still existed along with its forms of repression and sabotage. In the face of the genocidal attacks by the North American system against the MOVE movement, Mumia could not remain silent; he denounced the massacre." Victor concluded his presentation, citing Mumia's essay "Absence of Power": "The police are agents of white, ruling-class, capitalist will––period. Neither black managers nor black politicians can change that reality. The people themselves must organize for their own defense, or it won't get done."
Pachón of Mexico City Anarchist Black Cross read the following text: "Mumia's case is not isolated; it's part of a strategy of social control by governments to try to break the righteous social movements and silence people who make them uncomfortable. The United States is the country with the highest percentage of its population imprisoned, the majority of whom are Black or Latinos. More and more people in jail. That's what the goverments and private industry want so they can build more and more prisons….Mumia's example should give us the strength to redouble our efforts to win his freedom. IN conclusion, we want to call attention to the cases of other political prisoners in the United States and name some of them: Abdul Azeez, Abdul Majid, Alvaro Luna Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Avelino González Claudio, Bill Dunne, Byron Shane Chubbuck, Carlos Alberto Torres, Chuck Sims Africa, Daniel Mcgowan, David Gilbert, Debbie Sims Africa, Delbert Orr Africa, Ed Poindexter, Edward Goodman Africa, Erik Oseland, Eryn Trimmer, Francisco Torres, Fred "Muhammad" Burton, Garret Fitzgerald, Gerardo Hernandez, Hanif S. Bey (B. Gereau), Herman Bell, Jaan K. Laaman, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, Jalil Muntaqim, Janet Holloway Africa, Janine Phillips Africa, Jeffery "Free" Luers, Joseph "Joe-Joe" Bowen, Leonard Peltier, Luce Guillen-Givens, Luis Medina, Malik Smith, Maliki Latine, Marilyn Buck, Marshall Eddie Conway, Matthew Depalpma, Max Specktor, Michael Davis Africa, Mondo We Langa (D. Rice), Monica Bicking, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Nathanael Secor, Oscar Lopez Rivera, Rene Gonzalez, Robert Seth Hayes, Romaine Chip Fitzgerald, Ronald Reed, Ruben Campa, Russell Maroon Shoats, Sekou Kambui (W. Turk), Sekou Odinga, Sundiata Acoli (C. Squire), Thomas Manning, Tsutomu Shirosaki, Veronza Bowers Jr., William Phillips Africa, William `Lefty' Gilday, Zolo Agona Azania".
Despite sound problems, the comrades of The Other Culture closed the rally with their original song dedicated to Mumia as a gesture of solidarity, and also brought copies of their new CD highlighting the song. Several images of Mumia were left behind on the ground and the concrete barriers around the Embassy, along with the ashes of the stars and stripes.
Amig@s de Mumia, México
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
--
Free All Political Prisoners!
Contributed by: elenemigocomun
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20091220000224398
by Amig@s de Mumia, México
To the sound of drums, a little over a hundred of us demanded freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal outside the United States Embassy in Mexico City on December 9, 2009, as well as for Leonard Peltier, the men and women of MOVE, the Angola 3, Sundiata Acoli, Los Cinco, Francisco Torres, Hugo Pinnell, Ruchell Magee, Marilyn Buck, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, the Puerto Rican Independentistas, David Gilbert, Ramsey Muñiz, the environmental prisoners and all the social activists that this government intends to bury alive. We also demanded freedom for the 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners resisting torture and imprisonment in Israeli jails.
We accuse the United States government of kidnapping Mumia Abu-Jamal and holding him in conditions of torture for 28 years and of making an ongoing attempt on his life. In spite of all the evidence of racial discrimination in his trial, the Supreme Court of the United States ––the highest court in the land–– has denied him justice and, in so doing, has become party to these crimes. Despite photographic evidence that completely destroys the ridiculous scenario put forward by the Philadelphia District Attorney's office of the shooting death of policemen Daniel Faulkner in 1981, the managers of the national security state are now redoubling their efforts to execute this revolutionary journalist. If they're not able to apply the death penalty, which is nothing but premeditated murder, they plan to hold him captive in silence for the rest of his life. We support the demand for a federal civil rights investigation and all actions necessary to win his freedom.
We also accuse the United States government of fostering political prison and the extermination of the social struggle here in Mexico by training and equipping military and police forces to repress the social movements. We demand freedom for Ignacio del Valle, Felipe Álvarez, and Héctor Galindo, now held with long vengeful sentences which amount to life in prison, and freedom for the prisoners in Molino de Flores, the recently arrested comrades Victor Herrera Govea and Emmanuel Hernández Hernández, and all political prisoners in Oaxaca, Campeche, Guerrero and the entire country. We say NO to Plan México and NO to the construction of more prisons.
Our moderator Armando spoke of Mumia Abu-Jamal as a comrade we've supported for a long time, condemned to death or life in prison for "being a critic of the highly racist society of the United States, whose own Declaration of Independence refers to indigenous people as `merciless Indian savages' and which is built on the slave labor of people brought there from Africa. The history of the United States has been one of slavery, imperialism, and the robbery of the wealth of other peoples, all of which we have experienced in Mexico. And since Mumia is a good critic, he brings out these things. That's why he's in prison".
After reading Mumia's essay on Oscar Grant, whose murder by a BART policeman sparked a rebellion in the streets of Oakland at the first of the year, one of our members, Hilda, commented that although Mumia Abu-Jamal is now officially condemned to life in prison, there is a big effort to execute him and that his life is in grave danger. She explained that this essay is one of many things he has written on different issues, including Atenco, Oaxaca, the war in Iraq, from his small cell on death row where he has no physical contact whatsoever with his family or friends. She mentioned that it's a paradox to speak of this situation on the eve of the celebration of International Human Rights Day, and she also denounced the numerous human rights violations in Mexico by the Army, a body that has no business patrolling the streets.
It gave us great pleasure to have ex political prisoner Jacobo Silva Nogales with us at this rally. He and Gloria Arenas Agis, recently won their freedom after spending ten years in prison for guerrilla activity with Jacobo arguing their right to rebellion. He said: "And who is Mumia Abu-Jamal? The first time I heard that name I was in prison, and I learned that he was also in prison. I learned that he was a political prisoner, and I was also a political prisoner…. Mumia is a mirror that we're proud to look at because what we see is admired and respected; it's what the rest of us are, if only slightly and in exceptional moments. But he's also a mirror that's feared because it shows what can happen when self and duty become one and the same thing. The mirror admired and respected; that's Mumia ––an admirable struggle and a death sentence. So it also reflects those who have sentenced him. It reflects their fear of a better world for the many. That's why they want him dead; that's why we want him alive…. It may seem hard, at times, to win freedom when you're in a prison where they try to ban your very dreams, but it's possible to get out of there if the dreams from the outside come together with those on the inside…. I know this, because not long ago I was in a place like that, and I was able to get out, and so I'd like to tell him that I think he can get out, too ––that he can, that we can, win out over those bars that are blocking the freedom of his body, like he's been able to win out over those that block his freedom of spirit. By defending Mumia, we're defending our own selves!"
Also present were family members and comrades of Víctor Herrera Govea, recently arrested in the annual October 2nd march in commemoration of the Tlatelolco Massacre, simply for being young and protesting in the streets of Mexico City. His sisters invited everyone to participate in the activities in his support and read a letter that he sent to the rally, which says in part: "Today it's not only in México that we're experiencing the oppression of the prison system. This is also the case in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was once a reporter for the Black Panthers, has been in jail for 28 years, sentenced to death or life imprisonment….The way his trials have been conducted reflects the nature of the ghetto experienced in the United States, a country where 42% of the prison population is made up of African-Americans….Once again, we find ourselves under attack by the neoliberal prison system. As lovers of freedom and anarchists who defend life lived in collectivity, we are not exempt from government espionage and measures of repression and oppression….The only thing left to do is keep on struggling for our prisoners in Mexico and those outside the country like Mumia Abu-Jamal, who's been incriminated for a murder he did not commit….There's no evidence whatsoever against us, either….To Mumia, our heartfelt desire to see him free. To the government, the worst of all possible downfalls".
We read a letter recently published in La Jornada by political prisoner Felipe Álvarez of the Peoples' Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) of San Salvador Atenco: "Eight years after we launched a resistance struggle against an invasive, oppressive, murderous system, I ask you to keep on struggling. There's no torture that will ever make us give up our ideals; they can chain my body but never my consciousness. Neither can they chain the dignity and spirit of our peoples who are fighting for what belongs to them. The government still intends to dispossess us of what is ours and put it at the service of empire, taking our lands, water, oil, light, and the little wealth we have left….It's only those of us who struggle for land, natural resources and freedom who can gain the independence, sovereignty, and homeland that those who are looting our country talk so much about. Brothers and sisters, you live in my heart! Not one step backwards! Zapata lives! The Front continues!"
Doña Fili spoke: "Mumia, there are a lot of young people here who hadn't even been born when you went to jail. We, as mothers, see you as our son and demand your freedom. We will never tire of demanding your freedom. You live in a highly advanced country. Advanced, yes, but in death…You've resisted a country that has killed our peoples…In our countries, they impose tyrants, but we'll bring them down…You are part of our people, Mumia. You've marked our history. That's why we're here, Mumia. Your spirit lives in each one of us."
We appreciated the presence of the Federation of the Socialist Campesino Students of Mexico (FECSM), which has been in a struggle against government plans to convert rural teacher training schools into mere technical schools in places such as Tiripetío, Michoacán and Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. Their representative Isaías sent his greetings to Mumia, and said: "Comrades, as a Federation, we've had prisoners; as a Federation, we've been beaten; as a Federation, we've been tortured by the federal government, so we lend our solidarity to all those who struggle from below….We've seen how the imperialists have increasingly taken over our freedom and our resources. We have the same enemy and we'll struggle with you against this common enemy."
Daniel, speaking for the collective Shouts of Street Rage (GRC), said: "28 years have gone by. Those numbers may be easy to say. 28 años. But I've reached the conclusion that my mother was a child when a person, a thinker, a journalist was taken prisoner. Why? Because, as we know, the State is afraid of people who, with their words, their gaze, their actions, generate actions that destroy the system we talked about. You mothers walking by in the street, I ask you: What if Mumia Abu-Jamal were your son? What if they had taken away his freedom and what if he were locked up on death row thinking, `Damn! They could shoot me up with drugs tomorrow and end my life!? This comrade, in spite of being behind bars, not being able to see the light of day, not being able to hug his family, has stayed active and is still present in the social processes ––from inside, yes, but he's part of things. Is it right to just stand by when we see a life in danger right before our eyes? When we see false evidence, a new trial denied, the death penalty, a life sentence, total injustice and impunity? And now the question is– what are we going to do?
From Chiapas, we received greetings from the poet Xmal Ton, adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the EZLN: "This song is dedicated to all our comrade political prisoners in Abya Yala, which is America, in all the continents of the world. Thank you for your bravery and your force, which are the breath of life to us. Thank you for your spirit of struggle, which is the road we take every day. For the liberation of all of us who struggle for our great, sacred mother, which is the Earth." We read her poem "Four words," dedicated to all political prisoners and especially to the grandfather Leonard Peltier: "Four words fall from the sky. Do not be sad. Four words fall from the sky. They will heal you. Four words fall from the sky. The morning is ready for you. Four words fall from the sky. The fire will warm your heart. Four words fall from the sky. The air will pray for you…"
After reading the poem, our comrade Bisharú commented: "I feel very close to Mumia because of his words, because of the way he talks about the social movements. Sometimes I feel ashamed when I think that somebody in his conditions can be much freer than the rest of us. He has shown us that freedom is not only seen in actions, but also comes through in Mumia's words that have brought life and liberty to many of us."
We denounced the attacks against the Zapatista communities and read a recent letter from the Gómez Saragos brothers, of Bachajón, Chiapas, to all the national and international organizations, where they say: "…we belong to the organization of adherents to the other campaign of the EZLN, and we're here for defending our territory while the government wants the PRI party members to have it, but we…don't want them to take away our land because that's where we work to support our children. That's why we're prisoners. But we thank you for your valuable support and hope that you'll continue to support us in reaching our goals."
Yazmín of the Chanti Ollin spoke of the recent effort by the city government to take this occupied space away from us, and then she read the text written this past November 25 by Nzingha Shakur-Ali, daughter of political prisoner, Dr. Mutulu Shakur: "My dad goes before the parole board December 2nd. Thinking about my family and the families of other political prisoners and freedom fighters around the world… i am SO truly blessed to come from the family i do, from the Hearne clan, from the Shakur clan. It's a different way of life in many ways, being children of revolutionaries. Our parents fought, were imprisoned, were exiled, and died fighting for basic human equality; and all the while growing up in discipline and knowledge, love and respect for not only our people, but for all people. we think differently; we see the world differently…. now Mutulu is in Florence, Colorado, the #1 maximum security prison in the united states also known as the ADMAX, Supermax, or The Alcatraz of the Rockies, ADX houses the prisoners who are deemed the most dangerous and in need of the tightest control. It is the highest level security federal prison in the united states, and generally considered the most secure prison in the world. Individuals are kept for at least 23 hours each day in solitary confinement." That means he gets 1 hour, by himself, outside his cell in heavily guarded area. All of our visits are behind glass and he often handcuffed…. these things come to mind as his parole hearing draws near. They have and continue to do everything they possibly can to keep him in prison… i am humbled by those who, like mutulu, saw their difficult path before them and even still chose to stand and fight, rather than lay down and continue to be enslaved….i give thanks for the people who fought and are still fighting for freedom and equality…. My blood? is a million stories. FREE `EM ALL. Peace."
Victor of the Popular Kitchen of the Che Guevara Auditorium talked about the way prisons exemplify capitalism, commenting that for Mumia Abu-Jamal, "the American dream, for whites only, was just a prison and the Black Panther Party was his road to freedom." He quoted from Mumia's book, We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party: "I went to jail…. I was here for defending my people. I was here because I was a member of the Black Panther Party. Within a few weeks I was back, no worse for the wear. I was out of jail and back in the swing of things. I was working on the paper, selling them, and editing stuff…The days were long. The risks were substantial. The rewards were few. Yet the freedom was hypnotic. We could think freely, write freely, and act freely in the world. We knew that we were working for our people's freedom, and we loved it. It was the one place in the world that it seemed right to be." In speaking of Mumia Abu-Jamal's relationship to the MOVE organization, Victor said: "Mumia rediscovered people bent on freedom and an organization that was an alternative to the logic of the coercion and degradation of human beings by the panoptic prison. But the prison system still existed along with its forms of repression and sabotage. In the face of the genocidal attacks by the North American system against the MOVE movement, Mumia could not remain silent; he denounced the massacre." Victor concluded his presentation, citing Mumia's essay "Absence of Power": "The police are agents of white, ruling-class, capitalist will––period. Neither black managers nor black politicians can change that reality. The people themselves must organize for their own defense, or it won't get done."
Pachón of Mexico City Anarchist Black Cross read the following text: "Mumia's case is not isolated; it's part of a strategy of social control by governments to try to break the righteous social movements and silence people who make them uncomfortable. The United States is the country with the highest percentage of its population imprisoned, the majority of whom are Black or Latinos. More and more people in jail. That's what the goverments and private industry want so they can build more and more prisons….Mumia's example should give us the strength to redouble our efforts to win his freedom. IN conclusion, we want to call attention to the cases of other political prisoners in the United States and name some of them: Abdul Azeez, Abdul Majid, Alvaro Luna Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Avelino González Claudio, Bill Dunne, Byron Shane Chubbuck, Carlos Alberto Torres, Chuck Sims Africa, Daniel Mcgowan, David Gilbert, Debbie Sims Africa, Delbert Orr Africa, Ed Poindexter, Edward Goodman Africa, Erik Oseland, Eryn Trimmer, Francisco Torres, Fred "Muhammad" Burton, Garret Fitzgerald, Gerardo Hernandez, Hanif S. Bey (B. Gereau), Herman Bell, Jaan K. Laaman, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, Jalil Muntaqim, Janet Holloway Africa, Janine Phillips Africa, Jeffery "Free" Luers, Joseph "Joe-Joe" Bowen, Leonard Peltier, Luce Guillen-Givens, Luis Medina, Malik Smith, Maliki Latine, Marilyn Buck, Marshall Eddie Conway, Matthew Depalpma, Max Specktor, Michael Davis Africa, Mondo We Langa (D. Rice), Monica Bicking, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Nathanael Secor, Oscar Lopez Rivera, Rene Gonzalez, Robert Seth Hayes, Romaine Chip Fitzgerald, Ronald Reed, Ruben Campa, Russell Maroon Shoats, Sekou Kambui (W. Turk), Sekou Odinga, Sundiata Acoli (C. Squire), Thomas Manning, Tsutomu Shirosaki, Veronza Bowers Jr., William Phillips Africa, William `Lefty' Gilday, Zolo Agona Azania".
Despite sound problems, the comrades of The Other Culture closed the rally with their original song dedicated to Mumia as a gesture of solidarity, and also brought copies of their new CD highlighting the song. Several images of Mumia were left behind on the ground and the concrete barriers around the Embassy, along with the ashes of the stars and stripes.
Amig@s de Mumia, México
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
--
Free All Political Prisoners!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
US Supreme Court will not Rule on Mumia before January 11
Michael Schiffman, a leading activist in Heidelberg, Germany, and also a member of Journalists for Mumia, generously translated a statement Mumia's attorney, Robert Bryan, gave at the International Defense Committee in Bremen on December 14, 2009.
Breaking News: No Decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal before January 11, 2010
Dec. 15, 2009 (IVK, Bremen): The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that we feared would come even before the X-mas and New Year holidays has been deferred. The U.S. Supreme Court will resume its work not before Jan. 11, 2010. We are publishing here the breaking news from attorney Robert R. Bryan from Dec. 14, which reached us last night.
Statement by Robert R. Bryan, lead attorney of Mumia Abu-Jamal, San Francisco:
Today, on Dec. 14, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken its last decisions for this year, taking X-mas holidays till January 11, the day it will officially resume its work.
Surprisingly, in the case of my client Mumia Abu-Jamal the Supreme Court hasn't yet taken a decision whether he will live and get a new jury trial determing his sentence, or whether he will die under the hands of the executioner. Actually, we had won a partial victory last year before the U.S. Appeals Court since the federal judges with their March 27, 2008 decision held out the prospect of a conversion of the death verdict into a life sentence. All the same, Mumia is still on death row because the prosecution filed an appeal wit the Supreme Court in order to push through his execution. Mumia is now in the greatest danger to be executed since his arrest on December 9, 1981.
Robert R Bryan
Breaking News: No Decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal before January 11, 2010
Dec. 15, 2009 (IVK, Bremen): The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that we feared would come even before the X-mas and New Year holidays has been deferred. The U.S. Supreme Court will resume its work not before Jan. 11, 2010. We are publishing here the breaking news from attorney Robert R. Bryan from Dec. 14, which reached us last night.
Statement by Robert R. Bryan, lead attorney of Mumia Abu-Jamal, San Francisco:
Today, on Dec. 14, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken its last decisions for this year, taking X-mas holidays till January 11, the day it will officially resume its work.
Surprisingly, in the case of my client Mumia Abu-Jamal the Supreme Court hasn't yet taken a decision whether he will live and get a new jury trial determing his sentence, or whether he will die under the hands of the executioner. Actually, we had won a partial victory last year before the U.S. Appeals Court since the federal judges with their March 27, 2008 decision held out the prospect of a conversion of the death verdict into a life sentence. All the same, Mumia is still on death row because the prosecution filed an appeal wit the Supreme Court in order to push through his execution. Mumia is now in the greatest danger to be executed since his arrest on December 9, 1981.
Robert R Bryan
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Tribute to Veronica Jones
There will be a special tribute to Veronica Jones tomorrow night, December 9, at 7 PM at the American Friends Center, 15th and Cherry Streets in Philadelphia, as part of the December 9th commemoration activity.
The second trailer for Tigre Hill's new film
Go to site below to see the second trailer for Tigre Hill's new film, "The Barrel of a Gun", which promises to be a sensationalist version of Mumia as a cold-blooded cop killer. Maureen Faulkner is trotted out again as a tragic widow who needs to see Mumia executed to get any sense of peace, rather than as the carefully chosen ally and tool of the Fraternal Order of Police in its determinatin to murder and silence Mumia. She has made it clear again and again that she refuses to consider the possibility of Mumia not being the person who killed Officer Faulkner, and does not hesitate to express her bloodthirsty desire for Mumia's execution so that she can gain her "peace".
http://www.groundupmarketing.com/barrel/trailer2.html
http://www.groundupmarketing.com/barrel/trailer2.html
Monday, December 07, 2009
From Berlin, Germany for Mumia on December 9
And, from Germany, where such a strong message of solidarity was sent on November 12th when we went to the Justice Department. Now, an excerpt from a letter from the Berlin Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. Long live international solidarity!!!
...On the day and the week surrounding the 28th anniversary of Mumia's unjust incarceration, many people in Germany will also take to the streets. They will demand his freedom and the abolition of the death penalty.
Rallies and demonstrations will be held in Berlin, Nuremberg, Heidelberg, Munich, Hamburg, Kiel, as well as several public info events in Mannheim, Rostock, Stuttgart, Greifswald, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin.
Let us join forces to FREE MUMIA and all other political prisoners!
Let us put an end to state sanctioned murder and the modern day slavery of the globally expanding prison-industrial-complex!
In solidarity,
Berlin Coaltion to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
...On the day and the week surrounding the 28th anniversary of Mumia's unjust incarceration, many people in Germany will also take to the streets. They will demand his freedom and the abolition of the death penalty.
Rallies and demonstrations will be held in Berlin, Nuremberg, Heidelberg, Munich, Hamburg, Kiel, as well as several public info events in Mannheim, Rostock, Stuttgart, Greifswald, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin.
Let us join forces to FREE MUMIA and all other political prisoners!
Let us put an end to state sanctioned murder and the modern day slavery of the globally expanding prison-industrial-complex!
In solidarity,
Berlin Coaltion to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
December 9 protest activities, US, France, Mexico
International Commemorations of the 28th anniversary of the outrageous incarceration and ultimate conviction of our revolutionary hero, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
DEMAND A CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION OF THE FRAMING OF MUMIA. A luta continua!
On Wednesday, December 9, 2009, join International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Free Mumia Coalition NYC, as we gather to protest the 28-year conspiracy to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal for a crime that an enormous amount of evidence proves he did not commit. Lynne Abraham, the outgoing District Attorney, and Seth Williams, the newly elected black DA, want to bury the truth and silence Mumia forever.
THE PROTEST BEGINS AT 4 PM
IN FRONT OF THE GOVERNOR'S REGIONAL OFFICE,
200 SOUTH BROAD STREET, NEAR MARKET STREET,
IN PHILADELPHIA.
There will be an indoor meeting following the protest at 7PM at the American Friends Center, 1515 Cherry Street.
To reserve a seat on the bus, call 212 330-8029. For information on our work visit www.freemumia.com.
In Paris, on Wednesday, December 9, thousands of petitions will be delivered at the US Embassy for President Barack Obama, demanding justice for Mumia.
In Mexico City a demonstration will also be held calling for justice for Mumia.
DEMAND A CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION OF THE FRAMING OF MUMIA. A luta continua!
On Wednesday, December 9, 2009, join International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Free Mumia Coalition NYC, as we gather to protest the 28-year conspiracy to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal for a crime that an enormous amount of evidence proves he did not commit. Lynne Abraham, the outgoing District Attorney, and Seth Williams, the newly elected black DA, want to bury the truth and silence Mumia forever.
THE PROTEST BEGINS AT 4 PM
IN FRONT OF THE GOVERNOR'S REGIONAL OFFICE,
200 SOUTH BROAD STREET, NEAR MARKET STREET,
IN PHILADELPHIA.
There will be an indoor meeting following the protest at 7PM at the American Friends Center, 1515 Cherry Street.
To reserve a seat on the bus, call 212 330-8029. For information on our work visit www.freemumia.com.
In Paris, on Wednesday, December 9, thousands of petitions will be delivered at the US Embassy for President Barack Obama, demanding justice for Mumia.
In Mexico City a demonstration will also be held calling for justice for Mumia.
Linn Washington Video/Article on Mumia's Case
From: icffmaj@aol.com
Watch a video of Linn Washington here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X4evX4gVyM
Cracks in Mumia’s case
By Linn Washington Jr.
A clear case of open-and-shut guilt is how Philadelphia police and prosecutors describe the first-degree murder conviction that sent journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal to death row over a quarter century ago.
However, just a quick peek underneath the surface of this case reveals a litany of errors and wrongdoing by police, prosecutors and judges that implode all claims of Abu-Jamal’s absolute guilt.
The case against the world’s most famous death-row denizen arguably contains compelling aspects of apparent guilt, albeit circumstantial and lacking the conclusive forensic evidence normally expected in such a high-profile prosecution.
Yes, police did find Abu-Jamal at the crime scene, critically wounded by a bullet fired from the slain policeman’s gun.
Yes, eyewitnesses testified that Abu-Jamal shot Officer Daniel Faulkner.
Yes, two policemen claimed hearing Abu-Jamal confess to the crime.
And, yes, courts from Philadelphia’s Common Pleas up to the U.S. Supreme Court have upheld Abu-Jamal’s conviction.
Yet, arguably compelling aspects cannot quell serious questions arising from the mound of documented misconduct by authorities in Abu-Jamal’s case that make a mockery of America’s constitutionally enshrined rights to a fair trial.
While fair trial rights require an impartial judge, the judge presiding at Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial declared on the eve of that proceeding that he would help prosecutors “fry the n----r” — a declaration graphically displaying unfair bias.
Five of the seven Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who unanimously upheld Abu-Jamal’s conviction in 1998 received critical political and other assistance from Philadelphia’s police union — the main group pushing for Abu-Jamal’s execution.
That entanglement undermined the appearance of impartiality required of jurists by Pennsylvania’s Code of Judicial Conduct.
One of those five justices in 1998 — Ronald D. Castille, a former district attorney of Philadelphia who fought to execute Abu-Jamal — rejected recusal requests that cited code provisions barring participation of a judge who had “served as a lawyer in the matter in controversy …”
The “overt hostility of the trial judge and the appearance of judicial bias during appellate review” render Abu-Jamal’s “verdict and sentence fundamentally unsound,” Amnesty International noted in its seminal February 2000 study of this contentious case that recommended a new trial for Abu-Jamal.
Facts Don’t Fit
Consider the fact that the two policemen who claimed hearing Abu-Jamal confess hours after Faulkner’s fatal shooting waited several weeks to report this key evidence to detectives.
One of those two policemen claiming to hear Abu-Jamal’s confession had even filed an official report hours after the fatal shooting saying Abu-Jamal made “no comments.”
Exactly 64 days after that officer filed his no-comment report, he told detectives his delay in revealing the confession resulted from him not realizing the confession “had any importance until today.”
Evidence of perceived injustice underlying Abu-Jamal’s conviction literally hides in plain sight.
One glaring example is photos of the Dec. 9, 1981, crime scene taken by police investigators that don’t show two central elements of the prosecution’s case against Abu-Jamal.
A main pillar of the prosecution’s case against Abu-Jamal was eyewitness testimony from a cab driver named Robert Chobert.
Prosecutors proclaimed Chobert sat in his cab when watching Abu-Jamal murder the police officer. But police crime scene photographs don’t show Chobert’s cab behind Officer Faulkner’s patrol car where prosecutors say it was parked.
The trailer for a forthcoming film about Faulkner’s slaying features four police photos showing different angles of the crime scene. Chobert’s cab is not shown in any of those photographs.
There are only two possible scenarios for the missing cab in those official crime scene photos: either police tampered with the crime scene by removing the cab or the cab was never there. Either scenario is a major legal violation that should warrant a new trial.
Also missing from official police crime scene photographs are bullet marks in the sidewalk around the fallen body of Faulkner fired from Abu-Jamal’s gun.
Prosecutors claimed Abu-Jamal executed Faulkner by firing four times at the fallen officer’s body at point blank range, hitting Faulkner once in the face and missing three times.
Yet, a sophisticated computer examination of crime scene photos conducted a few years ago by a NASA scientist who analyzes deep space photographs revealed no bullet marks in that section of sidewalk that should be clearly visible if Abu-Jamal acted as prosecutors claim.
It is impossible ballistically for three specialized high-velocity bullets to strike a sidewalk at point blank range without leaving any marks.
The prosecution’s other prime eyewitness was Cynthia White, a prostitute with a long arrest record and pending criminal charges at the time of Abu-Jamal’s June 1982 trial.
During Abu-Jamal’s trial, the prosecutor told the jury that White hadn’t received any offer of leniency or other considerations in exchange for her testimony.
Yet immediately after Abu-Jamal’s conviction, Philly prosecutors dropped those charges pending against White.
Examples of Injustice
Remember that Philadelphia police and prosecutors applied that “open-and-shut guilt” assertion to four other men arrested for three separate murders in 1981 — the year of Abu-Jamal’s arrest.
One of those four men spent 1,375-days on Pennsylvania’s death row before evidence documented that police detectives framed him. Two of those four men spent 20 years in prison before evidence revealed they were innocent. The fourth man — accused of a killing a cop — won an acquittal from a jury in 1982 when the only witness against him crumbled in court.
Seventeen of the policemen involved in the arrest or investigation of Abu-Jamal “were disciplined, indicted for crimes, found guilty of committing acts of corruption or brutality or resigned from the department under a cloud of suspicion,” stated investigative reporter Dave Lindorff in his 2003 book on the Abu-Jamal case. Lindorff’s book “Killing Time” is the first non-partisan book published on this miscarriage of justice.
What, many in Philadelphia’s Black community would ask, is the likelihood of corrupt cops not cutting corners to secure the conviction of a person accused of killing a fellow policeman?
The same Philadelphia and Pennsylvania courts that found major flaws in 86 Philadelphia death penalty convictions between Abu-Jamal’s December 1981 arrest and last October declare that not a single error exists anywhere in the Abu-Jamal case — the murder conviction sparking the most controversy worldwide.
Pennsylvania courts, for example, find no fault in prosecutors improperly excluding Blacks from Abu-Jamal’s trial jury, or allegations of manipulating evidence and making secret deals with alleged eyewitnesses — all fundamental fair trial violations producing favorable actions by those courts for defendants in numerous other cases.
Additional evidence of judicial impropriety against Abu-Jamal is evident in Pennsylvania State and federal courts voiding 22 death sentences because of failures by defense lawyers to present any mitigating evidence for their clients during the death penalty phase hearing following guilty verdicts in capital cases.
Voiding convictions for this reason is called procedural fairness where courts accept the guilty verdict but seek to ensure that all procedures are properly followed.
Suspiciously, despite voiding those 22 death sentences, state and federal courts found no fault in the failure of Abu-Jamal’s trial lawyer to present any mitigating evidence during the penalty phase hearing.
The judge for Abu-Jamal’s trial, the infamous Albert Sabo, holds the national record for presiding over the most death penalty trials.
While courts have overturned two-thirds of those capital convictions in Sabo’s court, including citing mistakes or misconduct by Sabo himself, Pennsylvania state courts claim Sabo made no errors in Abu-Jamal’s case.
Federal courts have voided Abu-Jamal’s death sentence citing errors by Sabo when providing death penalty phase instructions to the jury.
However, Abu-Jamal remains on death row because Philadelphia prosecutors are seeking to reinstate his death sentence. Because of harsh death row isolation restrictions, Abu-Jamal has not hugged his wife and children for over 20 years.
Injudicious Judges
Courts — state and federal — have repeatedly altered and/or abrogated established law to block Abu-Jamal receiving fair trial relief granted to other defendants raising the same legal challenges.
Precedent, or following established law, is supposedly the foundation of U.S. jurisprudence. Another foundation of U.S. law is requiring a fair trial to establish guilt or innocence.
A prime example of the alter-the-law-to-undermine-Abu-Jamal dynamic is the 2008 ruling by a federal 3rd Circuit Appeals Court panel that created a new legal standard for persons challenging racist jury selection practices by prosecutors.
The prosecutor during Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial used 10 of 15 preemptory challenges to purge potential Black jurors — more than twice the exclusion rate expected statistically with race-neutral procedures.
That newly created legal standard advanced by two 3rd Circuit judges to reject voluminous evidence documenting racist jury selection practices by Abu-Jamal’s trial prosecutor erected procedures far in excess of those then required by existing 3rd Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
The third member of that three-judge 3rd Circuit panel issued a stinging 41-page dissent that repeatedly criticized his panel colleagues for radically changing jury discrimination standards applied by their circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Incredibly, the ruling by that panel’s two-judge majority — later backed by the full 3rd Circuit — faults Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial attorney for not strictly following procedures the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t adopt until 1986 … four years after Abu-Jamal’s trial.
Curiously, just days before that March 2008 3rd Circuit ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a Louisiana death row inmate a new hearing after finding race tainted jury selection practices during that inmate’s trial.
That U.S. Supreme Court ruling employed preemptory challenge standards less stringent than those the 3rd Circuit created in its Abu-Jamal ruling.
The author of that 2008 Supreme Court ruling, Justice Samuel Alito, formerly served on the 3rd Circuit where he participated in rulings granting relief to inmates victimized by prosecutorial jury selection improprieties less onerous than those in the Abu-Jamal case.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Abu-Jamal’s appeal of the 3rd Circuit ruling.
American law is an “instrument of the powerful,” Abu-Jamal stated in his latest book released earlier this year, his sixth book written from death row. “For the weak, the powerless, the oppressed, the law is more often a hindrance than a help.”
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and supporter of Philadelphia’s MOVE organization, is a harsh critic of America’s racially inequitable society, a posture enraging many powerful people.
Fundamental Issue
In 1959, when Abu-Jamal was 4-years-old, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a ruling that goes to the heart of the most important yet frequently downplayed aspect of Abu-Jamal’s conviction — a fair trial.
Pennsylvania’s highest court proclaimed that defendants are entitled “to all the safeguards of a fair trial … even if the evidence of guilt piles as high as Mt. Everest.”
Defendants retain fair trial safeguards irrespective of whether judges or prosecutors are convinced of the defendant’s guilt before trial.
That 1959 ruling prohibiting judges and prosecutors from failing to follow fair trial procedures came in a Philadelphia murder case where the defendant pleaded guilty.
Abu-Jamal has always maintained his innocence.
Evidence shows that politics and prejudice drives the determination to punish Abu-Jamal, not irrefutable proof of his guilt.
Because of that, Abu-Jamal deserves a new trial — a trial that is fair.
Linn Washington Jr. is columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune and a professor of journalism at Temple University. He has been covering the Abu-Jamal case since 1981. This article first appeared in the Philadelphia Tribue on December 5, 2009:
http://www.phillytrib.com/tribune/index.php/newsheadlines/8292
Watch a video of Linn Washington here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X4evX4gVyM
Cracks in Mumia’s case
By Linn Washington Jr.
A clear case of open-and-shut guilt is how Philadelphia police and prosecutors describe the first-degree murder conviction that sent journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal to death row over a quarter century ago.
However, just a quick peek underneath the surface of this case reveals a litany of errors and wrongdoing by police, prosecutors and judges that implode all claims of Abu-Jamal’s absolute guilt.
The case against the world’s most famous death-row denizen arguably contains compelling aspects of apparent guilt, albeit circumstantial and lacking the conclusive forensic evidence normally expected in such a high-profile prosecution.
Yes, police did find Abu-Jamal at the crime scene, critically wounded by a bullet fired from the slain policeman’s gun.
Yes, eyewitnesses testified that Abu-Jamal shot Officer Daniel Faulkner.
Yes, two policemen claimed hearing Abu-Jamal confess to the crime.
And, yes, courts from Philadelphia’s Common Pleas up to the U.S. Supreme Court have upheld Abu-Jamal’s conviction.
Yet, arguably compelling aspects cannot quell serious questions arising from the mound of documented misconduct by authorities in Abu-Jamal’s case that make a mockery of America’s constitutionally enshrined rights to a fair trial.
While fair trial rights require an impartial judge, the judge presiding at Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial declared on the eve of that proceeding that he would help prosecutors “fry the n----r” — a declaration graphically displaying unfair bias.
Five of the seven Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who unanimously upheld Abu-Jamal’s conviction in 1998 received critical political and other assistance from Philadelphia’s police union — the main group pushing for Abu-Jamal’s execution.
That entanglement undermined the appearance of impartiality required of jurists by Pennsylvania’s Code of Judicial Conduct.
One of those five justices in 1998 — Ronald D. Castille, a former district attorney of Philadelphia who fought to execute Abu-Jamal — rejected recusal requests that cited code provisions barring participation of a judge who had “served as a lawyer in the matter in controversy …”
The “overt hostility of the trial judge and the appearance of judicial bias during appellate review” render Abu-Jamal’s “verdict and sentence fundamentally unsound,” Amnesty International noted in its seminal February 2000 study of this contentious case that recommended a new trial for Abu-Jamal.
Facts Don’t Fit
Consider the fact that the two policemen who claimed hearing Abu-Jamal confess hours after Faulkner’s fatal shooting waited several weeks to report this key evidence to detectives.
One of those two policemen claiming to hear Abu-Jamal’s confession had even filed an official report hours after the fatal shooting saying Abu-Jamal made “no comments.”
Exactly 64 days after that officer filed his no-comment report, he told detectives his delay in revealing the confession resulted from him not realizing the confession “had any importance until today.”
Evidence of perceived injustice underlying Abu-Jamal’s conviction literally hides in plain sight.
One glaring example is photos of the Dec. 9, 1981, crime scene taken by police investigators that don’t show two central elements of the prosecution’s case against Abu-Jamal.
A main pillar of the prosecution’s case against Abu-Jamal was eyewitness testimony from a cab driver named Robert Chobert.
Prosecutors proclaimed Chobert sat in his cab when watching Abu-Jamal murder the police officer. But police crime scene photographs don’t show Chobert’s cab behind Officer Faulkner’s patrol car where prosecutors say it was parked.
The trailer for a forthcoming film about Faulkner’s slaying features four police photos showing different angles of the crime scene. Chobert’s cab is not shown in any of those photographs.
There are only two possible scenarios for the missing cab in those official crime scene photos: either police tampered with the crime scene by removing the cab or the cab was never there. Either scenario is a major legal violation that should warrant a new trial.
Also missing from official police crime scene photographs are bullet marks in the sidewalk around the fallen body of Faulkner fired from Abu-Jamal’s gun.
Prosecutors claimed Abu-Jamal executed Faulkner by firing four times at the fallen officer’s body at point blank range, hitting Faulkner once in the face and missing three times.
Yet, a sophisticated computer examination of crime scene photos conducted a few years ago by a NASA scientist who analyzes deep space photographs revealed no bullet marks in that section of sidewalk that should be clearly visible if Abu-Jamal acted as prosecutors claim.
It is impossible ballistically for three specialized high-velocity bullets to strike a sidewalk at point blank range without leaving any marks.
The prosecution’s other prime eyewitness was Cynthia White, a prostitute with a long arrest record and pending criminal charges at the time of Abu-Jamal’s June 1982 trial.
During Abu-Jamal’s trial, the prosecutor told the jury that White hadn’t received any offer of leniency or other considerations in exchange for her testimony.
Yet immediately after Abu-Jamal’s conviction, Philly prosecutors dropped those charges pending against White.
Examples of Injustice
Remember that Philadelphia police and prosecutors applied that “open-and-shut guilt” assertion to four other men arrested for three separate murders in 1981 — the year of Abu-Jamal’s arrest.
One of those four men spent 1,375-days on Pennsylvania’s death row before evidence documented that police detectives framed him. Two of those four men spent 20 years in prison before evidence revealed they were innocent. The fourth man — accused of a killing a cop — won an acquittal from a jury in 1982 when the only witness against him crumbled in court.
Seventeen of the policemen involved in the arrest or investigation of Abu-Jamal “were disciplined, indicted for crimes, found guilty of committing acts of corruption or brutality or resigned from the department under a cloud of suspicion,” stated investigative reporter Dave Lindorff in his 2003 book on the Abu-Jamal case. Lindorff’s book “Killing Time” is the first non-partisan book published on this miscarriage of justice.
What, many in Philadelphia’s Black community would ask, is the likelihood of corrupt cops not cutting corners to secure the conviction of a person accused of killing a fellow policeman?
The same Philadelphia and Pennsylvania courts that found major flaws in 86 Philadelphia death penalty convictions between Abu-Jamal’s December 1981 arrest and last October declare that not a single error exists anywhere in the Abu-Jamal case — the murder conviction sparking the most controversy worldwide.
Pennsylvania courts, for example, find no fault in prosecutors improperly excluding Blacks from Abu-Jamal’s trial jury, or allegations of manipulating evidence and making secret deals with alleged eyewitnesses — all fundamental fair trial violations producing favorable actions by those courts for defendants in numerous other cases.
Additional evidence of judicial impropriety against Abu-Jamal is evident in Pennsylvania State and federal courts voiding 22 death sentences because of failures by defense lawyers to present any mitigating evidence for their clients during the death penalty phase hearing following guilty verdicts in capital cases.
Voiding convictions for this reason is called procedural fairness where courts accept the guilty verdict but seek to ensure that all procedures are properly followed.
Suspiciously, despite voiding those 22 death sentences, state and federal courts found no fault in the failure of Abu-Jamal’s trial lawyer to present any mitigating evidence during the penalty phase hearing.
The judge for Abu-Jamal’s trial, the infamous Albert Sabo, holds the national record for presiding over the most death penalty trials.
While courts have overturned two-thirds of those capital convictions in Sabo’s court, including citing mistakes or misconduct by Sabo himself, Pennsylvania state courts claim Sabo made no errors in Abu-Jamal’s case.
Federal courts have voided Abu-Jamal’s death sentence citing errors by Sabo when providing death penalty phase instructions to the jury.
However, Abu-Jamal remains on death row because Philadelphia prosecutors are seeking to reinstate his death sentence. Because of harsh death row isolation restrictions, Abu-Jamal has not hugged his wife and children for over 20 years.
Injudicious Judges
Courts — state and federal — have repeatedly altered and/or abrogated established law to block Abu-Jamal receiving fair trial relief granted to other defendants raising the same legal challenges.
Precedent, or following established law, is supposedly the foundation of U.S. jurisprudence. Another foundation of U.S. law is requiring a fair trial to establish guilt or innocence.
A prime example of the alter-the-law-to-undermine-Abu-Jamal dynamic is the 2008 ruling by a federal 3rd Circuit Appeals Court panel that created a new legal standard for persons challenging racist jury selection practices by prosecutors.
The prosecutor during Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial used 10 of 15 preemptory challenges to purge potential Black jurors — more than twice the exclusion rate expected statistically with race-neutral procedures.
That newly created legal standard advanced by two 3rd Circuit judges to reject voluminous evidence documenting racist jury selection practices by Abu-Jamal’s trial prosecutor erected procedures far in excess of those then required by existing 3rd Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
The third member of that three-judge 3rd Circuit panel issued a stinging 41-page dissent that repeatedly criticized his panel colleagues for radically changing jury discrimination standards applied by their circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Incredibly, the ruling by that panel’s two-judge majority — later backed by the full 3rd Circuit — faults Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial attorney for not strictly following procedures the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t adopt until 1986 … four years after Abu-Jamal’s trial.
Curiously, just days before that March 2008 3rd Circuit ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a Louisiana death row inmate a new hearing after finding race tainted jury selection practices during that inmate’s trial.
That U.S. Supreme Court ruling employed preemptory challenge standards less stringent than those the 3rd Circuit created in its Abu-Jamal ruling.
The author of that 2008 Supreme Court ruling, Justice Samuel Alito, formerly served on the 3rd Circuit where he participated in rulings granting relief to inmates victimized by prosecutorial jury selection improprieties less onerous than those in the Abu-Jamal case.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Abu-Jamal’s appeal of the 3rd Circuit ruling.
American law is an “instrument of the powerful,” Abu-Jamal stated in his latest book released earlier this year, his sixth book written from death row. “For the weak, the powerless, the oppressed, the law is more often a hindrance than a help.”
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and supporter of Philadelphia’s MOVE organization, is a harsh critic of America’s racially inequitable society, a posture enraging many powerful people.
Fundamental Issue
In 1959, when Abu-Jamal was 4-years-old, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a ruling that goes to the heart of the most important yet frequently downplayed aspect of Abu-Jamal’s conviction — a fair trial.
Pennsylvania’s highest court proclaimed that defendants are entitled “to all the safeguards of a fair trial … even if the evidence of guilt piles as high as Mt. Everest.”
Defendants retain fair trial safeguards irrespective of whether judges or prosecutors are convinced of the defendant’s guilt before trial.
That 1959 ruling prohibiting judges and prosecutors from failing to follow fair trial procedures came in a Philadelphia murder case where the defendant pleaded guilty.
Abu-Jamal has always maintained his innocence.
Evidence shows that politics and prejudice drives the determination to punish Abu-Jamal, not irrefutable proof of his guilt.
Because of that, Abu-Jamal deserves a new trial — a trial that is fair.
Linn Washington Jr. is columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune and a professor of journalism at Temple University. He has been covering the Abu-Jamal case since 1981. This article first appeared in the Philadelphia Tribue on December 5, 2009:
http://www.phillytrib.com/tribune/index.php/newsheadlines/8292
Veronica Jones has joined the ancestors
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Veronica Jones, the heroic sister who stood up to Judge Albert Sabo in 1996, and testified that she had been coerced by the police to lie about Mumia back in 1981. With tears streaming down her face while testifying on the stand, she refused to back down as Sabo tried to intimidate her once again by threatening to charge her with perjury. The sheriff then came in to arrest her for a 10 year old traffic ticket. Herman Ferguson once described Veronica as a real working class heroine. She was a reminder of what people can rise to when provided with any support or encouragement. We loved Veronica, and will never forget her. There will be a tribute to Veronica organized by the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Suzanne Ross, for the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition
Suzanne Ross, for the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition
Saturday, December 05, 2009
PROTEST IN PHILLY: Wednesday, December 9 at at 4pm
On Wednesday, December 9, 2009, join International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Free Mumia Coalition NYC, as we gather to protest the 28-year conspiracy to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal for a crime that an enormous amount of evidence proves he did not commit.
Lynne Abraham, the outgoing District Attorney, and Seth Williams, the newly elected black DA, want to bury the truth and silence Mumia forever.
THE PROTEST BEGINS AT 4 PM
IN FRONT OF THE GOVERNOR'S REGIONAL OFFICE,
200 SOUTH BROAD STREET, NEAR MARKET STREET,
IN PHILADELPHIA.
There will be an indoor meeting following the protest
at 7PM at
the American Friends Center,
1515 Cherry Street.
To reserve a seat on the bus, call 212 330-8029.
For information on our work visit www.freemumia.com.
Lynne Abraham, the outgoing District Attorney, and Seth Williams, the newly elected black DA, want to bury the truth and silence Mumia forever.
THE PROTEST BEGINS AT 4 PM
IN FRONT OF THE GOVERNOR'S REGIONAL OFFICE,
200 SOUTH BROAD STREET, NEAR MARKET STREET,
IN PHILADELPHIA.
There will be an indoor meeting following the protest
at 7PM at
the American Friends Center,
1515 Cherry Street.
To reserve a seat on the bus, call 212 330-8029.
For information on our work visit www.freemumia.com.
Mumia Supporters Petition Justice Department
By ‘littleRed’
They came in droves.
Despite the chilly November wind and the callous indifference of a steady rain, and inspite of incredible distances many had come, they came in droves. In a rainbowed wave of humanity, they came to protest the persisting persecution of an incredible human being facing an incredibly inhumane ordeal in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
They came to Washington, DC, the seat of American governmental power and authority, to demand justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the irrepressible ‘Voice of the Voiceless,’ now in his 27th year on death row in Pennsylvania, now with all of his appeals virtually exhausted.
This is not the first time that they have come to Washington, to the Justice Department, for Mumia. They came in the height of the glory days of Bill Clinton’s presidency. They were told by then Attorney General Janet Reno that they had come much too early, that they were too many avenues to pursue within the courts before they, meaning the Justice Department, could give it serious consideration.
Since then, all of those options were pursued with a vengeance, armed with new exculpatory evidence, armed with clear evidence of the blatant racial and political animosity and bias making a fair trial absolutely impossible, and yet still, at every turn, even the U.S. federal court of appeals pathetically overruled their own precedents and turned their backs on Mumia’s bid for freedom and justice.
Most recently, the nation’s top court said that all the new evidence was either too late or too insignificant to make a difference in a trial. They have in fact said that they would even entertain renewed calls for the reinstatement of Mumia’s death sentence.
Just weeks ago, Mumia’s attorney Robert Bryan put it this way to a Dutch audience. “Mumia is now a global symbol against the death penalty. This is the most dangerous time for Mumia since his 1981 arrest.”
So now is indeed the time for the Justice Department to do what a Justice Department is supposed to do.
To drive that home, demonstrators delivered at least 25,000 letters and petitions calling for a civil rights investigation in this incredible case.
While many were from all parts of the United States, a considerable number were from abroad, from places like Japan, Spain, Mexico, Greece, France, Germany and South Africa.
In a press conference before the demonstration and delivery of the letters, Fignole St.Cyr, a trade union leader from Haiti who came to personally deliver nearly a thousand letters, said that “the world should observe American justice because the U.S. is supposed to stand for democracy. Justice should not be twofaced. Justice for Black people and for white people should be equal.”
On the positive side, this enormous demonstration comes on the heels of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization now in its centennial year, passing a resolution at their national convention stating their new interest and commitment.
They were best represented by Marvin ‘Doc’ Cheatam of the Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP, the biggest chapter to not only come out for Mumia, put to also come out for other political prisoners. Under Cheatam, the Baltimore chapter has been steadfast in its call for justice for Marshall Eddie Conway, the Baltimore panther now imprisoned on account of a COINTELPRO driven prosecution since 1969.
Internationally, the demonstration also comes on the heels of the City Council of Munich, Germany, one of Europe’s largest, coming out for Mumia.
Dangerously, it comes on the heels of the Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham pursuing to have Mumia’s death sentence reinstated. Philadelphia also just elected its first African-American district attorney, Seth Williams, who vowed to pursue the reinstatement of Mumia’s death sentence.
Serious legal observers believe that the Supreme Court may even use the case of a neo-nazi, Frank Spisak, who is on death row in Ohio with a similar fact pattern, to reinstate his death sentence by ruling against Spivak, and then reinstating Mumia’s death sentence, without even hearing the case directly.
The tireless Pam Africa bottomlined the status of the case in this way.
“Mumia is innocent.They are about to commit out and out murder,” she said emphatically.
Zayid Muhammad, a national official of the New Black Panther Party, joined the New York delegation and personally delivered his organization’s letter and pleaded with Attorney General Holder to not let “political convention” get in the way of delivering justice to Mumia.
“The affirmation of slavery and the property holding rights of slavemasters was once the political convention of the day,” his letter read.
“Jim Crow segregation and the practice of lynch mob terror to enforce that order was also once the political convention of the day. However, on this date, at this incredible hour, in this enormous historical moment, with the eyes of the world upon us all, we, not just as in we, the international human rights community, but we, as in ‘we the people,’ simply can not allow this to happen!”
The most poignant point in the demonstration came at the end, at the actual point of the delivery of the letters and the petitions. The Justice Department sent out a phalanx of African-American officers at the Department’s entrance to prevent the demonstrators entry with the petitions and sent out a Latino representative, Alejandro Mijar, to actually receive them. As they were being delivered, Orie Ross, of Brooklyn, asked them if they were familiar with the case. When they admitted that they were not, Ross, in a straightforward matter of fact manner very reminiscent of Rev. CT Vivian’s confrontation with Bull Connor many years ago on the right to vote, laid out the background to Mumia’s ordeal, especially when detailing the new evidence and the extreme racial bias of the late presiding trial judge Albert Sabo’s “I’m gonna help them fry the nigger,” compelling Mijar to blush with embarrassment.
=================
NATIONAL MINISTRY OF CULTURE
PO BOX 25332, NEWARK, NJ 07101
201-602-0780
www.newblackpanther.com
They came in droves.
Despite the chilly November wind and the callous indifference of a steady rain, and inspite of incredible distances many had come, they came in droves. In a rainbowed wave of humanity, they came to protest the persisting persecution of an incredible human being facing an incredibly inhumane ordeal in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
They came to Washington, DC, the seat of American governmental power and authority, to demand justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the irrepressible ‘Voice of the Voiceless,’ now in his 27th year on death row in Pennsylvania, now with all of his appeals virtually exhausted.
This is not the first time that they have come to Washington, to the Justice Department, for Mumia. They came in the height of the glory days of Bill Clinton’s presidency. They were told by then Attorney General Janet Reno that they had come much too early, that they were too many avenues to pursue within the courts before they, meaning the Justice Department, could give it serious consideration.
Since then, all of those options were pursued with a vengeance, armed with new exculpatory evidence, armed with clear evidence of the blatant racial and political animosity and bias making a fair trial absolutely impossible, and yet still, at every turn, even the U.S. federal court of appeals pathetically overruled their own precedents and turned their backs on Mumia’s bid for freedom and justice.
Most recently, the nation’s top court said that all the new evidence was either too late or too insignificant to make a difference in a trial. They have in fact said that they would even entertain renewed calls for the reinstatement of Mumia’s death sentence.
Just weeks ago, Mumia’s attorney Robert Bryan put it this way to a Dutch audience. “Mumia is now a global symbol against the death penalty. This is the most dangerous time for Mumia since his 1981 arrest.”
So now is indeed the time for the Justice Department to do what a Justice Department is supposed to do.
To drive that home, demonstrators delivered at least 25,000 letters and petitions calling for a civil rights investigation in this incredible case.
While many were from all parts of the United States, a considerable number were from abroad, from places like Japan, Spain, Mexico, Greece, France, Germany and South Africa.
In a press conference before the demonstration and delivery of the letters, Fignole St.Cyr, a trade union leader from Haiti who came to personally deliver nearly a thousand letters, said that “the world should observe American justice because the U.S. is supposed to stand for democracy. Justice should not be twofaced. Justice for Black people and for white people should be equal.”
On the positive side, this enormous demonstration comes on the heels of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization now in its centennial year, passing a resolution at their national convention stating their new interest and commitment.
They were best represented by Marvin ‘Doc’ Cheatam of the Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP, the biggest chapter to not only come out for Mumia, put to also come out for other political prisoners. Under Cheatam, the Baltimore chapter has been steadfast in its call for justice for Marshall Eddie Conway, the Baltimore panther now imprisoned on account of a COINTELPRO driven prosecution since 1969.
Internationally, the demonstration also comes on the heels of the City Council of Munich, Germany, one of Europe’s largest, coming out for Mumia.
Dangerously, it comes on the heels of the Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham pursuing to have Mumia’s death sentence reinstated. Philadelphia also just elected its first African-American district attorney, Seth Williams, who vowed to pursue the reinstatement of Mumia’s death sentence.
Serious legal observers believe that the Supreme Court may even use the case of a neo-nazi, Frank Spisak, who is on death row in Ohio with a similar fact pattern, to reinstate his death sentence by ruling against Spivak, and then reinstating Mumia’s death sentence, without even hearing the case directly.
The tireless Pam Africa bottomlined the status of the case in this way.
“Mumia is innocent.They are about to commit out and out murder,” she said emphatically.
Zayid Muhammad, a national official of the New Black Panther Party, joined the New York delegation and personally delivered his organization’s letter and pleaded with Attorney General Holder to not let “political convention” get in the way of delivering justice to Mumia.
“The affirmation of slavery and the property holding rights of slavemasters was once the political convention of the day,” his letter read.
“Jim Crow segregation and the practice of lynch mob terror to enforce that order was also once the political convention of the day. However, on this date, at this incredible hour, in this enormous historical moment, with the eyes of the world upon us all, we, not just as in we, the international human rights community, but we, as in ‘we the people,’ simply can not allow this to happen!”
The most poignant point in the demonstration came at the end, at the actual point of the delivery of the letters and the petitions. The Justice Department sent out a phalanx of African-American officers at the Department’s entrance to prevent the demonstrators entry with the petitions and sent out a Latino representative, Alejandro Mijar, to actually receive them. As they were being delivered, Orie Ross, of Brooklyn, asked them if they were familiar with the case. When they admitted that they were not, Ross, in a straightforward matter of fact manner very reminiscent of Rev. CT Vivian’s confrontation with Bull Connor many years ago on the right to vote, laid out the background to Mumia’s ordeal, especially when detailing the new evidence and the extreme racial bias of the late presiding trial judge Albert Sabo’s “I’m gonna help them fry the nigger,” compelling Mijar to blush with embarrassment.
=================
NATIONAL MINISTRY OF CULTURE
PO BOX 25332, NEWARK, NJ 07101
201-602-0780
www.newblackpanther.com
FinalCall, Amsterdam News articles on Mumia rally at Justice Department
Pam Africa, leader of the International Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, leading the march to the U.S. Justice Department Nov. 12. Photo: Askia Muhammad
Supporters of death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal rally at Justice Dept.
By Askia Muhammad -Senior Correspondent- | Last updated: Dec 1, 2009
WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - Hundreds of supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal—the political prisoner who has been held on Pennsylvania's death-row for 28 years, accused of murdering a Philadelphia police officer—marched to the U.S. Department of Justice to deliver thousands of petitions to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding a civil rights investigation of his case. Speakers at a rally prior to the Nov. 12 march represented Amnesty International's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign; the NAACP; and the Coalition to Free Mumia Abu Jamal.
"We are not coming to the Department of Justice looking for justice," said Pam Africa, chair of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal. "We are bringing justice to the Department of Justice."
Since the trial and conviction of the former journalist, Black Panther Party member, and supporter of Philadelphia's naturalist MOVE organization, Mr. Abu Jamal and his supporters have steadfastly maintained his innocence. Despite several legal setbacks, more and more evidence is discovered and made public supporting that claim.
Dr. Suzanne Ross of the Free Mumia Abu Jamal Coalition chaired the press conference and rally. She said that for 13 years Mr. Abu Jamal's prosecutors withheld evidence that a driver's license belonging to a passenger in the car driven by his brother, William Cook, was found in the pocket of slain police officer Daniel Faulkner the night of the 1981 shooting.
The petition and letter-writing campaign by Mr. Abu Jamal's supporters took on worldwide momentum earlier this year after Attorney General Holder called for the dismissal of charges against Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska on the basis that prosecutors in that case withheld evidence favorable to the defense.
The letters to Mr. Holder on Mr. Abu Jamal's behalf point out that in addition to a similar pattern of evidence being withheld in his case, courts on local, state and federal levels have all violated their own rules to keep him on death row.
Despite a December 2001 ruling by Federal District Court Judge William Yohn that converted the death sentence in Mr. Abu Jamal's case to life in prison, he remains on death row and his life in jeopardy because of efforts by the Philadelphia district attorney's office to appeal Judge Yohn's decision. Mr. Abu Jamal has exhausted his federal appeals seeking a new trial.
"At this critical moment in Mumia's case, a civil rights investigation could mean the difference between life and death for Mumia," said Dr. Ross."It could also open the door for his release."
Heightened demands for a civil rights investigation came in April, after the U.S. Supreme Court accepted another court's motion that blocked the doors for a new trial for Mr. Abu Jamal, but at the same time, the court is still considering the Philadelphia District Attorney Office's appeal to reinstate his death sentence.
"I was at the NAACP convention this summer," Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president the group's Baltimore Chapter told The Final Call. "I was on the resolution committee and I looked at all the resolutions, and created an amendment. What it basically said was that Mumia Abu Jamal, Reggie Clemons, Troy Davis, and Marshall Eddie Conway, all of their cases would be requested by the NAACP to be reviewed by the Attorney General Holder.
"It's imperative that Attorney General Holder look at this as civil rights violations," Mr. Cheatham continued, "look at each one of the cases, especially Mumia's case, and actually do a thorough review of the case, and allow those parties that have been organized for all four of the names that we put in the resolution to allow different groups to provide information that may not in fact have been introduced in the court trials.
"We're optimistic that once they really look at all the data that's presented in these specific four cases then all four cases would have to be thrown out. We think there were so many injustices, civil rights violations, that took place in these four cases, that those cases would have to be thrown out and those individuals released," Mr. Cheatham said.
International organizations and legal bodies such as Amnesty International, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the European Parliament, and city councils and national governments around the world have maintained that Mr. Abu Jamal was wrongfully convicted in a widely denounced trial and appeals process. Among the claims of wrongdoing are suppressed evidence, witness perjury, witness intimidation and an openly biased judge.
Attorney Thomas Ruffin told the rally of photos taken by freelance news photographer Pedro Polakoff, who arrived at the scene of the Dec. 9, 1981, shooting before the police forensics team. His pictures contradict the testimony of key prosecution witnesses during the trial. The prosecution, which had access to the pictures, did not reveal their existence to the defense.
Mr. Ruffin said that there was no proof that Mr. Abu Jamal had a gun in his hand when he arrived on the scene, or that he had fired it. The prosecution never presented paraffin tests for gunshot residue. The press conference and protest expressed open solidarity with victims of the state's Cointelpro-like campaign that has targeted more than 400 Muslims and recently resulted in FBI agents gunning down Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah just outside of Detroit on Oct. 28.
"We were here to show our support for the most recognizable political prisoner in the world—Mumia Abu Jamal," Mauri Salakhan, founder and director of the Peace and Justice Foundation told The Final Call. "And we wanted to create a marriage, between this individual who is the most recognizable political figure as a prisoner, and a community (Muslims) that has become the most impacted community in the world in terms of political imprisonment, both here and abroad.
"It gave us an opportunity to show our support for Mumia, and also to take this opportunity to help those veterans that have been a part of Mumia's movement to become more knowledgeable, more aware of how political imprisonment has been impacting the Muslim community, and the importance of us working together around this issue. More and more, increasingly we're coming to find that this is something that has to concern us all, because it is affecting us all."
Mr. Salakhan organized the attendance at the rally of several family members and supporters of the "Fort Dix Five" from N.J.; two family members of another Muslim prisoner, Shifa, who came from Atlanta; and organizers with Project Salaam, an organization that works to draw attention to these and other cases from Albany, N.Y.
AMSTERDAM NEWS DOCUMENTS CALLS FOR A CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION INTO MUMIAS CASE
Letter from Zayid Muhammad
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/shared-content/e-edition/display.php?pubdate=2009-11-19&page=12&pub=
Charles Barron
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/shared-content/e-edition/display.php?pubdate=2009-11-19&page=36&pub=
(To see first page of the entire article, visit: http://www.amsterdamnews.com/shared-content/e-edition/display.php?pubdate=2009-11-19&page=1&pub=)
Dec. 3 article
Page 1
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/shared-content/e-edition/display.php?pubdate=2009-12-03&page=31&pub=
Page 2
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/shared-content/e-edition/display.php?pubdate=2009-12-03&page=4&pub=
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