page 23.1

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

some of this information was derived from leaflets obtained at demonstrations, hence some of it is fuzzy. trial transcripts can be found on many websites.
  1. the police say he confessed in the emergency room, 
  2. but did not bring this forward until two months after his arrest, 
  3. the attending physician, who never left the room, says not. 
  4. his gun was a different caliber than the bullet found in the policeman, 
  5. but they “lost” the bullet. 
  6. his gun and his hands were never tested. 
  7. major witnesses, including an eye witness, have recanted statements, 
  8. with clear evidence of intimidation by police. 
  9. the police were found in the emergency room with guns pointed at his head. 
  10. the judge has given more death sentences than any sitting judge. 
  11. the prosecutor removed eleven blacks from the jury. 
  12. philadelphia put 120 on death row, all but 13 are non-white.

                                                                  photo of mumia as a young journalist
mumia abu-jamal was a radio journalist in philidelphia during the mayoralty of the openly racist frank rizo, and became known as "the voice of the voiceless," allowing claimants to injustice to speak on his show. he was a recipient of the major armstrong award for radio journalism and named  one of  the "people to watch" in 1981 by Philadelphia magazine. he was president of the phily chapter of the Association of Black Journalists. his broadcasts were a major factor leading to a suit filed by the united states department of justice against philidelphia's brutal police. at age sixteen he was minister of information for the phily chapters of thr Black Panther Party. records obtained by his lawyers showed that he had been under surveillance by the f.b.i. since he was fifteen, yet he had
no arrest record.
in december, 1981, mumia was a night time cab driver and one night ran to the aid of his brother, who was being beaten by a policeman, who then shot mumia. when more police arrived they beat him as he sat slumped on the curb. the streets were filled with people as the bars let out. he was then beaten at the hospital. he regained consciousness to see a grinning policeman standing on his plastic urine collection bag, forcing urine back into his body.

almost all blacks were removed from the jury by "preemptory challenges." prosecutors relied on three eye witnesses. two initially told police the shooter ran away and no one, on a crowded street, could place the third at the scene. the jury never heard a witness, william singletary, say that mumia was not the shooter. at least four witnesses saw another man run from the scene. the prosecution claimed the officer shot mumia as he was falling, yet his wound entered the chest on a downward trajectory and exited his lower back. no witness saw the officer shoot mumia. his attorney, who was later disbarred,  did not interview a single witness and stated in court that he was  unprepared due to lack of funds. neither a pathologist or ballistics expert were hired, standard practice in a homicide case. the officer who guarded him at the hospital claimed mumia did not speak, yet prosecutors falsely stated that this officer was "unavailable." he was barred from most of his own trial after a vociferous in-court condemnation of the justice system.

the prosecution argued for the death penalty by reading to the jury revolutionary quotations from a published interview with mumia from ten years earlier, a practice that was barred by the supreme court in a case involving a white supremacist. juries in pennsilvania are supposed to weigh "aggravating" and "mitigating" factors in determining the death penalty. the pennsylvania supreme court concurred with the prosecution., saying that  despite his total lack of a criminal record, jamal's "disdain for the system" should be counted as an aggravating factor. does this sound political to you?

his brother and another key witness were harassed and driven out of town. others changed their stories and were rewarded. at a hearing for a new trial a key witness, veronica jones, said that she had lied at the trial after being threatened with years in jail and separation from her children. she was arrested on an old warrant from another state as she stepped from the witness stand.

in 1995 he was only days away from execution when a world wide outcry forced a stay of execution. millions demonstrated and famous people from many countries made public statements. an international tribunal voted unanimously for mumia to be freed and those resposible for his incarceration to be investigated. the philidelphia tribune and the Yale Law Journal have published his statements and recordings have been heard as commencement speeches. even high school students have held walk outs and whole school districts have held teach-ins, while teachers have been threatened for supporting students and students have been suspended just for leafleting. the well known rock band Rage Against the Machine have played sold out concerts in support of mumia. he secretly wrote "live from death row," which has sold more than 75,000 copies in english and it has been translated into seven languages. for this act he was placed in "diciplinary confinement." he later wrote "death blossoms," which has been praised by The Nation columnist katha pollit and peace activist daniel barrigan and nobel laureate wole sayinska. his writing is passionate yet measured and poetic and he spares neither blacks nor whites.

the Effective Death Penalty act of 1996 was enacted by president clinton, which severely limits appeals and orders federal judges to  PRESUME DECICISIONS OF STATE COURTS ARE CORRECT, TOTALLY INVALIDATING THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF APPEAL. on november 1st judge albert sabo, who put mumia on death row, ruled that NEW EVIDENCE COULD NOT EVEN BE PUT ON RECORD.

mumia abu-jamal remains under court order for execution. he is locked in his cell twenty three hours a day and is denied contact visits with his family. his legal mail has been opened and copied and REPORTERS ARE PROHIBITED FROM RECORDING OR FILMING  INTERVIEWS WITH HIM. as mumia has said, "they don't just want my death, they want my silence."

historically, political executions have followed periods of social unrest. in 1920, during anti-black violence and the mass arrests of foreign born radicals, two italian born anarchists, nicola sacco and bartolomeo vanzetti, were arrested on trumped up charges and executed in 1927. in 1950, with the onset of the cold war and the McCarthy era, two jewish communists, julius and thel rosenberg, were accused of sending laughably crude drawings to the soviet union supposed to be "the secret of the atom bomb." in the mass hysteria of the time they were executed in 1953. mumia's arrest and trial came at the onset of the reagan-bush years. the stated goal of the new rulers was to overcome the "viet nam syndrom", rolling back gains won by the people in the struggles of the sixties and assert "law and order." in particular, the death penalty was to be restored. the case of mumia abu-jamal concentrates the criminalization of black men, the suppression of dissent, the expanded death penalty, the gutting of defendant's rights and a political atmosphere of punishment of the most oppressed.

he has been in jail for twenty years.

if you want to risk your life you can write to him at:

mumia abu-jamal, #AM8335
SCI Greene, 1040 e. roy furman hwy.
waynesburg, pa, 15370-8090

pamphlet about mumia, page 1.
pamphlet about mumia, page 2.