Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335 SCI Greene 1040 E. Roy Furman Hwy WAYNESBURG PA 15370 USA mumia@igc.apc.org		Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia PA 19143 USA Tel + Fax: +1-215-476-8812

Mumia began his career as a revolutionary journalist with the Black Panther Party, helping to set up the party's Philadelphia branch and assuming the post of Minister of Information in that city.

After the government's COINTELPRO repression decimated the Black Panther Party, Abu-Jamal worked as a radio and newspaper journalist. His goal was always to use his skills to expose police brutality and racism.

He gained prominence as one of the few Philadelphia journalists to seek out the truth of the 1978 police attack on the MOVE organization. His refusal to parrot the police whitewash of the attack led then-Mayor Frank Rizzo to warn against his "new breed of advocacy journalism."

By 1981, Abu-Jamal earned the position of the president of the Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, and was named one of the "81 people to watch in 1981" by Philadelphia magazine.

In December 1981, the police found their opportunity to frame Abu-Jamal. As he was driving a cab, he spotted a police officer brutally beating his brother. When he rushed to the scene to protest, a struggle broke out. After the smoke cleared, the cop was dead and Abu-Jamal was lying at the scene, shot and bleeding.

The cops and the city immediately tried to pin the cop's death on Abu-Jamal. Mumia declared his innocence from the outset.

A RACIST TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE

The trial was a racist travesty of justice. No physical evidence was presented that linked Mumia to the killing, when it would have been a routine task to fingerprint the gun and test his hands for gunpowder residue.

Of the over 120 witnesses to the event, the prosecution called six. Only one of the six actually identified Mumia, a witness who had legal trouble of her own and whose testimony did not correspond to the physical facts. The witnesses gave wildly different descriptions of the shooter. Several said the shooter ran away--Abu-Jamal was found at the scene.

Despite this flimsy case, the nearly all-white jury convicted Mumia. The prosecution then convinced the jury that his prior membership in the Black Panther Party was evidence of his premeditation to kill a cop. This was all the jury needed to hear to give him the death penalty.

Even more outrageous than the lack of evidence against Abu-Jamal has been the role of the courts in upholding this racist frame-up.

For example, the prosecution told the jury they shouldn't worry about giving Abu-Jamal the death penalty, since he would have "appeal after appeal." The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ruled that such an argument minimized the jury's responsibility in sentencing, and was grounds for overturning death penalty sentences.

After reversing this precedent and upholding Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence, the Supreme Court re-established the prior precedent in the next case before it, just one year later.

Recently, noted civil liberties attorney Leonard Weinglass has taken up Abu-Jamal's case and is attempting to win a new trial for him. But many supporters believe that without a powerful mass movement in his defense, the courts cannot be relied on to overturn the cops' political and racist frame-up.

On on the first of june new governor Ridge signed the death-warrant for Mumia. Many, many people, from over the whole world stood up against the planned execution and the death-penalty in general. Mumia's lawyer filed the post relief confiction papers. Judge Albert Sabo, the same one who did the first trail, denied the Post Conviction Relief Appeal and turned down Mumia Abu-Jamal's request for a new trial. Cuurenly the case is going to appeal at the State Supreme Court of PA.

For recent information take a look at the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal page.