[Ppnews] New Appeal - Mumia Abu-Jamal faces US Supreme Court
Political Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Fri Dec 19 15:27:03 EST 2008
<http://phillyimc.org/en/mumia-abu-jamal-faces-us-supreme-court-supporters-mobilize-globally>http://phillyimc.org/en/mumia-abu-jamal-faces-us-supreme-court-supporters-mobilize-globally
Mumia Abu-Jamal faces US Supreme Court, as supporters mobilize globally
By Hans Bennett
On Friday, December 19, 2008, death-row
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal filed his appeal to
the US Supreme Court, asking it to consider his
case for a new guilt-phase trial. One month
before, the Philadelphia District Attorney filed
its separate appeal to the US Supreme Court
asking to have Abu-Jamal executed without a new sentencing-phase trial.
At this critical stage in Abu-Jamal’s case,
supporters organized a week of global solidarity
actions that began on December 6, the day of the
large protest in Philadelphia, almost 27 years
after Abu-Jamal was arrested for the December 9,
1981 shooting death of white police officer
Daniel Faulkner, and later convicted in a 1982
trial that
<http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000>Amnesty
International has declared a "violation of
minimum international standards that govern fair
trial procedures and the use of the death penalty".
There were
<http://phillyimc.org/en/us-activists-solidarity-political-prisoner-mumia-abu-jamal>solidarity
actions inside the US and around the world,
including Mexico, Venezuela, Germany, France,
England, Switzerland. Several US events screened
the new DVD video titled
<http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2008/12/video-fighting-for-mumias-freedom.html>Fighting
for Mumia's Freedom: a report from Philadelphia.
In Philadelphia, over 200 protesters gathered
outside the District Attorney’s office across the
street from City Hall. Journalists for Mumia’s
new
<http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=d6r>video
report from the demonstration features an
interview with persecuted Civil Rights Lawyer
Lynne Stewart, and footage of Pam Africa speaking
outside the DA’s office about the
<http://www.abu-jamal-news.com/article.php?name=mbmvids>newly
discovered crime scene photos taken by press
photographer Pedro Polakoff, and the DA’s role in
hiding them from the defense. The coordinator of
the International Concerned Family and Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa cited Polakoff’s
statements today that he approached the DA’s
office with the photos in 1981/82 and 1995, but
was completely ignored by them. Subsequently,
Polakoff’s photos were never seen by the 1982
jury, or by the defense. Africa presented the
evidence to Philadelphia PD Civil Affairs Captain
William Fisher to deliver to DA Lynne Abraham.
Protesters marched from the DA’s office to the
Federal Court Building where Abu-Jamal had
<http://www.abu-jamal-news.com/temp/May17Audio.html>oral
arguments on May 17, 2007. The march stopped at
the 13th and Locust crime scene where Journalists
for Mumia gave a presentation focusing on the
photo by Polakoff that shows a blank space where
key prosecution witness Robert Chobert testified
to being parked in his taxi as he allegedly
observed Abu-Jamal shoot Faulkner. An
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G540pfYinAY>online
video of the presentation is available alongside
the <http://abu-jamal-news.com/docs/d6csi.pdf>special presentation flyer.
That week, Journalists for Mumia was featured by
Philadelphia’s independent news website
GeoClan.com. I argued in
<http://phillyimc.org/en/geoclancom-interview-about-journalists-mumia-abu-jamal>the
interview that “those advocating Mumia’s
execution show a disturbing lack of concern about
the undeniable problems of racism (and all
documented police / DA / judicial misconduct)
throughout. At the most fundamental level, the
‘Fry Mumia’ campaign’s lack of concern is
racist
.The FOP is appealing to a racist lynch
mob mentality that has long infected the US, so
calling this a ‘legal lynching’ is no exaggeration.”
In
<http://phillyimc.org/en/mexico-citys-week-solidarity-mumia-abu-jamal>Mexico
City, Mexico, supporters organized a week of
actions, including a protest rally outside the US
Embassy. Linking Mumia’s case to repression and
political prisoners in Mexico, speakers at the US
Embassy included ex-Atenco prisoners Edith
Rosales and César del Valle, as well as a guitar
performance by Atenco survivor Jorge Salinas,
whose arms were temporarily paralyzed and hands
fractured when he was almost killed by police at
Atenco. Survivors Mariana, Edith y Norma who
courageously told their story of being raped at
Atenco. Solidarity statements were read from
Mexican political prisoners Gloria Arenas Agis
and her husband Jacobo Silva Nogales, and from
the
<http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/11/916170.shtml>Atenco
political prisoners in the Molino de Flores prison at Texcoco, México.
<http://phillyimc.org/en/braulio-alvarez-statement-mumia-member-venezuelan-assembly>Braulio
Alvarez, a member of the Venezuelan parliament
and leader of the farmers struggle in Venezuela
said in his
<http://phillyimc.org/en/braulio-alvarez-statement-mumia-member-venezuelan-assembly>message
written for the week, that Venezuelan supporters
had decided “to go the American embassy in
Caracas to hand to the ambassador a letter to the
governor of Pennsylvania, demanding that he
immediately liberate Mumia Abu-Jamal.”
<http://phillyimc.org/en/video-and-photos-mumia-solidarity-demo-berlin>Berlin,
Germany’s, week of solidarity culminated in a
demonstration where hundreds marched to the US
Embassy with slogans like "Freiheit für Mumia
Abu-Jamal - Weg mit der Todesstrafe überall"
("Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal - Abolish the death penalty everywhere").
Also demonstrating the international interest in
this case, the new British documentary film about
Abu-Jamal, titled In Prison My Whole Life,
premiered December 8 on the Sundance Channel.
Previous interviews with
<http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-prison-my-whole-life-interview-with.html>William
Francome, and
<http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2008/09/interview-new-british-film-about-mumia.html>Livia
Giuggioli Firth, revealed that In Prison features
an interview with Abu-Jamal’s brother Billy Cook,
and
<http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=mbmvids>the
newly discovered crime scene photos. Officially
endorsed by Amnesty International,
<http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17442>Amnesty
UK Director Kate Allen said: "We hope that the
film's viewers will back our call for a fair
retrial for Mumia Abu-Jamal--and also support our
work opposing the death penalty in the US and around the world."
Appealing to the US Supreme Court
Both the DA and Abu-Jamal are asking the US
Supreme Court to consider their appeals of the
<http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=tct>March
27, 2008 rulings by the US Third Circuit Court,
when the court denied Abu-Jamal a new guilt-phase
trial but ruled that there must be a new
sentencing- phase trial if the DA still wants the
death penalty. Therefore, Abu-Jamal is appealing
for a new guilt-phase trial, while the DA is
appealing to execute him without a new
sentencing-phase trial. On October 6, 2008, the
US Supreme Court
<http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=hbpcra>rejected
an unrelated appeal from Abu-Jamal.
On March 27, 2008 the US Third Circuit Court's
three-judge panel of Thomas Ambro, Anthony
Scirica, and Robert Cowen
<http://www.abu-jamal-news.com/article.php?name=tct>ruled
against three different appeal issues, refusing
to grant either a new guilt-phase trial or a
preliminary hearing that could have led to a new
guilt-phase trial for Abu-Jamal. However, on the
issue of racist jury selection, also known as the
Batson claim, the three judge panel of split 2-1, with Ambro dissenting.
Abu-Jamal
<http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/12/16/18555096.php>filed
his appeal of this ruling with the US Supreme
Court today, Dec. 19. Arguably the key issue will
be the 1986 Batson v. Kentucky ruling established
the right to a new trial if jurors were excluded
on the basis of race. At the 1982 trial
Prosecutor McGill used 10-11 of his 15 peremptory
strikes to remove otherwise acceptable black
jurors, yet the court ruled that there was not
even the appearance of discrimination. In
<http://www.emajonline.com/files/AMBROS_DISSENT.pdf>his
dissenting opinion, Judge Ambro wrote that the
denial of a preliminary Batson hearing "goes
against the grain of our prior actions
I see no
reason why we should not afford Abu-Jamal the courtesy of our precedents."
Separately, the DA is appealing to execute
without a new sentencing-phase trial, having
filed their brief on November 14,
2008. Abu-Jamal’s deadline to respond to this is January 21, 2009.
On March 27, the three-judge panel unanimously
affirmed Federal District Court Judge William
Yohn's 2001 decision "overturning" the death
sentence. Citing the 1988 Mills v. Maryland
precedent, Yohn had ruled that sentencing forms
used by jurors and Judge Sabo's instructions to
the jury were potentially confusing, and jurors
could have mistakenly believed that they had to
unanimously agree on any mitigating circumstances
in order to consider them as weighing against a death sentence.
According to this ruling, if the DA wants to
re-instate the death sentence, the DA must call
for a new penalty-phase jury trial where new
evidence of Mumia's innocence can be presented.
However, the jury can only choose between a
sentence of life in prison without parole or a death sentence.
The DA is appealing this 2001/2008 ruling to the
US Supreme Court, so if the court agrees to
consider the DA’s appeal and rules in their
favor, Mumia can then be executed without benefit
of the new sentencing trial. However, if the
court upholds the 2001 and 2008 rulings, then the
DA will either request a new sentencing trial or
accept life in prison without the chance of parole.
Notably, at the DA's request, during the
post-2001 appeals, Mumia has never left his death
row cell or been given general population
"privileges" such as contact visits with family.
Reacting to the DA’s Appeal
Following news that the DA was appealing to
execute without a new sentencing trial, I spoke
with
<http://abu-jamal-news.com/authors.php#dave>Dave
Lindorff,
<http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=vidframe>J.
Patrick O'Connor, and
<http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-prison-my-whole-life-interview-with.html>William
Francome.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWsmTF4-KzA>Dave
Lindorff is the author of
<http://www.commoncouragepress.com/index.cfm?action=book&bookid=228>Killing
Time: An investigation into the death row case of
Mumia Abu-Jamal. He says that “the obsession of a
string of Philadelphia district attorneys,
beginning with current Governor Ed Rendell and
ending with current DA Lynn Abraham with killing
Mumia Abu-Jamal, despite his now having spent 26
years in the living hell of Pennsylvania's death
row, is truly repulsive and inhuman. It has
ruined the live of Daniel Faulkner's widow whose
life has become a pathetic campaign of vengeance.
It has cost the taxpayers of Philadelphia and of
the state of Pennsylvania untold millions of
dollars. And meanwhile, there is every reason to
believe that Abu-Jamal was wrongly convicted of
first degree murder and should never have been
sentenced to death in the first place. The
obsession to kill him, which began from the
moment police first arrived on the scene in
December, 1981, has led to a decades long
travesty of and insult to the principles of
justice, which is continuing to this day.”
William Francome, from the British film
<http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2008/09/interview-new-british-film-about-mumia.html>In
Prison My Whole Life says that this “shows again
the political nature of this case. It is my
opinion that their office would not like to have
to go through with another sentencing phase of
the trial, with the attention that it would
receive. They wish that this case would just
disappear and that Mumia would be quiet, yet they
do not want to face the Fraternal Order of Police
who would be outraged if the DA wasn't pushing
for a death sentence
The sad thing is that
amongst the political battles, a man’s life is at
stake and I find the attempt at reinstating the
death sentence (which is a completely
irreversible and inhumane practice), to be abhorrent.”
J. Patrick O’Connor is the author of
<http://www.ipgbook.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=1556527446&userid=3F711707-803F-2B7A-708FD8627CED70E2>“The
Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Despite several
book tours and an important NY Times article when
Framing was released in May 2008, it has been
virtually
<http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/06/can-the-media-continue-to-ignore-the-framing-of-mumia-abu-jamal>ignored
by the mainstream media. O’Connor argues that the
DA’s appeal is “without merit and represents pure
gamesmanship by outgoing D.A. Lynne Abraham
The
last thing the Philadelphia DA's Office wants to
conduct is a new sentencing hearing, an event it
continues to put off by filing this latest
appeal. That's really what this latest appeal is all about.”
The Power of the People
At the December 6 protest, Pam Africa stressed
that the DA is trying to execute Abu-Jamal
despite the strong evidence of both an unfair
trial and innocence. Not having any faith in the
court system, she argued that justice will only
come from popular pressure, and made an urgent
plea for supporters to do all they can at this
critical hour. In his
<http://prisonradio.org/philli_rally_12_6_08.htm>message
recorded for the international week of
solidarity, Abu-Jamal thanked his supporters and
decried the recent denial of a new guilt-phase trial:
“As you’ve seen, the law is but politics by other
means, and the judges but politicians in judges’
robes. It doesn’t matter what the cases say. It
doesn’t matter what the so-called rules say.
They’ve never followed them from day one. What
matters is what you say. What matters is what you
do. So I thank you all for being there, for
fighting for what’s right, for fighting for life,
for fighting for liberty. I thank you all and I love you all.”
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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