[Ppnews] Mumia - Legal Update re US Supreme Court

Political Prisoner News ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Tue Jan 19 17:35:28 EST 2010


Dear All:

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court issued the 
long-awaited ruling in the case of my client, 
Mumia Abu-Jamal, which we have been litigating 
for 15 months.  The decision was as we 
expected.  Mumia's case has been sent back to the 
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 
Philadelphia, for further proceedings consistent 
with the decision last weak in another case:

"The petition for a writ of certiorari is 
granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is 
remanded to the United States Court of Appeals 
for the Third Circuit for further consideration 
in light of Smith v. Spisak, 558 U.S. ___ (2010)."


The decision is not bad and was unavoidable in 
view of the Spisak case ruling.  Now we must 
resume litigating the issue of the death penalty 
in the lower federal court.  It previous ruled 
that the trial judge misled the jury and thus 
Mumia was entitled to a new jury trial on the 
issue of death or life.  That is still the issue.

What occurred in Mumia's case is different both 
procedurally and factually from the jury 
instructions in Spisak.  The prosecution disagrees.

Soon I will be posting more information on our 
website: 
<http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org/>http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org. 
That may be checked regularly for updated information.

Petition for President Barack Obama  It is 
crucial for people to sign the petition for 
President Barack Obama regarding Mumia, which is 
in 10 languages ("Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Global 
Abolition of the Death Penalty").  Please 
circulate the petition as widely as possible and, 
of course, sign.  The link is: 
<http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html>http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html. 


Over 8,000 people, mostly from Germany, have 
signed in the few days since we launched the 
petition.  These include: Günter Grass, Germany 
(Nobel Prize in Literature); Bishop Desmond Tutu, 
South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize); Danielle 
Mitterrand, Paris (former First Lady of France); 
Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Noam Chomsky, 
MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor; Mike 
Farrell (actor); and Michael Radford (director of 
the Oscar winning film Il Postino).

There is also a Facebook page for Mumia and our 
work to save him: 
<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=407654295516&ref=mf>http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=407654295516&ref=mf

Tax-deductible Donations for Mumia's Legal 
Defense  The only way to guarantee that donations 
in the U.S. go only to the legal defense, is to 
make checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild 
Foundation (indicate Mumia on the bottom left), 
or contact my office 
(<mailto:MumiaLegalDefense at gmail.com>MumiaLegalDefense at gmail.com). 
The contributions are tax deductible under the 
Internal Revenue Code Code, section 501(c)(3), and should be mailed to:
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012

Conclusion  Mumia remains on death row under a 
death judgment.  He is in greater danger than at 
any time since his arrest over 28 years ago.  The 
prosecution has said it will continue pursuing 
his execution.  I win cases, and will not let them kill Mumia.

Yours very truly,

Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117

Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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