[Pnews] Support Mumia Abu Jamal's Legal Battle for Healthcare

[Prisoner News]

  *The Campaign To Bring Mumia Home*

*/*By Johanna Fernandez*/*

Dear Friends of Mumia,

I'm writing on behalf of the Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal to ask if 
you might help us in an emergency. The Committee is the official 
fundraising venue for Mumia’s legal defense today. It has been raising 
funds, quietly, since Mumia was facing execution in the ‘90s.

The Committee was initiated and led by Frances Goldin, Mumia’s literary 
agent. She is 93 years old today and continues to be actively involved 
in this work. Our letters are reviewed and signed by Angela Davis. Our 
efforts focus exclusively on Mumia’s legal defense, and on the few 
occasions when we’ve deemed that raising funds for other projects was 
critical to Mumia’s safety, our letters have explicitly outlined our 
thinking.

Since Mumia fell ill, we have been behind on payments to Mumia’s lead 
health attorney and we need to raise funds – quickly. Would you consider 
making a donation and identifying one or two others who might do the same?


      *A Word on Mumia’s Condition*

Although the symptoms of his Hep C condition wax and wane, he is much 
improved since his near death crisis two years ago. That moment was 
harrowing, and having been in the center of it, I can truly tell you 
that the movement saved his life.

Heidi Beghosian, former executive director, National Lawyers Guild, and 
I had been concerned about Mumia’s declining health two years ago, and 
we happened to visit Mumia the morning that he collapsed in the 
infirmary. At that moment, we called his family, identified the hospital 
to which he had been taken, then drove there to make our presence known.


      Since Mumia fell ill, we have been behind on payments to Mumia’s
      lead health attorney and we need to raise funds – quickly. Would
      you consider making a donation and identifying one or two others
      who might do the same?

We alerted the movement, and dozens joined us at the hospital that 
evening. The next day we held a press conference at the hospital to 
which surprisingly the Philadelphia mainstream media showed up. The 
conditions under which Mumia was hospitalized were horrendous and we 
visited the hospital daily.

After these dramatic days, when we realized that Mumia was in danger of 
dying, we went into emergency mode for several months. This included 
identifying outside doctors to visit him, taking out an ad in the New 
York Times, mobilizing the movement and testifying in court about what 
we saw.

We even took Mumia’s hair sample covertly to be tested at an outside 
laboratory. It was our doctor, not the hospital physicians, who in the 
end diagnosed Mumia with Hep C and made the connection that his terrible 
skin condition was a symptom of that disease. In this moment of crisis, 
Pam Africa’s experience was indispensable.

*The Legal Situation and Our Request for Funds*

As you know, his attorneys, primarily Bob Boyle, scored an unprecedented 
legal victory in Mumia’s Hep C health suit. On Jan. 7, a federal judge, 
Robert Mariani, in an unprecedented decision, ordered that Mumia be 
treated with the 95 percent effective cure rate antiviral medicines 
within 21 days. He condemned the barbarity of the DOC’s (Department of 
Corrections’) Hep C protocol, and his opinion establishes the groundwork 
for the treatment of the 7,000 others with Hep C in the Pennsylvania 
prisons.

The Pennsylvania DOC is fighting this all the way to hell. On the 10th 
day after the ruling, right before the Martin Luther King holiday, the 
DOC attorneys filed a stay and a notice of appeal in the 3rd Circuit 
District Court of Appeals.

Our legal filings are voluminous. Bob Boyle has been working for two 
years at reduced legal fees, and we are behind on payments. He has 
literally had to borrow money to stay afloat. We’ve also put in some 
personal funds, and are sending out another appeal to our members, but 
we need an infusion of $25,000 in the next week.


      His attorneys, primarily Bob Boyle, scored an unprecedented legal
      victory in Mumia’s Hep C health suit. The Pennsylvania DOC is
      fighting this all the way to hell.

Thanking you in advance for your consideration.

All the best,

/Johanna Fernandez, Ph.D./

/Johanna Fernandez, Ph.D., is a professor of history at Baruch College 
(CUNY,) coordinator of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, member of the 
Committee to Save Mumia Abu Jamal, and writer and producer of the 
acclaimed film, “//Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal/ 
<http://bringmumiahome.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=41813959c5e8470c91faf3ab3&id=645e4b9765&e=f968fb2bce>/.” 
She can be reached at jfernandez1202 at gmail.com.
______________________________ ______________________________ ____________/


      *Legal Particulars*

Federal Judge Robert Mariani presided over Mumia’s health suit. Judge 
Mariani granted Mumia his claim of deliberate indifference, meaning that 
Mumia won the preliminary injunction for immediate treatment. The judge 
ordered that a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) doctor must 
see Mumia within 14 days of his Jan. 7 ruling and instructed that 
treatment begin seven days after that – in other words, within 21 days 
of the ruling.

But on the 10th day after the ruling, right before the Martin Luther 
King holiday, the DOC lawyers filed a challenge to the judge’s ruling. 
They filed “a stay,” which essentially asked the judge to halt all legal 
actions and proceedings. The DOC attorneys also filed a separate notice 
of appeal that made known their intention to appeal the decision in the 
Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the court immediately below the 
Supreme Court.

Here are the different scenarios that can emerge.

If Judge Mariani denies the stay and upholds his original decision, the 
DOC can seek a stay from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. This would 
happen in advance and separately from the DOC’s full appeal in that 
court. If the 3rd Circuit grants the stay, the appeal process could take 
two to three months, even if “expedited.” If the 3rd Circuit denies the 
DOC’s request for a stay, Mumia basically wins because it would mean 
that the injunction must be carried out, meaning that MAJ gets the drugs.

If Judge Mariani grants the DOC’s request for a stay, Mumia’s attorneys 
can ask the 3rd Circuit to vacate (overturn) the stay; however, it would 
be unlikely that the 3rd Circuit would do so since they would take Judge 
Mariani granting the stay as an indicator that he feels his ruling would 
not withstand an appeal. We then would have to litigate the appeal in 
the 3rd Circuit Court, again a two to three month process.


      *Profile of the Attorneys Litigating Mumia’s Health Suit*

Bret Grote is a young attorney and the founder of the Abolitionist Law 
Center in Pittsburgh. He was the only lawyer willing to file a 
preliminary injunction to get Mumia immediate treatment after he fell 
ill. All the attorneys with whom we consulted argued that the case was 
impossible to litigate and win. Shortly after Bret Grote filed the 
motion, the movement recruited Bob Boyle to join Bret Grote.

Bob Boyle is one of the most noted and accomplished attorneys 
representing political prisoners today. He is comparable to Len 
Weinglass in his political analysis of these cases. Bob Boyle

  * litigated the Lynne Stewart case, which led to her compassionate
    release;
  * litigated the case of Black Panther Dhoruba Bin Wahad and secured
    his freedom;
  * secured the release of Black Panther Marshall Eddie Conway, who
    spent close to 43 years in prison;
  * overturned in appellate court the 75-year sentence of Mohammed
    Al-Moayad, who was convicted of providing material support to Hamas.


      *How to Donate*

Please mail your tax-deductible check payable to National Lawyers Guild. 
On the memo line, be sure to write: “For Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Defense.”

Mail your check directly to Johanna Fernandez, 158-18 Riverside Drive 
W., Apt. 6C-50, New York, New York 10032.

Please forward this email far and wide and let’s make the raising of 
$25,000 a reality.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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