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<a href="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</a>
<br><br>
Mumia Abu-Jamal faces US Supreme Court, as supporters mobilize
globally<br><br>
By Hans Bennett<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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
<a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000">Amnesty
International</a> has declared a "violation of minimum international
standards that govern fair trial procedures and the use of the death
penalty".<br><br>
There were
<a href="http://phillyimc.org/en/us-activists-solidarity-political-prisoner-mumia-abu-jamal">
solidarity actions inside the US</a> and around the world, including
Mexico, Venezuela, Germany, France, England, Switzerland. Several US
events screened the new DVD video titled
<a href="http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2008/12/video-fighting-for-mumias-freedom.html">
Fighting for Mumia's Freedom: a report from Philadelphia</a>.<br><br>
In Philadelphia, over 200 protesters gathered outside the District
Attorney’s office across the street from City Hall. <b><i>Journalists for
Mumia’s</i></b> new
<a href="http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=d6r">video report</a>
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
<a href="http://www.abu-jamal-news.com/article.php?name=mbmvids">newly
discovered crime scene photos</a> taken by press photographer Pedro
Polakoff, and the DA’s role in hiding them from the defense. The
coordinator of the <b><i>International Concerned Family and Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal</i></b>, 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.<br><br>
Protesters marched from the DA’s office to the Federal Court Building
where Abu-Jamal had
<a href="http://www.abu-jamal-news.com/temp/May17Audio.html">oral
arguments on May 17, 2007</a>. The march stopped at the 13th and Locust
crime scene where <b><i>Journalists for Mumia</i></b> 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
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G540pfYinAY">online video of the
presentation</a> is available alongside the
<a href="http://abu-jamal-news.com/docs/d6csi.pdf">special presentation
flyer</a>. <br><br>
That week, <b><i>Journalists for Mumia </i></b>was featured by
Philadelphia’s independent news website GeoClan.com. I argued in
<a href="http://phillyimc.org/en/geoclancom-interview-about-journalists-mumia-abu-jamal">
the interview</a> 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.” <br><br>
In
<a href="http://phillyimc.org/en/mexico-citys-week-solidarity-mumia-abu-jamal">
Mexico City, Mexico</a>, 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
<a href="http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/11/916170.shtml">Atenco
political prisoners</a> in the Molino de Flores prison at Texcoco,
México.<br><br>
<a href="http://phillyimc.org/en/braulio-alvarez-statement-mumia-member-venezuelan-assembly">
Braulio Alvarez</a>, a member of the Venezuelan parliament and leader of
the farmers struggle in Venezuela<b> said in his
<a href="http://phillyimc.org/en/braulio-alvarez-statement-mumia-member-venezuelan-assembly">
message written for the week</a>, 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.”<br><br>
</b>
<a href="http://phillyimc.org/en/video-and-photos-mumia-solidarity-demo-berlin">
Berlin, Germany’s</a>, 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").<br><br>
Also demonstrating the international interest in this case, the new
British documentary film about Abu-Jamal, titled <b><i>In Prison My Whole
Life</i></b>, premiered December 8 on the Sundance Channel. Previous
interviews with
<a href="http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-prison-my-whole-life-interview-with.html">
William Francome</a>, and
<a href="http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2008/09/interview-new-british-film-about-mumia.html">
Livia Giuggioli Firth</a>, revealed that <i>In Prison</i> features an
interview with Abu-Jamal’s brother Billy Cook, and
<a href="http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=mbmvids">the newly
discovered crime scene photos</a>. Officially endorsed by <b><i>Amnesty
International</i></b>,
<a href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17442">Amnesty
UK Director Kate Allen said:</a> "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."<br><br>
<b>Appealing to the US Supreme Court<br><br>
</b>Both the DA and Abu-Jamal are asking the US Supreme Court to consider
their appeals of the
<a href="http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=tct">March 27, 2008
rulings by the US Third Circuit Court</a>, 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
<a href="http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=hbpcra">rejected an
unrelated appeal</a> from Abu-Jamal.<br><br>
On March 27, 2008 the US Third Circuit Court's three-judge panel of
Thomas Ambro, Anthony Scirica, and Robert Cowen
<a href="http://www.abu-jamal-news.com/article.php?name=tct">ruled
against three different appeal issues</a>, 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. <br><br>
Abu-Jamal
<a href="http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/12/16/18555096.php">filed
his appeal</a> of this ruling with the US Supreme Court today, Dec. 19.
Arguably the key issue will be the 1986 <b><i>Batson v. Kentucky</i></b>
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 <a href="http://www.emajonline.com/files/AMBROS_DISSENT.pdf">his
dissenting opinion</a>, Judge Ambro wrote that the denial of a
preliminary <b><i>Batson</i></b> 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."<br><br>
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.<br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>Reacting to the DA’s Appeal<br><br>
</b>Following news that the DA was appealing to execute without a new
sentencing trial, I spoke with
<a href="http://abu-jamal-news.com/authors.php#dave">Dave
Lindorff</a>,
<a href="http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=vidframe">J. Patrick
O'Connor</a>, and
<a href="http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-prison-my-whole-life-interview-with.html">
William Francome</a>.<br><br>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWsmTF4-KzA">Dave Lindorff</a> is
the author of
<a href="http://www.commoncouragepress.com/index.cfm?action=book&bookid=228">
Killing Time: An investigation into the death row case of Mumia
Abu-Jamal</a>. 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.”<br><br>
William Francome, from the British film
<a href="http://insubordination.blogspot.com/2008/09/interview-new-british-film-about-mumia.html">
In Prison My Whole Life</a> 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.”<br><br>
J. Patrick O’Connor is the author of
<a href="http://www.ipgbook.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=1556527446&userid=3F711707-803F-2B7A-708FD8627CED70E2">
“The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal.”</a> Despite several book tours
and an important NY Times article when <b><i>Framing</i></b> was released
in May 2008, it has been virtually
<a href="http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/06/can-the-media-continue-to-ignore-the-framing-of-mumia-abu-jamal">
ignored by the mainstream media</a>. 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.”<br><br>
<b>The Power of the People<br><br>
</b>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
<a href="http://prisonradio.org/philli_rally_12_6_08.htm">message
recorded for the international week of solidarity</a>, Abu-Jamal thanked
his supporters and decried the recent denial of a new guilt-phase trial:
<br><br>
<dl>
<dd><b>“<i>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.”<br>
<br><br></i></b></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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