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<b><u>For Immediate Release: November 10, 2009<br>
</u>Contact: Suzanne Ross (917) 584-2135 • Pam Africa
(215) 476-8812<br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>
<br>
<br>
</font>International Representatives Join US Activists in Delivering to
Attorney General Eric Holder Thousands of Letters Demanding a Civil
Rights Investigation of the Case of Mumia <br>
Abu-Jamal<br>
<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>PRESS
CONFERENCE:
MARCH TO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT<br>
New York Avenue Presbyterian
Church
AND PRESENTATION OF LETTERS<br>
1313 New York
Avenue</b>
<b>FOLLOWS, ARRIVING AT<br>
Washington, DC, 11:30
A.M.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 1:30 PM<br>
</b> <br>
Supporters of Pennsylvania death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal
will march to the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC, on November
12 to deliver thousands of petitions to Attorney General Eric Holder
demanding that the department open an investigation into the multitude of
violations of Abu-Jamal’s civil rights over the past 28 years. <b>A
press conference at 11:30 AM at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church
will be followed by a march to the Department of Justice where the
letters demanding such an investigation will be brought.<br>
</b> Among the speakers at the press conference will be Laura Moye,
Director, Amnesty International’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign;
Steven Hawkins, Vice President, National NAACP; Marvin “Doc” Cheatham,
Sr., President, Baltimore NAACP; Pam Africa, International Concerned
Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Fignolé Saint-Cyr, President
of Autonomous Unions of Haiti; Berlin Coalition to Free Mumia
Abu-Jamal; El-Hajj Mauri’ Saalakhan, Washington, DC, Director of
Operations, Peace and Justice Foundation; Thomas Ruffin, attorney;
Joseph “Jazz” Hayden, Riverside Church Prison Ministry; Panama Alba,
National Congress of Puerto Rican Rights, Campaign to End the Death
Penalty, and others. <br>
Many
Muslim organizations are supporting the call for a civil rights
investigation of Abu-Jamal’s case. Representatives of these groups
will be present both at the press conference and the subsequent rally at
the Justice Department to express support for Mumia Abu-Jamal while
pointing out similarities between the due process and human rights
violations in his case and those that are perpetrated daily against the
Muslim political prisoners and prisoners of war.<br>
This past July the NAACP passed an emergency resolution at its 100th
anniversary convention in New York, asking Mr. Holder to conduct a civil
rights investigation. “We’re going to ask Attorney General Holder to look
into this,” said NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, during a broadcast of
Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now” on July 20. “As anyone who’s followed
this case for a number of years knows, similar doubts have been raised
about him as were raised about Troy Davis.” Later, Hilary
Shelton, director of the NAACP'sWashington office, told <i>The Final
Call</i>, “We had a meeting with the attorney general, and the subject of
Mumia Abu Jamal did surface. The attorney general said he was aware of
the case and would look into it and get back to us.”<br>
Pam
Africa, long-time Chair of International Concerned Family and Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal, has announced that, “We are not coming to the Department
of Justice looking for justice. We are <u>bringing</u> justice to
the Department of Justice!” Dr. Suzanne Ross of the Free Mumia
Abu-Jamal Coalition adds, “At this critical moment in Mumia’s case, a
civil rights investigation could mean the difference between life and
death for Mumia. It could also open the door for his release.”<br>
The call for a civil rights investigation follows the April 2009 U.S.
Supreme Court acceptance of the Third Circuit’s decision that closed all
doors for a new trial or the consideration of Abu-Jamal’s
innocence. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is still considering an
appeal by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to immediately
reinstate Abu-Jamal’s death sentence.<br>
International legal bodies such as Amnesty International, the
International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the European Parliament,
and city councils and national governments around the world have argued
for decades that Abu-Jamal was wrongfully convicted in a widely denounced
trial and appeals process for the 1981 killing of a Philadelphiapolice
officer. They point to suppressed evidence, witness intimidation and
consequent witness perjury, a very specious confession, an admittedly
biased judge and a long string of twisted appellate court rulings as
evidence of a continuing conspiracy by the state of Pennsylvania to
execute him. Additionally, and this is a critical basis for a civil
rights investigation as occurred during the overturning of the conviction
of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, there is extensive evidence of
consistent withholding of evidence from the defense that could have led
to Mumia’s acquittal – photographs challenging the
prosecution’s version of what happened on December 9, 1981, and evidence
that another person other than Mumia, his brother, and Faulkner were at
the crime scene at the time Office Faulkner was
shot. <br>
The march to the Justice Department will follow the press conference and
is being co-sponsored by International Concerned Family and Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal, National Lawyers Guild, (NYC Chapter), WESPAC,
Riverside Justice Prison Ministry, Iglesia San Romero (UCC),
Campaign to End the Death Penalty, International Action Center,
</font>Peace and Justice Foundation, Families United for Justice in
America, Nat Turner Rebellion, Black August Planning Committee,
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>National Jericho Movement, ,
and ANSWER, among others. The delivery of the petitions is expected to
take place at 1:30 pm. The campaign has been endorsed by a broad
range of individuals including Angela Davis, Ruby Dee, Charles Rangel,
Cynthia McKinney, Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, and Tariq Ali. <br>
<br>
<i>In 1982 Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of murdering a
Philadelphia police officer and sentenced to death. His case
is one of the most contested in U.S. history. Prosecutors, the Fraternal
Order of Police and their supporters, and even the judges involved, have
always claimed to possess a watertight case justifying Abu-Jamal’s
conviction and sentence. Yet Abu-Jamal's trial, conviction,
and death sentence have prompted jurists and human rights organizations
worldwide to denounce the trial and death sentence as a travesty of
justice. They cite the open bias of the original judge, who was
overheard to have said outside his courtroom, “I’m going to help them fry
the n - - - - -“. Not only is this a strong indication of racial
bias, a reality minimized by the judge who took over the case, but it
clearly identified the absence of the requisite “judicial neutrality”
expected of a judge. The racially skewed process of jury selection,
furthermore, yielded a disproportionately white jury, the
disappearance of key ballistics evidence, and police intimidation
of witnesses leading to perjured statements. Amnesty International,
in its 2000 report called “A Life in the Balance: The Case of Mumia
Abu-Jamal” stated that, “numerous aspects of this case clearly failed to
meet minimum international standards safeguarding the fairness of legal
proceedings” and strongly recommended a new trial.
Abu-Jamal's defense team identified 29 claims of violation of his
constitutional rights, but Abu-Jamal has been repeatedly denied the
opportunity to have evidence of his innocence and of police and
prosecutorial efforts to frame and convict him seriously
considered. Abu- Jamal has always asserted his innocence and his
affidavit on this is included in the press packet. Clearly Mumia
Abu-Jamal’s race and his political views, as well as his widely
recognized enormous talent in communicating those views, have played a
key role in his being the object of a 28 year conspiracy to forever
silence his voice. . <br><br>
<br>
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