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<font size=3>From: Sis. Pam Africa<br>
---------------------------------<br><br>
Campaign for a Civil Rights Investigation of the Case of<br>
Mumia Abu-Jamal<br>
P.O. Box 16, College Station, New York, NY 10030<br>
Website:
<a href="http://www.freemumia.com">www.freemumia.com</a><br><br>
<br>
February 19, 2010<br><br>
Contacts:<br>
Pam Africa, 215-476-8812<br>
Dr. Suzanne Ross, 917-584-2135<br><br>
<br>
Attorney General Eric Holder<br>
Cc: Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez<br>
Department of Justice<br>
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW<br>
Washington, DC 20530-0001<br><br>
Dear Attorney General Holder: <br><br>
We write to you about the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. We are sure you know
quite a bit about this case and about the person behind the “case.” As
you probably have heard, we are asking the Department of Justice to
review the extensive history of civil rights violations in this case,
dating back to even before there was any issue of a crime involved, to
the present day. We are eager to meet with you to discuss these
violations. An international delegation will be available to meet with
you on Monday, April 26. We certainly hope that it will be possible for
you to arrange to see us at that time. By the beginning of April, we will
provide you with a legal brief addressing the issues involved. <br><br>
This letter, and the request we are submitting for a meeting, is our
second approach to the Department of Justice in the past few months. Last
November 12, we delivered approximately 20,000 letters (online and in
hard copy) to the Department of Justice after holding a press conference
at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Henry Louis Gates, Jr, Cornel
West, Noam Chomsky, Charles Rangel, Ruby Dee, Angela Davis, and Alice
Walker were among the signers. We delivered the letters to the
Department of Justice spokesperson, Alejandro Mijar. We explained to Mr.
Mijar why we are calling for a civil rights investigation into Mumia’s
case and also conveyed to him that we hoped to meet with you when we next
came to the Department of Justice. This exchange with an official from
the department was arranged by telephone by Dr. Suzanne Ross in
conversation with the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Civil
Rights, Thomas E. Perez, through his secretary, Nathaniel
Gamble.<br><br>
We wish to return in April with many of us listed below as well as other
national and international leaders representing unions, anti-death
penalty groups, religious, legal, and human rights organizations. On
April 26 we will explain the police, prosecutorial, and judicial patterns
in this 28 year legal case that could hardly be said to represent the law
but rather the lack of law. Clearly this is a very political and highly
charged case. As such, the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal cries out for a
review of the decades-long history of lawlessness and injustice.<br><br>
We hope to hear from you in the very near future and very much look
forward to sharing ideas about how a civil rights investigation might
contribute to establishing fairness and justice in a case where an
innocent man, a rather remarkable intellectual leader and visionary, is
being railroaded to execution. <br><br>
We are attaching a number of documents to give you a picture of the
issues involved, the work we’ve done to educate people about a civil
rights investigation, the support we’ve gotten, and some of the
activities we’ve conducted. These are not legal documents. We will submit
those in advance of our meeting with you. <br><br>
Yours for justice,<br><br>
National Conference of Black Lawyers<br>
The Riverside Church Prison Ministry<br>
Pam Africa, Chair, International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia
Abu-Jamal<br>
Sion Assidon, member of Moroccan Association of Human Rights, former
political prisoner<br>
Alan Benjamin, San Francisco Labor Council Executive Board member;
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples<br>
Patrick Braouezec, former Mayor of Saint-Denis, France; current member of
the French Parliament<br>
Dr. Marvin Cheatham, NAACP, Baltimore City, President<br>
Sister Empress Phile Chionesu, Founder and President General of the
Original Million Woman March and Universal Movement, Philadelphia,
PA<br>
Michael Coard, Esq., Philadelphia, PA <br>
Martha Conley, Esq., Pittsburgh, PA<br>
Mireille Fanon-Mendes France, Chairperson, Frantz Fanon Foundation,
Member of International Association of Democratic Lawyers<br>
Larry Hales, Students and Youth for Mumia<br>
Leslie Jones, Esq., Ithaca, NY<br>
Jeff Mackler, Director, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (San
Francisco)<br>
Nada Khader, WESPAC Foundation<br>
Cynthia McKinney, Former Congressional Representative, Atlanta, GA<br>
Suryea Peterson, Westchester Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for
Non-Violence, Board member<br>
Dr. Suzanne Ross, Co-chair, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)<br>
Sundiata Sadiq, Ossining NAACP, former President<br>
Fignole St. Cyr, Autonomous Unions of Haiti, President<br>
Dr. Michael Schiffman, English Department, University of Heidelberg,
Germany<br>
Professor Mark Taylor, Princeton Theological Seminary, Educators for
Mumia<br>
Leon Williams, Esq., Philadelphia, PA<br><br>
<br>
List of Attachments<br><br>
Mass Grassroots Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Congressional
Black Caucus Letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, June 30, 1995 <br>
Statement by Martin Luther King, III 1999<br>
Article by Hans Bennett, San Francisco Bay View<br>
Article by Linn Washington, This Is No Victory, March 2008<br>
NAACP Press Conference, July 2009<br>
Julian Bond Statement on Democracy Now!, June 2009<br>
Article by Linn Washington, Wrongs in Civil Rights Underlying Abu-Jamal
Conviction, August 11, 2009 <br>
Final Call Article by Saeed Shabazz, October 30, 2009<br>
November 12, 2009, Press Conference in Washington, DC<br>
Final Call Article by Askia Muhammad, November 2009<br>
Article by Linn Washington, Cracks in Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Case, December
10, 2009<br>
Article by Linn Washington, The Mumia Exception, February 11,
2010<br><br>
<br><br>
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