Mumia Abu-Jamal is a professional journalist who has been imprisoned on Death Row for almost 20 years — for a crime he never committed. Witnesses have testified that another man at the scene shot the cop. And circumstantial evidence provides a very reasonable doubt that Mumia did it. The cop was killed by a slug from a .45, but Mumia's gun was a .38.
Mumia was driving a cab when he saw a cop beating up his brother. When he stopped and got out to try and protect his brother the cop shot him. As Mumia lay bleeding on the street, somebody else shot the cop. It was a dark night in a Philadelphia neighborhood where the racist cops routinely beat up and murdered Black men — with total impunity. Whoevever shot that cop had very likely been violently abused by cops before. Maybe even that same cop.
But none of that matters to the racist American plutocracy. They never have been interested in justice and they never will be. They can't catch the guy who actually did it, so they're only too happy to punish an innocent scapegoat in his place — particularly because that scapegoat is a leading critic of the American plutocracy. What a golden opportunity. It's exactly the same situation in the case of Leonard Peltier. They figured this was their best chance to silence a well-known and effective critic of their evil system. Well, they figured wrong.
Mumia Abu-Jamal was already a highly-esteemed journalist. And now, by their gross injustice, the idiotic authorities have succeeded only in making him world famous.
Background to the case
Before his arrest Mumia was a Philadelphia radio reporter, a member of the persecuted MOVE organization and President of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. Very highly respected for his in-depth reporting and courageous honesty, he was well-known for exposing the police brutality of the notoriously racist Philadelphia Police Department. Because of that he was hated by thugs like Mayor Frank Rizzo (an ex-police chief) and the city's corrupt political establishment.
In fact the entire, rotten, evil establishment in America hates Mumia — because they hate the truth. The only things they love are money and power. The only law they respect is "the law of the jungle."
The real criminals are managing their latest schemes of legal robbery and ecocide from their corporate boardrooms.
The real criminals are executing their latest campaigns of mass-murder and torture from their offices in the Pentagon, the CIA, Congress, the State Department and the White House.
The real criminals are strutting around in uniforms on America's streets and in America's prisons, beating people, raping people, torturing people and murdering people with impunity. Too many pigs and prison guards are nothing but gangsters, nothing but goons and hitmen, the sadistic "muscle" of the United States Corporate Mafia Government.
And too many people are letting them all get away with it.
Few people in America dare to face the obvious fact that we are living in a truly evil, sick, predatory nation. Fewer still dare to actually devote their lives to speaking out against all this evil. And if he or she is so rare and effective that enough people really listen? That person's days are numbered. That is why Martin Luther King was murdered. That is why Mumia Abu-Jamal is in prison awaiting execution at the hands of the criminal authorities.
They never had a case against him and they never will. The only thing the criminal authorities have is their guns — pointed to our heads.
"[Mumia's] 1982 trial was marked by repeated and flagrant examples of prosecutorial misconduct aimed at punishing him for his political views. A witness who had been coerced later recanted her testimony, and another whom the prosecution had refused to call came forward to tell his version, which pointed to another shooter. The medical examiner's report indicated that Mumia's gun could not have fired the bullet that killed the officer."In addition to the coercion of witnesses, fabrication of a confession, suppression of evidence and other misconduct, Abu-Jamal faced judge Albert Sabo, a lifetime member of the Fraternal Order of Police. Sabo has sentenced 32 defendants to death, more than any other judge in the country. During the sentencing phase of the trial, Jamal's former membership in the Black Panther Party was introduced, an act that was blatantly unconstitutional." [1]
As a teenager Mumia was a "minister of information" in the Black Panther Party, traveling around the country filing reports for the party's news journals. That automatically put him on the U.S. Corporate Mafia Government's hit list. For the kangaroo court trial in 1982 Mumia's lawyers obtained his FBI file through the Freedom of Information Act. It was a whopping 800 pages.
Writes Mumia: "How many people can brag — and I use that term with a little humor — about having an FBI file from the time they were fourteen?"
The file revealed two previous FBI attempts to frame him while he was a member of the Panthers: one for "murder" and the other for "robbery."
The criminal Philadelphia pigs finally succeeded where the FBI failed. Judge Sabo sentenced him to death. In August 1995 Mumia Abu-Jamal was granted a stay of execution. In October 1998 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to grant him a new trial. Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Ridge has vowed to sign a new death warrant for his execution.
In addition to his books, Mumia's writings have been published in The Nation and the Yale Law Review.
Note:
[1] Helen Halyard,
"The social context of a police frame-up: Why we defend Mumia Abu-Jamal",
17 May 1999, World Socialist Web Site
[Back]
The Prison Industrial Complex:
A video interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal on Death Row
Interview by Monica Moorehead and Larry Holmes
28 minutes, VHS, People's Video Network
From Leftbooks.com:
Censored journalist, political activist and death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, framed for his ideas, speaks about the current political scene in the United States. In an excellent interview Mumia discusses prison labor in the United States, youth, elections, economics and the state of the world.
See and hear the man called the Voice of the Voiceless in this uncensored interview.
All Things Censored
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Foreword by Alice Walker
Edited by Noelle Hanrahan
Seven Stories Press, 2000
includes CD, 79 minutes
From Leftbooks.com:
All Things Censored is Mumia Abu-Jamal's major new release with more than 75 writings, many freshly composed by Mumia with the cartridge of a ball point pen — in his death row cell.
Abu-Jamal writes on a host of topics, including the ironies that abound within the U.S. prison system, the consequences of those ironies for us all, and his own case. Mumia's composure, humor, and connection to the living world around him represents an irrefutable victory over the "corrections" system that has for two decades sought to isolate and silence him.
The accompanying CD (previously released by Alternative Tentacles Records as All Things Censored) Includes readings by Mumia and other luminaries, writers and activists, including Assata Shakur, Martin Sheen, Alice Walker, Cornel West, John Edgar Wideman, Howard Zinn and others.
Live From Death Row
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Avon Books (Paperback), 1996; ISBN 0-380-72766-8
"They want me to die alone — silently."
— Mumia Abu-Jamal
From Leftbooks.com:
Once a prominent radio reporter, Mumia Abu-Jamal is now in Pennsylvania prison awaiting his state-sanctioned execution.
In 1982 he was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner after a trial many have criticized as profoundly biased.
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW is a collection of his prison writings — an impassioned yet unflinching account of the brutalities and humiliations of prison life. It is also a scathing indictment of racism and political bias in the American judicial system that is certain to fuel the controversy surrounding the death penalty and freedom of speech.
"His voice is vital and strong. The power of his voice is rooted in his defiance of those determined to silence him. Magically, Mumia's words are clarified, purified by the toxic strata of resistance through which they must penetrate to reach us. Like the blues. Like jazz."— John Edgar Wideman
"An important book [that] takes us into the bowels of hell. Abu-Jamal offers expert and well-reasoned commentary on the justice system. His writings are dangerous."
— Village Voice
"A tough, true, timely book. You cannot read it and remain unmoved."
— E.L. Doctorow
"A rare and courageous voice speaking from a place we fear to know: Mumia Abu-Jamal must be heard."
— Alice Walker
Mumia:
A Case For Reasonable Doubt?
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Produced and Directed by John Edginton
Fox Lorber Windstar Co.
Video, VHS 74 minutes
From Leftbooks.com:
Journalist, writer, death-row inmate and political prisoner — from behind the walls, Mumia Abu-Jamal speaks for the first time in "Mumia: A case for reasonable doubt?"
This excellent and professional video contains new footage not included in the original 1996 HBO special.
Mumia was convicted and sentenced to death for the December 9, 1981 murder of a white Philadelphia police officer. Mumia's conviction has been protested by activists and celebrities because of irregularities in both the evidence and the conduct of his trial.
This video is an excellent tool for understanding the case and can be used to organize activities anywhere.
On A Move:
The Story of Mumia Abu-Jamal
by Terry Bisson
http://www.mumiabook.com/
"Covering Mumia's childhood in the North Philly projects, a turbulent youth in Oakland and New York, a promising career in radio journalism, and a fateful sidewalk altercation that changed everything, Bisson's colorful sketches tell the story of one of the stormiest periods in American history, and of a young rebel who came of age in its crucible."
War At Home:
Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It
by Brian Glick
published by South End Press
This book provides a history of the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO operations which were used to murder, beat, intimidate, harass, confuse, fragment, destroy and silence political dissent by all leftist activists. These ILLEGAL FBI operations took place in the 1960s and '70s against any Black, Puerto Rican, Indian or White person/group courageous enough to oppose U.S. government-military evil doing. The FBI is inherently a White-racist organization, however, and COINTELPRO operations were generally more violent and ruthless against the Black Panthers and other Black or Indian activists than they were against people of other races.Today's FBI persists in the murder and intimidation of Americans of all races, of course, but not under the same codename of "COINTELPRO."
War at Home also gives practical tips on how to deal with today's U.S. Corporate Mafia Government thugs. Basically the more unity and publicity the better. Like the criminal bullies they truly are, the FBI and the pigs hate and fear the public exposure of their crimes by a unified opposition. Their basic strategy is to divide and conquer.
The book includes a checklist of essential precautions, information on your legal rights and defenses against the psychological warfare which the American Gestapo (FBI) uses to harass people who have moral consciences and political consciousness.
More about War At Home
The Beast Reawakens
by Martin A. Lee
See also the bibliography:
Experiences of the African-American Peoples
Related sites
Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.mumia2000.org/
Up-to-date news on the struggle to free Mumia. Includes organizing tools, such as pdf flyers to dowload for distribution, and links to buttons, t-shirts, and books.
International Action Center
http://www.iacenter.org/
Mumia Abu-Jamal On Death Row / Political Prisoners / Racism and Oppression
http://www.iacenter.org/imumia.htm
This page at the International Action Center has links to a great wealth of articles and the latest information about Mumia Abu-Jamal.
FACT SHEET ON MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
http://www.iacenter.org/majfact.htm
Affidavits Released at 5/4/01 MUMIA Press Conference
http://www.iacenter.org/maj_affidavits.htm
The social context of a police frame-up:
Why we defend Mumia Abu-Jamal
The World Socialist Web Site
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/maj-m17.shtml
WSWS: News & Analysis: Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.wsws.org/sections/category/news/na-jamal.shtml
The Martin Luther King You Don't See On TV
http://www.uvm.edu/~wmiller/faironmlk.htm
"Beyond Vietnam"
A speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., given at the Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967
http://www.uvm.edu/~wmiller/mlkbeyondvietnam.htm
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/
Who Killed Martin Luther King?
http://www.douglasvalentine.com/articles.html#king
"On Dec. 8, a jury in Memphis, Tenn., deliberated for only three hours before deciding that the long-held official version of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination was wrong."The jury's verdict implicated a retired Memphis businessman and government agencies in a conspiracy to kill the civil rights giant."
Related pages
Terrorism Begins at Home: Police Brutality in America
America's Techno-Fascist Future
U.S. Government Domestic Oppression
Police-State Brutality and the Battle of Seattle
Taking Action Against American Terrorism
Colonialism in Africa Today
WSWS : News & Analysis : Africa http://www.wsws.org/sections/category/news/africa.shtml
The World Socialist Web Site provides the latest major news from Africa with a Marxist analysis. Very eye-opening — unlike anything you'll ever read in the corporate-controlled mass-media. Find out what the United States Corporate Mafia Government (and it's European partners in crime) are up to in Africa. Colonial exploitation isn't finished at all — it just hides its fangs behind its IMF/World Bank mask.
Full-coverage sections include:
- South Africa
- Zimbabwe
- Angola
- Mozambique
- Sierra Leone
- Liberia
- Cote d'Ivoire
- Ghana
- Guinea-Bissau
- Nigeria
- Congo (DRC)
- Rwanda
- Uganda
- Kenya
- Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Sudan
- Egypt
- Niger
- Libya
- Clinton's 1998 Tour of Africa
- HIV / AIDS Pandemic
- Colonialism in Africa
Clinton "feels the pain" of Africa — and prepares new imperialist crimes
http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/mar1998/afr-m28.shtml
The significance of Leon Trotsky's thought for Africa today
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/oct2000/talb-o28.shtml
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"If you want free speech you can go down to a street corner and shout."— Jim Olson
owner of Humboldt Internet
September 26, 2001
On September 14, 2001, three days after the WTC attack, the owner of the humboldt1.com ISP summarily deleted the original American Terrorism website. When informed that he was suppressing online free speech, he offered the helpful advice above.
http://www.humboldt1.com/016910/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Launched: May, 2000 — Torpedoed: September 14, 2001 R.I.P.
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