Global Women

Global Women's Strike, Women of Color in the GWS, & Payday Men’s Network support Mumia Abu-Jamal’s demand for a new and fair trial – Philadelphia, May 17

Mumia Abu-Jamal, the award-winning journalist – known to millions as Mumia – who was convicted in 1982 of killing a policeman and who has been on death row since, has an appeal before the US Court of Appeals this week in Philadelphia. If successful, the hearing could lead to a new trial; if all is lost, to his execution.

On Thursday May 17, we will be supporting Mumia and his efforts for a new and fair trial. We urge those involved in the women’s movement and all other movements against war and for justice, to come out and let the court know that we are there in his support. Please join with anti-death penalty advocates, Black community activists and Mumia supporters around the world in demanding that his conviction be overturned. It must not be that, since the person who is defending himself against the sexist and racist forces of repression is a Black man, that only people of color make it a priority to turn up. All of us are attacked, all of our lives are at stake. In defending Mumia, we defend ourselves.

The trial begins at 9:30am in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, US Courthouse, 6^th and Market Sts. People will be gathering outside at 9am, and as many as possible will go inside. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Lawyers Guild which have filed amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs will also be participating in the court hearing.

Mumia has had to fight for justice in the midst of a climate of fear for a quarter of a century. He and his supporters have faced intimidation, bias, distortion and racist hatred in Philadelphia, starting with the Fraternal Order of Police that has threatened anyone who dared to question the conviction or even want a forum for discussion and information.

According to Mumia’s distinguished and dedicated lead lawyer, Robert Bryan, “Racism and politics are threads which have run through this case since his 1981 arrest. The issues before the court concern the right to a fair trial, the death penalty, and the political repression of an outspoken journalist.” The court has agreed to hear arguments on such constitutionally important issues as due process, equal protection under the law and racism in jury selection – in a city 43% Black and 60% people of color, only two jurors were Black. If the court upholds his claims of racism and other injustices it would be the first court ruling since his conviction that could lead to a new trial, the first time Mumia would have a chance to put his account of events before a jury. This is what we all have a right to, this is what he is demanding, and this is what we are demanding for him.

We also want to bring to your attention two support letters: over 150 UK lawyers wrote the US court asking for redress for the gross racism that permeated the case, and a letter is now circulating among journalists in support of Mumia whose dedicated investigative journalism has made him vulnerable to the years of injustice and persecution he has suffered. Both of these documents are available on www.globalwomenstrike.net

We hope to see you on Thursday May 17 in Philadelphia. Please look for our banner and join us, “Mothers Daughters Sisters Wives Fighting for Our Loved Ones’ Lives”. (There will also be support events in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, London, Helsinki Finland, Ankara and Istanbul Turkey, and other cities in the US and around the world, leading up to and on May 17).

Also, Tuesday May 15, Mumia’s lawyer Robert Bryan and Niki Adams of London-based Legal Action For Women were guests on Sojourner Truth on Pacifica Radio’s KPFK. Ms. Adams discussed the journalists’ letter in support of Mumia issued by Sojourner Truth host Margaret Prescod and more. Sojourner Truth airs every Tuesday 7 – 8am Pacific Time (10 – 11am Eastern Time), or you can listen to the archived show at any time on the web at www.kpfk.org.

Finally to convey a sense of the depth, breadth and caring of the man, here is an excerpt from what Mumia wrote in to our Global Women’s Strike event in 2005:

Global Women’s Strike rightly recognizes that the largest numbers of casualties in war wear no uniforms, and serve no governments. …It is women and children who are often uncounted and uncared for victims of state and non-state terrorisms. We have seen public and private outcries over the heart-rending losses of the recent tsunami in Asia and Africa. That, however, was an act of nature. What is hidden, and what is daily ignored, is the unnatural tsunamis that occur daily, especially in the so-called Third World, where, over 20 years ago, according to UNICEF data: 40,000 children died daily; where 100 million went to bed hungry; and where some 200 million children, between the ages of 6 and 11, went unschooled. Surely those numbers have worsened since 1981! We live in a world where everything is for sale, and that which is most precious, the lives of people, is most worthless.

Mumia Abu Jamal, March 2005

Global Women's Strike, Women of Color in the GWS and Payday Men’s Network

www.globalwomenstrike.net www.refusingtokill.net

Some facts about Mr Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial

v According to the medical examiner, the policeman was killed with a .44 calibre gun. Mr. Abu-Jamal's pistol, which he was licensed to carry as a night-time taxi driver, was .38 calibre. The trial jury never heard about this contradiction.

v The police never tested Mr Abu-Jamal's gun to see if it had been recently fired. They did not even examine his hands to see if he had fired a gun.

v It was claimed at trial that Mr Abu-Jamal ”confessed” to the killing at the hospital and this carried a lot of weight with the jury. Yet a written police report by the officer who was with Mr Abu-Jamal from the moment he was placed in the paddy wagon at the homicide scene until he went into surgery for removal of the bullet lodged near his spine said : “The negro male made no comment.” A week later the officer was asked by the chief detective on the case if there was anything he wished to add to his statement, to which the officer replied: “Nothing I can think of now.” Two months later, during an investigation into allegations that Mr Abu-Jamal had been beaten by the police during the arrest, this officer and two others claimed to have heard Mr Abu-Jamal state, while lying on the floor at the hospital: “I shot him. I hope the motherfucker dies.” The two other witnesses gave damning evidence on this “confession” at the trial but the man who claimed that initially Mr Abu-Jamal made no comment, was not called and this first statement was not disclosed to the defense.

v The treating doctor said that Mr Abu-Jamal was unconscious and said nothing. He reported that a nurse found police with loaded guns pointed at the suspect as he lay virtually lifeless in his hospital bed.

v William Singletary, a Vietnam veteran and local businessman, saw the whole incident and said that Abu-Jamal was not the shooter. However, the police forced him to change his story and intimidated him into leaving Philadelphia. Over a decade after, he testified at an evidentiary hearing that Mr Abu-Jamal did not shoot the cop and was innocent. The police had put pressure on him to corroborate their version of events.

v Other key witnesses, such as Veronica Jones who at the 1995 hearing, testified in support of Mr Abu-Jamal, were harassed into initially giving false testimony. Two prosecution witnesses were given special favors, including exemption from criminal prosecution, for their testimony against him.

v The defense lawyer did not interview a single witness in preparation for the 1982 trial, and lacked adequate funds for defending a capital case. Mr Abu-Jamal could not afford to retain competent counsel, an investigator, or needed experts in such fields as pathology and ballistics.

v Mr Abu-Jamal was removed by the judge from key parts of his own trial for insisting on his right to represent himself. Judge Albert Sabo, the Judge at the original trial and subsequent post-conviction (now deceased) was responsible for putting more people on death row than any other judge in the United States and was notoriously racist. The most blatant example in this trial was his comment, overheard by a stenographer, that he was going to help the prosecution ‘fry the nigger’.