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Mumia Abu-Jamal

Noelle Hanrahan On Mumia Abu-Jamal Update

October 29, 2022 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. , ,
This week on CounterSpin: A 1995 Washington Post story led with a macabre account from the widow of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, about how when her husband’s bloody shirt was held up in court, his accused killer Mumia Abu-Jamal turned in his chair and smiled at her. An evocatively sinister report, which the paper printed untroubled by the fact that the court record showed that Abu-Jamal wasn’t in court when the shirt was displayed. ABC‘s investigative news show 20/20 used all the techniques for their big 1998 piece on the conviction of Abu-Jamal for Faulkner’s killing—stating prosecution claims as fact, even when they were disputed by some of the prosecution’s own witnesses or the forensic record; stressing how a defense witness admitted being intoxicated, while omitting that prosecution witnesses said the same.

Mumia Abu-Jamal Denied A New Trial

October 27, 2022 Noelle Hanrahan, Prison Radio. , , ,
Yesterday, at 12:45pm October 26, 2022, a proposed order denying Mumia Abu-Jamal’s constitutional claims of jury bias and suppressed evidence was issued by Common Pleas court Judge Lucretia Clemons.   Abu-Jamal’s defense petition included newly discovered evidence that had been buried in the prosecutor’s own files.  This evidence documented key witnesses receiving promises of money for their testimony and evidence of favorable treatment in pending criminal cases. The petition also documented the abhorrent and unconstitutional practice of striking Black jurors during Mumia’s original trial. Philadelphia ADA Jack McMahon made the policy clear in a 1986 training tape stating that getting “a competent, fair and impartial jury. Well, that's ridiculous,'…“You don't want smart people. But if you're sitting down and you're going to take Blacks, you want older Blacks."

The United States Has Many Political Prisoners – Here’s A List

August 10, 2022 Stansfield Smith, Multipolarista. , , , , , , , , , ,
The United States constantly accuses its adversaries of holding political prisoners, while insisting it has none of its own. But for its entire history, the US government has used incarceration of its political opponents as a tool to crush dissent and advance the interests of economic elites. Well-known cases are those entrapped or framed in US national security state sting operations, or imprisoned with extreme sentences for a minor offense because of their political activism, such as Black revolutionary George Jackson. Each period of struggle by the working class and oppressed peoples against ruling-class control results in some activists locked up for their revolutionary work. “Political prisoner” has often meant those revolutionaries jailed for fighting their national oppression, as is the case with a great number of Black Panthers.

Mumia: Unjustly Imprisoned For 40 Years

July 5, 2022 Betsey Piette , Workers World. , , ,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - On July 3 people in Philadelphia and dozens of other cities across the U.S. and around the globe marked the 40th anniversary of the unlawful and unjust imprisonment of Pennsylvania political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, including 29 years on death row. Now imprisoned for life in the general population, Abu-Jamal is still fighting for exoneration. In Philadelphia activists gathered at the Municipal Services Building across from City Hall. Until June 2020, a hated statue of racist former Philadelphia Mayor and police chief Frank Rizzo stood on the plaza.

New Legal Filing In Mumia’s Case

January 6, 2022 Johanna Fernández, Workers World. ,
The new evidence contained in the boxes is damning, and we need to expose it. It reveals a pattern of misconduct and abuse of authority by the prosecution, including bribery of the state’s two key witnesses, as well as racist exclusion in jury selection — a violation of the landmark Supreme Court decision Batson v. Kentucky. The remedy for each or any of the claims in the petition is a new trial. The court may order a hearing on factual issues raised in the claims. If so, we won’t know for at least a month.

Why Have Media Gone To Such Lengths To Silence Mumia Abu-Jamal?

May 3, 2021 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , ,
Philadelphia public broadcaster WHYY (4/24/21) was one of the few outlets to report on an April 24 rally seeking the release from prison of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The story included important information on Abu-Jamal, who is serving a life sentence for the 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. It noted that the case has “drawn scrutiny” over claims of police, prosecutorial and judicial bias and misconduct. It cited new evidence released as part of the appeal process, including a note from a key prosecution witness asking the prosecuting attorney for money—the sort of evidence that Johanna Fernandez, a history professor and part of Abu-Jamal’s legal team, notes has in other instances led to a defendant either being set free or getting an immediate new trial.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: State Running Scared, Trying To Make Sure He Dies In Prison

April 30, 2021 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
Ann Garrison: Mumia has finally had the open-heart surgery that his team and his wife had such a hard time getting any information about beforehand. Johanna Fernandez: That’s correct. But Mumia’s chosen doctor, Dr. Ricardo Alvarez, has not been given access to the surgeons. Mumia was finally able to call his wife Wadiya Abu-Jamal several days before the surgery, but at that point he was very weak and was only able to whisper to her that he would be undergoing surgery two days later. He was allowed to call her after the surgery, and she said he sounded strong. AG: Was there any response to the campaign to remove the shackles – the four-point restraints – ahead of Mumia’s surgery.

Mumia Abu-Jamal Has COVID-19

February 28, 2021 Dave Lindorff, This Can't Be Happening. , , ,
Internationally known U.S. political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has reported to friends and family on the outside that he has contracted Covid-19 in the Pennsylvania prison where he is incarcerated, and says he is having difficulty breathing. His life is in immediate danger and he is in urgent need of hospital care. This latest outrage was sadly predictable. Prisons across the U.S. have for years been allowing serious illness to serve as a form of “silent execution” of prisoners, many of them certainly innocent of the crimes they were convicted of.  Many prisoners in the system, guilty or not, are serving unfairly punitive terms that keep them confined into an old age meaning they are particularly vulnerable to potentially fatal illnesses, whether that is flu, cancer, hepatitis, pneumonia or now Covid-19.

Pennsylvania Will Rule On Mumia’s Case, After Proceeding In Secret

September 1, 2020 By Noelle Hanrahan, Prison Radio. , , , ,
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has put Mumia Abu-Jamal's evidentiary hearing on hold.  The case is under seal and is proceeding in secret! This spring Mumia Abu-Jamal was back in court with a chance for freedom! The Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had agreed with defense counsel that Mumia deserved a new evidentiary hearing based on the revelation of long-suppressed exculpatory evidence. The new documents — buried in the DA's office for 38 years — call into question the entire prosecution case against Mumia Abu-Jamal. The Fraternal Order of Police backed an extraordinary petition asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to kick anti-corruption DA Larry Krasner off the case. In April 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reached down from on high and suspended the criminal case. The ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the King's Bench petition could come down at any time.

The World On Fire

June 14, 2020 By Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio. , , ,
Protests from London to Paris; from Berlin to Nairobi; from Toledo, Ohio, to Tokyo, Japan. Protests in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and against police aggression and racism. Protests stemming from the cruel brutality that led to the slow-motion killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. The solidarity from Sydney, Australia, stems in part from the long-standing discontent from the dark Aborigines, the Indigenous communities in Australia and New South Wales, who like Black folk in America, have suffered from generations of state repression. And how have the cops responded to this challenge? With tantrums. With attacks on protesters, male or female. A 75-year-old white man who was pushed to the ground as they stepped over his fallen and bleeding body.

Happy Birthday, Mumia!

April 28, 2020 Workers World Philadelphia Bureau. , , ,
The press conference launched four days of virtual events celebrating Abu-Jamal’s 66th birthday, including a teach-in, “U.S. Empire v. Political Prisoners,” on April 24; a virtual dance party, “Mumia Libre,” on April 25; and a 24-hour, “Poetry in Motion,” reading from Abu-Jamal’s writings from noon to noon April 26-27. Links for all events can be found at Mobilization4Mumia.com. Opening the press conference, Pam Africa, of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, began the 90-minute YouTube event (youtu.be/m4WzmXD1RiI) with an appreciation of the unwavering, almost four-decades-long movement to free Abu-Jamal, imprisoned when he was just 27 years old. Santiago Alvarez, University of California, Santa Cruz student calling in from San Francisco, recounted hearing the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ “sick and wicked” false claim on April 15 that Abu-Jamal was being hospitalized with COVID-19.

Cruel Hoax Mumia Abu-Jamal Was Ill With COVID-19

April 22, 2020 Mobilization for Mumia, Popular Resistance , , ,
When a PA Department of Corrections official falsely claimed Mumia Abu-Jamal was being hospitalized with COVID-19 at 5 pm on April 15, the news was shared worldwide in minutes. Supporters around the world, who have been misled by DOC statements in the past, immediately called the institution and demanded confirmation from Mumia himself. By 8:45 pm, the DOC allowed Mumia to call his supporters and he confirmed that the official report was false. “I am fine, I am not hospitalized,” he can be heard on the recorded call saying, part of which was played at the press conference, “...What I need is freedom.” The whole incident adds to a long list of lies and misinformation by the PA DOC since Mumia was first unjustly incarcerated in 1982.

In Response To Latest Mumia Appeal, Philly Cops Lash Out At District Attorney

October 1, 2019 By Ted Kelly, Workers.org , ,
In the face of mounting legal victories and an energized movement in the streets to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police is now attacking District Attorney Larry Krasner for failing to challenge a request by Abu-Jamal’s attorneys for a new evidentiary hearing. Maureen Faulkner, widow of slain police officer Daniel Faulkner, has been enlisted by the FOP to attack Krasner, despite his initial efforts to help her perpetuate Abu-Jamal’s unjust imprisonment.

July 3 – Take Action For Mumia Abu-Jamal

July 2, 2019 Mobilization for Mumia. , ,
July 3 has traditionally been a day of action calling for the release of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.  On the anniversary of the day he was originally sentenced to death row, we have filled the streets of Philadelphia with rallies and marches. This July 3, on the 37th anniversary of his incarceration we are asking your participation in a different type of mass action.  In recent weeks the focus of Mobilization4Mumia.com has been to raise awareness of the medical crisis Mumia currently faces as the PA Department of Corrections (DOC) has delayed his access to cataract surgery.  The petition below calls not only for this medically necessary procedure to be performed without delay, but also for the release of Mumia, a factually innocent man. On July 3, 2019 please take time to make calls to the numbers below.

Keep The Pressure On DA Krasner To Free Mumia!

February 12, 2019 John Leslie, Socialistaction.org ,
On Dec. 28, one day after the decision by Judge Leon Tucker opening the door to further appeals by Mumia Abu-Jamal, employees of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office “found” six boxes in a storage space, while allegedly looking for office furniture. Five of the six boxes are marked with the name McCann, the name of a former head of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit. Five of the boxes were also marked with Mumia’s name. This discovery was revealed to the public more than a week later in press reports.
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