Socialist Action /January 1999
Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Struggle for His Freedom Enters a Critical Stage
By JEFF MACKLER
The struggle to win a new trial and freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal has entered
a critical stage. Mumia, a noted Black journalist and innocent political
prisoner, has been on Pennsylvania's death row for 17 years after being
convicted in a frame-up trial of killing a Philadelphia police officer.
Key organizers of Jamal's defense, from chief legal counsel Leonard Weinglass
and the defense team to the International Concerned Family and Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal, have stated that Mumia's life rests with the capacity of
his supporters to engage ever broadening sectors of the population in united
actions.
The goal now is to bring Mumia's case-perhaps the most important death
row case in decades-to the attention of additional millions of Americans.
Legal experts estimate that the time period during which all federal
court appeals may be exhausted is between six and 24 months.
This is essentially the time left to mobilize an international fight
to make the price of Mumia's murder too high to pay from the vantagepoint
of his would-be executioners in both Pennsylvania and the highest levels
of U.S. ruling-class circles.
To this end, some 60 national organizations and prominent activists have
been called to a mid-January New York City meeting to plan and prepare a
series of coordinated events. On April 24, "Millions for Mumia,"
demonstrations have been set for Philadelphia and San Francisco. These will
be preceded by four staggered regional conferences in San Francisco, Chicago,
Philadelphia, and New York.
Leonard Weinglass told a Dec. 12 Philadelphia regional organizing conference
that a representative of Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas Ridge had informed the
defense team that he would not sign a new warrant for Mumia's execution.
Instead, according to this official, the state would operate as if the 1995
death warrant signed by the governor were still operative.
This 1995 death warrant was stayed by "hanging judge" Judge
Albert Sabo following mass protests at that time and following the defense
team's simultaneous filing for a Post Conviction Relief Act hearing. Sabo's
stay of execution explicitly stated that it was valid through all federal
court appeals up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court.
While Gov. Ridge has misinformed Jamal's defense team in the past, and
may do so again by signing a new warrant for Jamal's execution, the fact
that no such warrant has been signed to date indicates that Ridge may seek
to avoid drawing the additional national attention to the case that would
inevitably flow from a new execution warrant.
The defense team, according to Weinglass, is currently preparing an appeal
to the Federal District Court that challenges the Oct. 29 rejection by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court of all 26 points raised by Jamal's defense.
In the meantime, support for Mumia continues to mount. The most recent
example came on Dec. 17 when the European Parliament passed a resolution
that included the following:
"Noting that Mumia Abu-Jamal was condemned to death in December
1982 following an unfair trial, that his application for a re-trial was
rejected on Oct. 30 by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and...
"Whereas this rejection means that the governor of Pennsylvania
may at any time sign a fresh warrant setting the date for his execution...
"The European Parliament ... issues an urgent appeal to the governor
of Pennsylvania not to sign a fresh warrant setting an execution date and
reiterates its call for a re-trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and for the death
sentence passed on him to be commuted."
The European Parliament resolution followed presentations to the body
by a delegation that included Leonard Weinglass, Angela Davis, Ramona Africa,
Sue Africa, Julia Wright, and others.
In the United States, the 2500-member Oakland Education Association,
in conjunction with the Oakland Unified School District, will schedule lesson
plans in history and social studies classes, as well as assembly programs
on Mumia's case and the death penalty in the district's secondary schools.
Similarly, the national convention of the Labor Party unanimously approved
the following resolution:
"Be it resolved that the Labor Party 1998 Convention goes on record
demanding justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a world renowned award-winning journalist,
courageous defender of the rights of the working-class and oppressed people...
"Be it further resolved, that we demand a new trial, due to the
mockery of his 1982 trial that was characterized by reliance on contradictory
evidence from the police, coercion, intimidation, bribery by the police
of prosecution witnesses, police suppression of evidence, the illegal exclusion
of African American jurors, and the blatant bias of Judge Albert Sabo..."
Mumia's struggle for freedom has resonated in every quarter of American
society. A dramatic letter calling for his freedom was signed by 15 innocent
people who had lived on death row for periods ranging from two to twelve
years.
They had been convicted and freed when the racist and classist frame-up
against them was finally brought to light. The letter was circulated and
released on Nov. 13 at the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and
the Death Penalty in Chicago. One thousand attended to learn how the U.S.
criminal "justice" system victimizes oppressed people by methods
that bear a striking resemblance to the frame-up of Mumia.
The former death row inmates wrote:
"We know Mumia's struggle, because no one knows it better than
we of the lengths to which the criminal 'justice' system will go in its
relentless quest to take a life. Many of us are intimately familiar with
the daily degradation of Mumia's 17 years on death row: locked in a cell
for 23 hours each day, forbidden to embrace or even see his family members,
prohibited from being filmed or audio-taped by reporters, slapped into
punitive detention for writing and publishing his views, refused the right
to confidentially communicate with his attorneys.
"We were sustained in our struggle for justice, as Mumia is, by
the tireless support of our families, friends, and people of principle
who organized to liberate us from the machine that tried to slay us. And,
above all else, we were sustained, as Mumia is, by the only real certainty
we were allowed on death row-the knowledge that we were innocent."
Dec. 12 actions calling for Mumia's freedom were scheduled coast to coast.
In Northern California, rallies and demonstrations initiated by the Mobilization
to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal in San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz, San Jose,
and Sebastopol. An estimated 2000 attended these events.
In Oakland, police and other public officials sought to impose permit
fees totaling $2300 for the right to march in the city's streets. Mobilization
organizers refused to pay these fees and insisted that they would exercise
their First Amendment rights.
On the eve of the march, both Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, a supporter
of the march and Mayor-elect Jerry Brown pressed the police to waive all
fees. In addition, a news conference was held, with representatives of the
Oakland Unified School District, the Oakland teachers' union, the National
Lawyers Guild, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and the Mobilization
to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal attending.
The dispute was given coverage in the Oakland Tribune.
As a result of the pressure upon them, the police informed march organizers
that they would not interfere with the scheduled march and rally-although
they still refused to grant a permit for the action without payment of fees.
New support was won from several Bay Area trade unions, from representatives
of Grace Cathedral, and from the Nation of Islam ,whose Minister Christopher
Mohammed addressed a San Francisco rally of 300.
A representative from NABET also addressed the rally, as did Walter Johnson,
Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Labor Council and Brian McWilliams,
president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
In Philadelphia, 200 attended the Dec. 12 organizing conference. The
meeting was addressed by representatives of a diverse range of political
and social organizations, including many currents on the left that had previously
shunned common action with groups with whom they retained fundamental programmatic
differences. This is indicative of the growing unity and determination that
is emerging across the country.
A victory for Mumia will resound in every quarter that cherishes human
freedom and dignity. We must build an all-inclusive and united effort to
achieve this result. Mumia's freedom rests with the American working class,
Black and white, and all their allies among the oppressed. Their involvement
in the future struggles will prove decisive.
Socialist Action /January 1999 |