Socialist Action /May 2001
All Out May 12 to Free Mumia!
By JEFF MACKLER
Federal District Court Judge William H. Yohn Jr.
is currently considering the 29-point habeas corpus (appeal) brief submitted
more than a year ago by the legal team then representing Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Jamal, an innocent death row political prisoner
for almost 20 years, finds himself in a dangerous position.
The 30-day time period Yohn gave Mumia to assemble
a new legal team has almost expired. Jamal was not informed about Yohn's
time limit until more than a week after Yohn granted Mumia's petition to
dismiss his legal team, headed by Leonard Weinglass and Dan Williams. (See
Socialist
Action, April 2001.)
At that time, Yohn denied Mumia's request to operate
pro se, that is, to act on his own behalf. At this writing, faced with a
legal proceeding that could end his life, Mumia is without counsel, and
struggling to assemble a new legal team.
Most observers had mistakenly believed that it
was just a matter of time until Yohn called the defense and prosecution
teams together to present oral arguments on their legal briefs. It is now
clear, however, that Yohn is not required to hold such a hearing. He can
simply render his verdict and deny Mumia his "day in court."
Furthermore, should Yohn rule against Mumia, his
right to appeal to the next level of the federal judiciary, the U.S. Court
of Appeals, is not guaranteed. Yohn must first issue a "certificate
of appealability," that is, a ruling allowing Mumia to proceed. Lacking
this certificate, Gov. Thomas Ridge can issue his third warrant for Mumia's
execution and Mumia will be murdered by lethal injection.
Jamal is requesting that Yohn grant a full evidentiary
hearing to present the evidence proving his innocence that the racist state
court Judge Albert Sabo had ruled inadmissible during Mumia's 1982 trial.
Sabo, who was subsequently removed from his Philadelphia
judicial post, earned his reputation as a "hanging judge" by sentencing
more people to death, 80 percent Black, than any other sitting judge in
the United States. Forty percent of his death penalty cases were reversed
on appeal, also a record.
Today Mumia faces the additional hurdle of overcoming
the provisions of the 1996 Effective Death Penalty Act, a Clinton-approved
law that fundamentally cripples death row inmates' right to appeal. Under
this reactionary law, federal judges are required to grant a "presumption
of correctness" to the rulings of state court judges. The former standard,
a "presumption of innocence," has been "legally" invalidated.
A strict interpretation of the new law would require
that Yohn uphold all of Sabo's rulings that kept from the jury, and from
Mumia's 1995 Post-Conviction Relief Act hearing (also presided over by Sabo),
all the critical evidence that prove Mumia's innocence. This includes statements
of a recanting eyewitness who today states that her testimony was coerced
by the police, ballistics and forensic evidence, and evidence proving that
Mumia's alleged confession was bogus.
Two critical legal points
Last month Yohn ruled on one of two additional
points Mumia had submitted after the deadline as amendments to his habeas
court brief. He denied consideration of point 30, in which Mumia had argued
that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to legal counsel of his choice
when Judge Sabo ruled that lay adviser John Africa, a successful and popular
people's lawyer in Philadelphia, could not sit at Mumia's counsel table
during his 1982 trial.
John Africa was murdered, along with 10 other Move
members, in the 1985 police bombing of the Move house on Osage St. An entire
city block of Philadelphia was destroyed in this racist bombing, which drew
worldwide attention and condemnation.
Mumia, as a popular radio commentator, had previously
defended the Move organization, a multi-racial humanist group that defends
and cherishes all life forms, against violent police attacks. But Yohn's
ruling had an interesting twist. He denied consideration of point 30 because,
according to Yohn, it was "implicitly" included in point 11 of
Mumia's appeal, the point dealing with the right to counsel.
Yohn's ruling in turn led federal prosecutor Hugh
Burns to seek to overturn the decision on the grounds that the John Africa/Sixth
Amendment issue should not be considered at all. As we go to press, Yohn
has not responded to the Burns appeal of his decision.
Yohn has also not ruled on the admissibility of
Mumia's final and critical addition to his habeas corpus brief, point 31.
This concerns the fact, confirmed by the 1982 court transcript, that Judge
Sabo, along with state prosecutor Joseph McGill and Mumia's own court-appointed
attorney, Anthony Jackson, consorted to illegally deny Mumia his right to
self-representation and to illegally remove Mumia from his own trial.
Mumia's researchers found several months ago that
a ruling by Judge Sabo, wherein Sabo stated that the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court had confirmed his ruling denying Mumia the right to self-representation,
was bogus. The official records of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court contain
no such decision. This fact alone is sufficient grounds to throw out Mumia's
1982 conviction and grant his immediate freedom.
Yohn had given a previous indication of where he
stood on this matter by refusing to consider a detailed amicus curiae (friend
of the court) brief submitted by the Los Angeles-based Chicana-Chicano Foundation,
which for the first time revealed the collusion against Mumia in this matter.
Yohn's refusal to even receive the brief was unsuccessfully appealed by
Mumia to the U.S. Court of Appeals. But the brief itself was a damning indictment
of Sabo's court. (See Socialist Action, December 2001.) It remains to be
seen if the current battle over points 30 and 31 will have a major bearing
on the case.
All out for May 12!
Today, with Mumia's life in the balance, a growing
movement is coming of age demanding that his planned execution be stopped,
that his conviction be overturned, and that his freedom be granted.
May 12 mass demonstrations have been called for
Philadelphia, San Francisco, and worldwide. Mumia and his supporters have
long known that the criminal justice system is not the place where justice
is found in the United States. Instead, Mumia has placed his life in the
hands of all those who struggle for justice and fundamental democratic rights.
As with all victories in the social arena, justice
is won by a mass movement with deep roots in society, a movement that cannot
be denied without the ruling rich and their court system risking repudiation
by broad sectors of the working class and its allies among all the oppressed.
All Out for May 12! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
MAY 12 PROTESTS FOR MUMIA
Philadelphia: March and rally, 1 p.m., City Hall.
San Francisco: Assemble, 10:30 a.m., Dolores Park.
Rally, 1 p.m., Civic Center Plaza.
For further information: International Concerned
Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, (215) 476-8812; or the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, (415) 695-7745.
Socialist Action /May 2001 |