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Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning Pennsylvania
journalist who exposed police violence against minority communities. On
death row since 1982, he was wrongfully sentenced for the shooting of a
police officer. New evidence, including the recantation of a key
eyewitness, new ballistic and forensic evidence and a confession from
Arnold Beverly (one of the two killers of Officer Faulkner) points to his
innocence! Mumia had no criminal record.
For the last 23 years, Abu-Jamal has been locked up 23 hours a day, denied
contact visits with his family, had his confidential legal mail illegally
opened by prison authorities, and put into punitive detention for writing
his first of three books while in prison, Live From Death Row.
His case is currently on appeal before the Federal District Court in
Philadelphia. Mumia's fight for a new trial has won the support of tens of
thousands around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson
Mandela, The European Parliament, Alice Walker, Paul Newman, Maya Angelou,
Sister Helen Prejean, Danny Glover, Rage Against The Machine, the Detroit
and San Francisco City Councils, Amnesty International, and many others.
Mumia Abu-Jamal's fate rests with all those people who believe in every
person's right to justice and a fair trial.
"I remain innocent. A court cannot make an innocent man guilty. Any
ruling founded on injustice is not justice. The righteous fight for life,
liberty, and for justice can only continue." Mumia Abu-Jamal , Oct.
31, 1998
Facts about Mumia's 1982 trial:
 The policeman was killed with a 44
caliber gun. Abu-Jamal's gun which he was licensed to carry as a night-time
taxi driver, was a 38 caliber.
The police never tested Abu-Jamal's gun
to see if it had been recently fired. They never tested his hands to see if
he had fired a gun. They have never shown Abu-Jamal 's gun to be the fatal
weapon.
No police officers present at Abu-Jamal's
arrest claimed to have heard Jamal's "confession" until two
months after it allegedly occurred. This was right after Abu-Jamal had filed
police brutality charges.
Abu-Jamal's doctor said that Abu-Jamal,
who was unconscious, said nothing. He reported that a nurse found police
with loaded guns pointed at Mumia as he lay unconscious in his hospital
bed.
William Singletary, a Vietnam veteran and
local businessman, saw the whole incident and has testified that Abu-Jamal
was not the shooter. However, the police forced him to change his story and
intimidated him into leaving Philadelphia.
Other key witnesses, such as Veronica
Jones -- who now testifies in support of Abu-Jamal, were harassed into
giving false testimony. Two prosecution witnesses were given special
favors, including exemption from criminal prosecution, for their testimony.
Elements in an unfair trial:
The
Judge, Albert Sabo, sentenced more people to death than any
other sitting judge in the US.
The
public defender didn't interview a single witness in
preparation for the trial, and didn't have funds for defending a capital
case.
The
prosecutor removed 11 qualified African Americans from the
jury. He also argued for the death penalty because of Mumia's membership in
the Black Panther Party, a practice later condemned as unconstitutional by
the US Supreme Court.
The
racial bias of Philadelphia's courts has resulted in 120
people on death row, all but 13 non-white.
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