END THE DEATH PENALTY! A NEW TRIAL FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!

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On Sunday afternoon, May 7 at 2:00 PM, the stage of The Theater at Madison Square Garden will be crowded with people like former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, Johnnie Cochran, Ossie Davis, Gloria Steinem, Susan Sarandon, Edward Asner, Reverend Al Sharpton, Mike Farrell, Congressman John Conyers, Alice Walker, Angela Davis, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and many others from the arts and entertainment world, as well as the world of politics and social activism.

Joining the celebrities at "A Day for Mumia at the Theater at Madison Square Garden" on May 7 will be thousands of people from New York and across the country.

The May 7 rally at this world famous address in the center of New York City will be the largest indoor event to date organized to oppose the death penalty and to call for a new trial for the most renown prisoner on death row in the United States, the journalist and political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Mr. Jamal, whose case is currently being appealed in Federal District Court in Pennsylvania, has been on death row in Pennsylvania for 18 years fighting for a new trial to prove his innocence after a 1982 trial hastily convicted him of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. Not only was Mr. Jamal’s original trial deeply flawed and the result of police and prosecutorial misconduct, a mountain of new evidence now exists that demands a new trial. The courts have yet to grant Mr. Jamal a new trial and he is running out of opportunities to appeal.

The injustices that could result in the unthinkable execution of Mr. Jamal are not the exception but the norm in the courts and criminal justice system. Newspapers like the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune have done extensive series on systemic pitfalls that compromise the rights to due process of the more than 3600 prisoners on death row in the U.S.

Revelations that the capital punishment system in Illinois almost put to death 13 people later found to be wrongfully convicted has compelled Illinois Governor George Ryan to become the first governor to declare a moratorium on executions. Moratoriums on the death penalty are being debated amongst lawmakers in several of the 37 states that execute people including in the Pennsylvania legislature.

Still, a clear sign that the fight to end the death penalty faces a long uphill battle is the fact that all of the major presidential candidates, Al Gore, Bill Bradley, John McCain, and George Bush, as well as President Clinton, remain staunch supporters of the death penalty. Texas Governor Bush’s state leads the nation in putting people to death.

To make matters worse, in 1996 President Clinton signed in to law the "Effective Death Penalty Act" as part of the "Anti-Terrorism Bill." This unfortunate legislation severely limits the ability of condemned prisoners to appeal their cases in the federal courts thus speeding up the execution machine.

"A Day for Mumia at the Theater at Madison Square Garden" is part of a national effort to give expression to the growing movement to end the injustices that send people like Mumia Abu-Jamal to death row without a fair trial, and to abolish the death penalty. As we enter the 21st century we cannot allow justice to continue to slip into the dark ages.

Tickets for "A Day for Mumia at the Theater at Madison Square Garden" range from $15 to $500. Special group rates are available.

For information contact "The May 7th Day for Mumia Mobilization" the sponsor of this event, at (212) 633-6646.

Posted: March 6, 2000

International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
http://www.iacenter.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889

Order tickets on-line: at www.leftbooks.com

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