Very Urgent on Mumia Abu-Jamal
8 Dec 2000
SEND FAX, TELEGRAMMS, EMAILS TO THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IN WASHINGTON TO DEMAND Attorney General Janet Reno MEET WITH THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR DELEGATION ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 11 ! - OPEN IMMEDIATLY A FEDERAL INVESTIGATION ON THE VIOLATIONS OF MUMIA ABU JAMAL'S CIVIL AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS TO A DUE TRIAL !
International Committee Save the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal
To send emails to the US department of Justice, please, contact : alexandra.m.quinn@usdoj.gov
December 7, 2000
Janet Reno
U.S. Attorney General Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
Fax: 202-514-0293Dear Ms. Reno:
I am writing this letter on behalf of the organizers of the international labor delegation that will be going to the Department of Justice on Monday, December 11th to demand justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Six weeks ago, on October 31, one of the coordinators of this delegation, Mr. Dominique Vincenot, faxed you a letter requesting a meeting at the Department of Justice on December 11th with this delegation. As you may know, the delegates are bearers of the close to 1.5 million signatures gathered on petitions demanding that the Justice Department intervene in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mr. Vincenot followed up this letter with a call to Mr. Stuart Ishimaru, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.
For many weeks, the organizers of this delegation, together with trade union federations and elected officials from numerous countries, have made dozens of phone calls and sent countless faxes and email messages to the Department of Justice requesting an appointment with you - or, as was the case last January 12th, with someone you would appoint to meet with our delegation.
A few weeks ago, we received a written message from the Department of Justice notifying us that our request had been referred to your appointments secretary. We took this to mean that either you or someone at the Department of Justice would be meeting with our delegation - and we proceeded to ask all the delegates to purchase their tickets for Washington.
Moreover, statements made over the phone to Mr. Vincenot over the past two weeks strongly suggested that the delegation would be received, and all that remained was simply a question of scheduling an exact time.
For the past week, we have been in touch with Alexandra Quinn, your appointments secretary. Our main concern was to obtain from your office a specific appointment time on December 11th with our delegation.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, for example, was interested in being part of the delegation, but she needed to know what time we would be meeting on the 11th. (I should add that earlier today Congresswoman Waters stated her support for the mission of the delegation and encouraged intervention by the Justice Department to investigate thoroughly the factors suggesting there may have been a wrongful conviction in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.)
I relayed all this information to Ms. Quinn, who reported that this information was, in turn, relayed to your office.
Just this afternoon, I was told over the phone by Ms. Quinn, your appointments secretary, that "there will be no meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno." I asked the reason for this refusal to meet with our delegation. Ms. Quinn answered that a determination had been made that "there is not a federal role" to be played in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, as this was a "state crime" in the state of Pennsylvania.
I replied to Ms. Quinn that on January 12 of this year, Mr. Stuart Ishimaru had told an earlier international labor delegation which we organized, that, yes, the Department of Justice - namely its Civil Rights Department - has a statutory obligation to investigate and intervene if the evidence reviewed establishes the violation of the due process and civil rights of Mumia Abu-Jamal. I told Ms. Quinn that our delegation had submitted ample evidence of due process and civil rights violations of Abu-Jamal's rights to Mr. Ishimaru, and that Mr. Ishimaru pledged that his Department would review this evidence with the aim of determining if a federal investigation was warranted or not. (In fact, in mid-May of this year, Mr. Vincenot again contacted Mr. Ishimaru to find out the status of this review. Mr. Vincenot was told that the review was in full swing and that a decision about whether or not to open a federal investigation would be forthcoming.)
Ms. Quinn responded to my comments by saying that perhaps the Department of Justice had now reviewed all the documentation and reached the conclusion that there was no compelling evidence that warranted a federal investigation into the violation of Mumia Abu-Jamal's civil and constitutional rights. At any rate, Ms. Quinn insisted, there would be no meeting with Janet Reno or with anyone else at the Department of Justice on Monday, December 11th - and she concluded by saying that the Civil Rights Department of the Department of Justice would soon get in touch with us on this matter.
I was shocked to hear that no one at the Department of Justice would meet with our delegation. I strenuously objected to this refusal to have a high-ranking official at the Department of Justice meet with a high-level trade union delegation that included labor officials from France, Great Britain, Spain, as well as the director of the Civil Rights Department of the AFL-CIO, and many others. I told Ms. Quinn that the labor delegation would be at the Department of Justice on December 11th. It was out of the question to cancel this delegation. Airline tickets had been purchased, and the delegates were in fact already on their way to Washington.
In light of my further comments, Ms. Quinn said she would contact Mr. Ishimaru and ask him to call me back immediately - which he did.
Mr. Ishimaru told me something altogether different from what Ms. Quinn had told me. He said that the Civil Rights Department was in "the final stages" of the review of the evidence that would determine whether or not a federal civil rights investigation was warranted in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. He said he saw no need for a delegation because his Department had not yet reached a final decision on the evidence we had submitted back in January.
I insisted that the delegation would be going to the Department of Justice on Monday, December 11th, and that he could tell what he was telling me now to the delegation, in person. Mr. Ishimaru repeated that such a meeting with our delegation was not possible or even desirable, but confronted with my refusal to accept that the meeting was canceled, he concluded the conversation by telling me that he would take up the matter once again tomorrow - that is, December 8th - with you and your staff.
Ms. Reno:
The international labor delegation that will be at the Department of Justice on Monday the 11th expects to be received. These are high-ranking officials who have a mandate from their unions, federations and constituencies. Many of them have traveled thousands of miles because they want an answer from you: Will the Department of Justice intervene on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal? Has the determination been made that there is "no federal role" - as Ms. Quinn stated - or is the Department of Justice still reviewing the evidence to determine whether or not to intervene. And if, in fact, you are still in the "final stages" of your review, when do you expect to conclude this review?
Ms. Reno:
As you certainly understand, the clock is ticking. The administration under which you serve does not have much time left in office. If the evidence of sustained violations of Abu-Jamal's civil and due-process rights is compelling - as we are convinced it is - would you not have to act immediately to open a federal investigation?
Ms. Reno:
The eyes of the world are upon you and the Department of Justice. The 1.5 million who signed the petitions requesting a federal investigation, important entities such as the Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States (whose chairperson, Mr. Helio Bicudo, addressed you a letter this week requesting that you meet with the international labor delegation and that you heed the call to open a federal investigation), trade union federations representing millions of workers which have sent statements urging support for this delegation - all of these expect that you, or someone you appoint, will meet with the international labor delegation on Monday, December 11th and that you will answer the burning questions that concern them.
In the name of the organizers of the delegation, I strongly urge you to reconsider today's decision and that you get back to us with a specific time for a meeting at the Department of Justice on Monday the 11th.
Sincerely yours,
Alan Benjamin, Delegation co-coordinator
Back to: Political Prisoners/Mumia Action Alerts
