No justice, no peace! Until Mumia Abu-Jamal is released!
By Betsey Piette
Philadelphia
Apr 24, 2008
Over a thousand people voiced their collective outrage here April 19 that
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was once again denied the right to a fair
hearing by an injustice system determined to keep this innocent man imprisoned
for life if it can’t silence him outright through execution.
Protesters filled all four corners of a major intersection near the Federal
Court building for a brief rally before marching around the Liberty Bell and up
Market Street to City Hall for a closing rally. Along the way the march stopped
for street meetings where speakers explained the case to passers-by.
The demonstrators filled all four lanes of Market Street, bringing traffic
on this busy downtown street to a halt for over an hour. Drivers of stalled
buses eagerly received materials to read about the case.
Groups of students in Philadelphia for class trips also stopped to listen.
One teacher tried to keep students from taking handouts about the case. When a
protester pointed out that the teacher was trying to keep them from getting
information, one student responded, “Yeah, it happens all the
time!”
Another teacher, however, encouraged her students to take literature and
asked questions about the case so the youth could get a better
understanding.
In addition to a strong turnout from Philadelphia, protesters came from
Boston, New York City, California and there was also a delegation from France.
Solidarity demonstrations also took place in other countries.
A threatened counterprotest by neo-Nazi skinheads turned out to be a dozen
or so white men who looked more like off-duty police. The pro-Mumia protesters
did not allow them to disrupt and passed them by without incident.
Denied fair trial
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Cynthia McKinney and
Larry Holmes.
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On March 27, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals
denied Abu-Jamal’s appeal of racism in jury selection, going against its
own precedent on this issue. The appellant court panel also rejected appeals
concerning prosecutorial misconduct and pro-prosecution judicial bias that
could have led to a new trial.
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther Party activist, has been on
Pennsylvania’s death row for 26 years in connection with the shooting
death of a Philadelphia police officer.
The panel also upheld a 2001 ruling by Federal Judge William Yohn that
overturned the death sentence in this case. Philadelphia District Attorney
Lynne Abraham can still call for a new penalty-phase jury trial to attempt to
reinstate a death sentence.
Abu-Jamal’s lawyer is refusing to accept the ruling against a new
trial that could determine guilt or innocence. Instead, the attorney, Robert R.
Bryan, is now appealing to the entire Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and if
necessary, he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The strong outpouring of support for Mumia comes at a crucial time. It
follows earlier protests in cities around the country in the aftermath of this
judicial panel’s outrageous decision. Even one of the panel’s
members, Judge Thomas Ambro, took strong exception in a 41-page dissent
strongly criticizing his colleagues for denying Abu-Jamal the courtesy of their
own legal precedents concerning racism in jury selection.
‘Keep on fighting’
Rally speakers included former U.S. Congressmember Cynthia McKinney, who is
currently running for president of the United States and who has long been an
advocate for Abu-Jamal and other political prisoners.
Attorney Lynne Stewart, currently appealing her own conspiracy conviction,
challenged people to “keep on fighting.” Stewart pointed out that
while this case goes through the courts there is a tremendous amount of work
for people to do in fundraising and getting out publicity on the case.
Larry Holmes, of the International Action Center and the recently formed Ad
Hoc Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions, stressed the need for
solidarity to free brother Mumia, and to stop the onslaught of economic attacks
against poor and working people evidenced by widespread foreclosures, evictions
and layoffs.
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photos: Greg Butterfield,
Gary Wilson and Betsy Piette
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Pam Africa of the MOVE organization and International Concerned Family and
Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal challenged the courts to release Mumia now on the
grounds that they have consistently denied his right to a fair trial. “We
have absolutely no faith in the judicial system,” she said, “but if
Mumia does have a court proceeding, we’ll continue to mobilize and pack
the courtroom and the streets. However, if Mumia gets justice, we know it will
not come from the courts, only from the pressure generated by the
people.”
¡Sí, se puede! – Free Mumia!
Latin@s for Mumia brought two buses from New York, and Esperanza Martell of
ProLibertad Freedom Campaign had the crowd cheering as she exclaimed:
“Mumia is Dominican! Mumia is Puerto Rican! Mumia is Mexicano! Mumia is
all of us! ¡Sí, se puede! (Yes we can) Free Mumia!”
Political prisoner and Lakota activist Leonard Peltier, recently moved to a
federal prison in Pennsylvania, sent a message of solidarity in which he
stated: “We are one, and we are many. We are forever, we are timeless. We
are Crazy Horse, we are Geronimo, we are Mumia, we are Leonard Peltier, we are
Malcolm X, and we are Martin Luther King. ... We are the American Indian
Movement, we are the Black Panthers, we are MOVE, we are the Viet Cong, we are
the Irish Republican Army, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
“We are every man, woman and child who desires to see a sunrise in a
land of freedom and opportunity, a land of plenty and not hunger, a land of
choices without fear, a land of progress without brutality.”
