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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 16, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Mumia Abu-Jamal defense files appeal to drop charges

By Bertha Joubert in Philadelphia

In front of the mayor's office here, Black political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal's lawyers announced Dec. 27 that they filed an appeal in the State Supreme Court to dismiss all charges against him.

This move was prompted by Federal District Court Judge Donetta Ambrose's Dec. 4 ruling that Abu-Jamal's constitutional right to counsel was violated under the sixth and 14^th amendments to the U.S. Constitution during the Post Conviction Relief Act hearings held here during the summer of 1995.

Millions of people around the world believe Abu-Jamal was framed up and subject to a racist, unfair trial for the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia cop. The prisoner, a former Black Panther and journalist, has been on Pennsylvania death row since 1982.

Abu-Jamal's chief defense lawyer Leonard Weinglass said:

"We are asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to dismiss the case in its entirety because the waters are so polluted for this case to carry on."

This pollution that activists in support of Abu-Jamal have exposed so many times was finally acknowledged by a federal judge who presided over a civil suit brought by the death-row inmate against the Pennsylvania Correctional System in the fall of 1995.

This suit argued that prison officials violated Abu-Jamal's constitutional rights when they prevented any media interview with him and opened and copied his legal mail. They did this in an effort to punish Mumia for publishing the book, "Life from Death Row."

During hearings on the suit, prison officials testified that they had opened, read and forwarded copies to the Office of General Counsel. This particular office has as one of its functions to advise the Pennsylvania governor on the issuance of death warrants!

As a result of these hearings it is now publicly known that before he signed Abu-Jamal's death warrant in 1995, Gov. Tom Ridge knew that the political prisoner was preparing to file his Post Conviction Relief Act's appeal. In fact, it was that knowledge that prompted Ridge to sign the warrant days before defense lawyers could file the PCRA petition.

Ridge's administration has been committed to Abu-Jamal's execution.

The illegal reading of the prisoner's mail also gave a tremendous advantage to the prosecution, since they learned the defense's strategies ahead of time. The net effect was overwhelmingly against Abu-Jamal.

With a date set for the execution, the PCRA hearing was rushed, witnesses harassed, evidence trampled on and key witnesses refused. Ironically, one of the prosecution's and judge's arguments against granting Abu-Jamal a new trial was that he had filed only because the warrant had been signed!

When the defense tried to raise the unconstitutionality of the illegal mail readings, the PCRA court barred any evidence relating to this issue. It even prevented Abu-Jamal's lawyer in the civil suit from testifying.

Then, PCRA's Judge Sabo, the infamous "hanging judge" who has sent more prisoners to death than any other judge in this country, ruled that Abu-Jamal "failed to prove that the Commonwealth in any way interfered with his communications with counsel, or `surveiled,' `intercepted,' or copied his legal mail."

This is just one example of the way the criminal justice system has dealt with brother Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In the Dec. 27 appeal for dismissal, Weinglass stated that the defense included, along with Ambrose's ruling, other violations committed against Abu-Jamal's rights.

Though the Ambrose decision raises some hope, the fact is that Judge Ambrose's court is part of the same capitalist state that condemned Abu-Jamal, and has spied on him through the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) since he was 15 years old for his membership in the Black Panther Party and his eloquent expose of Philadelphia Police.

His legal case is now in the State Supreme Court, which will rule late January or April 1997. If a new trial is denied, Gov. Ridge might sign a new death warrant, and then the case will be appealed in federal court.

The new so-called "Anti-terrorist" Bill limits the authority and power of the fed eral courts to intervene in these death- penalty cases. There is the danger that the ruling by the lower court, in this case by Judge Sabo, could be upheld.

Mass actions are more necessary than ever to keep the pressure on the courts and to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.

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