Movement proceeds with Feb. 11 protest for Mumia
By
Monica Moorehead
Published Feb 13, 2005 8:11 PM
Why is the Feb. 11 Philadelphia event in
support of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal so important? What is
the significance of this date?
This past Dec. 21, Abu-Jamal's lead coun
sel, Robert R. Bryan, received a letter from Judge Pamela Dembe of the Penn
sylvania Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia.
Dembe stated she would
hold a hearing on Feb. 11 to respond to a writ of habeas corpus filed by
Abu-Jamal's lawyers on Dec. 8, 2003. This writ raised two main issues. One was
that the state manipulated a purported eyewitness to falsely identify Abu-Jamal
as the shooter of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec. 9, 1981. This false
statement was in violation of Abu-Jamal's rights under the fifth, sixth, eighth,
and fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The second issue in
the writ was that Abu-Jamal was found guilty and sentenced to death on July 3,
1982, through the use of a fabricated confession, in violation of three out of
the four amendments just cited.
Back in August 2001, Dembe dismissed a
petition by Abu-Jamal's lawyers around similar legal issues. At the last moment,
Dembe denied Abu-Jamal the right to be present in the court during the hearing.
This did not keep an estimated 1,000 Mumia supporters from rallying in the
streets outside the Criminal Justice Center on a hot summer day. There has been
no further court hearing since then.
Once the Feb. 11 hearing was announ
ced, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the newly
formed Free Mumia national task force decided to organize a day of protest.
But in mid-January, Dembe sent another letter to Abu-Jamal's lawyers
canceling the hearing. Instead, the judge ordered a "briefing" by Feb. 15 on
the issue of whether a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in another
case is applicable to whether the court has jurisdiction to proceed in
Abu-Jamal's request for a third Post Conviction Relief Act petition.
Previous PCRA hearings for Abu-Jamal took place in 1995 and 1996 and were
conducted by the late Judge Albert Sabo. Terri Maurer-Carter, a court
stenographer, has made a sworn statement that she overheard Sabo say he was
going to "fry the n----r," in reference to Abu-Jamal.
Dembe's
cancellation of the court hearing has made Abu-Jamal's supporters more
determined than ever to move forward with the Feb. 11 protest.
The groups
will march from the American Friends Service Committee building to the Criminal
Justice building and then hold a press conference. A people's court will be held
at the AFSC office. These events will ask: Why was the hearing cancelled so
abruptly with no clear political or legal explanations? Why do the courts
continue to suppress the vital evidence that proves Abu-Jamal's innocence? Don't
the people deserve to hear this evidence?
The people's court will include
progressive lawyers, activists and original eyewitnesses providing written,
verbal and visual evidence on how Abu-Jamal has been a legal and political
victim of a racist governmental conspiracy to silence him ever since he joined
the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia.
The movement must not fall in the
trap of becoming complacent when it comes to saving Abu-Jamal's life. Federal
District Judge William Yohn overturned Abu-Jamal's death sentence back in
December 2001 but not his murder conviction. This ruling was used as a vehicle
to both confuse and lull the movement into a false state of security. The Yohn
ruling did not take Abu-Jamal off death row and it won't necessarily prevent him
from receiving the death penalty once again, if the powers-that-be have their
way.
The Philadelphia prosecutor's office appealed the Yohn ruling,
hoping to bring back the death penalty for Abu-Jamal. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed
Rendell, a former prosecutor, was elected on a reactionary platform of vowing to
execute Abu-Jamal.
Abu-Jamal's lawyers are doing everything legally
possible to win him a new trial. This is his only chance of being liberated. The
political movement must continue to do its part. The courts, on their own,
cannot be relied on to grant Abu-Jamal a new trial. The courts, the police and
the U.S. government want to silence Abu-Jamal's revolutionary voice, either by
lethal injection or by keeping him behind prison walls for the rest of his life.
The movement has to continue to find imaginative ways to broaden out the
struggle to free Abu-Jamal. Resolutions passed by groups such as the NAACP, San
Francisco Board of Supervisors and others demanding a new trial help get out the
word about Abu-Jamal's case.
The movement must continue to politicize the
legal case of Abu-Jamal. He is one of countless victims of the racist use of the
death penalty. And as the "voice of the voiceless," Abu-Jamal continues to
commit himself to fight war, racist oppression and exploitation with his written
and audio commentaries.
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