March 26, 2025: PA SUPREME COURT DENIES MUMIA ABU-JAMAL PERMISION TO APPEAL

–Rachel Wolkenstein, attorney, April 1, 2025

Click here for a PDF version of this update

     In September 2024 the Pa. Superior Court denied Mumia Abu-Jamal’s 6^th Pennsylvania petition to reverse his 1982 conviction. A request to the PA Supreme Court for permission to appeal was denied on March 26, 2025.  [In PA, an appeal to the PA Supreme Court is not a right; a specific request for “allowance” (permission) is required.]  This denial by the PA Supreme Court ends Mumia’s Pennsylvania court challenge to overturn his conviction.

      Judge Lucretia Clemons presided over Mumia’s case since December 2021 and, without a hearing, issued a denial on March 31, 2023. This 6^th petition was based on corroborative new evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, Brady violations, for undisclosed inducements given to witnesses Cynthia While and Robert Chobert; and new evidence of racial bias in jury selection, a Batson violation.

[The following motion was passed unanimously by the ILWU Local 10 Caucus earlier today, May Day 2024.]

Click here for a PDF version of this resolution

Whereas, the genocidal war on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip has now gone on for more than 200 days, with more than 42,000 dead and almost 80,000 seriously wounded; and

Whereas, on March 7 the headquarters of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) in Gaza was demolished by Israeli bombs; and

Whereas all the heavy bombs being dropped on Gaza are supplied by the United States, as are all the warplanes from which they dropped: and

Whereas, ILWU has a long history of defending the rights of the Palestinian people and calling on Israeli soldiers and settlers to stop the beating and killings of Palestinians and the occupation of their land in resolutions passed in 1988 and 1991 Conventions, the highest bodies of our union; and

NUMSA dedicates Workers Day to the struggle of the people of Palestine

1 May 2024

Press statement

[Note: this statement is being posted for informational purposes only. The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal does not endorse all the political positions of NUMSA and in particular the South African Police Union (SAPU).]

Click here for a PDF of this statement

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa NUMSA is celebrating Workers Day at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) with Abahlali Basemjondolo- (ABM), the South African Police Union (SAPU) and Municipal and Allied Trade Union of South Africa (MATUSA). NUMSA is dedicating this Workers Day to the struggle of the people of Palestine. For the last seven months the Apartheid state of Israel has launched an unrelenting campaign to wipe out the people of Palestine. NUMSA continues to condemn the Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his genocidal campaign against the people of Palestine, and we condemn U.S. President Joe Biden for defending them and continuing to send arms and aid to Israel. 

Continue reading →

That education is about the repression that Gaza is suffering under. It is a wonderful thing, that you have decided not to be silent, and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes. So you are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history. You’re against a settler colonial regime, that wants to steal the land from the people who are indigenous to that area, are you’re saying that is wrong.

On April 26, 2024, Mumia called in to the CUNY-CCNY Gaza solidarity encampment from prison. His speech was broadcast over the encampment audio system and students led a chant for Mumia.

The text of Mumia’s address is below:

Mumia was the focus of an episode of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour on April 20, 2024.

Ralph Nader speaks to Noelle Hanrahan, founder and legal director of Prison Radio, and Professor Joy James, political philosopher, academic and author, who has studied America’s carceral state. Plus, Mumia himself, who answers Ralph’s questions from prison.