Author Archives: admin

Top US Court Sends Mumia Abu-Jamal Closer to Execution

February 13, 2010

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a former Black Panther, award winning journalist, behind-bars commentator on critical social issues–and an innocent man on death row. In April 2009, after more than two decades of court rulings that ignored mounting evidence of his innocence, the Supreme Court upheld his 1982 frame-up conviction without comment. Then, this January, the Court moved closer to reinstating his death sentence–which had been put on hold by lower court rulings.

The US Supreme Court has shown it will do anything necessary to support the rule of their big corporate bosses, as seen most recently in the Citizens United ruling, which threw out the ban on independent corporate spending during an election. Years of legislation was undone in a single blow, to further tighten the death grip of big money over politics in the US. But the courts also obey the commands of their armed thugs in the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), and politicians that support them, even if it means walking all over their own legal precedents and trampling on the most basic principles of justice. Continue reading →

Alert! New Threat to Mumia’s Life!

January 17, 2010

Mumia Abu-Jamal, an innocent man on death row and the world’s best-known political prisoner, now faces an immediate new threat to his life from the US Supreme Court. The Court ruled last year on Mumia’s appeal, by summarily refusing to even consider a reversal of his unjust 1982 murder conviction in a blatantly racist court. And last week, the Supreme Court discussed a cross-appeal by the State of Pennsylvania to reinstate Mumia’s death sentence, which had been put on hold by a federal court in 2001. A ruling could be announced as early as Tuesday this week.

It would be an illusion to expect good news. Supporters should stay tuned, and be prepared to participate in actions to free Mumia! Continue reading →

Justice Denied! The Long Struggle of Mumia Abu-Jamal

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September 15, 2009

World-renowned revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted and sent to death row in the killing of a police officer in Philadelphia, has now gone through 27 years of fruitless appeal proceedings. Despite mounting and irrefutable evidence of Jamal’s innocence, all of these hearings have upheld his conviction in a 1982 trial, which was rightly called “a monumental miscarriage of justice from beginning to end,” by crime reporter J Patrick O’Connor.

Then, last April, the US Supreme Court finished off this cowardly charade by denying Jamal a final hearing, without so much as a word of explanation. In making this flat-out rejection of Mumia’s appeal, the Supreme Court–like the Federal Third Circuit Court a year earlier–had to knowingly violate its own well-established precedent in Batson v Kentucky–the 1986 ruling which said that purging a jury on the basis of race was unconstitutional. A violation required a new trial, even retroactively. In Mumia’s case, the prosecutor used at least ten out of 15 peremptory challenges to exclude qualified blacks for reasons that were not applied to prospective white jurors. Only one such exclusion is required to trigger a conviction reversal under Batson!

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Union Rally Calls for Struggle Against Racism and Repression

February 15, 2009

The Education Committee of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)–the longshore workers of the West Coast US–held a rally against racism titled: RACISM, REPRESSION AND REBELLION: THE LESSONS OF LABOR DEFENSE, at the longshore hiring hall in San Francisco, yesterday, the 14th of February, 2009. Attended by over 300, this energized rally was addressed by (among others) Martina Correia, the sister of Troy Davis, an innocent man on death row in Georgia. She detailed Troy’s case, in which 7 out of 9 witnesses have recanted their testimony, citing police pressure.

The 11th Circuit recently heard what may be Davis’ last appeal, in a case that shlould have been thrown out years ago. Davis is a police frame-up victim in a system which is crowded with injustice. Attendees chanted “FREE TROY DAVIS,” after her address.

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PROTEST POLICE SHOOTING IN OAKLAND! JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT! JAIL KILLER COPS!

January 7, 2009

As of this writing (late on January 7th, 09), young people from the Fruitvale neighborhood and around Oakland are in the streets protesting the outrageous shooting of Oscar Grant III, an unarmed man who was LYING ON HIS STOMACH on a BART (subway) platform in Oakland early on New Years day. He died a short time later at Highland hospital. The shooter was a BART cop who stood over the victim and fired the shot into Oscar at point blank range for no apparent reason. Cell phone video footage, now displayed at www.ktvu.com, a local tv station, shows clearly that Grant was flat on the ground and not resisting at the time of the shooting. Protesters have closed three BART stations, attacked police cars, and marched on city hall. The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (an Oakland-based defense organization), also protests this horrendous, barbarous act of murder. Justice for Oscar Grant! Jail killer cops!

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