by Jeff Mackler In a dangerous decision and a break with its own precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court, on Jan. 15 opened the door wide to Pennsylvania prosecutors’ efforts to execute innocent political prisoner, murder frame-up victim, award-winning journalist and world renowned “Voice of the Voiceless,” Mumia Abu-Jamal. Six months earlier, on April 6, the…
by Jeff Mackler After almost 28 years on Pennsylvania’s death row and innumerable battles in the U.S. criminal injustice system, innocent political prisoner, journalist and world renowned “Voice of the Voiceless” Mumia Abu-Jamal lost his final appeal on April 6, 2009. Ignoring it’s own historic decision in the 1986 case of Batson v. Kentucky that…
by Rebecca Doran The following article appears in the December 2009 edition of Socialist Action newspaper. On Nov. 30 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the appeal of innocent San Quentin death-row inmate Kevin Cooper. The High Court reached its decision to reject Cooper’s petition despite overwhelming evidence of a massive police frame-up— laid…
Innocent! BUT FACING EXECUTION:Kevin Cooper – Troy Davis – Mumia Abu-Jamal Hear: –Laura Moye, Director, Amnesty International’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign; actively working for several years with Troy Davis and his family in Georgia –Hans Bennett, Founder, Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal; Editor, Free Mumia News; Author, The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal: Innocent Man on Death…
NOT GUILTY!!! was the verdict for Kevin and Maiga, Mumia supporters who were tried for allegedly posting fliers on utility poles using nails. The fliers were for an upcoming book signing party for Mumia’s book, Jailhouse Lawyers. The charges read that the defendants were hammering nails into metal poles, on South Street in Philadelphia, a…
[by J. Patrick O’Connor] Since his conviction in 1982 for the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, through his numerous books, essays and radio commentaries, has become the face of the anti-death penalty movement in the United States and an international cause célèbre. Paris, for example, made him an honorary citizen in…
There is an important free speech fight going on at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT. The short version of the story can be found in the petition below and the fact sheet that follows the petition. For more information and many key documents, you can visit http://freespeechcentral.wordpress.com. If you would like to…
[by Jeff Mackler] The U.S. Supreme Court refused on April 6 Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal (writ of certiorari) for a new trial based on the racist exclusion of 14 Blacks from the jury panel in his 1982 frame-up murder trial. The decision left in place Mumia’s conviction and turned a blind eye to its own ruling…
Here is Mumia Abu-Jamal’s response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting his appeal (petition for a writ of certiorari). The court made no comment other than to place Mumia’s name on a long list of all rejected appeals. The court, having no “legal” obligation to grant such appeals, traditionally rejects 98 percent of all…
[by Robert Bryan, Mumia’s lead attorney] U.S SUPREME COURT: There are new developments in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on Pennsylvania’ s death row, that are the most significant and deadly since his 1981 arrest. The prosecution has advised the Supreme Court that it is seeking reversal of the federal decision…
October 3 – 8 – The Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal is organizing a Northern California tour by J. Patrick O’Connor, Crime Magazine on-line editor, author of the recently published book, “The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Meetings and media work is planned for San Francisco, the East Bay, Palo Alto, Santa Rosa, and many other…
[by Jeff Mackler] When I learned that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit had on July 22, 2008, denied Mumia Abu-Jamal a re-hearing—thus leaving Mumia’s fight for justice and freedom in the hands of the court of last resort, the U.S. Supreme Court—my immediate thought was that we were once again witnessing…
In a shocking decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected all Mumia Abu-Jamal’s demands for a new trial. The state of Pennsylvania now has a 180 day window to file for Mumia’s death sentence to be re-instated. Socialist Action calls on all our readers and supporters to throw themselves into organizing…
With the release of the Pew Center on the States report, comes news that proves, without question, that the U.S. is the world’s champion when it comes to incarceration rates. One out of 100 American adults are in prison today. According to news reports detailing the Pew Center research, the year 2008 began with 2,319,258…
by Jeff Mackler It is difficult to imagine that the systematic race and class bias that permeate America’s criminal “justice” system could be set aside and that the nation’s most famed and innocent death row inmate and political prisoner of 25 years, Mumia Abu-Jamal, could win a new trial and freedom. But that is precisely…
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a renowned journalist from Philadelphia who has been in prison since 1981 and on death row since 1983 for allegedly shooting Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. He is known as the “Voice of the Voiceless” for his award- winning reporting on police brutality and other social and racial epidemics that plague communities…
As the movement to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal enters a critical stage with the signing of a death warrant, young activists from across the Midwest are organizing for a fight. College and high school students in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois are setting up Mumia committees in their schools, breathing new life into…
Something is very rotten in the state of Pennsylvania. Gov. Ridge has signed 176 death warrants in the last five years. That’s five times more than his predecessors signed in 25 years. He has done this in defiance of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Bar Associations, both of which have urged a moratorium until the death…
No country was ever ruled by so mean a class of tyrants as, with a few noble exceptions, are the editors of the periodical press in this country. And as they live and rule only by their servility, and appealing to their worst, and not the better nature of man, the people who read them…
The following editorial will appear in The Nation, Nov. 15, 1999. It is signed by novelist Alice Walker, poet June Jordan, and University of California at Santa Cruz professor and activist Angela Davis. A stay of execution was issued Oct. 26. Pending the outcome of the habeas corpus brief filed for the defense of Mumia…
By JEFF MACKLER On Oct. 13, Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas Ridge set Dec. 2 as the date of execution by lethal injection of African American political prisoner and award-winning journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was falsely convicted of the 1981 shooting murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. On death row for the past 18 years,…
