Melbourne Rally & March:
Saturday, April 24th.
G.P.O. Bourke Street Mall, 1.00 pm
10 Reasons to March for Mumia¹s Freedom
Black political prisoner and radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal has
been on death row in Pennsylvania since 1982, after being falsely
convicted of killing a Philadelphia policeman. Republican Governor
Tom Ridge has signed his death warrant once before. Mumia¹s attorney,
Leonard Weinglass, will file his case before the U.S. Supreme Court
on April 22. Neither Democrat President ³Crime Bill² Clinton nor the
Supreme Court are likely to grant a new trial. Mumia could be
executed within a year. Justice will not be found in capital¹s
courts. To save his life we must build a powerful working class
movement to take action, as we are on April 24. Every port on the
West Coast will be shut down with Stop-Work meetings from 8AM to 5PM
to demand: Stop the Execution! Free Mumia!
Here are the facts. You decide.
1. THE TRIAL- Mumia was denied his constitutional right to represent
himself in court and was removed from the courtroom. His court-
appointed attorney hadn¹t interviewed one witness and informed the
judge before trial that he was not prepared to proceed. The defense
investigator quit before the trial and no ballistics expert or
pathologist was hired because of insufficient defense funds.
In 1995, the news media exposed a festering Philadelphia police
scandal: the framing-up of innocent people, corruption and police
brutality. In all, 300 convictions were thrown out and many innocent
victims set free. A videotape of Philadelphia¹s District Attorney
acknowledged that blacks have been routinely excluded from juries. In
Mumia¹s case 11 blacks were.
2. THE JUDGE- Albert Sabo, a former member of the Fraternal Order of
Police was forced into retirement,but not before he had sentenced
twice as many people to death as any other sitting judge in the U. S.
Six former Philadelphia prosecutors have sworn in court documents
that no accused could receive a fair trial in Judge Sabo¹s court.
Five of the seven judges on Pennsylvania¹s Supreme Court were
supported by the Fraternal Order of Police which is waging a campaign
to execute Mumia. How can he possibly get a fair trial?
3. THE FALSE WITNESSES - Three key prosecution witnesses-- Veronica
Jones, Cynthia White, and Robert Chobert-- all with criminal charges
hanging over their heads, testified for the prosecution. For their
cooperation, they were given special exemptions from criminal
prosecutions. Later, Jones, while recanting her original false
testimony in court, was immediately arrested on the witness stand on
other charges.
4. THE TRUE WITNESSES- Five witnesses, all from different vantage
points, saw the real killer flee the scene while Mumia lay shot on
the ground. Due to prosecutorial and/or police misconduct all but
one failed to testify.
5. THE EVIDENCE- An entry in the original coroner¹s report that
stated that a .44-caliber bullet killed the policeman is now
considered a ³clerical error². Mumia¹s gun, a .38-caliber pistol,
could not have fired such a bullet. A medical examiner testified that
the bullet was smashed, but a defense expert asserts that the bullet
remained intact. A ballistics expert told the defense that switching
bullets was done all the time.
6. THE ³CONFESSION²- Mumia¹s supposed ³confession² was first
reported by police two months after the fact. The emergency room
doctor said Mumia remained silent.
7. THE DEAD- Policeman Faulkner. Also dead is the possible killer
who had borrowed the driver¹s license found in the pocket of the dead
policeman. He was arrested on other charges two months after the
murder while in possession of a .22-caliber gun. He was found dead
in 1985, coincidentally on the day the police bombed the black
commune MOVE house, killing eleven including five children.
8. THE DEFENDANT- Mumia Abu-Jamal last year supported the NABET/CWA
workers in their lockout by ABC-TV, refusing to give an interview to
scabs during the dispute. He also endorsed the ILWU¹s Neptune Jade
solidarity defense campaign from death row. He has been fighting for
the oppressed since the age of 14 when he protested the racist
presidential campaign of then-Alabama Governor George Wallace. A
year later he joined the Black Panther Party and learned journalism.
Mumia had no criminal record before his arrest for the killing of
police officer Faulkner. While president of Philadelphia¹s
Association of Black Journalists, he received an award for his expose
of police brutality.
9. THE FRAME-UP - Philadelphia Mayor and former Police Commissioner,
Frank Rizzo, at a 1978 news conference following the death of a
policeman, vowed to hold the ³new breed of journalist² like Jamal
responsible. The FBI¹s COINTELPRO ³anti-terrorist² program of the
Œ70¹s targeted Black Panthers and other black militants for frame-ups
and assassinations. Police recognized Mumia, wounded at the crime
scene, where they beat him. The sham trial and subsequent rejected
appeals make a mockery of justice.
10. THE RACIST DEATH PENALTY- Philadelphia courts have sentenced 126
people to death. All but 14 are people of color- the highest racial
disparity on death row in the nation. In an interview from death row
a few years ago Mumia was asked about the fairness of capital
punishment. He jokingly responded, ³Them that ain¹t got the capital,
get the punishment.² When asked this year by The Dispatcher why the
U.S. alone of the modern industrialized countries uses this barbaric
practice, he pointed to the history of slavery, ³... the American
criminal (in)justice system is lineally descended from that horrific
history. It taints the system, just like it taints consciousness.²
For the first time ever the human rights group Amnesty International
placed the United States on its list of human rights violators along
with Turkey, Algeria and Cambodia, because of police brutality,
violations against imprisoned people and increased numbers of
executions.
Why Labor Must Defend Mumia
In this global economy, union busting is reaching epidemic proportions. As
the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, the expoitation of casual
labor, joblessness and homelessness increase. This ³law and order² of
capital is enforced by police brutality. The ruling class¹ solution to
unemployment is imprisonment, the new growth industry. Because Mumia
Abu-Jamal, even from death row, dares to criticize this system of
oppression, he has become a symbol in the struggle against it. His voice
must not be silenced! The working class has the power to stop the attacks
of international capital on the fundamental rights of labor with
co-ordinated actions, like the one the ILWU is leading on April 24.
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!
The Rank-and-File ILWU Committee to Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal is open to any
member from any division of the ILWU who is committed to winning freedom for
this bold anti-racist fighter for social justice. If you¹re interested in
joining the struggle, you can write us:
Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia;
P.O. Box 16222; Oakland, CA 94610.
You can email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or call us at 510-531-4717.
labor donated
LL.VD
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