Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Plane]

http://www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/node/59




Mumia Abu-Jamal
An early member of the Black Panther Party, Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Department officer Daniel Faulkner. Originally sentenced to death, Abu-Jamal's sentence, but not his conviction, was overturned in December 2001 by Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Both the prosecution and the defense have appealed Yohn's ruling. Abu-Jamal is now serving life in prison at the maximum-security SCI-Greene.

Abu-Jamal's case has received international attention. Some of his supporters claim that he is innocent, that his arrest and conviction were politically motivated, and that he is a political prisoner. Others assert that Abu-Jamal is indeed guilty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal

http://www.mumia.org/freedom.now/

I'm writing in connection from Turkey newpaper daily EVRENSEL which publish Mumia's columns in Turkey by the week in Turkish for many years.
As Mumia's hearing was at the May 17th, we did organize two different demonstrations in capital city Ankara and also in Istanbul for stand with Mumia. I just want to inform you about that demonstrations that we did announce and invite all Turkey's human right organizations, organizations that oppose to death penalty and also journalist, colomnist and etc. who wanna stand with Mumia.
Here is some details of protests which organized at 17 May for "FREE MUMIA" in Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey.

Regards

Cihan Celik
Foreign News Desk Editor
EVRENSEL Daily
Istanbul/Turkey

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1330

Mumia Abu Jamal was catapulted into the public limelight by an event that occurred shortly after 3:55 a.m. on December 9, 1981, when white police officer Daniel Faulkner made a traffic stop of William Cook, Mumia's brother, on a Philadelphia street. Falkner pulled behind Cook's car, radioed for police backup, approached Cook's vehicle, and ordered the driver to get out of his car. While Faulkner handcuffed Cook, Mumia Abu Jamal, who was behind the wheel of a taxi parked across the street, suddenly got out of his vehicle, ran toward Faulkner and shot him in the back. As the policeman fell, he drew his own gun and managed to shoot Abu Jamal in the chest, wounding but not killing him. The gun-wielding cabdriver then fired repeatedly at Faulkner, finally dispatching him from close range with a bullet in the brain. Abu Jamal's presence near the scene of the roadside stop at that particular moment has led to serious speculation that William Cook intentionally led Faulkner into an ambush -- one that had all the earmarks of other Black Panther provocations in places like Newark and Oakland.

[Plane]

 R&R is also expending considerable energy to "stop the legal lynching of Mumia Abu-Jamal," the man currently serving a prison term for having murdered a Philadelphia police officer. Describing him benignly as "an African-American journalist on death row," Kissinger attributes Mumia’s conviction to America’s "political program of criminalizing black youth, using prisons and death chambers to ‘solve’ the problems of poverty and social breakdown, and the use of police powers to suppress radical or revolutionary opposition." According to Kissinger, Mumia, whose "voice is heard among the most oppressed," has been targeted solely "because of his uncompromising resistance to this whole agenda." In short, Mumia is victim, hero, cult celebrity, and voice of social conscience all rolled into one. By contrast, the bereaved wife of the officer he murdered is merely someone whose expressions of grief Kissinger claims to be "getting pretty tired of."


http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1330

[Plane]

Unless Mumia Abu Jamal's final petition is answered, and he gets the fair trial he deserves, America will see its the first explicitly political execution since the Rosenbergs were put to death in 1953. Frank Rizzo's angry threat will be fulfilled, for one "new breed" journalist at least. It will stop. We won't hear any more criticism of the police from Mumia Abu-Jamal. Forever.

http://www.terrybisson.com/mumia.html

[Michael Tee]

Whatever the guy did or didn't do, it's obvious that he never got a fair trial and he has to have one.  What's the controversy here?  The only thing that is upsetting is that he's been kept in jail and denied justice for this long.

[Plane]

He has had several appeals , how many is fair?

[Michael Tee]

He never had a fair trial, so unless the appeal lets him go, I would assume they are upholding the results of the unfair trial.  Saying, yeah it wasn't fair but it's NBD, or it's unfair but the result woulda been the same anyway.  That's just total bullshit, ESPECIALLY with the judge he had.  EVERYBODY'S entitled to a fair trial.  It's in the Constitution.  You believe in the Constitution, don't you?

[Plane]

He never had a fair trial, so unless the appeal lets him go, I would assume they are upholding the results of the unfair trial.  Saying, yeah it wasn't fair but it's NBD, or it's unfair but the result woulda been the same anyway.  That's just total bullshit, ESPECIALLY with the judge he had.  EVERYBODY'S entitled to a fair trial.  It's in the Constitution.  You believe in the Constitution, don't you?

I think that an appeal that let him go would be unfair if he is guilty.

And the evidence against him is pretty good .

[Amianthus]

Whatever the guy did or didn't do, it's obvious that he never got a fair trial and he has to have one.  What's the controversy here?  The only thing that is upsetting is that he's been kept in jail and denied justice for this long.

Why is it obvious the trial was unfair? There were four witnesses and physical evidence pointing to his guilt, plus his statement to an emergency worker admitting he killed the officer.