Tag Archives: Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s partial victory

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This 13 May 2016 video says about itself:

10th Anniversary: Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal plus Paris May Day

Powerful report of special commemoration of naming of French street after Mumia. Betsey Piettte of IAC refers to slide show (not visible) and also report & video of Paris May Day 2016.

By Fred Mazelis in the USA:

Mumia Abu-Jamal wins right to reargue appeal of his 1982 conviction

5 January 2019

In a significant legal victory for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a ruling by a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge on December 27 gives the long-imprisoned activist and journalist a new chance to appeal his 1982 conviction for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther who spent nearly 30 years on death row before prosecutors agreed in 2011 to a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, has steadfastly maintained his innocence.

Justice Leon Tucker issued a 37-page opinion last week that concluded, as reported by the Associated Press, that former Justice Ronald Castille of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court should have recused himself from a 2012 appeal rejecting Abu-Jamal’s final appeal. Tucker, pointing to numerous statements made by Castille when he was Philadelphia District Attorney between 1986 and 1991, advocating the death penalty in cases of killing of police officers, cited the “appearance of bias”.

At the same time, however, Tucker rejected other arguments presented by Abu-Jamal’s attorneys—that Castille had played a “significant” role, when he was DA, in the appeal of the original conviction, before going on to rule on the appeal as a judge.

Castille had received campaign contributions from the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which had loudly dismissed all claims that the defendant had not received a fair trial and had pushed for Abu-Jamal’s execution. Tucker relied on a US Supreme Court ruling in 2016 that Castille should have recused himself in a similar case. It was this decision that spurred the latest effort by Abu-Jamal’s attorneys. Tucker, in his opinion, said Abu-Jamal should be given another chance to argue his innocence in front of the state’s high court, now that Castille is no longer a sitting judge.

Abu-Jamal, now 63 years old, has spent well over half his life behind bars after his conviction and sentencing in the 37-year-old case, which Amnesty International, among numerous other advocates and observers, has charged was tainted by unfairness and racial bias.

A national and international campaign has been waged on behalf of Abu-Jamal, who became a focus of attention and opposition to the outrages that characterize the “criminal justice” system in the US, especially in the application of the death penalty. It was reinstated in 1976, part of the rapid shift to the right by the political and judicial authorities after the labor, civil rights and antiwar struggles of the 1960s and the defeat of US imperialism in Vietnam.

The original trial of Abu-Jamal took place in the early years of the Reagan administration, amid a law-and-order frenzy that would soon lead to the highest rate of mass incarceration in the world. Defense attorneys have brought forward evidence of many instances of flagrant misconduct in Abu-Jamal’s case, including an affidavit of a court stenographer that the trial judge in the case, Albert Sabo, had declared, “Yeah, I’m going to help ’em fry the nigger.” Sabo presided over a trial in which important eyewitness testimony was excluded, confessions were fabricated, and the defendant himself was excluded from most trial proceedings.

It was not until 2008 that Abu-Jamal’s original death sentence was thrown out, with an appeals court ruling that found that jury instructions in 1982 had been fundamentally flawed. Abu-Jamal remained on death row, however, after the US Supreme Court overturned the appeals court in 2010. Amidst continuing litigation, prosecutors finally agreed to reduce the penalty to the life sentence several years later.

During his long stretch of imprisonment, Abu-Jamal has continued to write as well as to speak on Prison Radio. He attracted attention with his 1995 book Live From Death Row. His latest book was published in 2017 and has a foreword by well-known journalist Chris Hedges.

Abu-Jamal has also suffered from severe health problems, exacerbated by neglect and inadequate treatment in prison. A recent “Democracy Now” radio program reported that he was diagnosed with hepatitis C and had obtained the necessary treatment only after a successful lawsuit.

The police union, prominently assisted by Maureen Faulkner, the widow of the slain officer, has kept up a vitriolic campaign against Abu-Jamal, and has received bipartisan support in this campaign from the political establishment in Pennsylvania. In 2014 the state legislature went so far as to pass a “revictimization” law, in response to a recorded commencement speech that Abu-Jamal had delivered at a Vermont college. The bill forbade prisoners, even in some cases those not yet convicted, from speaking or acting in ways that would “re-traumatize” victims of crimes. A state judge threw out the law in 2015 as “manifestly unconstitutional.”

Civil rights lawyer David Rudovsky, who worked on an early Abu-Jamal appeal, was quoted by the Associated Press on various elements of the Abu-Jamal case that point to ongoing police and prosecutorial wrongdoing and discrimination.

“The race bias, the judicial bias, the questions of identification and prosecutorial commentary or misconduct—we’re still struggling with them”, said Rudovsky, a University of Pennsylvania law professor.

Abu-Jamal’s attorneys have 30 days within which to file a notice of appeal to reargue his original conviction before the state’s highest court. At the same time, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner must make a decision on whether to appeal Judge Tucker’s decision. Krasner was elected in 2017 as a liberal, promising various criminal justice reforms. He has stopped requiring cash bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felony charges.

Hope for Mumia Abu-Jamal?

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This video from the USA says about itself:

A Path to Freedom? Journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal Wins Chance to Reargue Appeal in 1981 Police Killing

Former Black Panther and award-winning journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner but has always maintained his innocence.

On Thursday, a Philadelphia judge ruled Abu-Jamal can reargue his appeal in the case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The judge cited then-Chief Justice Ronald Castille’s failure to recuse himself from the case due to his prior role as Philadelphia district attorney when Abu-Jamal was appealing. We get an update from Johanna Fernandez, professor of history at Baruch College-CUNY and one of the coordinators of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. She has been in the courtroom for much of this case and is the editor of “Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal about Ferguson, USA

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This video from the USA is called Mumia Needs Treatment.

From City Lights Books publishers in the USA:

Mumia Abu-Jamal on the Meaning of Ferguson

Thursday, 13 August 2015 00:00

In a new collection of over 100 previously unpublished essays, many written in solitary confinement, Mumia Abu-Jamal addresses topics ranging from Rosa Parks to Edward Snowden, from the Trail of Tears to Ferguson. Click here to order Writing on the Wall today!

The following excerpt from Writing on the Wall was written on August 31, 2014, by Mumia Abu-Jamal. He spent more than 30 years awaiting execution, before his death sentence – but not his conviction – was vacated in 2011. Abu-Jamal is currently incarcerated and infirm in Mahanoy prison in Pennsylvania. You can contribute online to pay for a legal suit to force the state of Pennsylvania to provide Abu-Jamal with appropriate medical treatment immediately.

Before recent days, who among us had ever heard of Ferguson, Missouri?

Because of what happened there, the brief but intense experience of state repression, its name will be transmitted by millions of Black mouths to millions of Black ears, and it will become a watchword for resistance, like Watts, like Newark, Harlem and Los Angeles.

But Ferguson wasn’t 60 years ago – it’s today.

And for young Blacks from Ferguson and beyond, it was a stark, vivid history lesson – and also a reality lesson.

When they dared protest the state’s street-murder of one of their own, the government responded with the tools and weapons of war. They assaulted them with gas. They attacked them as if Ferguson were Fallujah, in Iraq.

The police attacked them as if they were an occupying army from another country, for that, in fact, is what they were.

And these young folks learned viscerally, face to face, what the White Nation thought of them, their claimed constitutional rights, their so-called freedoms, and their lives. They learned the wages of Black protest. Repression, repression and more repression.

They also learned the limits of their so-called “leaders” who called for “peace” and “calm” while armed troops trained submachine guns and sniper rifles on unarmed men, women and children.

Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin once said, “There are decades when nothing happens; there are weeks when decades happen.”

For the youth – excluded from the American economy by inferior, substandard education; targeted by the malevolence of the fake drug war and mass incarceration; stopped and frisked for Walking While Black – were given front-row seats to the national security state at Ferguson after a friend was murdered by police in their streets.

Ferguson is a wake-up call. A call to build social, radical, revolutionary movements for change.

USA: Unarmed black 14-year-old shot 7 times by police officer in New Jersey: here.

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Mumia Abu-Jamal, don’t let him die

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This video from the USA says about itself:

Mumia Abu-Jamal Moved from Prison to Intensive Care, Supporters Seek Access & Answers

31 March 2015

Imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has been taken to the Intensive Care Unit of Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, after he was removed from prison for a medical emergency without any notification to his family, friends or lawyers.

Prison officials told his supporters he is in diabetic shock. We get an update from Abu-Jamal‘s longtime friend, Johanna Fernández who first discovered he was in the hospital Monday morning when she went to visit him in prison and was told he had been taken to the intensive care unit. Fernández is a history professor at Baruch College-CUNY, and one of the coordinators of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.

Listen to all Democracy Now! interviews with Mumia Abu-Jamal over the years in our online archive.

From the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal in the USA:

Mumia’s life is STILL in danger! Act NOW!

URGENT! EMERGENCY RESPONSE NEEDED!

Mumia once again taken to hospital outside SCI Mahanoy; held incommunicado from family, attorneys and doctor. We need to act now!

Political prisoner and internationally renowned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal has once again been taken from the prison infirmary at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, Pa.; this time to Geisinger Medical Center in Dansville, Pa. about three hours from Philadelphia.

Having received no phone calls from Mumia, including on Mother’s Day when he always calls, Mumia’s spouse, Wadiya Jamal, called the prison infirmary on Tues., May 12 and learned of the transfer. Since then Mumia has been out of communication with his immediate family and doctor, despite the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ obligation and agreement to keep Mrs. Jamal informed of his medical condition.

State regulations also prohibit prison officials from blocking attorney’s access to their clients; however, visits by his attorneys have also been denied.

On Wed., May 13 Wadiya was told that immediate family visitation was approved by Superintendent John Kerestes and the DOC. This was confirmed by Laura Neal of the DOC Legal Counsel’s office.

Wadiya prepared to visit Mumia at the hospital on May 13; however she was then told by Neal that Geisinger Hospital would not permit the visit because Mumia was not in critical condition and the hospital has a policy of not allowing visits to prisoners.

Mumia’s family and attorneys have been given conflicting reports that updates on his medical condition were released to authorities at SCI Mahanoy. Wadiya was told repeatedly by medical officials at SCI Mahanoy that no medical updates were given to them. However Donald Zaycosky, Litigation Counsel at Geisinger told Rachel Wolkenstein, an attorney representing Wadiya Jamal, that a medical update had been provided to infirmary doctors on Thurs., May 14.

Wolkenstein reported that on Fri., May 15, Zaycosky stated that under the circumstances an exception could be made to the hospital’s “no visitors” policy. He explicitly stated that Geisinger did not object to phone calls or family or legal visitation, but wanted to make sure it was okay with the DOC.

On May 15 at 9:30 a.m., Wolkenstein forwarded Zaycosky her correspondence with Laura Neal that stated the DOC approved family visitation. Since then, despite phone calls and emails, there has been no communication from either the prison infirmary or the hospital regarding either medical updates on Mumia’s condition or to confirm or deny family visitations.

Mumia’s family, attorneys and supporters are extremely worried about his current medical condition and alarmed that he is being held incommunicado while his spouse, legal counsel and his private doctor are being denied any access to him.

When Mumia was first rushed to the emergency room this March in diabetic shock, a global network of supporters sprang into action to inundate phone lines of prison and hospital officials demanding that they allow visitation from his family and attorneys. ONCE AGAIN IT’S TIME TO ACTIVATE THAT SUPPORT.

Just last week supporters delivered a letter to Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Wolf, calling on him to release Mumia’s from prison in order to get the proper medical care he needs. It was signed by numerous world dignitaries, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Minister Louis Farrakhan; New York Congressperson Charles Rangel; Executive Vice President of Local 1199 SEIU, Estela Vasquez; actor Danny Glover; writer Alice Walker and many more. (See attached letter) A significant press conference was also held in Harlem on April 30.

Please call the officials below to demand:

Unrestricted hospital visitations by Mumia’s family
Demand access for his attorneys
Let Mumia call family, supporters and doctors
Stop state’s attempt to murder Mumia by medical mistreatment
Release Mumia from prison to be able to obtain needed health care.

DOC Secretary John Wetzel – 717-728-2573; ra-crpadocsecretary@pa.gov

PA Gov. Tom Wolf –717-787-2500; fax: 717-772-8284; governor@pa.gov

Geisinger Medical Center – 570-271-6211

Note: The hospital has Mumia on a “confidential” list so the operators will say they have no one named Mumia Abu-Jamal or Wesley Cook at the hospital. People should tell the operator that their call should be reported to the hospital administration.

April 29, 2015
Contact: Dr. Suzanne Ross, suzannewross@aol.com, 917 584 2135

Open letter to Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Wolf and Department of Corrections
Secretary John Wetzel

Re: Urgent need for independent medical treatment for Mumia Abu-Jamal and for his release from prison so that he can receive that treatment

Internationally renowned political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is seriously ill. He is currently suffering from life threatening diabetes, full body skin disease, weight loss — 80 pounds in the last two to three months — extreme dehydration, multiple neurological symptoms — uncontrollable shaking, slurred speech, loss of memory with fugue states — and is wheelchair bound. He was initially placed in the prison infirmary for the severe skin problem, released back into general population only to become sicker, very possibly as a result of inappropriate treatment for the skin problem.

Most serious, despite three blood tests during his stay in the infirmary, he was not diagnosed for the diabetes he had developed which only weeks later led to his going into diabetic shock. He was rushed to the ICU at the closest hospital and had his sugar level somewhat stabilized only to be returned to the prison two days later while still very sick, causing more medical crises. All developments since the above description have only been more frightening: more weight loss, inability to walk other than in baby steps, sporadic incoherence, excruciating pain, massive skin peeling, and blood in his urine. And still no diagnosis of this shocking skin disease. Mr. Abu-Jamal is in immediate need of medical help from outside the prison system as the neglect and malpractice of the Department of Corrections is directly responsible for the inadequately addressed and alarming deterioration of his health. Only if he is released will Mr. Abu-Jamal be able to get the proper medical care to give him a chance at recovery.

We, the undersigned, call on Governor Thomas Wolf and Secretary John Wetzel to promptly authorize the independent doctors Mr. Abu-Jamal has chosen to coordinate his diagnosis and treatment plan, and to involve the specialists needed to address his many medical challenges. This would require allowing those doctors (1) to have regular phone access with Mr. Abu-Jamal while he is in the infirmary, (2) to be able to communicate freely and regularly with the prison infirmary physicians who are overseeing Mr. Abu-Jamal’s care, and (3) to schedule an immediate independent medical examination.

The horrific medical care Mr. Abu-Jamal has received at SCI Mahanoy with life threatening consequences is by no means unique to him. The epidemic level of diabetes throughout Pennsylvania’s prisons and the skin problems and hepatitis infections many of the prisoners experience speak volumes about the vulnerability to serious disease that simply entering the prison system causes. We, therefore, call for an independent investigation of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections medical system. In particular, this investigation must focus on profit-making organizations hired by the Department of Corrections that place priority on cost cutting rather than the quality of care provided to prisoners, resulting in fewer referrals to hospitals when needed and more deaths.

Finally, given the extensive evidence of Mr. Abu-Jamal’s innocence, long prevented from being addressed fairly in the courts, and now the evidence that Mr. Abu-Jamal’s very life is in danger while in the prison system, we call for his immediate release from prison.

SIGNERS (List in formation)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Minister Louis Farrakhan
Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, former President of the UN General Assembly
Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States
Cornel West, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University; Professor, Union Theological Seminary
Charles Rangel, Congressman, New York
George Gresham, President, Local 1199 SEIU
Estela Vasquez, Executive Vice President, Local 1199 SEIU
Alice Walker, writer and poet
Danny Glover, actor
Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman, Georgia
V Charles Barron, State Assemblyman, East New York
Bill Perkins, State Senator, Harlem, NY
Chris Hedges, author, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist
Michael Parenti, political scientist, historian, cultural critic, has taught at many US and international universities
James H. Cone, Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological Seminary; founder of Black Liberation Theology
Mark Lewis Taylor, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Theology and Culture, Princeton Theological Seminary
H. Yamamoto, General Secretary, Doro-Chiba International Labor Solidarity Committee, Japan
Imam Al-Hajj Talib ’Abdur-Rashid, Vice President, The Muslim Alliance in North America
Sister Fredrica Bey, Executive Director, Women in Support of the Million Man March
Gregory Muhammad, Nation of Islam Student Regional Reform Minister
Sister Catherine Muhammad, Administrative Assistant to Gregory Muhammad
Lynne Stewart, former attorney and political prisoner
William P. Quigley, Professor of Law, Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana
Azadeh N. Shahshahani, President, National Lawyers Guild
Michael Tarif Warren, Esq.
Natsu Taylor Saito, attorney and law professor
Paul Wright, Director, Human Rights Defense Center; Editor, Prison Legal News
Judith L. Bourne, attorney, U.S. Virgin Islands; former National Co-Chair, National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL)
Kenosha Ferrell, Esq., LL.M., National Conference of Black Lawyers member and concerned citizen
Michael Coard, Esq., attorney, university professor, radio show host, magazine journalist
Erika Kreider, Esq., attorney
J. Kathleen Marcus, J.D., Marcus Law
Joan P. Gibbs, Esq., National Conference of Black Lawyers
Kerry McLean, Esq., Board Member, National Lawyers Guild; NCBL member
Bina Ahmad, National Vice President, National Lawyers Guild; criminal defense attorney
Sally Frank, Professor of Law, Drake University
Rosie Hinnebusch, attorney-at-law, Sarasota, Florida
Bill Montross, National Lawyers Guild, Bethesda, Maryland
Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College
Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor of History, UCLA
Martin Espada, poet; Professor of English, University of Massachusetts
Jamal Joseph, Professor of Film, Columbia University
Ann Garrison, print and radio journalist, Pacifica Radio, San Francisco Bay View, Black Agenda Report, Black Star News
Michael Albert, Z Magazine
Katha Pollitt, writer
Norman Solomon, author; co-founder and coordinator, RootsAction.org
Farah Jasmine Griffin, Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and African-American Studies, Columbia University
Joy James, Professor of Humanities and Political Science, Williams College
Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, Language, Literacy, and Culture, College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
Lisa Guenther, Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University
Thomas Hansen, Mexico Solidarity Organization, an immigrant justice advocacy university
Rosemari Mealy, human rights advocate; Adjunct Assistant Professor, City University of New York (CUNY)
Terry Bisson, science fiction writer
Patrick Le Hyaric, French Deputy at the European Parliament; Director, L’Humanité, France
Catherine Margaté, Mayor, Malakoff, France
Didier Paillard, Mayor, Saint-Denis, France
Ian Brossat, Deputy Mayor of Paris, France
Nathalie Appéré, Mayor, Rennes, France
Pierre Laurent, Senator and National Secretary of the French Communist Party, France
Jacky Hortaut, Coordinator, Collectif Mumia, France
Claude Guillaumaud-Pujol, Professor of American Studies, Clermont Ferrand University, France
Hans-Christoph Graf von Sponeck, UN Assistant Secretary-General (ret.)
Sabine Lösing, member of the European Parliament, member and Coordinator of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), Vice-Chair and Coordinator of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE), Germany
Katja Keul, member, German parliament
Wolfgang Bittner, Dr.jur., Schriftsteller, Germany
Sabine Kebir, author; Co-Director of the German PEN, Germany
Bernd Schirmer, German PEN
Annette Groth, member of the German Parliament; member of the Human Rights Committee of the German Parliament, Germany
Dr. Michael Schiffmann, English Department of the University of Heidelberg, translator, editor, and author, Germany
Vu The Dung, Vietnamese writer and poet; member of the German PEN, Germany
Hans Till, poet and translator; member of the German PEN, Germany
Heike Hänsel, member of the German parliament, Germany
Annette Schiffmann, public relations counselor; Chair, German Network Against the Death Penalty, Germany
Charlotte Wiedemann, journalist, Berlin, Germany
Political Activists’ Alliance Network to Stop the G7, Elmau, Germany
Elfriede Jelinek, novelist and playwright; member of the International PEN; laureate of the Nobel Prize in literature, Austria
Dr. Jan Oberg, Director of TFF—Transnational Peace and Future Research, sociologist, Sweden
Dr. Farhang Jahanpour, Tutor at the Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford, England
Akiko Hoshino, Representative of the Hoshino Defense Committee, Japan
Nina Triffleman, member, Compassionate Seattle
Malaika H. Kambon, People’s Eye Photography
Jackson Browne, singer

Sponsors of this Letter:
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, MOVE, Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, Prison Radio Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, International Action Center, The Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal,
NY Friends of MOVE, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal/Northern California, Existence is Resistance, The Justice and Accountability Campaign, German Network Against the Death Penalty, Free Mumia Committee Berlin, Colectif Francais Liberons Mumia, Mumia Committee Saint-Denis, Amigos de Mumia de Mexico, Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration

Update: here.

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Don’t let Mumia Abu-Jamal die

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This video from the USA says about itself:

Free Mumia and International Solidarity at the Left Forum

10 June 2013

The panel focuses on how strong and significant the international solidarity movement for Mumia Abu-Jamal has been, what has motivated those around the world to demonstrate such consistent support, and how the international Mumia movement has contributed toward building an anti-imperialist movement.

From the International Action Center in the USA:

URGENT!  URGENT!  URGENT!

Mon. April 6 national call in: No medical execution of Mumia!

SAVE THE LIFE OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!

STOP HIS EXECUTION BY MEDICAL NEGLECT!

DON’T LET THE STATE MURDER ANOTHER BLACK LEADER!

SHUT IT DOWN FOR MUMIA!

Stopped from carrying out the death penalty against Mumia Abu-Jamal by a worldwide movement that spanned three decades, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has been attempting over the past three months to execute him by medical neglect.

On March 30, Abu-Jamal was rushed, unconscious, to the Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, Pa., suffering from diabetic shock, with a dangerously high blood sugar level of 779.  After just two days of treatment in the hospital’s ICU, on April 1, Abu-Jamal was returned to the prison infirmary at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, Pa., into the hands of the very same doctors whose medical neglect and mistreatment nearly killed him.

Prison officials initially denied visits by family members, supporters and Abu-Jamal’s attorneys and only backed down after receiving thousands of calls. Those able to visit Mumia on April 3 reported he was extremely weak, had lost 80 pounds, and still had elevated blood sugar levels over 300. For lunch that day the prison fed him spaghetti, one of the worst foods to give a diabetic patient.

The murder of aging political prisoners by denying them inadequate health care has happened before. Earlier this year, MOVE 9 member Phil Africa died under suspicious circumstances at SCI Dallas. The lack of standard medical treatment impacts all prisoners, particularly those over 55.

We are demanding that the state of Pennsylvania cease and desist in their attempts to murder political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal:

●Allow daily visits by Mumia’s family, friends and attorneys. Their support and protection at this time of vulnerability should not be restricted.

●Allow Mumia’s choice of specialist doctors to examine and schedule treatment for him — NOW. Neither the prison staff at SCI Mahanoy nor the Schuylkill Medical Center has a diabetes specialist. There is precedent in Pennsylvania for this. Prisoner John E. du Pont, an heir to the du Pont chemical fortune, was allowed care by private doctors during imprisonment. Mumia deserves the same.

●Release Mumia’s medical records to his attorneys.

●Release from prison all the elderly age 55 and over. Mumia will turn 61 on April 24.

●Allowa full investigation of prison health care in Pennsylvania.

●Mumia is innocent and should never have been incarcerated. We demand his immediate release.

We are calling on everyone to participate in the following actions over the next few days:

●Twitter widely using the hashtags #mumiamustlive,  #saveMumia and #Blacklivesmatter.

●Call, fax and email the following state officials to raise the above demands:

~ DOC Secretary John Wetzel: 717-728-4109; crpadocsecretary@pa.gov.

~ Gov. Tom Wolf: 717-772-5000; fax 717-772-8284; governor@pa.gov.

~ Prison Superintendent John Kerestes: 570-773-2158; contact.doc@pa.gov.

●MONDAY, APRIL 6: A car caravan will demand to see Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Superintendent John Wetzel at the DOC office: 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050 at 11 a.m. Cars leaving Philadelphia will gather at 7 a.m. on JFK Boulevard between 30th and 31st Streets (across from Bolt and Mega buses). If you can offer rides or need a ride, call or text Joe Piette at 610-931-2615 or email jpiette660@hotmail.com.

●TUESDAY, APRIL 7: Press conference in Philadelphia at 11 a.m. outside

District Attorney Seth Williams’ office at Juniper Street & South Penn Square (across from City Hall, near Macy’s).

●FRIDAY, APRIL 10: Organize a demonstration in your city, on your campus, wherever you can get out word to stop this attempt to murder Mumia. We need to SHUT IT DOWN FOR MUMIA!

Mumia’s family and supporters present demands to the Dept. of Corrections, Mechanicsburg, PA 4/3/2015  

Video link by Power to the People Radio Program

Column written by Mumia Abu-Jamal 3/5/15 

“Ferguson, USA”

With breathless news reports, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Pattern and Practice Study paints a damning picture of a long, cruel and bitter train of maltreatment, mass profiling, police targeting and brutality against Black people in the Missouri town of Ferguson.

What may be even worse, however, is how the town’s police, judges and political leaders conspired to loot the community — by fining them into more poverty, fines which today account for some 25 percent of the county’s budget.

Correctly, cops have been criticized for their juvenile emails and texts of racism and contempt against the local Black community and even Black leaders in Washington, D.C.

There is largely silence, however, over the role of judges, who used their robes to squeeze money from the community, with unfair fines and fees — even using their jails as an illegal kind of debtor’s prison.

In 1869, during the reign of England’s Queen Victoria, a statute known as the Debtors Act was passed, which forever abolished imprisonment as punishment for debt.

In today’s Missouri, it’s still used to punish and exploit the poor. But, truth be told, it ain’t just Missouri.

Famed Rolling Stone writer, Matt Taibbi, in his 2014 book, The Divide, tells a similar tale, but from points all across America — Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy, Gainesville, Georgia, Los Angeles, San Diego and beyond — [where] poor people are being squeezed and squeezed by cops, by judges, by local governments — to part with their last dime — to support a system corrupt to the core.

Taibbi’s full title might give us some insight: The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap.

It’s the system — one of exploitation or predation, ultimately of capitalism.

© ‘15maj

A federal judge threw out the Revictimization Relief Act, the outrageous Pennsylvania law passed almost unanimously by the state legislature late last year in an effort to silence the well-known prisoner and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal: here.

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Mumia Abu-Jamal needs our help!

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This video is about a Mumia Abu-Jamal solidarity action in Germany in 2013.

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JSC: Jamaicans in Solidarity with Cuba

Release from the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five on Mumia Abu-Jamal

mumia 3March 31 2015

Mumia Abu-Jamal needs our help!

Yesterday afternoon Mumia Abu-Jamal had a medical emergency and was taken to the Intensive Care Unit at Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, PA. He needs our immediate help to make sure that his family will be able to visit him NOW.

If you are able to call to numbers in the United States, call these numbers now to demand hospital visitation rights for Mumia’s family:

Richard Ellers
Director, PA Department of Corrections Health Care Services
rellers@pa.gov
(717) 728-5311

John Wetzel
Secretary, PA Department of Corrections
(717) 728-4109

Schuylkill Medical Center
420 S Jackson St, Pottsville, PA
(570) 621-5000

SCI Mahanoy
Superindendent John Kerestes
(570) 773-2158

Prison officials cannot be trusted to provide any transparency on Mumia’s medical emergency. They indeed told us Phil Africa was fine, and he passed…

View original post 80 more words

Mumia Abu-Jamal in hospital, update

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This 2007 video from the USA is called Poet Sonia Sanchez supports Mumia Abu-Jamal.

From Prison Radio in the USA:

CRITICAL UPDATES: DEMAND MUMIA’S FAMILY BE ALLOWED TO VISIT HIM!
April 1 updates 
https://www.facebook.com/prisonradio

https://www.twitter.com/prisonradio

The following updates were sent out by Noelle Hanrahan from Prison Radio.

Dateline:  3:04 p.m.

Dear friend,

Thank you all for the persistent calls today to Mahanoy and Schuylkill.

We have new information: 

Mumia’s youngest brother Bill Cook and his oldest son Jamal Hart have been able to visit him today for 30 minutes each.

As of today, a new prison rule is going to prevent his wife Wadiya and his brother Keith from visiting again for an entire week. The new rule states that only one visit per week per immediate family member will be allowed.
This also means that there will be many times when we will not have any contact with Mumia during this critical week.
Please do continue calling the prison and medical center to demand that Wadiya and Keith can visit Mumia again this week!
Thank you for being determined with us.

Cal now to demand that Mumia’s wife Wadiya and brother Keith can visit Mumia again this week.  See phone call information below.

Dateline: 1 p.m.

Dear friend,

We are in the ICU waiting room at the hospital, not 20 feet away from Mumia’s door. SCI Mahanoy Superintendent John Kerestes has told us that Mumia’s wife Wadiya Jamal and older brother Keith Cook will be prevented from visiting him today, Wednesday April 1.

This is an outrage! We demand family visitation rights and transparent updates on Mumia’s critical condition NOW!

Our calls worked last time. We NEED the same mobilization today. Pressuring the prison is the only way Mumia’s family will be able to see him.

CALL NOW and demand that

Mumia’s family can visit him at the

medical center: 570-773-2158 X8102

SCI Mahanoy- Superindendent John Kerestes
570-773-2158 x8102

Schuylkill Medical Center
570-621-4000

Dateline:  8:54 a.m.

Intensive Care Unit Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, PA

Mumia Abu-Jamal in Medical Crisis

Here is an excerpt from the hospital press conference yesterday (March 31):

Mumia’s wife and brother were allowed to see him separately for 30 minutes each late this morning. The mobilization worked. But our job is not yet done. On the morning of March 30, 2015 Mumia fainted in the prison and was taken to the ICU of a nearby clinic. His blood sugar count was dangerously high at 779. He was in a diabetic shock. For perspective, diabetic coma is 800.

He is recovering slowly and still in ICU. His blood sugar is currently at 333. That Mumia had diabetes was a complete shock to all of us. For the last 3 months, he has been under medical care in the prison and diagnosed with eczema. And since he had three “comprehensive” blood tests since February, diabetes should have been diagnosed and treated accordingly. But it never was. Instead he has been subjected to hell by the prison medical system. In January Mumia was shaken out of a deep sleep by guards during count. For the infraction of not being awake during count he was punished for 2 weeks, without calls or yard. Deep trance-like sleep and lethargy were the first signs of the problem. In addition to the physical depletion produced by untreated diabetes, he was/is also dealing with a severe outbreak of eczema. He likened his skin to that of an elephant’s. It was raw, blistered and bloody all over. He was so sick that he was not taking visitors. The “meds” he was given for his skin produced an extreme adverse reaction. His skin swelled and ruptured and he was put in the prison infirmary for two weeks.

There’s more, but the above points to negligence of the worse kind if not an outright attempt on Mumia’s life. We are demanding a review of his case by outside doctors and since the world is watching, we are calling for Mumia’s immediate release. It’s time to bring our brother home. 

Johanna Fernandez

These two very very brief visits by his immediate family were important.  But the OUTRAGEOUS actions by the PA Department of Corrections continue. They are controlling the hospitals actions and LIMITING all information about his condition, preventing Mumia Abu-Jamal and his family from getting access to the critical information they need for his care.

His family and lawyers still have very, very little information about his treatment and his conditions.  They are trying to limit additional visits.

It was inhumane that his family continues to be limited in accessing and monitoring his condition and his health.  Literally for 20 hours his family was in the Intensive Care ICU and were told nothing.

Now that they have had a visit, they are attempting to speak with the doctors and get medical records.

Literally after 20 hours of torture Mumia remains in intensive care.

Mumia’s family is keeping vigil in the ICU critical care visiting room. Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, PA.

His supporters and lawyers were at trial challenging the Revictimization Review Act aka the “Mumia Silencing Act”  in Harrisburg, PA when they received word that he had been taken to the hospital.

The Abolitionist Law Center’s Bret Grote is in Pottsville and taking all necessary steps  to gain access to his client for the family and access to his medical records so that independent doctors can intervene.

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s brother Keith Cook stated, “The rules that the prisons have are very arcane. They don’t give out any information about prisoners to their families or anyone else. It’s like you have your hands tied because you don’t know how the prisoner is and you have no way of talking to him. I remember a month ago, Phil Africa exercising in the prison; next thing they know they moved him to a hospital and didn’t tell his family where he was, and three days later he was dead.

“It’s scary.  This situation needs to change. The prison authorities need to be more humane to the families of prisoners.”

Pam Africa stated, “Prison Officials are lying.  Mumia is going through torture at the hands of Department of Corrections through medical neglect.   It is clear to people that they want to kill Mumia.  They gave him the wrong medication which made his condition worse. Inmates on the inside who questioned what was happening have been subjected to direct retaliation by the superintendent.  They have been moving concerned inmates out of Mumia’s unit in an effort to both bury and keep this critical information from the public.”

Johanna Fernandez of the New York Campaign to Bring Mumia Home noted, “Mumia has been complaining about being ill since January. If he had gotten the proper care he needed originally, he would not be in this situation. This crisis illustrates the problem of health care in American prisons as a basic human rights violation. I am personally concerned because Phil Africa of the MOVE organization was rushed to the hospital not long ago in good health and a few days later he was dead. We need to fight to defend Mumia’s life, and that of all prisoners.”

Bret Grote   bretgrote@abolitionistlawcenter.org    412-654-9070
Johanna Fernandez 917-930-0804 jfernandez1202@gmail.com 917-930-0804
Pam Africa 267-760-7344
Keith Cook kdc52@aol.com 919-302-4177
Noelle Hanrahan info@prisonradio.org 415-706-5222

The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm inspired by the struggle of political and politicized prisoners, and organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States.

Link to Yesterday’s press conference outside of the hospital in Pottsville, PA.
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Mumia Abu-Jamal in prison hospital

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This video from New York City in the USA says about itself:

Mumia Supporters Challenge Wall Street Journal

28 February 2014

Supporters of wrongfully imprisoned Mumia Abu-Jamal try to deliver letter to Wall Street Journal Editorial Features Editor, Mark Lasswell, correcting their published opinion article by Pat Toomey, Republican senator from Pennsylvania, and Rufus Seth Williams, Philadelphia district attorney, that attacked Obama’s nomination of Debo Adegbile as Justice Department’s top civil rights official, claiming he defended “a notorious cop killer” when as chief of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund he helped get Mumia off Death Row.

Clearly, Mumia did not kill a cop! Mumia tried to offer assistance to police officer Daniel Faulkner, who had already been shot and downed, who responded by shooting him. The WSJ piece repeats the DA’s bogus claim that 3 cops heard Mumia from his hospital bed confess to the killing when both the attending physician and policeman assigned to watch Mumia as he laid in critical condition maintained he said nothing, AND the 3 cops didn’t come up with that story until 60 days later!

After being advised by building security they could not enter the building to present their letter to the OpEd editor unless they first make an appointment, they try to make an appointment with a cel phone, and when that fails they are directed to the messenger entrance around the corner to deliver their letter, where they first read the letter aloud. Along the way they develop a friendly relationship with NYPD Community Affairs Officer Michael Dugan who agrees to watch a pro-Mumia video with an open mind if they send him one. That suggests the possibility New York City’s new Mayor Bill de Blasio and his new Police Chief Bratton might help get pro-Mumia videos shown at NYC Police Stations. The videos thoroughly set the record straight that Mumia was framed and mistried for a crime he did not commit.

Video by Joe Friendly.

From the International Action Center in the USA today:

Mumia in the hospital! Call prison to demand that his family see him!!

At 1 PM today, Mumia Abu-Jamal had a medical emergency and was taken to Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, PA. He is in the ICU. Mumia‘s spouse is not being allowed to see him. The only information we are receiving now is that he’s receiving an insulin drip for his diabetes.

YOUR HELP IS URGENTLY NEEDED NOW!

Call these numbers now to demand hospital visitation rights for Mumia‘s family, including his brother Keith:

Richard Ellers
Director, PA Department of Corrections Health Care Services
rellers@pa.gov
(717) 728-5311

John Wetzel
Secretary, PA Department of Corrections
(717) 728-4109
Schuylkill Medical Center
420 S Jackson St, Pottsville, PA
(570) 621-4000

SCI Mahanoy
Superindendent John Kerestes
(570) 773-2158 x8102

Say you are calling about prisoner WESLEY COOK, #AM8335.

More alerts will follow as we receive them.

THIS MAN WRONGLY SERVED ON DEATH ROW FOR 30 YEARS And a judge ruled he should not receive any restitution. [Kim Bellware, HuffPost]

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United States Justice Department nominee rejected for supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal’s rights

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This video from the United States Senate says about itself:

Democrat Calls Adegbile Vote Lowest Point in 30-Year Career

6 March 2014

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, on Wednesday called the Senate’s rejection of President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division the “lowest point” of his 30-year career.

“I don’t say that lightly,” Harkin said. “I was here during the impeachment process, trial for President [Bill] Clinton. I kind of thought that was a sham, but that didn’t compare to what happened today.”

Read the full story here.

By Eric London in the USA:

Senate Democrats reject Justice Department nominee over Abu-Jamal case

8 March 2014

Seven Senate Democrats voted against the nomination of Debo Adegbile to lead the civil rights division of the Department of Justice on Wednesday, defeating his appointment.

The seven Democrats rejected the nomination because Adegbile served as the litigation director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund when the organization legally represented political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal in a 2011 appeal from the death penalty.

The move is a clear signal that admission into the highest echelons of the American government is available only to those who have no connection whatsoever to any effort to defend the democratic rights of the population of the United States.

Abu-Jamal, a former leader of the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia and an advocate against widespread police brutality, was convicted over 30 years ago for the 1982 killing of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal was kept on death row for decades despite significant evidence of his innocence.

Since the trial, prosecution witnesses have admitted that they were coerced by police under threat of death into testifying against the defendant. Moreover, a man named Arnold Beverly signed an affidavit admitting that he himself had been ordered by crooked police officers to kill Faulkner. In a blatantly illegal move, the prosecution also withheld exculpatory evidence, including the results of Faulkner’s autopsy, which showed that the policeman was shot by a .44 caliber weapon. Abu-Jamal’s .38 could therefore not have been the murder weapon.

In 2011, the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that state prosecutors conduct a new sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal on the grounds that the manner in which the death sentencing instructions were given to jury members was unconstitutional. According to the Third Circuit, the judge in Abu-Jamal’s trial unconstitutionally rammed through the death penalty sentence without properly considering whether there were any mitigating circumstances that should have been considered.

State prosecutors ultimately backed away from their threats to defend the death penalty in renewed sentencing hearings, ending the threat of Abu-Jamal’s execution. He remains in prison, serving life without parole.

It was the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, led at the time by Adegbile, which argued the case before the Third Circuit. Even then, Adegbile’s involvement in the case was attenuated at best. The NAACP only became involved in Abu-Jamal’s legal defense in 2006, when it challenged efforts by the prosecution to remove black members of the jury. Even after filing “friend of the court” briefs periodically, the NAACP only became directly involved in 2011. At no point was Adegbile part of the legal team that prepared the case on appeal.

Yet simply for belonging to an organization that attempted to reduce a political prisoner’s sentence from death to life imprisonment on clear constitutional grounds, Adegbile has been barred from heading the Department of Justice’s civil rights division.

It should go without saying that, given he was selected for the position by President Obama, the former NAACP lawyer is far from a political radical. And if the Senate had approved his nomination, Adegbile would simply have become another cog in the machinery of the capitalist state, working under the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder, the defender of a presidential “right” to assassinate any American citizen, using drone-fired missiles, without trial or any other form of judicial review.

This makes the Senate action all the more extraordinary. This vote to punish a lawyer for his legal representation of political prisoners underscores the deeply anti-democratic character of the American ruling elite. By the logic of this action, those accused of offenses against the state should be denied legal representation, or even trials of any kind, and railroaded straight to prison.

In other words, the type of “justice” being meted out to detainees at Guantanamo Bay should become the norm for all those who run afoul of the American police apparatus.

The contempt with which the American political establishment view democratic rights is expressed in the comments of those senators who voted against Adegbile’s nomination. They are particularly incensed because of Abu-Jamal’s unwavering stance that he is innocent and the victim of a frame-up.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware defended his “no” vote with the statement that “the decades-long public campaign by others to elevate a heinous, coldblooded killer to the status of a political prisoner and folk hero has caused tremendous pain to the widow of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner and shown great disrespect for law enforcement officers and families throughout our region.”

Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said that Adegbile had “inserted his office in an effort to turn reality on its head, impugn honorable and selfless law enforcement officers, and glorify an unrepentant cop-killer. This is not required by our legal system. On the contrary, it is noxious to it.”

Contrary to the proclamations of McConnell (himself a lawyer), the protection of criminal defendants from being put to death by the state when there are serious questions as to their innocence is unquestionably required by the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the Constitution. That the government’s highest ranking political figures can state point-blank that such a right does not exist underscores the reality that the Constitution is a dead letter to the political representatives of the financial aristocracy.

Pennsylvania’s “Mumia Law”: New attack on political prisoners and new threat to freedom of speech: here.

On Monday, prisoner and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, along with other prisoners and several human rights groups, filed a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s recently enacted Revictimization Relief Act (RRA), a law aimed at silencing those convicted of crimes and those who publish their speech: here.

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Mumia Abu-Jamal legal victory

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This video from the USA says about itself:

April 27, 2011

Court Rules Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence is Unconstitutional, Grants New Sentencing Hearing

The case of Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal took a surprising turn Tuesday when the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously declared his death sentence unconstitutional—it is the second time the court has agreed with a lower judge who set aside Abu-Jamal’s death sentence after finding jurors were given confusing instructions that encouraged them to choose death rather than a life sentence. Now Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and journalist, could get a new sentencing hearing in court. We speak with his co-counsel, Judith Ritter, and Linn Washington, an award-winning journalist who has followed Abu-Jamal’s case for almost three decades.

See also here.

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case: One more reason why U.S. death penalty should be abolished: here.

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