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The life of Mumia Abu-Jamal is in danger! |
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Mumia Abu-Jamal, internationally-recognized journalist and fighter for the people, has been on death row for over 28 years after being wrongly convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer.
In those 28 years, the notoriously racist Philadelphia police department and prosecutors have vengefully sought to execute Mumia. Prosecutors and politicians have built their careers on a promise to send him to the death chambers, while collaborating to deny him his civil and constitutional rights.
Flagrant violations during Mumia's trial—blatantly false police testimony, coercion of witnesses, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct, exclusion of Black jurors, inadequate defense and pervasive racism—led to his wrongful conviction and death sentence.
Despite substantial evidence that would prove his innocence, Mumia has never been granted the right to present that evidence due to procedural restrictions in U.S. law that makes convictions virtually impossible to overturn.
Among the many violations were the blatant racism of the trial judge, Alberto Sabo, known as “the hanging judge.” He sentenced far more defendants to death—31 people, 27 of them African American—than the total of all other judges in Pennsylvania. After Mumia’s conviction, a stenographer made a sworn statement that she heard Sabo say during a trial recess, “I’m going to help them fry that n_____.”
One of the witnesses at the crime scene, Veronica Jones, was a prostitute who was threatened by the Philadelphia police if she did not falsely testify against Mumia. They threatened her with prosecution on old charges and the loss of her children. Later in 1996, during a post-conviction hearing, she recanted her previous testimony and told the truth. Sabo allowed New Jersey police to remove Jones from the courtroom in handcuffs on an old bad-check charge.
This outrageous blackmail against Jones led the Philadelphia Daily News to write, “Such heavy-handed tactics can only confirm suspicions that the court is incapable of giving Abu-Jamal a fair hearing. Sabo has long since abandoned any pretense of fairness.”
In April 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his appeal on the crucial issue of the fact that 10 African American potential jurors were eliminated by the prosecution in the jury selection for his trial. There were only two Black jurors in his trial.
Now the Third Circuit Court of Appeals will make a ruling that could decide whether Mumia would be executed. Mumia is facing an extremely dangerous situation.
These recent legal developments are moving Mumia closer to a possible execution. Join us in the emergency campaign to save his life!
Organizations and individuals across the United States and around the world have worked to win justice for Mumia, and now the movement for Mumia is urgently calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to open an investigation into the violations of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s civil and constitutional rights.