MUMIA ABU-JAMAL is an African-American writer and journalist who has spent the last 24 years on Pennsylvania’s death row. His demand for justice and a new trial is supported by heads of state from France to South Africa, by Nobel Laureates, the European Parliament, city governments from Detroit to San Francisco to Paris, France, scholars, religious leaders, artists, scientists, the Congressional Black Caucus and other members of U.S. Congress, and by countless thousands who cherish democratic and human rights the world over.
 
Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Jamal’s journalistic skills, historical analysis and eloquent pen have only confirmed his reputation as “voice of the voiceless.” With judicious historical insight and pointed probing of the issues, he continues to question and enlighten his readers through scores of columns, illuminating such issues as U.S. empire, terrorism, poverty, the U.S. support of Pakistan during the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, and so much more. (See the “Mumia Index” on this site.) His columns and essays continue to find place in scholarly books as well as in the street newspapers of the homeless.
 
Working people have expressed their support for Jamal through their leading regional, national and international trade union bodies. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union closed down West coast ports for the day of April 24, 1999, to support Mumia’s bid for a new trial.
 
Jamal’s books and over 500 published columns have been adopted as resource material for the teaching and inspiration of a growing number of students, youth, and educators who have come to see their futures as intimately tied to the outcome of this case. The 1982 trial that convicted Jamal of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner has been challenged by leading legal analysts and scholars, from Stuart Taylor writing in the prestigious American Lawyer magazine, to Per Walsoe of the Supreme Court of Denmark, to Amnesty International which issued a special report in February 2000, claiming that “justice would best be served by the granting of a new trial…” to Jamal.
 
While Jamal has worked while confined as an advocate for so many others, he has maintained his own innocence from the beginning, and does so in ever clearer and more emphatic tones to the present day. His attorneys have presented compelling evidence that key witnesses were intimidated or coerced to provide false testimony, that a purported “confession” by Mumia was likely fabricated by police, and that vital evidence pointing to his innocence was withheld from the defense. A key eyewitness has now recanted critical court testimony she gave under police intimidation and which was used against Jamal.
 
The confused and flagrantly-biased character of the prosecutors’ case against Mumia has only mushroomed over the years: yet another affidavit has been offered that casts doubt on the original witnesses’ claims that Mumia had confessed to the murder; another man now has even stepped forward to claim that he is the one who killed the officer Mumia was convicted of killing; and a court stenographer swears in another affidavit that she heard Mumia’s original judge, Albert Sabo, say during a court recess, “Yeah, and I’m gonna help ’em fry the nigger.” (Up to the time of his death just a few years ago, Judge Sabo maintained he had been racially unbiased throughout Mumia’s trial.)
 
Jamal was forced to appeal his conviction before this same judge who had sentenced him to death in 1982. Judge Sabo was notorious for presiding over capital cases resulting in 33 people being sentenced to death (all but two, people of color), more than twice the number of any sitting judge in the United States.
 
So confused and biased is the case against Mumia that a U.S. District Judge finally had to acknowledge just one of the problems of Mumia’s conviction, and in 1999 he thus vacated the death sentence against Mumia. The prosecution, however, with the help of police unions like the Fraternal Order of Police, are still working tirelessly and vigorously to see that he is executed. Mumia remains on death row while the prosecution appeals the suspension of a death sentence. Meanwhile, Mumia’s attorneys press on to gain an overturning of the judgment of guilt against Mumia toward the end of achieving his freedom. His life still hangs in the balance, with death just a few callous and cruel decisions away.
 
WE EDUCATORS ARE UNITED IN SAYING NO TO JAMAL’S EXECUTION. We invite you to study this web site, explore the case and the issues – for Mumia’s sake and that of so many others on U.S. death row.
 
■ Jamal has long been a POLITICAL TARGET as a prominent journalist critic of police brutality and racism in Philadelphia since the days of Mayor Frank Rizzo.
 
■ Jamal is made more vulnerable by sweeping JUDGMENTS AGAINST DISSENTERS as “terrorists,” and he has become less protected today, as many progressive activists in post-9/11 USA turn more of their attention and energy toward the war in Iraq, tensions in the Middle East and general surveillance issues in the U.S.
 
■ Jamal’s life is increasingly put at risk because even in post-9/11 USA he remains a vigorous critic of POLICE REPRESSION AND LAW ENFORCEMENT USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE. Whether writing about the outrage of torture at the Guantánamo Base detention center, or in the jails and lockups of Brooklyn, New York, and Austin, Texas, Mumia’s as “voice for the voiceless” puts him at ever greater risk.
 
■ Jamal has challenged the present political priorities of SPENDING MORE FOR WAR AND PRISONS THAN FOR EDUCATION. The youth who increasingly rally to Mumia’s cause in the name of justice and fair play know that we build jailhouse cell blocks more rapidly than schoolhouse classrooms.
 
AS EDUCATORS, IN PENNSYLVANIA, ACROSS THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD, WE STRONGLY OPPOSE THE EXECUTION OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL. While there are those who believe Mumia is innocent and should be FREED NOW, and others who have no opinion about his innocence, we are all united in viewing Mumia’s 1982 trial as a travesty of justice, and affirm that he MUST have a NEW TRIAL!

Last Update: Jun 15, 2009
About EMAJ
Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal (EMAJ) is a network of teachers and educators who have advocated and organized for Mumia Abu-Jamal since 1995. Its members have participated in numerous fund drives, campus teach-ins, educational events and protest actions.
 
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on death row in Pennsylvania for twenty-four years, receiving a conviction and death sentence in 1982 for the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner. EMAJ works with the many other organizations and movements that find Abu-Jamal's conviction and sentence to be wrong from numerous perspectives. EMAJ thus works with countless thousands of others who also demand justice and a new trial for Abu-Jamal: heads of state from France to South Africa, Nobel Laureates, the European Parliament, city governments from Detroit to San Francisco to Paris, France, religious leaders, artists, scientists, the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP and Amnesty International.
 
The purpose of EMAJ is to mobilize educators into the broad public movement seeking freedom and justice for Mumia, doing all we can as teachers (1) to educate about Mumia’s case, (2) to stop all plans to execute Mumia, and (3) to overturn Mumia’s conviction, whether this comes about through a judicial mandate for his immediate release, through an evidentiary hearing, or through a new trial.
 
EMAJ has its origins in June 1995, just after the Pennsylvania Governor - then, Tom Ridge - signed his first death warrant on Mumia. EMAJ was originally organized under the name “Academics for Mumia Abu-Jamal” (AMAJ), but changed its name to “Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal” (EMAJ) in 2001. Many argued that “educators” better named the full range of teachers in our collective who work with all groups, ranging from pre-school to professional schools, from elementary to doctoral level programs.
 
Immediately after signing of the first death warrant in 1995, more than 500 members (mostly university and college professors) paid for and signed a major ad in the Philadelphia Daily News, calling for a stay of execution for Abu-Jamal, the removal of Judge Sabo from the case, and the granting of a new trial.  In addition, seven professors, the majority being local Philadelphia faculty, spoke out against Abu-Jamal’s execution at a July 1995 press conference in downtown Philadelphia.

After 1995, the EMAJ mailing list grew to over 1,000 members.  Activities of the members include the following: (a) appearing on radio shows educating the public about the case, (b) participating as an educators’ contingent in many demonstrations and civil disobedience actions for Abu-Jamal throughout the country, (c) educating about Mumia’s case on campuses by holding special workshops and using Abu-Jamal’s books and commentaries to provide important perspective in their classrooms, (d) publishing a periodic newsletter (“ConneXions”) about the various ways students/faculty can connect to this broader social movement, (e) holding press conferences in Philadelphia and elsewhere to articulate the public importance of his case, (f) raising funds to help allay the costs of Abu-Jamal’s tuition for his B.A. degree from Goddard College in 1996, and his M.A. degree from California State University (Dominguez Hills) in 1999, and (g) supporting other major ad campaigns in major newspapers designed to highlight the importance of a new trial for Abu-Jamal, (h) maintaining a this web site to update educators on the case and to promote critical dialogue about Mumia's case and the movement on his behalf..
 
EMAJ has been one of many other contributing forces in the remarkable surge of teacher and student support for Abu-Jamal in all sectors of education.  Abu-Jamal has been invited to send commencement speeches to at least four different educational institutions.  School Districts on both coasts, at the secondary school level, have had special teach-in days for Abu-Jamal. Students in urban high schools have staged walkouts for him. Abu-Jamal’s writings have helped catalyze student and youth awareness of police brutality issues, as in the New York City campaign, “Teachers Against Police Violence.” 
 
A full-page ad in The New York Times Sunday “Week In Review” section (May 7, 2000, page 7) displayed the diversity and breadth of teachers who represent American teachers' participation in movements for Abu-Jamal’s new trial.  Over 600 signatories appeared in that ad, representing the Harvards, Stanfords, Princetons and Yales, but also the Community Colleges, the High Schools, also teachers in Elementary and Pre-School institutions, and many in alternative and experimental educational projects.  Professional schools of law, medicine, ministry, social work, international relations, were all represented.  Head liner academics for the ad in the New York Times were Toni Morrison (Princeton Univ.), Jonathan Kozol (teacher and noted author), Sonia Sanchez (Temple University and poet), Leslie Marmon Silko (Univ. of New Mexico, and Macarther Award-winning novelist), Cornel West (Princeton University), Noam Chomsky (M.I.T.), Angela Y. Davis (San Francisco St. Univ.), Howard Zinn (Boston University), Rudolfo Anaya (Univ. of New Mexico and novelist), Patricia J. Williams (Columbia University Law School), Manning Marable (Columbia University), and Frances Fox Piven (CUNY Graduate Center, NYC). As educators affirmed in that Times ad, although there are those of us who believe Mumia is innocent and should be freed now, and others who have no opinion about his innocence, we are all united in viewing Mumia's 1982 trial and conviction as a travesty of justice, and affirm that he must have a new trial.
 
Teachers and educators, across the country and world will continue to step forward and be counted by name.  Since 1995, over 50 academics from Pennsylvania schools have participated in the EMAJ-led ad campaigns, including Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Bucknell University, Carnegie Mellon University, Carlow College, University of the Sciences (Philadelphia), Philadelphia Community College, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania State, and the University of Pittsburgh.
 
Through EMAJ and the other organizations for Mumia, teachers, students and administrators seek to bring to Mumia's support, advocacy, perseverance, critical reasoning and dialogue. The educators’ public ads are notably different from the ads taken out by supporters of slain officer Daniel Faulkner, the policeman that Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing in a 1982 trial. The ads for Faulkner rarely feature citizens’ names. Even rarer, do the Faulkner web sites list widely-recognized voices of conscience or national leaders who actually advocate Mumia's execution. Educators who signed the ads were among those listed “for boycott” on the website of the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the United States. In spite of this pressure, EMAJ remains committed to holding both the moral and intellectual high ground in its advocacy for Abu-Jamal.