EMAJ

For the news freshly announced, consult the report from the Legal Defense Fund here. An excellent analysis of the meaning of this is provided in Dave Lindorff’s new column.

In addition, Johanna Fernandez, EMAJ Co-Coordinator and historian at Baruch College/CUNY, sent in these words, reminding us all of the December 9 event at Constitution Center:

Today, the Supreme Court refused to hear arguments presented by the Philadelphia DA’s Office that would have challenged the Mills claim in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. That the Supreme Court refused to hear the DA’s arguments means that the high court has upheld Mumia’s Mills claim, a claim that was twice upheld previously by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. What is important about the Mills claim is that it calls for a new penalty-phase trial if defendants can prove that at trial jurors were poorly instructed on the rules governing the weighing of evidence mitigating against the death penalty, as in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

What this all means for the Abu-Jamal case is that the Philadelphia DA’s office has a limited amount of time to either call for a new penalty-phase trial or place Mumia, who is currently on death row, in general population to serve a life sentence of imprisonment without parole.

While this is confirmation on the part of the Supreme Court that Mumia’s trial was corrupt to the core and riddled with constitutional rights violations, the possibility of serving life in prison without parole is no victory for Mumia.

DECEMBER 9, 2011 is the next step in the struggle to release Mumia Abu-Jamal.

December 9th marks the 30th year-to-the-day of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s incarceration.

An innocent man, and an important humanist and revolutionary voice of our time, has been wrongfully imprisoned for 30 YEARS!  

So in the words of Joe Hill, let us “raise less corn and more hell;”  and let us take Occupy Wall Street and the struggle against the New Jim Crow to the City of Brotherly Love.

Join us at

The National Constitution Center, Philadelphia
December 9th at 7PM
Speakers:
Cornel West
Arandhati Roy (via Video)
Michelle Alexander (via Video)
Ramona Africa
Vijay Prashad
Immortal Technique
Michael Coard
IMPACT YOUTH THEATRE OF HARLEM
and many others.

In Struggle,

Johanna Fernandez, Ph.D.
Department of History
Baruch College, City University of New York
Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Writer/Producer, Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal

“Four federal judges have reviewed Mr. Abu-Jamal’s case and found his
death sentence to be unconstitutional. The Third Circuit’s recent
opinion reflects a detailed analysis demonstrating that their unanimous
decision is well-supported by Supreme Court precedent. LDF believes
that this carefully reasoned analysis will stand.”

(Mumia’s lead lawyers, who made the above statement, are Judy Ritter and
Christina Swarns).

We will continue to keep you posted as there are any new developments.
Stay tuned! Free Mumia and All the US-held Political Prisoners and
Prisoners of War, Victory to the Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers and the
Thousands of their Supporters!

INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY & FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL AND THE FREE
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION

A matter of life and death

 July 18, 2011 by Dorsey Nunn

 -Dorsey Nunn is co-founder of All of Us or None, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and one of the mediators between the prisoners on hunger strike and the California Department of Corrections. He can be reached at dorsey@prisonerswithchildren.org.

I am writing because it is a matter of life and death and I am afraid. I have been on a mediation team for the last couple of weeks on behalf of the prisoners in Pelican Bay State Prison and the talks have broken down.

Prisoners in Pelican Bay have not eaten in 18 days. I have been told that the prison hospital is full with prisoners who are being hydrated intravenously because some have started to refuse water. Others are having a problem just keeping their water down at this point. Members of the prisoner negotiation team have lost between 20 and 35 pounds. It is truly a matter of luck and or untiring spirit that nobody has died so far.

During the last conversation that I had with the prisoner negotiation team, they told me that nothing substantial was being offered. They felt disrespected but are staying committed to this course of action until CDC stops the torture. Some of them have been in solitary lockup for multiple decades with no possibly of getting out of the hole. They would rather die or continue to be tortured before they’d surrender their soul.

Many of them have been committed to their terms of segregation because of alleged gang labels or prison associations. Many of them are there because someone said something about them in an effort to avoid a similar fate of torture. Many of them are there because they took the courageous stance to demand their humanity back and to organize with others to reclaim their human rights by demanding the CDC transform the conditions of confinement for the next generation.

 The people who are leading this action in prison are surprisingly old. The prison officials demand that they betray fellow inmates by declaring their “gang activity” as a sign of their disassociation. Many of them have elected not to betray other prisoners or have simply not had any information to give prison officials.

Just imagine if someone demanded that you surrender that core light in you. Some of you may not be able to denounce your sexual orientation, some of you may not be able to denounce your race, some of you may not be able to denounce your family or your god, and you certainly would not be able to betray people you know.

Many of us have been told for years and years that Pelican Bay is where they house the worse of the worst, but I ask how much worse than you or I do you have to be to merit torture? Imagine yourself losing your color because of lack of sunlight, imagine the artificial light being left on in your bathroom-sized space 24 hours a day, making sleeping difficult. Imagine the insulation in your cell was there to stop the sound of human voices and your only human touch was during the course of a search or the process of handcuffing you. What makes these accumulated acts over the course of decades not acts of violence, not acts of torture?

Imagine that you can’t imagine when you will be released. I was on Democracy Now a couple of days ago and when I looked at the video I could see how much this situation has weighed me down. I am only sending this email to people who know me, and I think you can see the worry and the sadness in my face in this video.

I do not want people to die, but a handful of people can’t stop the state. This is one of the few times that I have seen prisoners in the state of California put their differences aside in order to stop the torture. Prisoners have had the audacity to try to change their conditions through peaceful means. I am afraid that the only one who can stop people from dying at this time is the governor.

If you are a minister, I am asking you to pray. I am asking you to ask other ministers to pray and possibly consider participating in an act of civil disobedience. If you are a person who knows the governor, I ask you to make contact on behalf of the mediation team. I don’t know that the prisoner negotiation team will not have disappeared or if they have not been disappeared already.

If you are a civil rights leader, I am asking you to insert yourselves in this struggle of life and death. If they break the hunger strike, I ask you to engage in stopping the program of torture at Pelican Bay. If you are an activist, I hope you joined us in Sacramento on Monday. We need the governor to intervene because the prisoners no longer trust the courts or their guards to stop the torture.

It is absolutely shameful that when we thought enemy combatants where being tortured in Guantanamo Bay, politicians flocked to Cuba. But politicians are ignoring the torture on our shores, in our front yard and in Pelican Bay.

Where are our civil and human rights leaders at this most critical time? If we are not convinced that certain people deserve their humanity based on their past actions, does that strip us, world citizens, of our responsibility as humans? In other words, do the actions or perceived actions of others determine our inhumanity?

My last request is that you pray for the team of mediators and their organizations, which includes me. We are not in prison, but we know that the state will come.

June 23, 2011. A calm and cool American president announces a small withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, less than 10% of the total number, in an expression of caution that masks the limits of empire.

In an address remarkable for its brevity, President Barack Obama essentially announced success, lectured Afghanistan on its responsibilities to secure its territory, and noted upcoming troop withdrawals.

Anyone who has lived through past U.S. wars abroad has heard similar statements before, but I doubt they’ve heard what Obama said before: that the U.S. is “not an empire.”

That’s surely news to dozens of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, which have had their leaders chosen, armed or replaced on American whims.

This is not the end, but it is the beginning of the end.

And it ends not that differently from that of the former Soviet occupation, albeit slower, for both empires were drained of wealth and will.

In the wake of the earth shaking economic fall of late 2008, the U.S. was left with limited resources. Also, recent polls have shown that support has been dwindling for the continuing war effort.

With an election coming, among dramatically high unemployment levels, military draw downs might re energize disaffected Democratic voters.

The President suggested Al Qaeda’s crippling and the Taliban’s humbling the latter being brought to the bargaining table.

But the Taliban is far from humbled. For just a month ago they hit one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, immobilized it for 30 hours, and attacked important military and governmental targets with ease. Using suicide bombers and small arms, several dozen men hit the governor’s palace, police headquarters, the transportation police headquarters and several military buildings.

One observer of the strike in Kandahar said shell casings hit the streets like “hail after a storm.”

Kandahar is more than a big city: it’s the biggest in southern Afghanistan and a major NATO base.

One Kandaharian asked, “How are they able to occupy nearby buildings and stage themselves so they can shoot on the governor’s office and N.D.S. department? (NDS is the Afghan intelligence agency – its CIA) Answering his own question, Kandahar’s Mohammed Umar Sathi suggested, “Either the security forces are incompetent, or they have no coordination among each other.”*

The Taliban are itching for the hour of American withdrawal, at which time will come a reckoning.

Empires, like individuals, can tire.

It was not for naught that Afghanistan has been called, “the graveyard of empires.”

© Mumia Abu-Jamal [col. writ. 6/23/11]

{*Sources: Sha Taimoor and Alisse J. Rubin, “Broad Taliban Attack Paralyzes Kandahar”, New York Times, Mon., 5/9/11, p. A4.: Gould, Elizabeth & Paul Fitzgerald, Crossing Zero: The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire (San Francisco , CA:City Lights Books/Open Media Series, 2011). }

Report from Mark Taylor. June 18, 2011. I was able to check out the spirited rally for Troy Davis in downtown Chicago at the Federal Plaza. Davis faces the setting of yet another execution date in Georgia. I brought greetings from EMAJ to those gathering there, and had a chance to stand with local colleagues who are fighting for Troy. The  photo, at left, is of supporters holding the main protest banner for the day. Darby Tillis (at left in black robe), who was on Illinois Death Row for 8 years for a crime he didn’t commit and one of the first to be exonerated from death row, was the main speaker (even offering up a newly written blues tune for Troy, including his own deft harmonica playing).

The event was organized by the Chicago chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, which was instrumental in abolishing the death penalty in Illinois, and by TAMMS Year Ten, an organization fighting the vicious isolation of the SuperMax prison practice of U.S. criminal justice systems. Also present were members of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and its co-chair Ted Pearson.

The event was MC’d by both Randi Jones and Marlene Martin of the Campaign and Mark Clements of the Alliance. Also present was Darryl Woodings of the Alliance. Clements was joined in attending the demo by Ronnie Kitchens and Marvin Reeves – all three serving time – unjustly as a result of police torture that took place under the tenure of then D.A., later Chicago Mayor, Richard Daley. Kitchens was sent to death row, Reeves was given life – both were exonerated after serving 22 years in prison. The culpable police and the D.A. remain unpunished. Recently, though, John Burge, a former Chicago police commander, was convicted of lying about the torture practice and so was sent to prison.

For information on how you can sign a petition for Troy Davis, join the Clemency letter on Troy’s behalf, and stay abreast of the Troy Davis struggle, keep in touch with the website of the Campaign.

Powerful Sound Projection Vehicle for the Demo

[Below is the write-up from Pam Africa, after viewing the new play. Watch for more forthcoming reviews of it . MT]

ONA MOVE! CONCERNING THE PLAY IN A DAUGHTERS EYES– THE FIRST PREVIEW WAS FRIDAY MAY 27TH. WHEN I HEARD ABOUT IT I WENT TO THE FIRST PREVIEW NITE FRIDAY MAY 27TH, FROM WHAT I READ I WANTED TO BE SURE THAT THIS WAS NOT A SNEAKY HIT PIECE ON OUR BROTHER MUMIA ABU JAMAL AND THE PANTHER ORG. I WILL NOT TELL YOU ANYTHING ABOUT THE PLAY OTHER THAN I STOOD AND GAVE IT A STANDING OVATION. I MET THE PLAY WRITER A YOUNG 24 YEAR OLD BLACK MAN AND ALL WHO WAS INVOLVED WITH THE PLAY, THE TWO YOUNG WOMEN IN THE PLAY, ONE WHO PLAYED THE DAUGHTER OF MUMIA ABU JAMAL, THE OTHER WHO PLAYED THE PART OF COP DANIEL FAULKNER DAUGHTER. THIS IS AS DESCRIBED A TRULY INTENSE DRAMA INSPIRED BY THE TRUE STORY OF MUMIA ABU JAMAL.OH YES I WAS SEATED BY A JOURNALIST FROM THE PHILA TRIBUNE WHO AFTER THE PLAY DID A SHORT INTERVIEW WITH ME ASKING ME WHAT I THOUGHT OF THE PLAY, I SAID I WAS THE FIRST TO STAND AND GIVE A LONG STANDING OVATION. I HAD COME TO SEE WHETHER I WILL TELL FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO DEMONSTRATE OR TELL THEM TO COME SEE THIS PLAY FOR THEMSELVES . SINCE THAT VIEWING, ON SUNDAY MAY29TH I ACCOMPANIED MUMIA’S DAUGHTER GOLDI AND A FRIEND. AT THE END OF THE PLAY WE DECIDED AFTER TAKING PICTURES WITH THE DIRECTOR ,PRODUCER PLAYWRIGHT,THE TWO OUTSTANDING ACTRESSES LYNETTE R. FREEMAN AND KRISTA APPLE, WHOSE DRAMATIZATION OF THIS PLAY KEPT US INTENSE AS IT TOOK YOU ON A EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER RIDE. THE THIRD TIME I SAW THE PLAY I ACCOMPANIED MUMIA’S WIFE, WADIYA JAMAL, ONE OF MUMIA’S FORMER ATTORNEYS AND TRULY GOOD FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, RACHAEL WOLKINSTEIN, AND ONE OF MUMIA’S FORMER INVESTIGATORS. RACHAEL HAD HER GRANDDAUGHTER WITH HER. ALSO PRESENT WAS TWO TRUSTED MEMBERS OF THE ORIGINAL BLACK PANTHERS {THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE WE SERIOUS ABOUT OUR MOVEMENTS AND ORG.} THE 2 PANTHERS WAS BARBARA EASLEY COX WIFE OF D.C..COX AND OUR SISTER GLADYS FROM CHICAGO NOW IN PHILA ,TWO SERIOUS SISTAS DATS RIGHT, AND PROFESSOR ROBERT ZELLER AND FRIEND, BOTH LONG TIME FIGHTERS FOR JUSTICE . AND A VERY GOOD FRIEND, A SERIOUS ACTIVIST FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE, SISTER OMI RAHIM. AT THE END OF THE PLAY WE ALL STOOD FOR A WELL DESERVED STANDING OVATION AND TO DO ONE ON ONE WITH EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THE PLAY, AND I ALSO WANT TO THANK THE INTER ACT THEATER COMPANY WHO TREATED US ALL WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT AND SEEN TO THAT ALL WHO CAME FOR THE PLAY WAS TREATED WITH RESPECT………..

NOW I WILL BE GOING BACK ON THURS JUNE 9TH WITH OTHER ACTIVISTS COMING FROM OUT OF TOWN WITH PROFESSOR SANDRA JONES, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND ANTI DEATH PENALTY ADVOCATE, TO ATTEND AN ACADEMIC CONFERENCE, SO IF YOU WANT TO JOIN US PLEASE E MAIL ME BEFORE YOU GET YOUR TICKETS CAUSE FOR A GROUP RATE WE CAN GET TICKETS CHEAPER. WE ALSO WILL BE HAVING A FAMILY AND FRIENDS DAY JUNE 12 AT 2PM SO CONTACT ME SOON CAUSE WHEN WE WENT WEDNESDAY JUNE 1ST IT WAS SOLD OUT!!!!!! SO IF YOU PLANNING ON GOING GET WITH ME ASAP, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. ON THE 12TH FOLLOWING THE PLAY THERE WILL BE TIME FOR DISCUSSION.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT ……… PAM AFRICA MINISTER OF CONFRONTATION FOR THE MOVE ORGANIZATION AND CHAIRWOMAN OF THE UNCOMPROMISING INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU JAMAL

THIS PLAY IS 1 HR. A HALF SO WE SHOULD BE FINISHED BY 3:30 0R 4 PM THEN JOIN US AT THE AFRICAN CELEBRATION ODUNDE A FEW BLOCKS AWAY, MAIN STAGE 23RD AND SOUTH, SEVERAL BLOCKS OF VENDORS STARTING AT 16TH AND SOUTH TO 23RD AND 23RD TO 25TH AND GRAYS FERRY. ANOTHER EVENT YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS SO JOIN US FOR A FULL DAY OF CONSCIOUS UPLIFTMENT AND EDUTAINMENT RISE UP EVERY BODY GET READY TO WORK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please check out the informative video, and see the constructive steps you can take for Troy Davis at the web site of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Davis now is awaiting a death date in Georgia, having had the U.S. Supreme Court close the door – seemingly, at this point - on hope. But – we can make a difference. For inspiration, see this video of an artist at work – for himself, for Troy, for all of us. It’s a 2-minute film of beauty and hope.

NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.

For Immediate Release, April 26, 2011.  Contact: Melquiades Gagarin, mgagarin@naacpldf.org , 212-965-2783
Mumia Abu-Jamal’s 1982 Death Sentence is Again Declared Unconstitutional

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has unanimously declared that Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence is unconstitutional. In today’s decision, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its 2008 finding that Mr. Abu-Jamal’s sentencing jury was misled about the process for considering evidence supporting a life sentence. The Court found that, in violation of the United States Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Mills v. Maryland, the jury was improperly led to believe that that it could only consider unanimously agreed upon evidence favoring a life verdict. This mistake rendered Mr. Abu-Jamal’s death sentence fundamentally unfair. The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and Professor Judy Ritter of Widener Law School represent Mr. Abu-Jamal in this appeal of his 1982 conviction and death sentence for the murder of a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“This decision marks an important step forward in the struggle to correct the mistakes of an unfortunate chapter in Pennsylvania history,” said John Payton, Director-Counsel of LDF. “Again acknowledging the existence of clear constitutional error in Mr. Abu-Jamal’s trial, the Court of Appeals’ decision enhances confidence in the criminal justice system and helps to relegate the kind of unfairness on which this death sentence rested to the distant past.”
Prof. Ritter noted that, “Pennsylvania long ago abandoned the confusing and misleading instructions and verdict slip that were relied on in Mr. Abu-Jamal’s trial in order to prevent unfair and unjust death sentences. Courts now use clear and unambiguous language to advise sentencing juries about their ability to consider evidence that favors a life verdict. Mr. Abu-Jamal is entitled to no less constitutional protection.”
Mr. Abu-Jamal he has been on death row in Pennsylvania for 29 years.
To speak with counsel for Mr. Abu-Jamal, please contact Melquiades Gagarin, mgagarin@naacpldf.org, 212-965-2783.

[Mumia's attorney has just noted, since this press release, that the D.A. in Philadelphia has announced, not surprisingly, that it will appeal this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. And see also the recent article by Philadelphia attorney, Michael Coard, on why Mumia should be released now.]