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Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning Pennsylvania
journalist who exposed police violence against minority
communities. On death row since 1982, he was wrongfully
sentenced for the shooting of a police officer. New
evidence, including the recantation of a key eyewitness,
new ballistic and forensic evidence and a confession
from Arnold Beverly (one of the two killers of Officer
Faulkner) points to his innocence! Mumia had no criminal
record.
For the last 23 years, Abu-Jamal has been locked up 23
hours a day, denied contact visits with his family, had
his confidential legal mail illegally opened by prison
authorities, and put into punitive detention for writing
his first of three books while in prison, Live From
Death Row.
His case is currently on appeal before the Federal
District Court in Philadelphia. Mumia's fight for a new
trial has won the support of tens of thousands around
the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson
Mandela, The European Parliament, Alice Walker, Paul
Newman, Maya Angelou, Sister Helen Prejean, Danny
Glover, Rage Against The Machine, the Detroit and San
Francisco City Councils, Amnesty International, and many
others. Mumia Abu-Jamal's fate rests with all those
people who believe in every person's right to justice
and a fair trial.
"I remain innocent. A court cannot make an innocent man
guilty. Any ruling founded on injustice is not justice.
The righteous fight for life, liberty, and for justice
can only continue." Mumia Abu-Jamal , Oct. 31, 1998
Facts about
Mumia's 1982 trial:
* The policeman was killed with a 44 caliber gun.
Abu-Jamal's gun which he was licensed to carry as a
night-time taxi driver, was a 38 caliber.
* The police never tested Abu-Jamal's gun to see if it
had been recently fired. They never tested his hands to
see if he had fired a gun. They have never shown
Abu-Jamal 's gun to be the fatal weapon.
* No police officers present at Abu-Jamal's arrest
claimed to have heard Jamal's "confession" until two
months after it allegedly occurred. This was right after
Abu-Jamal had filed police brutality charges.
* Abu-Jamal's doctor said that Abu-Jamal, who was
unconscious, said nothing. He reported that a nurse
found police with loaded guns pointed at Mumia as he lay
unconscious in his hospital bed.
* William Singletary, a Vietnam veteran and local
businessman, saw the whole incident and has testified
that Abu-Jamal was not the shooter. However, the police
forced him to change his story and intimidated him into
leaving Philadelphia.
* Other key witnesses, such as Veronica Jones -- who now
testifies in support of Abu-Jamal, were harassed into
giving false testimony. Two prosecution witnesses were
given special favors, including exemption from criminal
prosecution, for their testimony.
Elements in
an unfair trial:
* The Judge,
Albert Sabo, sentenced more people to death than any
other sitting judge in the US.
* The public
defender didn't interview a single
witness in preparation for the trial, and didn't have
funds for defending a capital case.
* The
prosecutor removed 11 qualified African
Americans from the jury. He also argued for the death
penalty because of Mumia's membership in the Black
Panther Party, a practice later condemned as
unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.
* The racial
bias of Philadelphia's courts has
resulted in 120 people on death row, all but 13
non-white.
Tomado de freemumia
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Who
Is Mumia? 
