Abu-Jamal addresses world death penalty conference
February 6, 2007
By Linn Washington Jr., Philadelphia Tribune
Paris, France - During the opening ceremony of the 3 rd World Congress
Against the Death Penalty in Paris last week - a session featuring top
diplomats and dignitaries - only one actual death row inmate addressed the
delegates from over 120 nations: Pennsylvania death row journalist Mumia
Abu-Jamal.
Abu-Jamal delivered brief remarks recorded from his Pa. death row cell that
echoed criticisms of the death penalty contained in the remarks by top
diplomats from France, Germany, Italy and the European Union. "Death row is
a web that catches only the poor. Race and poverty are excellent predictors
of who ends up on death row," said Abu-Jamal, recognized internationally as
a symbol against injustice yet considered simply a 'cop killer' by others.
Abu-Jamal criticized death penalty practices in the U.S., like regularly
assigning incompetent attorneys to defendants in capital cases. He praised
the Philippines for its recent abolition of the death penalty while pointing
out problems in nations like Kenya where the condemned languish for decades.
Most of the diplomats and dignitaries speaking during the Congress' opening
ceremony offered observations on death penalty inequities similar to those
offered by Abu-Jamal.
Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe,
said the "death penalty always discriminates.
French President Jacques Chirac said, "the very concept of justice is
incompatible with the death penalty" in a letter to the Congress read by
France's Foreign Affairs Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy.
The World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held at a university in Paris,
occurs at a time when the government of Italy is pushing the United Nations
to adopt a universal abolition against the death penalty and French
legislators are preparing to vote on a measure proposed by Chirac to place a
death penalty ban in that nation's constitution.
The countries with the most active death penalty are China, Iran, Saudi
Arabia and the United States, nations accounting for 96% of all recorded
executions last year, according to the presentation of Piers Bannister,
death penalty team Coordinator for Amnesty International.
Bannister authored Amnesty's 2000 report on the Abu-Jamal case, which
documented gross irregularities by police, prosecutors, the trial judge and
Pa. appellate court jurists in concluding that this Philadelphia born inmate
deserves a new trial.
Abu-Jamal is now in his 25th year on death row for the 1981 murder of
Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
A hearing on the Abu-Jamal case is expected within the next few months
before the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals, headquartered in
Philadelphia. This hearing could produce a new trial for the death row
journalist or reaffirm his death sentence.
"Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death during a trial whose standards face
international challenge," Mayor Catherine Peyge of Bobigny, France told
Congress delegates. "We have to tell our American friends to abolish the
death penalty."
Source : Philadelphia Tribune
http://www.phila-
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1 comment:
A Book Recommendation "Journey Toward Justice" This is the Companion book to The Innocent Man, Journey Toward Justice by Dennis Fritz changed my mind about the Death Penalty. True Crime, Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. Journey Toward Justice is a testimony to the Triumph of the human Spirit and is a Memoir. Dennis Fritz was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder after a swift trail. The only thing that saved him from the Death Penalty was a lone vote from a juror. Dennis Fritz was the other Innocent man mentioned in John Grisham's Book. which mainly is about Ronnie Williamson, Dennis Fritz's co-defendant. Both were exonerated after spending 12 years in prison. The real killer was one of the Prosecution's Key Witness. Read about why he went on a special diet of his while in prison, amazing and shocking. Dennis Fritz's Story of unwarranted prosecution and wrongful conviction needs to be heard. Look for his book in book stores or at Amazon.com , Journey Toward Justice by Dennis Fritz, Publisher Seven Locks Press 2006. .
Read about how he wrote hundreds of letters and appellate briefs in his own defense and immersed himself in an intense study of law. He was a school teacher and a ordinary man whose wife was brutally murdered in 1975 by a deranged 17 year old neighbor. On May 8th 1987, Five years after Debbie Sue Carter's rape and murder he was home with his young daughter and put under arrest, handcuffed and on his way to jail on charges of rape and murder. After 10 years in prison he discovered The Innocence Project, a non-profit legal organization. With the aid of Barry Scheck and DNA evidence Dennis Fritz was exonerated on April 15,1999 Since then, it has been a long hard road filled with twist and turns and now on his Journey Toward Justice. He never blamed the Lord and solely relied on his faith in God to make it through. He waited for God's time and never gave up.
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