Contact: Suzanne Ross (917) 584-2135 ? Pam Africa (215) 476-8812
International Representatives Join US Activists
in Delivering to Attorney General Eric Holder
Thousands of Letters Demanding a Civil Rights
Investigation of the Case of Mumia
Abu-Jamal
PRESS
CONFERENCE: MARCH TO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church AND PRESENTATION OF LETTERS
1313 New York
Avenue FOLLOWS, ARRIVING AT
Washington, DC, 11:30
A.M. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 1:30 PM
Supporters of Pennsylvania death row political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal will march to the US
Department of Justice in Washington, DC, on
November 12 to deliver thousands of petitions to
Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that the
department open an investigation into the
multitude of violations of Abu-Jamal?s civil
rights over the past 28 years. A press
conference at 11:30 AM at the New York Avenue
Presbyterian Church will be followed by a march
to the Department of Justice where the letters
demanding such an investigation will be brought.
Among the speakers at the press conference will
be Laura Moye, Director, Amnesty International?s
Death Penalty Abolition Campaign; Steven Hawkins,
Vice President, National NAACP; Marvin ?Doc?
Cheatham, Sr., President, Baltimore NAACP; Pam
Africa, International Concerned Family and
Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Fignol? Saint-Cyr,
President of Autonomous Unions of Haiti; Berlin
Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; El-Hajj Mauri?
Saalakhan, Washington, DC, Director of
Operations, Peace and Justice Foundation; Thomas
Ruffin, attorney; Joseph ?Jazz? Hayden,
Riverside Church Prison Ministry; Panama Alba,
National Congress of Puerto Rican Rights,
Campaign to End the Death Penalty, and others.
Many Muslim organizations are
supporting the call for a civil rights
investigation of Abu-Jamal?s
case. Representatives of these groups will be
present both at the press conference and the
subsequent rally at the Justice Department to
express support for Mumia Abu-Jamal while
pointing out similarities between the due process
and human rights violations in his case and those
that are perpetrated daily against the Muslim
political prisoners and prisoners of war.
This past July the NAACP passed an emergency
resolution at its 100th anniversary convention in
New York, asking Mr. Holder to conduct a civil
rights investigation. ?We?re going to ask
Attorney General Holder to look into this,? said
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, during a broadcast of
Pacifica Radio?s ?Democracy Now? on July 20. ?As
anyone who?s followed this case for a number of
years knows, similar doubts have been raised
about him as were raised about Troy
Davis.? Later, Hilary Shelton, director of the
NAACP'sWashington office, told The Final Call,
?We had a meeting with the attorney general, and
the subject of Mumia Abu Jamal did surface. The
attorney general said he was aware of the case
and would look into it and get back to us.?
Pam Africa, long-time Chair of
International Concerned Family and Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal, has announced that, ?We are not
coming to the Department of Justice looking for
justice. We are bringing justice to the
Department of Justice!? Dr. Suzanne Ross of the
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition adds, ?At this
critical moment in Mumia?s case, a civil rights
investigation could mean the difference between
life and death for Mumia. It could also open the door for his release.?
The call for a civil rights investigation follows
the April 2009 U.S. Supreme Court acceptance of
the Third Circuit?s decision that closed all
doors for a new trial or the consideration of
Abu-Jamal?s innocence. Meanwhile, the Supreme
Court is still considering an appeal by the
Philadelphia District Attorney?s Office to
immediately reinstate Abu-Jamal?s death sentence.
International legal bodies such as Amnesty
International, the International Association of
Democratic Lawyers, the European Parliament, and
city councils and national governments around the
world have argued for decades that Abu-Jamal was
wrongfully convicted in a widely denounced trial
and appeals process for the 1981 killing of a
Philadelphiapolice officer. They point to
suppressed evidence, witness intimidation and
consequent witness perjury, a very specious
confession, an admittedly biased judge and a long
string of twisted appellate court rulings as
evidence of a continuing conspiracy by the state
of Pennsylvania to execute him. Additionally,
and this is a critical basis for a civil rights
investigation as occurred during the overturning
of the conviction of Senator Ted Stevens of
Alaska, there is extensive evidence of consistent
withholding of evidence from the defense that
could have led to Mumia?s
acquittal ? photographs challenging the
prosecution?s version of what happened on
December 9, 1981, and evidence that another
person other than Mumia, his brother, and
Faulkner were at the crime scene at the time Office Faulkner was shot.
The march to the Justice Department will follow
the press conference and is being co-sponsored by
International Concerned Family and Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal, National Lawyers Guild, (NYC
Chapter), WESPAC, Riverside Justice Prison
Ministry, Iglesia San Romero (UCC), Campaign to
End the Death Penalty, International Action
Center, Peace and Justice Foundation, Families
United for Justice in America, Nat Turner
Rebellion, Black August Planning Committee,
National Jericho Movement, , and ANSWER, among
others. The delivery of the petitions is expected
to take place at 1:30 pm. The campaign has been
endorsed by a broad range of individuals
including Angela Davis, Ruby Dee, Charles Rangel,
Cynthia McKinney, Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, and Tariq Ali.
In 1982 Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of
murdering a Philadelphia police officer and
sentenced to death. His case is one of the most
contested in U.S. history. Prosecutors, the
Fraternal Order of Police and their supporters,
and even the judges involved, have always claimed
to possess a watertight case justifying
Abu-Jamal?s conviction and
sentence. Yet Abu-Jamal's trial, conviction,
and death sentence have prompted jurists and
human rights organizations worldwide to denounce
the trial and death sentence as a travesty of
justice. They cite the open bias of the original
judge, who was overheard to have said outside
his courtroom, ?I?m going to help them fry the n
- - - - -?. Not only is this a strong indication
of racial bias, a reality minimized by the judge
who took over the case, but it clearly identified
the absence of the requisite ?judicial
neutrality? expected of a judge. The racially
skewed process of jury selection,
furthermore, yielded a disproportionately white
jury, the disappearance of key ballistics
evidence, and police intimidation of witnesses
leading to perjured statements. Amnesty
International, in its 2000 report called ?A Life
in the Balance: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal?
stated that, ?numerous aspects of this case
clearly failed to meet minimum international
standards safeguarding the fairness of legal
proceedings? and strongly recommended a new
trial. Abu-Jamal's defense team identified 29
claims of violation of his constitutional rights,
but Abu-Jamal has been repeatedly denied the
opportunity to have evidence of his innocence and
of police and prosecutorial efforts to frame and
convict him seriously considered. Abu- Jamal has
always asserted his innocence and his affidavit
on this is included in the press packet. Clearly
Mumia Abu-Jamal?s race and his political views,
as well as his widely recognized enormous talent
in communicating those views, have played a key
role in his being the object of a 28 year
conspiracy to forever silence his voice. .
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