Mumia: Execution by Medical Neglect?

 

[4/3 UPDATE: Abu-Jamal has reportedly been moved by the Dept. of Prisons back to SCI-Mahoney’s infirmary, where there is no specialist on diabetes, despite his apparently still being in an acute health crisis. Sigificantly, his supporters note that this shift makes it even more difficult for family members, supporters and reporters to monitor his treatment and condition.To help Mumia immediate action must be taken. You can help by Calling Pennsylvanian Department of Correction Director of Health Care Services Richard Ellers at 717-728-5311 (rellers@pa.gov) and express your concern for Mumia’s medical treatment. You can also call SCI Mahoney Pennsylvanian Department of Correction Superintendent John Kereste at 570-773-2158, to express your concern. Take action now to help save Mumia’s life!]

Pennsylvania’s Prison System is Torturing Mumia Abu-Jamal and His Family Too

by DAVE LINDORFF, This Can’t Be Happening!, April 1, 2015

 

Mumia Abu-Jamal, the radical Philadelphia journalist convicted of killing a white Philadelphia police officer in a trial fraught with prosecutorial misconduct, witness coaching and judicial prejudice back in 1981, spent nearly three decades in solitary confinement in the deliberately designed hell of Pennsylvania’s supermax SCI Green prison before a panel of federal Appeals Court judges eventually ruled that he’d been unconstitutionally sentenced to death.

He, of course, received no apology for the state’s making him illegally and improperly spend all those years in solitary waiting to be wrongfully executed. Instead, with that ruling (after a few years of legal stalling by the Philadelphia district attorney’s office), he was simply switched over to a sentence of life without possibility of parole and moved to the SCI-Mahoney prison in central Pennsylvania.

Now, it appears the state, which lost its chance to execute him, may be trying to kill him another way, as word comes that this world-renowned political prisoner had to be rushed to the hospital this week, unconscious from an undiagnosed case of severe diabetes.

The Struggle and the Speech: Mumia Speaks to the Students

Police Censorship Defied!

Mumia Speaks at Goddard College

But FOP Attacks On Mumia Escalate

October 7th, 2014 — World renowned revolutionary journalist and author Mumia Abu-Jamal, an innocent political prisoner known as the “voice of the voiceless,” was heard loud and clear Sunday at Goddard College, his alma mater. Though confined in a Pennsylvania state prison for life without parole for a crime he didn’t commit, Mumia’s recorded commencement address was heard because Goddard College students, having invited him to speak, defied the demands of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and right-wing politicians and media that his address be cancelled and he be silenced. Goddard’s Interim President, Robert Kenny backed up the students.

Mumia’s thought-provoking address was deeply moving, philosophical and generously considerate of the students he was addressing, as he urged them to work for progressive change. It was met with a standing ovation. As Noel Hanrahan, of Prison Radio, the organization that records and makes available Mumia’s commentaries, said in a report from Goddard:

“As I stood in the front of the packed Haybarn Theater, the electricity, tension, and courage was palpable. The students were graceful, celebratory, and committed. Faculty College Chair Dr. Herukhuti and College President Robert Kenny stood up to the death threats and pressure and defended their and Mumia’s right to free speech.” (see “Educate to Liberate,” at prisonradio.org)

“Long Distance Revolutionary”: Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Journey From Black Panthers To Prison Journalist

Democracy Now, February 1, 2013

The new documentary, “Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal,” premieres today in New York City. We play an excerpt of the film and speak to writer, producer and director Steve Vittoria, as well as Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio, who has interviewed Abu-Jamal many times over the years. The features many supporters of Mumia, including actress Ruby Dee, writer Tariq Ali, and author Michelle Alexander.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: “The United States Is Fast Becoming One of the Biggest Open-Air Prisons on Earth”

Democracy Now, February 1, 2013

In a rare live interview, Mumia Abu-Jamal calls into Democracy Now! as the new film, “Long Distance Revolutionary,” about his life premieres in New York City this weekend. After 29 years on death row, he is now being held in general population at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution – Mahanoy. “How free are we today, those who claim to be non-prisoners? Your computers are being read by others in government. Your letters, your phone calls are being intercepted,” says Mumia Abu-Jamal. “We live now in a national security state, where the United States is fast becoming one of the biggest open-air prisons on earth. We can speak about freedom, and the United States has a long and distinguished history of talking about freedom, but have we exampled freedom? And I think the answer should be very clear: We have not.” In 1982, Mumia was sentenced to die for killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. He has always maintained his innocence and is perhaps America’s most famous political prisoner. In 2011, an appeals court upheld his conviction, but also vacated his death sentence. It found jurors were given confusing instructions.

Mumia abu Jamal: Message to Occupy Wall Street movement

[In a letter to fellow former Panther Kiilu Nyasha on December 6, Mumia expressed these thoughts about the Egyptian movement and OccupyWall Street:

“I find the OWS movement as a truly impressive beginning — but not an end.  It’s got a long way to go, in my view.  It needs some color, some working class consciousness, and some soul.  But it’s a damn good beginning.  If they stay engaged, they will learn. When I look at them, I see/hear echoes from Tahir Square in Cairo; where the people said, “The army and the people are one!”  For, at first, in Zuccoti Sq., N.Y., the demonstrators were yelling (and holding signs that saying), “The police are part of the 99%.”  I think both groups have learned a new lesson from the University of Experience.  I hope so.”

And here, Mumia’s Message to OWS as dictated while in Administrative Custody at SCI Manahoy (being transferred from Death Row to the general prison population) in Frackville, PA, Thursday, December 15, 2011. — Frontlines ed.]

My Friends of OWS,

My message will have to be brief. But let not this brevity take from it, its strength.

You are the central movement of the hour. You’re raising questions that are in the hearts of millions. Your motto, “We are the 99%,” has been heard, heeded, and responded to by millions. You can be certain that the 1% have heard you clearest of all.

Your work, however, is just beginning. You must deepen, strengthen, and further your work until it truly reaches the 99%, almost all of us: workers, black folk, Latinos and Latinas, LGBTs, immigrants, Asians, artists, all of us, for we are integral parts of the 99%. I salute you and hope fervently that you will grow beyond number.

Though I speak to you today by proxy, I’m confident that you will hear my voice soon.

Love, fun and music,

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Supreme Court stops the execution–the people say, “Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!”

New SCOTUS Decision In Abu-Jamal Case Is Good, But Not Enough

By Mary Shaw

12 October, 2011
Countercurrents.org

The drama continues in the case of America’s most famous living death row prisoner.

On October 11, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request from the Philadelphia District Attorney to overturn a federal appeals court decision declaring Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence unconstitutional. Abu-Jamal had been convicted and sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

Now, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), “Mr. Abu-Jamal will be automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole unless the District Attorney elects to seek another death sentence from a new jury.”

This development is good, but it’s not enough.

US: With ‘Leaders’ Like These

by Mumia Abu-Jamal (8/20/11)

It has taken a while to reach this conclusion, but upon reflection, it is inescapable.

Why, after over a ½ century of the vote and the election of more Black political leaders than at any time since Reconstruction, are the lives, fortunes, prospects and hopes of Black people so grim?

Education is a shambles, with a drop-out rate nearing 50% in most central cities; Black communities are being gentrified into oblivion; joblessness stalks families by the highest percentage since such figures were first recorded; and Black families face foreclosure (and its concomitant result–homelessness) at rates far exceeding any other demographic: a direct result of the mortgage scams that lined the pockets of Wall street.

In cities boasting Black mayors and Black police chiefs, police violence against Black so- called citizens continues unabated, and the prison-Industrial-complex traps generations in chains.

Dying for Sunlight

 

a commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal

July 15, 2011

 

 

Today, at the notorious California super-maximum prison, Pelican Bay, hundreds of prisoners are on a hunger strike. As of July 1, 2011 a number of men ceased eating state meals in protest of horrendously long-term confinement, government repression, lack of programs and the hated gang affiliation rules.

 According to California Prison Focus, the health of some of the men are dangerously deteriorating. Some have ceased drinking, as well as eating and haven’t urinated in days. Some are threatened by renal failure, which can result in death.

Why? The demands of the strikers seem relatively tame, which gives us some insight into the level of repression. The five core demands are:

1. Individual instead of group responsibility.

2. Abolition of the “gang-debriefing” policy, which endangers both those who debrief and/or their families.

3. An end to long-term solitary confinement.

4. Adequate food, and

5. Constructive programs, such as art, phone privileges and the like.

A sub-demand is adequate natural sunlight – sunlight.  There are few things more torturous than dying by starvation. These men are killing themselves potentially for fresh air and sunlight, and about a third of California prisoners, 11 out of 33 prisons, have joined them.

Contact the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition to find out how to support this effort for human rights. On the web at: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com

From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu Jamal.

Mumia Abu Jamal, Zhao Dongmin and Binayek Sen: Voices of the Voiceless

by Dr. Rishi Raj Baral, Samayabaddha Magazine (Nepal)

Mumia Abu Jamal, Zhao Dongmin and Binayek Sen are the citizens of USA , China and India respectively.  These days, not only in their countries, but also outside of their countries, they are at the centre of public concern. They have got worldwide media coverage.  Their states have treated them as criminals. That is why, they believe in reason, conscience and social consciousness. They support the decent and the oppressed people. In the name of rules and regulations and peace and democracy, their states have imprisoned them all.

America claims itself as the greatest democratic country and a leading figure in the safe guard of the human rights. Due to economic crisis these days, its hegemonic activities are not accelerating, but there is no confusion that till now America is the commander of today’s imperialism. India, one of the powerful countries of South Asia, also claims itself as a big democratic country of this region. But those who have some political consciousness know that India is the hegemonic and expansionist country of this region. Indian is in fact, the number one enemy of its neighboring countries when it comes to their national sovereignty and their people’s class libration.

Two articles by political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, blackground on his case

From the San Francisco Bay View–National Black Newspaper      www.sfbayview.com

No matter how much you know about Mumia, you’re sure to find something new and exciting here – beginning with an introduction that sets the scene,  then Mumia’s latest essay, “The dirty game (POLITICS)”,  then an open letter he wrote in 1981 called “The sting of betrayal,” followed by some “Blackground info” and concluding with “Mumia Abu Jamal Radio Teach-In” featuring the voices of M1 dead prez, Minister of Information JR, Ramona and Pam Africa, and more. – SF Bay View

[This article was posted on the SF Bay View website at the time of Mumia’s November 9 court appearance.-Frontlines ed]

Introduction

On Tuesday, Nov. 9, an oral hearing in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia will decide whether award-winning journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal will face execution, despite compelling evidence of his innocence, or be given life without parole.

Demonstrations and other events in support of Mumia are being held across the U.S. and in other countries. The Global Women’s Strike (GWS), Women of Color in the GWS and Payday Men’s Network, who have worked with Mumia for a new trial, will be attending the rally and hearing in Philadelphia, as well as participating in a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, England. We urge you to show your support.

Mumia, as he is known to millions, was wrongly convicted in 1982 of killing a policeman in a trial steeped in racism. He has spent the last 29 years on Pennsylvania’s death row. In 2008, a crucial appeal on the grounds of racism in jury selection was rejected.

In January 2010, progress on his case was again blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court which sent a decision on the death penalty back to the lower courts, where his case will be heard this Tuesday. According to his attorneys, Mumia is now “in the greatest danger since his 1981 arrest.”

Mumia’s fight for a new trial has won the support of tens of thousands around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Alice Walker, Sister Helen Prejean, Danny Glover, Amnesty International and many more. In 2008, over 150 U.K. lawyers wrote highlighting the shocking racism of the case and asking the U.S. courts for redress.

Mumia inspires determined and dedicated support because he is a distinguished and remarkable man. He uses his talents and energy to strengthen struggles for justice all over the world. The fate of many others hangs in the balance.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: ‘Oscar Grant is you–and you are him, because you know in the pit of your stomach that it could’ve been you

OSCAR GRANT–and YOU

by Mumia Abu-Jamal

Like you, I’ve seen the searing phone-camera tape of the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, of Oakland, California.

And although it’s truly a terrible thing to see,  it’s almost exceeded by something just as shocking. That’s been how the media has responded to this police killing, by creating a defense of error.

This defense, that the killer cop who murdered Grant somehow mistook his pistol for his Taser, has been offered by both local and national news reporters–even though they haven’t heard word one from Johannes Mehserle, the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cop who wasn’t even interviewed for weeks after shooting an unarmed man!

If you’ve ever wondered about the role of the media, let this be a lesson to you. You can see here that the claim that the corporate media is objective is but a cruel illusion.

Imagine this: if the roles were reversed, this is, if bystanders had footage of Grant shooting Mehserle, would the media be suggesting a defense for him?

Would Grant have been free to roam, to leave the state a week later?

Would he have made bail?

The shooting of Oscar Grant III is but the latest, West Coast version of Amadou Diallo, of Sean Bell, and of hundreds of other Black men–and like them, don’t be surprised if there is an acquittal–again.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: ‘I am an outlaw journalist’

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Journalist and former Black Panther framed in 1982 by the Philadelphia police department for a murder he didn't commit

On August 29th, 2010, Reporters Without Borders Washington DC representative Clothilde Le Coz visited Mumia Abu-Jamal, prisoner on death row for nearly three decades. The meeting took place in room 17 of the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania.

(For more information about Mumia Abu-Jamal and his case, please visit  http://www.freemumia.com)

Reporters Without Borders: As a journalist who continues to work in prison, what are your latest reports focused on?

Mumia Abu-Jamal: The prison population in the United States is the highest in the world. Over the past year, for the first time in 38 years, the prison population declined.  Some states, like California or Michigan, are taking fewer prisoners because of overcrowding. State budgets are restrained and some prisoners are released because of the economic situation.

Prisons in America are vast and the number of prisoners is immense. It’s impressive to see how much money is spent by the US government and how invisible we are. No one knows. Most people don’t care. Some journalists report when there is a drama in prison and think they know about it. But this is not real : it is sensationalist. You can find some good writings. But they are unrealistic. My reporting is what I have seen with my eyes and what people told me. It is real. My reporting has to do with my reality. They mostly have been focusing on death row and prison. I wish it were not so. There is a spate of suicides on death row in the last year and a half. But this is invisible. I broke stories about suicide because it happened on my block.

I need to write. There are millions of stories and some wonderful people here. Among these stories, the ones I choose to write are important, moving, fragile. I decide to write them, but part of the calculation is to know whether it’s helpful or not. I have to think about that. As a reporter, you have a responsibility when you publish those kind of stories. Hopefully, it will change their lives for the better.

Malaika Kambon: The Many Faces of Oscar Grant and Mumia Abu-Jamal

San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, November 18, 2010

by Malaika Kambon

 

The community signs the Justice for Oscar Grant banner that was carried at the front of the march to the Fruitvale BART Station that followed the rally on Nov. 5, the day killer cop Johannes Mehserle was handed a sentence that may keep him behind bars for only another 72 days. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

In our land, bullets are beginning to flower

Poem by Jorge Rebelo

Come, brother, and tell me your life
come show me the marks of revolt
which the enemy left on your body

Come, say to me “Here
my hands have been crushed
because they defended
the land which they own”

“Here my body was tortured
because it refused to bend
to invaders”

“Here my mouth was wounded
because it dared to sing
my people’s freedom”

Come, brother, and tell me your life
come relate me the dreams of revolt
which you and your fathers and forefathers
dreamed
in silence
through shadowless nights made for love

Come tell me these dreams become
war,
the birth of heroes,
land reconquered,
mothers who, fearless,
send their sons to fight.

Worldwide Actions November 9: MUMIA ABU-JAMAL’S LIFE IS IN DANGER!

Come out on November 9th 2010 to say:

MUMIA IS INNOCENT !  FREE MUMIA!
END THE RACIST DEATH PENALTY!

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL faces his likely last court hearing on November 9th, 2010, at the Third Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, in Philadelphia.  This hearing is about sentencing only.

Why is this happening?

Targeted by the FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO counter-intelligence and disruption program since the age of 15, and now by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), Mumia Abu-Jamal is seen as an enemy of the state. His innocence is considered irrelevant, and in US courts, following recent rulings, innocence is no defense.

The US Supreme Court has already thrown out, without comment, Mumia’s last appeal against his frame-up conviction before a racist judge in a blatantly unfair trial in 1982.  This rejection meant the Supreme Court had to ignore mountains of evidence of Mumia’s innocence, as well as precedents such as its own ruling in Batson v Kentucky, which was supposed to prevent racism in jury selection.

Now, on November 9th 2010, the Third Circuit is to decide between removing the stay on Mumia’s death sentence, or ordering a new hearing to decide between a new death sentence, or life in prison without the possibility of parole.  These are the only two possible outcomes in the courts at this time.  The US Supreme Court has pre-arranged the Nov 9th hearing to make an immediate reinstatement of Mumia’s death sentence the likely outcome.

We can have no confidence in the corrupt, racist US legal system to resolve this, because the cops, courts and key politicians are all involved up to their ears in Mumia’s frame-up! 

Dock Workers to shut down Bay Area ports to protest police killings

Counterpunch, October 18, 2010

Jack Heyman

Emotions ran high when longshore workers at their July membership meeting were addressed by Cephus Johnson, the uncle of Oscar Grant, the young black man who was killed by a cop at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland on New Year’s Day 2009. Recounting the sidewalk mural in the front of the hiring hall near Fisherman’s Wharf that depicts two strikers lying face down with the inscription: “Two ILA (longshoremen) Shot in the Back, Police Murder”, he appealed to the union to support justice for his slain nephew. He said, “That mural shook me because that’s exactly what happened to Oscar”.

It got even hotter in the union hall when Jack Bryson took the mike. He is the father of two of Oscar Grant’s friends terrorized by police at the train station as they sat handcuffed and helpless watching their friend die and hearing him moan. Bryson reported that police were calling for a rally the following Monday in the lily-white suburb of Walnut Creek to demanding that Johannes Mehserle the convicted killer cop go free. He asked the union members to join Oscar Grant supporters to protest the cop rally and they did. Outnumbering the 100 or so pro-Mehserle demonstrators by 3 to 1.

The New Year’s Day horror scene was videotaped by other young train passengers and broadcast on YouTube and TV news across the country. Grant, the father of a four  year old girl worked as a butcher’s apprentice at Farmer Joe’s supermarket nearby on Fruitvale Avenue. The litany of police killings of innocent young black and Latino men has evoked a public outcry in California. Yet, when it comes to killer cops, especially around election time, with both the Democratic and Republican parties espousing law and order, the mainstream media either expunges or whitewashes the issue.

Angered by the pro-police rallies and news coverage calling for killer cop Mehserle’s freedom, Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has called for a labor and community rally October 23rd in Oakland to demand justice for Oscar Grant and the jailing of killer cops. Bay Area ports will shut down that day to stand with the black community and others against the scourge of police brutality.