Information from: http://mumia.org/index3.html


Briefing Paper on the Case of
Mumia Abu-Jamal

The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal has become a showdown case on the
death penalty in the United States. His threatened execution has been
condemned by polit ical and cultural figures throughout the world, and
the international movement to grant him a new and fair trial is raising
questions about the arbitrariness of the death penalty in the minds of
millions. Mumia Abu-Jamal is the only political prisoner in the United
States facing execution.

As a radio journalist in Philadelphia, he became known as isthe voice
of the voicelesslt during the years of the infamous Mayor Frank Rizzo.
He had attended Goddard College, was the recipient of a Major
Armstrong Award for radio journalism, and was named one of
Philadelphia's "people to watch" in 1981 by Philadelphia magazine. He
was president of the Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia,
and he had no prior criminal record.

Jamal was shot by a police officer when he intervened in a street
incident involving Jamal's brother, another man, and the officer. He
survived the shooting, and was charged with the murder of the officer
who was killed in the incident. No one else was charged, and the trial
at which Jamal was condemned has been termed a travesty of justice
by every impartial observer.

The targeting of Jamal was overtly political. The FBI began amassing
a 600-page file on him when he was a 15-year-old high school activist.
He subsequently worked on the national staff of the Black Panther
newspaper. Later as a radio journalist he regularly exposed incidents
of police brutality. In the sentencing phase of his trial, the prosecutor
used political quotes from an interview with Jamal from ten years
earlier as an argument to the jury for his execution.

2000 is the critical year for Jamal's case. He has filed his application
for a federal writ of habeas corpus. But under the onerous provisions
of the Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, federal courts are required
to give a presumption of correctness to state court findings of fact.
This throws Jamal's appeal back into the era of "states rights" as if the
Civil Rights Movement never happened. The public must demand a
full federal evidentiary hearing on this case.

Jamal's case is where we must draw the line on "no questions asked"
executions used to suppress dissent. It is critical that organizations of
conscience take up this case, as its outcome will effect the lives of
thousands for years to come.

Description of Jamal's Trial

Mumia was brought to trial in June of 1982, and was sentenced to
death on July 3, 1982. The judge, Albert Sabo, had sentenced more
people to death than any other sitting judge in the United States. In an
unrelated case, six Philadelphia lawyers, some former prosecutors,
offered to testify that no accused could receive a fair trial in his court.

The jury was empanelled only after eleven qualified African-Americans
were removed by peremptory challenges from the prosecution, an
illegal practice that was recently revealed as having been taught to
Philadelphia prosecutors in a special training video tape.

The defense attorney testified that he didn't interview a single witness
in preparation for the 1982 trial, and he informed the court in advance
that he was not prepared. Jamal was also denied the right to act as
his own attorney. When Jamal protested, he was removed from the
courtroom for much of his trial, with no provisions to allow him to follow
the proceedings.

The defense investigator quit before the trial began because the
meager court-allocated funds were exhausted. Neither a ballistics
expert nor a pathologist were hired because of insufficient funds.

The prosecutor used statements made years earlier by Jamal as a
member of the Black Panther Party as an argument for imposing the
death penalty, a practice later condemned as unconstitutional by the
U.S. Supreme Court in another case.

Philadelphia has been so notorious for racial bias in the application of
the death penalty, that it is the subject of a recent academic study on
the issue.

Outline of "the Evidence"

The prosecution claimed that Jamal loudly confessed at the hospital
where he was taken after being shot by the slain officer and beaten by
police. But the jury never heard from police officer Gary Wakshul who
was guarding Jamal at the hospital and who wrote in his report "the
Negro male made no comments." (1) When called as a defense
witness, the prosecution contended that Wakshul was on vacation
and unavailable. The judge refused a continuance so he could be
brought in, when in fact he was home and available.

Today we know that none of the police officers or hospital guards who
now claim to have heard this "confession" reported it to investigators
until two months after it allegedly occurred, and after Jamal had filed
police brutality charges. (2) The attending physician also denies that
Jamal said anything.

The prosecution claimed that ballistics evidence proved that Jamal
was the shooter. But the jury never saw the written findings of the
Medical Examiner which contradicted other prosecution testimony by
writing "shot w/ 44 cal" in his report (Jamal's gun was .38 caliber).
Jamal's court appointed attorney said he didn't see that portion of the
report, so he never raised it to the jury.

Today we know that the police never tested Jamal's gun to see if it
had been recently fired, never tested Jamal's hands to see if he had
fired a gun, have no proof that Jamal's gun was the fatal weapon, and
have lost a bullet fragment removed by the medical examiner. Jamal
was carrying a legally purchased gun on his job as a late night cab
driver because he had been robbed several times.

The prosecution claimed that eye-witnesses identified Jamal as the
shooter. But the jury never heard from a key eye-witness, William
Singletary, who saw the whole incident and has testified that Jamal
was not the shooter. Singletary, a local businessman, was intimidated
by police when he reported this, and he subsequently fled the city. (3)

Today we know why the key witnesses Veronica Jones, Cynthia
White, and Robert Chobert testified as they did in 1982. Jones, who
now testifies in support of Jamal, was threatened with the loss of her
children if she did not support the police story. (4) Chobert, a white
cab driver, first told the arriving police that the shooter ran away. (5)
White backed the whole police story, but none of the other witnesses
can remember seeing her at the immediate scene. (6) Both Chobert
and White received very special treatment, including exemptions from
criminal prosecutions. (7) By contrast, when Veronica Jones testified
in Jamal's support, she was arrested in the courtroom on an old
out-of-state warrant.

Footnotes:

1) Hearing transcript, August 1, 1995, page 38.
2) Hearing transcript, August 1, 1995, pp.78-79
3) William Singletary's testimony began on August 11, 1995, at page 204
of the
transcript. He describes how police tore up his written statement, and
forced him
to sign a different statement which they dictated.
4) Hearing transcript for October 1, 1996, page 20.
5) Trial transcript for June 1, 1982, page 70.
6) White was a prostitute with 38 arrests and had two pending cases.
7) For example, when Cynthia White was arrested in 1987 (five years
after the
trial) on armed robbery charges, Philadelphia homicide detective Douglas
Culbreth appeared in court and asked that White be released without
posting
money because she was iaa Commonwealth witness in a very high
profile
case.le White subsequently failed to show up for her court date and
has since
disappeared. See hearing transcript for June 30, 1997, pp. 99-100.

Jamal's Political History

Mumia Abu-Jamal was born on April 24, 1954. At the age of 14, Jamal
was beaten and arrested for protesting at a rally for segregationist
presidential candidate George Wallace. At the age of 15, he took part
in the campaign to change the name of his high school to Malcolm X
High School. That same year the Federal Bureau of Investigation
began keeping a file on him. In 1969 he was a co-founder and Minister
of Information of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party,
and later worked in Oakland, California, on the staff of the party's
newspaper. In 1970 he was featured in a front page article in the
Philadelphia Inquirer. The FBI added his name to the National
Security Index and the ADEX index of those persons to be rounded up
and interned in a national emergency.

After attending Goddard College he became an active critic of the
Philadelphia police department as a radio news reporter. In addition to
local FM stations, Jamal was broadcast on the National Black
Network, the Mutual Black Network, National Public Radio, and the
Radio Information Center for the Blind. He interviewed such public
figures as Julius Erving, Bob Marley, Alex Haley, and Puerto Rican
independence fighters.

Jamal's style of journalism allowed the voices of ordinary people to be
broadcast, included members of the MOVE organization, which
angered public officials. In 1978, Jamal reported on the siege of the
headquarters of MOVE, where scenes of police beating MOVE
members were telecast. On August 8, Jamal attended an angry press
conference in City Hall. In response to question asked by Jamal,
Mayor Frank Rizzo responded: "They believe what you write, what
you say. And it's got to stop. And one day, and I hope it's in my career,
that you're going to have to be held responsible and accountable for
what you do."

During the summer of 1981, Jamal covered the federal trial of John
Africa, founder of the MOVE organization. John Africa was charged
with a number of conspiracy and weapons charges, typical of those
brought against Black dissidents during this period. He successfully
defended himself and was acquitted on all charges. Jamal was deeply
impressed by John Africa during this trial and drew closer to the
MOVE organization.

After Jamal's shooting and arrest in December of 1981, the
Philadelphia Inquirer headlined: "The Suspect -- Jamal: An Eloquent
activist not afraid to raise his voice." The story described him as a
"gadfly among journalists and easily recognizable because of his
deadlock hairstyle, revolutionary politics and deep baritone voice."

Since his conviction and death sentence in 1982, Jamal has been
held 22 hours a day in a solitary cell. He is denied contact visits with
his family, and he has grandchildren he has never been allowed to
touch. Journalists are no longer allowed to record or photograph him.
The last entry in the sections of his FBI file that have been released,
shows the federal government monitoring his prison visitors as late as
1991.

Censorship of Jamal's Writings

In 1994, National Public Radio hired Jamal to do a series of
commentaries on prison life. NPR was immediately warned by the
Fraternal Order of Police, the New York Times , and Senate Majority
Leader Robert Dole about allowing "a convicted cop killer" on the air.
NPR cancelled the series on the day it was to begin.

In 1995, Jamal's book Live From Death Row was published by
Addison-Wesley. The Fraternal Order of Police attempted to have the
book banned, and members of the state legislature called for seizing
any proceeds from the book. (When Sgt. Stacy Koons, in prison for
beating Rodney King, published his book, the FOP did not complain.)
Jamal was denied visitors and phone calls as punishment for writing
Live From Death Row . This sort of practice by other countries is
usually condemned by the United States as a human rights violation.

The federal district court in Pittsburgh ruled that Pennsylvania had
illegally singled out Jamal, when they barred the press from
interviewing him in retaliation for his book. Shortly after this 1996
ruling, the prison system instituted a new rule banning the media from
recording or photographing any prisoner in the state system.

In 1997 Pacifica Radio's program "Democracy Now" program
broadcast a series of Jamal's recordings. These were to be carried in
Philadelphia on WRTI, the radio station of Temple University. The
FOP again protested. WRTI cancelled the show the day it was to air.

In January, 1999, Rage Against the Machine and three other bands
rented the Continental Arena in East Rutherford, NJ, to hold a benefit
concert for Jamal. Governor Christy Whitman expressed public regrets
that the program could not be legally banned, and called on people to
boycott the performance. (The concert was a sell-out success
anyway.) Since then the FOP has called for a boycott of any
performers or businesses that express support for a new trial for
Jamal.

As Jamal has commented, "They don't just want my death, they want
my silence."

Appellate History

Jamal was sentenced to death on July 3, 1982. On March 6, 1989, his
conviction and sentence was upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court. Oddly, only four of the seven justices participated in the
decision. The chief justice, who was the only Black justice on the
court, recused himself without giving an explanation.

On October 1, 1990, Jamal's petition for a writ of certiorari was denied
by the U.S. Supreme Court. In petitioning for a rehearing, Jamal cited
the fact that the Supreme Court had accepted a similar case from
Delaware, where political association had been used as an argument
for imposing the death penalty ( Dawson v. Delaware , 1992). In the
Dawson case, prosecutors used Dawson's membership in a
white-supremacist prison gang as an argument for imposing the death
sentence, and had even cited the Jamal case in Pennsylvania as
precedent. Inexplicably, the Supreme refused to hear Jamal's claim
while reversing the death sentence of Dawson.

In 1992, Leonard Weinglass became Jamal's lead attorney, and began
preparing a motion for a new trial under Pennsylvania's Post
Conviction Relief Act. This petition was filed on June 5, 1995.
Weinglass notified the governor's office of the impending filing. The
governor then rushed to sign a death warrant at the end of the last
working day before the filing. (Only after these events did the defense
learn that prison officials had opened and illegally copied Jamal's
privileged legal mail, and sent copies to the governor's office.) The
trial judge then refused to grant a stay of execution, claiming that
Jamal's attorneys had "waited years" until a warrant was signed
before filing. While the hearing on the petition was taking place in July
and August of 1995, Jamal came within ten days of execution. A stay
was finally granted only as the result of an unprecedented
international outcry.

Under Pennsylvania law, the trial judge hears all post-conviction
motions. Thus it fell to Judge Albert Sabo, the same judge who had
conducted the original trial, to rule on whether the original trial was
fair. Sabo was able to preside, even though he was well past the
constitutionally mandated retirement age. He was permitted to remain
on the bench to rule on the Jamal appeal because the Chief Justice of
the state Supreme Court allowed him to stay on under emergency
provisions of the state constitution.

Not surprisingly, in the course of the hearings Sabo quashed defense
subpoenas, denied discovery motions, threatened witnesses, and
even had one of Jamal's attorneys taken out in handcuffs. After the
1995 hearing, followed by two remand hearings in 1996 and 1997,
Sabo ruled that the original trial had been flawless and denied the
petition for a new trial.

This denial was appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and on
October 29, 1998, that court unanimously upheld Sabo's ruling. In fact,
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was unable to find any errors in the
17 years of trial, direct appeal, and collateral appeals. A motion for a
rehearing was denied on November 25, 1998.

Then Jamal's attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of
certiorari on the denial of Mumia's Sixth Amendment rights (denial of
pro se status, denial of attorney of choice, and removal from the
courtroom with no provision for being informed of developments while
on trial for his life). On October 4, 1999, the Supreme Court denied
cert and on October 13 Gov. Tom Ridge signed a new death warrant
for Jamal. The warrant set an execution date of December 2, 1999,
the 140th anniversary of the execution of John Brown.

On October 15, Jamal's lawyers filed for a writ of habeas corpus in the
Federal District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania. The case was
assigned to Judge William H. Yohn, who stayed the December 2
execution. A major issue before Yohn is whether to grant an
evidentiary hearing to allow presentation of the evidence that was
denied by the Pennsylvania courts, or whether the whole federal
process will be based on the court record developed by Judge Sabo.

Issues Concentrated in the Case

Mumia Abu-Jamal is both the exception and the rule. As "the
exception," he was singled out by authorities because of his political
journalism. His brother was not charged with the shooting and was
released with a suspended sentence for a misdemeanor. It is unheard
of for two Black men to be involved in an altercation that results in the
death of a white police officer, and then one of them just be released.
But it was Jamal that the police wanted, and his political statements
were used as an argument for imposing the death sentence.

Since his conviction, the government has tried in every way to censor
his voice. The Fraternal Order of Police has managed a national
campaign calling for his execution, using right-wing talk shows and a
full-page ad in the New York Times. The widow of the slain police
officer has been showcased in Washington, on stage with President
Bill Clinton and Attorney-General Janet Reno.

As an example of "the rule," Jamal has faced what most young men of
color face in the criminal justice system every day. If the new Effective
Death Penalty Act had been in force at the time of his arrest, Jamal
would be dead today. Nobody without financial means can assemble
the case needed overturn a murder conviction in the 12 months
allotted by the new law for all federal habeas appeals.

The manner in which Black jurors were purged from his jury pool is in
violation of international law as established by the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to
which the United States is a signatory. During the period 1983-1993,
one study found that Blacks were 5.2 times more likely to be
challenged than whites in the jury selection process in Philadelphia. In
Jamal's jury selection process, Blacks were 16.2 times more likely to
be challenged. The result of such disparities is that over 60% of all
prisoners on death row in Pennsylvania are African-Americans, in a
state that is only 10% Black.

Jamal's case has come to symbolize the society-wide criminalization of
Black males and the bipartisan program for quicker executions with
fewer appeals. If he is executed, he will be the first Black revolutionary
to be legally executed in the United Sates since the days of slavery.

Who Is Calling for Justice for Jamal

Numerous statements and full-page adds have appeared on the case
of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Among those who have questioned his
conviction or publicly opposed his execution are:

African National Congress
Amnesty International
Maya Angelou
Ed Asner
Julian Bond
Reverend Dr. Joan Campbell
Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
Angela Davis
Ossie Davis
Rep. Ron Dellums
Jacques Derrida
E.L. Doctorow
The European Parliament
Rep. Chaka Fatah
Mike Farrell
Henry Louis Gates
Stephen Jay Gould
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
State Rep. Vincent Hughes
Int'l. Parliament of Writers
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Coretta Scott King
Barbara Kingsolver
Jonathan Kozol
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Danielle Mitterrand
Toni Morrison
National Black Police Association
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
National Lawyers Guild
Helen Prejean, C.S.J.
Rep. Charles Rangel
Salman Rushdie
Susan Sarandon
Rev. Al Sharpton
Gloria Steinem
Wole Soyinka
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Alice Walker
John Edgar Wideman
Elie Wiesel
Howard Zinn

Sources of More Information

Race for Justice by Leonard Weinglass (Common Courage Press,
1995). Complete text of Jamal's motion for a new trial together with
exhibits and supporting documents.

Resource Book on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Refuse & Resist!,
1998). Collection of articles on the case, including an analysis of
Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision denying Jamal a new trial.

"Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty in the Post-Furman Era:
An Empirical and Legal Overview, with Recent Findings from
Philadelphia" by David C. Baldus et al. (Cornell Law Review, Vol.
83:1638)

Legal Lynching by Rev. Jesse Jackson (Marlowe & Company, 1996).
This book against the death penalty uses Jamal's case as one
example.

Live from Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal (Addison-Wesley, 1995)

Death Blossoms by Mumia Abu-Jamal (Plough Publishing, 1997)

All Things Censored (CD by the Prison Radio Project, 1998).
Recordings of Jamal reading his columns made before Pennsylvania
banned all recording of Jamal.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt? (documentary
video by HBO)

25 YEARS ON THE MOVE (MOVE, 1996). History with photographs
of MOVE organization and the government's war on them. Includes
section on Jamal.

Jamal's weekly columns are available on www.mumia.org, and
information about his case and the international movement in his
support are available on www.calyx.com/~refuse and
www.peoplescampaign.org

"Neutral" or anti-Jamal sources:

"Guilty And Framed" by Stuart Taylor, Jr. (The American Lawyer,
December 1995). Concludes that Jamal probably fired one shot, but
he was framed in a totally unfair trial.

Web site organized with the help of the Fraternal Order of Police:
www.justice4faulkner.org. Presents prosecution case with highly
selective quotes from trial and hearing transcripts.

ABC's 20/20 on December 9, 1998, presents the position of the
Fraternal Order of Police and the prosecution.

Full-page ad in the New York Times , June 14, 1998, funded by the
Fraternal Order of Police.

(compiled by C. Clark Kissinger, April 1999; revised January 2000)

[posted 1/19/00]

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