[Ppnews] Mumia on Moussaoui

Thu May 18 08:42:40 EDT 2006

MOUSSAOUI: FROM DEATH TO SLOW-DEATH
_________________________________________________________________________

By Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Col. Writ. 5/4/06]
Source: Afrikan Frontline Network, nattyreb at comcast.net
- Sunday, 14 May 2006 -

Few places held more surprise at the Life verdict for a French 
citizen and alleged Al-Qaeda soldier, Zacarias Moussaoui, than death row.

Government prosecutors pulled out all the stops to get a death 
sentence, and their use of the tearful testimony of the families of 
9-11 victims was designed to use emotion as a fuel to rocket the 
Moroccan straight to death row.

That an Alexandria, Va. jury declined the invitation can only be 
called remarkable. If there is one jurisdiction that can be termed 
death-prone, Virginia fits the bill. The federal prosecutors, who 
could've tried Moussaoui almost anywhere, opted for Virginia for 
precisely that reason. A southern, conservative state, one firmly 
looped to the American Death Belt (indeed, a state virtually in the 
shadow of the Pentagon), Virginia was supposed to be Moussaoui's Waterloo.

The jury decided otherwise.

Several jurors apparently concluded that Moussaoui was a minor player 
in the events of 9-11, and had but "limited" knowledge of them.

The Justice Dept. spent over 4 years bringing the case to trial, and 
spent millions of dollars in search of a death sentence. Ironically, 
according to press reports, Moussaoui offered to accept a death 
sentence, if only he was given better prison conditions.

The government decided to spend the money, and try the case.

Indeed, Moussaoui gave them more than they seemed to need to send him 
to the gallows, but the jury didn't believe it.

However, although the government lost its objective, that doesn't 
mean that the 37-year old Frenchman "won" anything substantial. He 
went from the threat of Death Row to the grim reality of slow-death 
row. Life in a prison hell of a cell. It is a death sentence in 
everything but name.

But that reality pales beside the remarkable fact that 12 American 
jurors, in a case of this enormous magnitude, refused to do the easy 
thing: decide for death. While it is undoubtedly true that Moussaoui 
was in jail on 9-11, and therefore played no part in that day's 
events, his guilty plea opened the door wide for death.

That the jury declined to so sentence him is another matter.

It is tempting (but perhaps too early) to read this verdict as a 
turning point in the American Death Machine. If a jury rejects it in 
*this* case, of a dark-skinned, French-speaking foreigner, who openly 
praises the country's arch-enemies of al-Qaeda, who boasts of his 
wish to have participated in the harrowing carnage of 9-11, in a 
courtroom within a stone's throw of the site where a plane plowed 
into the walls of the Pentagon, it speaks volumes of the apparently 
growing distaste for the death penalty.

It's hard to surprise guys on Death Row; this case did it.

Mr. Jamal's new work, WE WANT FREEDOM: A Life in the Black Panther 
Party, is now available from South End Press, Cambridge, MA. 
(http://www.southendpress.org).

Check out Mumia's NEW book: "Faith of Our Fathers: An Examination of 
the Spiritual Life of African and African-American People": 
http://www.africanworld.com.

These are VERY SERIOUS TIMES for political activists in this country 
and around the world. Get full details and keep updated by reading 
ACTION ALERTS!! at http://www.mumia.org and http://www.movenet.org.

To download Mp3's of Mumia's commentaries visit 
http://www.prisonradio.org or http://www.fsrn.org

The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

CHECK http://www.mumia.org FOR IMPORTANT ACTION ALERTS!

PLEASE CONTACT: International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ; P.O. 
Box 19709; Philadelphia, PA 19143; Tel: 215-476-8812; Fax: 
215-476-6180: E-mail: icffmaj at aol.com AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!

Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370

The Freedom Archives
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