[Ppnews] Mumia - Nov 12 Press Release - DC March

[Political Prisoner News]

For Immediate Release: November 10, 2009
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;  Fignolé 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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