[Ppnews] Report on 11/12 DC Mumia Civil Rights Rally

[Political Prisoner News]

Article w/photos at 
<http://www.phillyimc.org/en/washington-dc-protest-demands-%E2%80%9Cjustice-mumia%E2%80%9D>http://www.phillyimc.org/en/washington-dc-protest-demands-%E2%80%9Cjustice-mumia%E2%80%9D

Washington Protest Demands “Justice for Mumia”
Written Article by Betsey Piette
Photos by Joe Piette

Over 25,000 letters calling on U.S. Attorney 
General Eric Holder to conduct a civil rights 
investigation of the 28 year conspiracy to 
execute death row political prisoner Mumia 
Abu-Jamal were delivered to the doors of the 
Department of Justice in Washington at the end of 
a spirited march and rally on Nov. 12.

The letter campaign took on world-wide momentum 
earlier this year after Holder called for the 
dismissal of charges against Sen. Ted Stevens of 
Alaska on the basis that prosecutors in that case 
withheld evidence favorable to the defense.

The letters to Holder on Mumia’s behalf make it 
clear that in addition to a similar pattern of 
evidence being withheld in his case, courts on 
local, state and federal levels have all violated 
their own rules to keep Abu-Jamal on death 
row.  The letters make a point that rules that 
apply for a powerful, wealthy U.S. senator like 
Stevens should apply as well to an African-American political activist.

Despite a December 2001 ruling by Federal 
District Court Judge William Yohn that converted 
the death sentence in Abu-Jamal’s case to life in 
prison, he remains on death row and his life in 
jeopardy because of efforts by the Philadelphia 
District Attorney’s office to appeal Yohn’s 
decision.  Abu-Jamal has exhausted other federal 
appeals seeking a new trial in his case.

Meanwhile Seth Williams, who was elected earlier 
in November as the first African-American to hold 
the position of Philadelphia District Attorney, 
campaigned on the basis of support for 
reinstating the death sentence in Abu-Jamal’s case.

EVIDENCE WITHHELD

Dr. Suzanne Ross from the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal 
Coalition, who chaired the press conference and 
indoor rally at the New York Avenue Presbyterian 
Church, told how for 13 years the prosecution 
withheld evidence that a driver’s license 
belonging to a passenger in the car driven by 
Mumia’s brother William Cook was found in the 
pocket of slain police officer Daniel Faulkner.

Attorney Thomas Ruffin who outlined the legal 
issues in Abu-Jamal’s case told of photos taken 
by independent photographer Pedro Polakoff who 
arrived at the scene of the Dec. 9, 1981 shooting 
before the police forensics team. These pictures 
exposed the lies told by key prosecution 
witnesses during the trial. The prosecution, who 
had access to these pictures, never shared 
information of their existence with the defense.

Ruffin noted that there was no proof that 
Abu-Jamal had his gun in hand when he arrived on 
the scene or that he had fired it. The 
prosecution never presented paraffin tests for 
gunshot residue.  The prosecution claimed that 
this standard test administered to a defendant’s 
hands in cases when a gun was the murder weapon, 
had not been performed in Abu-Jamal’s case.

SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIM POLITICAL PRISONERS

One of the significant aspects of the press 
conference and protest was the open solidarity 
with victims of the state’s COINTELPRO like 
campaign that has targeted over 400 Muslims and 
recently resulted in FBI agents gunning down and 
murdering Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Detroit on Oct. 31.

Several family members and supporters of the Fort 
Dix Five from N.J. attended the events.  Leila 
Duka, the eleven year old daughter and niece of 
three of these Muslim political prisoners, spoke 
at the press conference.    Two members of 
another Muslim prisoner, Shifa , came from 
Atlanta to take part, and organizers with Project 
Salam, an organization that works to draw 
attention to these and others cases, attended from Albany.

In an important act of solidarity plans for a 
separate protest at the Justice Dept. on Nov.21 
to demand that Holder investigate the growing 
human rights violation of Muslims in the U.S.were 
changed in order to join forces on Nov 12. At the 
press conference several speakers made reference 
to the dangerous campaign growing against Muslims.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

The array of support for Mumia Abu-Jamal was 
impressive.  Fignole Saint-Cyr, President of the 
Autonomous Unions of Haiti delivered 986 signed 
letters collected on Abu-Jamal’s behalf and flew 
into Washington to attend a press conference 
earlier in the day.  Saint-Cyr stated “Right now 
the world should observe American justice because 
the U.S. is supposed to stand for 
democracy.  Justice should not be 
two-faced.  Justice for Black people and for white people should be equal.”

Thousands of signed letters were also gathered in 
Germany where the city council in Munich passed a 
resolution demanding justice and a new trial for 
Mumia and the abolition of the death penalty in the U.S.

Letters were sent from S. African labor and 
political groups who had engaged in their own 
fight to overturn the racist apartheid system and 
recognized Abu-Jamal as a victim of racist 
injustice in the U.S.  Other letters came from 
Japan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Spain, and throughout Latin America.

 From the U.S. there were letters and resolutions 
from unions, churches, and national organizations 
including the NAACP and the National Lawyers 
Guild, as well as progressive politicians like 
Cynthia McKinney and Charles 
Rangel.  Representatives of the NAACP, Amnesty 
International, the Campaign to End the Death 
Penalty, International Action Center, National 
Congress of Puerto Rican Rights, and the 
Riverside Church Prison Ministry spoke at the press conference.

In closing the indoor event Pam Africa, with the 
MOVE organization and International Concerned 
Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, stated 
“Mumia was railroaded and the evidence is 
there.  Mumia is not on trial here –the movement 
is.  It’s up to us to stand up for what’s right.”



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20091119/bba0e567/attachment.htm>