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Written by: ExiledOne |
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Dr. Mutulu Shakur
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"...Juries, not judges must make the crucial decisions that mean a convicted killer lives or dies, the Supreme Court ruled, a finding that could overturn scores of death sentences nationwide...Indiana now has 34 people under death sentences and the state is challenging decisions to overturn the death penalties of four others who officially remain on death row...Three of those people were sentenced to death by a judge even though a jury recommended that they not be executed..."From a newspaper article in Indiana about Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl's case - challenging the death penalty in America [link]
While some of us have heard of the plight of these men and many other women and men that have suffered and are suffering in the US prisons for their political beliefs and activities, I have focused on some critical times ahead for the men in this article. Indeed all African people in the States are facing repression regardless of political opinion, but those who steadfastly oppose African dehumanization are most harshly punished. And in America, this is often a fast track to the death penalty.
ExiledOne
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Dr. Mutulu
Shakur
Dr. Mutulu Shakur, born 1950 in
Baltimore, Maryland became active in the era in which many African youth
divorced themselves completely from appealing to the US state from a
position of passivity. The mid and late 1960s saw many of the
youth finding that self determination was the path, just as nations
rising from colonial Portugal, England, France recognized. In New York
City, where he had come of age, he became known as a legendary organizer
and due to an early experience with substandard medical and social
agencies (his mother was blind and he cared for her) his field became
health.
As a founding Republic of New Afrika citizen surviving the infamous New Bethel attack on the public in Detroit in 1969, he felt the wrath of America. Coming to grips that the knowledge of natural healing was a countering weapon against the massive amount of drugs pouring into New York City's African areas, produced his influential work at Lincoln Detox Community Program and the later BAAANA, Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America, which he co founded in 1978. Internationally praised as far away as China, his work aided thousands to break the cycle of addiction.
By 1982, however, the forces of FBI
COINTELPRO, a new US government drive determined to crush any remaining
sparks of the Black Movement for Justice, arrested Dr. Shakur. This was
the same year that Mumia Abu Jamal was also captured. Despite a case
weak legally, but highly stretched in conspiratorial charges, the healer
of the people was sentenced to several decades in Maximum Control Units.
The organizer and eloquent defender of US Political Prisoners was then
himself made captive. Support Dr. Mutulu Shakur's freedom!
Learn more about Dr. Mutulu Shakur's case at: http://www.mutulushakur.com/ and http://www.daretostruggle.com/ You can write to him at:
Dr Mutulu Shakur
83205-012
B-120
US Penitentiary
150160
601 Mc Donough Blvd, SE
Atlanta, GA 30315
USA
Ali Khalid
Abdullah
Ali Khalid Abdullah took action against a major drug dealer, after one of the dealer's runners sexually molested an 11 year old girl. His criminalization happened in the 1990s when the girl was used as "payment" for her mother's drug bill. Because of the actions he took against these men, Ali has since been locked down as a US Political Prisoner from the time of this politically motivated sham of justice. Since entering prison, he has been harassed by prison officials and survived dangerous conditions. Typical of activists jailed for their political beliefs, and who engage themselves in educating other incarcerated people, Ali, a self described anarchist, has been denied parole again and again. In the eyes of the US system, perhaps his most egregious effort has been the organizing of the Political Prisoners of War Coalition, PPWC, which seeks network support for America's Political Prisoners.
You may write to Ali Khalid
Abdullah and organizations:
Ali Khalid Abdullah,
#148130 Mumia Abu Jamal 
Mumia Abu Jamal, former Black Panther Party official and US Political Prisoner, remains on Pennsylvania death row charged in the early 1980s death of a Philadelphia policeman. This, despite a known police informer coming forward to claim he, and not Mumia, killed the officer, and numerous illegalities in the case. His incarceration has covered the lifetime of many of his supporters, who range from activists who were his peers decades ago to the youth involved in the anti-globalization movement sweeping the world. Mumia's daring journalism in the years preceding his arrest included telling truths to the public about US state terror and death against MOVE collective members. He powerful talent as an orator, author of countless editorials and several books has been instrumental in calling more attention to political repression inside of the US. Mumia is adamant that until US Political Prisoners, the many thousands of them, are released from the concrete and steel coffins, there can be no rest. Support Mumia Abu Jamal by writing him and a main organization that aids him:
Mumia Abu
Jamal
International Concerned
Zolo Agona Azania
 Zolo Agona Azania, accused of
the death of a police officer in Indiana in 1981, was convicted on
perjured testimony and tainted evidence and sentenced to the death penalty
in 1982. Twenty years later, the US Political Prisoner has continued to
determine his own destiny, taking his case to the Indiana state supreme
court for a retrial.
Like many African men and
women persevering in the US prisons and courts to vindicate their name and
humanity, Zolo has become a highly regarded voice against corruption in
the US, global imperialism and tyranny and suppression of African people's
self determination in the States. In standing steadfast against such
forces, Zolo has had to weather the dangers all US Political Prisoners
must, if they are to survive. His legal knowledge, writing skills, graphic
artist genius and sheer wits in bringing his case to a 1996 retrial on the
death sentence have placed him in rare international recognition among
journalists and Human Rights organizations. Zolo is prepared for his late
summer 2001 Indiana supreme court appearance, where issues such as an
illegal, all white jury in the 1980s was used to gain a politically
motivated capital sentence. A long awaited hearing in early 2001 failed to
adequately address many similar illegalities and Zolo needs you to
write him and an organization that gathers support:
Zolo Agona Azania #4969
Pendelton Corr. Facility
P O Box 30
Pendelton, IN 46064
USA
Zolo Agona Azania Legal Campaign
c/o People's Law Office
1180 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60622
phone: 773 235 0070
e mail: mdeutsch45@aol.com
Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl
In his own words:
Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl To read more of Obadyah's writings and to get more information click here to view The Canadian Coaltion Against the Dealth Penalty's Website or http://www.obadyah.benyisrayl@deathpenalty-usa.de/death_penalty/alive_benyisrayl.htm and the article from the paper in South Bend, Indiana. [link]
Jamil
Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown)
Website: http://imamjamil.com/
While there are at least 1500 US Political Prisoners, each of us must aid, at least, today in some practical way, 3 women or men. A letter written can mean humane contact, something that is expressly denied since many are caged in a box like room 23 hours a day, allowed little or no exercise or sunlight, and even books and spiritual materials are forbidden.
Help by asking the men and the above groups what
you might do to support Ali, Mumia, Zolo, Jamil Al-Amin, Dr. Mutulu
Shakur and Obadyah.
Write an article or editorial on the plight of the
above men or similarly targeted persons in the US. Start a discussion
group in your home, community, or online.
The numbers of African people in the United States
who are attacked for their political opposition to degradation and
Human Rights violations are growing.
Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt and Edward King Wilkerson
are free, but many are not.
By doing something, in ONE STEP, you can forever
advance the protection of and battle for Human Rights of African
people in the United States of America.
We must not be hardened to the point of ignoring a
people whose protest and Black Movement for Justice provided real
rewards for worldwide movements of oppressed people in the last
century and today!
Bankole Irungu (ExiledOne) |
