HOME
your socialist home on the internet
ABOUT US
who we are, our politics, and what we do
GET ACTIVE!
joining ysa, getting active locally, making a difference
NEWS & VIEWS
articles, fliers, statements and opinions
THEORY
what is socialism, reading lists and study guides
CONTACT US
our email, snail mail, phone number and club directory
LINKS
socialist, youth, activist, labor, feminist, anti-racist, and other important sites
WHAT'S NEW
listing of what's been recently added
who is mumia abu-jamal?
Mumia Abu-Jamal was a radio journalist in Philadelphia during the
1970s, the years of Mayor Frank Rizzo. A member of the Black
Panther Party from age 14 and later a supporter of the MOVE
organization, he was known as ”the voice of the voiceless" on Philly
air waves. He 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. He had no prior
criminal record.
In December of 1981, Mumia was shot by a Philadelphia cop and
almost died when he intervened in a street incident where his own
brother was being beaten by the same cop. The police officer was
also shot and killed, and witnesses saw other men run from the scene. When more police
arrived, they beat Mumia before taking him to the hospital, and he was immediately
charged with murder. Mumia's brother and another key eyewitness were later harassed by
police and driven out of town. Other witnesses who changed their stories to implicate
Mumia were rewarded. The dead officer was holding the driver's license application of a
third man, but this was never investigated.
It was Mumia that the police wanted. The FBI and Philadelphia police had amassed
hundreds of pages of surveillance files on Mumia, beginning when he was 15 years old, for
his outspoken opposition to racism and police brutality and his revolutionary politics. As a
well known radio reporter, he was a leading critic of police violence against the minority
communities of Philadelphia. (The brutality of the Philadelphia police was so notorious that
the U.S. Department of Justice later filed an unprecedented suit against the force.)
When people began to question the murder charges against Mumia, the police put forward
the absurd story—two months after the incident—that Mumia had "confessed" in the
hospital emergency room, and they had simply forgotten to mention it a the time. The
written police reports from that evening and the emergency room doctor say no confession
ever happened.
Mumia was given an unprepared court-appointed attorney who was later disbarred. When
Mumia tried to represent himself, the judge barred him from most of his own trial. The
prosecution used eleven preemptory challenges to knock almost all Black people off the
jury. Vital evidence was withheld from the defense, and part of the fatal bullet has
"disappeared" from the police vaults. The political motivation of the prosecution was made
clear when the prosecutor, arguing for the death penalty, read revolutionary quotations from
an interview with Mumia published ten years earlier.
In the recent hearings for a new trial, a witness used against Mumia in his first trial came
forward to say that she had lied earlier under police coercion. In retaliation, this witness
was arrested in the courtroom as she stepped off he witness stand on an old warrant from
another state. In October 1998, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled unanimously
against every issue raised in Mumia's appeal and against a new trial. This ruling occurred
in the wake of massive police scandals in Philadelphia, where dozens of people were
released from jail because they had been convicted on the basis of evidence fabricated by
the police.
A worldwide movement has grown in the last few years demanding a new trial. 35,000
people marched on April 24, California longshoremen staged a work stoppage, students
did walk-outs. Those questioning Mumia's conviction include the European Parliament,
E.L. Doctorow, Toni Morrison, Jesse Jackson and Amnesty International. To counter this
movement, the Fraternal Order of Police and other interested parties have orchestrated a
well-financed national media campaign aimed a promoting false information on the case.
Recently, for example, Vanity Fair and ABC's 20/20 ran ridiculous rumors of a
"confession" by Mumia—denied and refuted by Mumia.
[NOTE: Reports of this "confession" were also supposedly linked to the
Philadelphia Prison Society (PPS), which has officially denied any knowledge
of them and distanced themselves from the former volunteer who reported
them. That volunteer was apparently released from the Society for problematic
behavior. Such reports would be in gross violation of PPS policies. -- John
Wilmerding]
The potential to stop his execution is within our reach. But it will take a movement we have
not seen in decades. For the last 17 years Mumia has been locked alone in a cell 23 hours
a day, denied contact visits with his family. His confidential legal mail has been opened by
prison authorities. He was put into punitive detention for writing his book Live From Death
Row, now in its 6th printing. Journalists are prohibited from filming or recording interviews
with him. As Mumia has put it, "They don't just want my death, they want my silence".
