UNITED STATES: H. Rap Brown framed

BY KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR

ATLANTA — Jamil Abdullah al Amin, the former 1960s Black Power leader, then known as H. Rap Brown, was found guilty on March 9 of shooting one Atlanta cop to death and injuring another. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The prosecution's strategy at the sentencing hearing — of using al Amin's militant writings and speeches from the 1960s — shows that he was put on trial for being a revolutionary.

While prosecutors mocked al Amin's allegations of conspiracy against him, the fact remains that the FBI has compiled a 44,000-page file on him over the last 35 years. Atlanta cops have tried to pin dozens of shootings on al Amin, who is now a Muslim cleric and a respected community activist.

There was no physical evidence implicating al Amin in the shootings. The case against him was based solely on the testimony of the surviving cop, Aldranon English, who changed his story about the shooting four times. He gave different descriptions of the attacker in each case.

English said he shot their assailant. But when al Amin was captured, he wasn't injured. The judge refused to allow the playing of 911 tapes which showed that the shooter had been shot.

[From the US Socialist Worker <http://www.socialistworker.org.>]

From Green Left Weekly, March 27, 2002.

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From GLW issue 486