By Maria Sari
NEW YORK â Marching over four kilometres through downtown Washington in sweltering 38° heat around 200 activists rounded out the six-month "Million Letters for Mumia" campaign by handing over piles of letters from all over the US and Europe to the Justice Department on the afternoon of May 20.
The campaign, organised by the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, aimed at getting thousands of people to sign letters to US Attorney General Janet Reno demanding a new trial for journalist and former Black Panther member Mumia Abu-Jamal on the basis that Mumia's civil rights had been violated in his original trial in 1981.
Abu-Jamal was accused of shooting a police officer and given a hasty trial in which he was not allowed to have representation of his choice and was allocated only $150 per witness for investigation. After a long series of irregularities and violations, he was sentenced to death.
In recent hearings, however, a witness has come forth and stated that he saw another man shoot the policeman Abu-Jamal was accused of killing. He also stated that he was subject to severe intimidation by the Philadelphia police and never called to take the witness stand.
Among other revelations as to the unfair nature of the original trial is strong evidence that the "witnesses" who reportedly saw Abu-Jamal kill the policeman were giving false witness so as to gain favours from the police.
All of the numerous violations are now well known by all the officials involved, including the judges, the governor of Pennsylvania and Janet Reno. Despite pressure from thousands of concerned citizens, they have refused to call for a new trial, although a stay of execution was granted and no new execution date has been set.
As a journalist, Abu-Jamal targeted Philadelphia's police force for its brutality and repression of the black community, and had defended the African-American organisation MOVE after its Philadelphia home was bombed by the state, with a resulting fire that destroyed over 60 homes in the neighbourhood. In the bombing, 11 members of MOVE were killed, including five children. Abu-Jamal was one of the rare journalists who strove to report MOVE's side of the story.
The May 20 march was the culmination of six months of collecting signatures on letters demanding that Janet Reno grant a new trial. Before the letter campaign, she had stated that a new trial could be granted only if there was evidence of an ongoing conspiracy violating Abu-Jamal's civil rights. Accordingly, the marchers had presented the legal evidence supporting their claim to such violations to Reno earlier in the day.
The Justice Department has yet to issue a reply. The struggle has a long way to go if Mumia's eventual release is to be won, but the good news is that it continues to gather momentum as the weeks go by.