UNITED STATES: 'Hurricane' speaks out for Mumia
The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal held a press conference on March 25 in Pittsburgh. A featured speaker was Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the former middleweight boxer who spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Carter has been on a whirlwind tour of the United States for months to help promote his new book, Rush to Judgment, and also to help promote the moving film depicting his struggle to win his freedom, The Hurricane, featuring Denzel Washington.
Carter met with Mumia on the same day as the press conference to show his solidarity with the death-row inmate and let the press know his strong feelings on Mumia's innocence.
The press conference also took up some important developments in Mumia's legal case that shed light on the intentional effort by the state to obstruct justice and send Mumia Abu-Jamal to his death by hiding what his lawyers call "exculpatory facts."
These developments focus on testimony given by the prosecution's "star" witness, Cynthia White, back on March 29, 1982. Lawyers who have reviewed her testimony say it clearly shows there was a passenger in Mumia's car on the night of December 9, 1981, when Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner was fatally shot and Mumia was shot in the stomach.
Mumia was convicted in a sham of a trial for the murder of Faulkner.
The then prosecutor, district attorney Joseph McGill, when questioning White, repeated the claim that there was indeed a passenger in Mumia's car. Yet the prosecution tried to prove that only three people were there on Locust Street when the incident took place. The state wound up disregarding this crucial piece of evidence about who she saw on the night in question.
A number of eyewitnesses, including White, stated under oath that Mumia did not shoot Faulkner. But much of this testimony was either dismissed or covered up by the prosecutor, hanging Judge Albert Sabo, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police and the criminal justice system.
These repressive forces had been conspiring for years to silence Mumia for joining the Black Panther Party during his teenage years and for writing biting exposes of Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo's reign of racist terror during the 1970s.
McGill put Mumia's revolutionary political beliefs on trial — a clear violation of Mumia's constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial, although not the only one.
For the past 17 years, Mumia and his attorneys have been turned down at every level of state appeals, including twice by the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court. The legal case has now entered the federal appeals process, which is crucial.
The Effective Death Penalty Act signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 has made it very difficult for federal judges to throw out state court rulings, no matter how biased or unconstitutional.
Mumia has only one good chance to be granted an evidentiary hearing in the federal district courts. During such an evidentiary hearing, Mumia's lawyers would be able to present important evidence that was suppressed by the Pennsylvania courts in years past.
Oral arguments will be heard in April or early May by Judge William Yohn, who will then make a decision on whether an evidentiary hearing will be granted.
Supporters of Mumia around the country are making emergency plans to come to Philadelphia the day of these arguments. Mumia will be there in person to hear them.
Supporters will be organised inside and outside the courtroom to continue to put mass pressure on the courts to grant the simple demand for an evidentiary hearing and to show Mumia that he does not stand alone.
[Abridged from the April 6 issue of Workers World newspaper. For subscription information, e-mail <info@workers.org> or visit <http://www.workers.org>.]
[The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; the Emergency National Conference to Save the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal; the May 13 Coalition/Mothers Against Police Terror; the Mobilisation to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; and the National Coordinators of Mumia's Defense have called for protest demonstrations in San Francisco and Philadelphia on May 13 to demand justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal.]
BY MONICA MOOREHEAD