https://socialistaction.org/2019/10/03/a-new-phase-in-mumias-case/
A new phase in Mumia???s case
/ 13 hours ago
Oct. 2019 Judith Ritter (cherri-gregg KCBS)
Mumia Abu-Jamal???s chief attorney, Judith Ritter, speaks to the press
earlier this year. She was also the main speaker at a Sept. 28 meeting
in Philadelphia to build solidarity actions to defend Mumia. (Photo:
Cherri Gregg)
By JOHN LESLIE
At a meeting in Philadelphia on Sept. 28, organizers discussed the
opening of a new phase in the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, the noted
journalist and political prisoner who was convicted on false charges of
killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981.
Last year, in a series of court appearances, Mumia???s lawyers challenged
Mumia???s conviction and argued for a new appeals process under the
Williams v. Pennsylvania decision. Terrance Williams had been convicted
and sentenced to death for robbery and murder. Ron Castille, the chief
justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, had been the district
attorney of Philadelphia when Williams was tried, convicted, and
sentenced to death. When Williams appealed, his attorneys asked that
Justice Castille recuse himself from the case given his previous role as
prosecutor. Castille refused. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a
prosecutor who later becomes a judge should recuse himself or herself if
asked to hear an appeal in a case they had prosecuted.
Mumia???s attorneys sought to prove Castille???s involvement in Mumia???s
prosecution, since Castille had refused to recuse himself from Mumia???s
appeal. They also argued on the basis of bias. On Dec. 27, 2018,
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Tucker ruled in favor of
Mumia Abu-Jamal, holding that the actions of former Pennsylvania Supreme
Court Judge Ronald Castille had demonstrated a ???lack of impartiality???
and ???the appearance of bias.???
Attorney Judith Ritter explained to the Sept. 28 meeting that this was
based on the discovery of a 1990 letter from DA Castille to Governor Bob
Casey urging him to sign death warrants for death row inmates ???to send a
clear and dramatic message to all police killers that the death penalty
in Pennsylvania actually means something.???
Initially, the current Philadelphia district attorney, Larry Krasner,
had indicated that he planned to appeal Tucker???s decision. Krasner
reversed course on April 17, withdrawing his appeal.?? This represents a
major victory in the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
What was in the boxes?
On Dec. 28, 2018, employees of the district attorney???s office announced
that while searching for office furniture they had found six previously
???unknown??? boxes labeled with Mumia???s name. Activists immediately
questioned the circumstances under which these boxes were ???misplaced,???
In these boxes, Mumia???s attorney, Judith Ritter, discovered new
information that points to prosecutorial misconduct in Mumia???s original
trial.
For example, the notes of prosecutor Joe McGill from 1982 indicate the
race of potential jurors in Mumia???s case, a potential violation of the
Batson decision, which states that a juror may not be dismissed through
a prosecutor???s peremptory challenge on the basis of race and that the
prosecutor must provide a valid reason for doing so.
With the agreement of Judge Sabo, the DA???s office failed to notify the
defense that a supposed eyewitness, Robert Chobert, a cab driver, had a
suspended driver???s license and at the time of the trial was on probation
for an arson-for-hire crime in which he threw a Molotov cocktail at a
school. Also in the newly-discovered information was the fact that
Chobert had written a letter to McGill demanding to know, ???where???s my
money???? During the 1995 appeal, it was revealed that Chobert believed
that the DA???s office would help him get his license back.
Another witness, Cynthia White, had pending prosecutions for
prostitution and was brought to testify against Mumia from jail in
Massachusetts. Prosecutors offered to help White out with her cases in
exchange for her testimony. Defense lawyers were not notified. In a memo
from after Mumia???s trial, assistant DAs were told to ???talk to Joe
McGill??? before proceeding with charges against White. It???s unusual that
a homicide prosecutor would take an interest in minor cases.
Another recent development is that Maureen Faulkner, the widow of
Officer Faulkner has filed a motion pro se alleging that District
Attorney Krasner and others in his offices have conflicts of interest in
Mumia???s case and asking that the case be taken from the jurisdiction of
the DA and placed under the aegis of the state attorney general, who has
been hiring former ADA???s fired by Krasner.
The frame-up and mass struggle
Mumia Abu-Jamal, an award-winning journalist and former member of the
Black Panther Party (BPP), was convicted of the 1981 murder of police
officer Daniel Faulkner in a frame-up trial featuring unreliable
witnesses and little physical evidence. The district attorney???s office
used Mumia???s former membership in the BPP to argue for the death
penalty. At the time of the trial, Judge Albert Sabo, also a member of
the FOP, was overheard by a white court stenographer, saying that he was
going to ???help them [prosecutors] fry that n****r.???
The Philadelphia DA???s office is well known for biased prosecutions and
suppression of evidence in both death penalty and other cases. The DA???s
office was exposed for a 1986 training video that taught assistant DAs
how to keep Blacks off juries. In Mumia???s case, crime scene photos taken
by photojournalist Pedro Polokoff showed cops holding guns taken in
evidence with their bare hands, and showed the hat of deceased Officer
Daniel Faulkner placed on top of Mumia???s brother Billy Cook???s VW, though
it appears on the sidewalk in the official police photos. The ballistics
evidence was questionable. The Polokoff photos also don???t show the cab
allegedly driven by Chobert at the scene.
An international mass movement grew in response to Mumia???s case. The
movement???s steadfast determination to save Mumia???s life helped win a
reversal of the death sentence, which was commuted to a life sentence.
Although Mumia???s death sentence was overturned, he was later struck by a
series of potentially life-threatening illnesses. It became clear that
the Department of Corrections was neglecting symptoms of diabetes. He
experienced chronic fatigue, painful itching, and eczema, which worsened
when doctors prescribed a topical ointment. In 2015, Mumia was
hospitalized for diabetes and in the same year initiated legal action to
receive treatment for Hepatitis C. It took a two-year struggle to get
life-saving medication for Mumia???s Hepatitis C.
More recently, Mumia???s supporters have successfully fought to make sure
that he received cataract surgery to stave off the threat of blindness.
The left eye was successfully corrected on Aug. 29, and the next surgery
is to be this month. At every turn, Mumia and his supporters have
struggled to make sure that he received proper treatment in the face of
death by medical neglect.
The success of the next phase of the legal case depends on our ability
to build a mass mobilization of all supporters of human rights and
justice around the demand, Free Mumia! It wasn???t legal arguments alone
that beat back the threat of execution. Working people and the oppressed
can???t rely on the courts, cops and capitalist politicians to protect us.
Now is the time to intensify the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Activists are planning a march for Mumia and all victims of police
violence on Oct. 4 in Philadelphia. Assemble at the Rizzo statue, 15th
and JFK Blvd., at 4 p.m.
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October 3, 2019 in Black Liberation, Prisons. Tags: Mumia Abu-Jamal
Related posts
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! All out Feb. 26 and March 27!
Mumia Abu-Jamal victory: Philadelphia DA withdraws his appeal
Philadelphia DA???s office stonewalls at hearing for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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