FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an African-American journalist in Pennsylvania who won the Major Armstrong award for radio journalism and who was elected president of the Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. He has exposed police violence against the American people, particularly against communities of color.

In 1982, Mumia was wrongly accused of shooting a police officer and sentenced to death in Judge Albert Sabo's court. Judge Sabo, a lifetime member of the Fraternal Order of the Police has sentenced more people to death than any other sitting judge in America.

For the past 17 years, Mumia has been locked up and denied contact visits with his family, had his confidential legal mail illegally opened by prison authorities, and put into punitive detention for writing his book, Live From Death Row which earned him world-wide reputation.

Mumia's appeal for a new trial has won the support of tens of thousands around the world, including Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the European Parliament, writer Alice Walker, actors Paul Newman and Danny Glover, and many others.

It should be mentioned that during Mumia's trial, the prosecutor removed 11 qualified blacks from the jury, many witnesses were intimidated and some were forced to leave Philadelphia by the police. Others were harrassed or given special favors to change their earlier testimony. Mumia's public defender did not interview a single witness in preparation for the trial and did not have funds for defending a capital case.

We should also point out that during the past few years, tens of police officers, prosecutors, and in some cases judges have been arrested and tried in Pennsylvania,
Illinois, and recently in Los Angeles, California for fabricating evidence, perjury, theft and dealing of drugs, and murder.

For further reading on Mumia's case refer to:

WWW.MUMIA.ORG
Mumia's Commentaries
WWW.FREEMUMIA.ORG

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