Fundraising for Abu-Jamal News, Print Issue #2

We are fundraising for the second issue of our free public newspaper, Abu-Jamal News, to be released soon. (First issue here.) All labor is volunteer, and every dollar goes directly towards printing costs.

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VIDEO interview with J. Patrick O'Connor

Author of the new book, The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Just Released in May!

(WATCH PARTS 1, 2, and 3)

On May 1, the day of the book's release, AJN interviewed O'Connor at Philadelphia City Hall. The next day, The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal was featured in The NY Times: "Book Asserts Black Reporter Didn't Kill White Officer in '81."

Read our exclusive interview from April, focusing on the frame-up, Kenneth Freeman, the March 27 court ruling, and Frank Rizzo's legacy.

O’Connor argues that the actual shooter was Kenneth Freeman and he criticizes the media, who “bought into the prosecution’s story line early on and has never been able to see this case for what it is: a framing of an innocent and peace loving man.” For more on “The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal” we are featuring an excerpt, a previous interview, O’Connor’s review of “Murdered By Mumia,” and his response to the March 27 ruling.

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April 19 Phila. Demo a Huge Success!

(Also Watch our video from the March 31 demo)

Outraged by the March 27 denial of a new guilt phase trial for Mumia, 500-1000 people gathered at the Federal Courthouse, circled the Liberty Bell, and marched to City Hall, where speakers included Cynthia McKinney, Julia Wright, and Harold Wilson. VIEW the PHOTOS and VIDEO, featuring an exclusive interview with Veronica Jones about her new book.

We released our newspaper (see PDF) on April 19, and passed out over 2,600 copies.

SEE: Free Speech Radio News II People's Video Network II Demo at US Embassy in Mexico City II POCC Block Report Radio Show II Betsey Piette's A19 report II Alternet report II Leonard Peltier for Mumia II FIST Statement II LGBT Rainbow Flags for Mumia II Imani Henry's Podcast II Cynthia McKinney Speech II Photos of KSS Racists at Geno's II Call to Pressure Officials II Michael Schiffmann's new articles on Judge Sabo, The Batson Ruling, and Billy Cook's Trial

Third Circuit Court denies Mumia a new Guilt-Phase Trial

While ruling against the three issues that could have led to a new guilt-phase trial, the court affirmed Judge Yohn's 2001 decision overturning the death sentence. If the District Attorney wants to re-instate the death sentence, the DA must call for a new penalty-phase jury trial that would be limited to the question of life in prison without a chance of parole or a death sentence. See responses from Pam Africa, lead attorney Robert R. Bryan (on Democracy Now! and Free Radio Santa Cruz), the full text of the court decision (including Judge Ambro's dissenting opinion regarding the Batson issue), The Natiional Lawyers Guild and the articles by the Philadelphia Inquirer (w/ special archive page), Dave Lindorff (also in the Philadelphia Inquirer) , Linn Washington Jr., Jeff Mackler on NPR with Maureen Faulkner Michael Schiffmann's statement on behalf of The German Network Against the Death Penalty and to Free Mumia, and from Mexico.

Journalists for Mumia is extremely dissappointed and outraged by this decision. There were emergency demonstrations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City.

MUMIA RESPONDS TO THE COURT RULING in a new interview with the POCC's Minister of Information JR and Chairman Fred Hampton Jr on The Block Report Radio Show and in The SF Bay View Newspaper. Click here to LISTEN or READ it.

DOWNLOAD the Press Pack from the March 31 Press Conference at the federal courthouse in Philadelphia as a pdf or a word file. Read Betsey Piette's report, as well as The Philadelphia Inquirer article covering the event!

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MOVE 9 Parole Hearings

Watch the AJN videos of the May 10 protest, Harrisburg State Capitol press conference, Ramona Africa, Mike Africa Jr, How MOVE met Mumia, Mike Africa Jr: May 13, 1985, and Ramona Africa remembers the MOVE 9 Trial

This week, MOVE was informed that Delbert and Phil's parole interview is "postponed indefinitely". On May 10, Mike and Eddie were denied parole, which followed the April 22 denial of parole for the three women: Debbie, Janine, Janet. Chuck will be eligible six months later than the others. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that parole was denied to the women on grounds that they minimized or denied the "nature and circumstances" of the offense, "refused to accept responsibility" and lacked remorse, and the "negative recommendation" by the prosecutor. Read responses from both MOVE, Journalists for Mumia, and Linn Washington Jr.

Background on the Parole Hearings

30 years after the Aug. 8, 1978 police siege on MOVE's West Philadelphia home, the remaining eight prisoners are eligible for parole (see Philadelphia Inquirer, Black Commentator, and Metro articles). Please contact the Parole Board and sign the online petition (already signed by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky) .

In a recent interview, veteran Philadelphia journalist Linn Washington Jr. cites his sources in the police department who told him that Officer James Ramp was actually shot by police gunfire, and not MOVE. Audio Clips: Was Officer Ramp Killed By Police Gunfire?; The Illegal Destruction of MOVE's House; Manipulation of Evidence and Media Bias; Ed Rendell and Prison Guard Violence Against MOVE; Unfair Parole Stipulations; and May 13, 1985.

See our MOVE 9 Parole blog for updates, and be sure to watch the 2004 MOVE documentary narrated by Howard Zinn.

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PA Supreme Court Rejects PCRA Appeal

On Feb. 19, in a ruling unrelated to the pending US Third Circuit Court decision, the PA Supreme Court rejected Mumia's appeal of a 2005 ruling, which had rejected his PCRA petition(AP and Philadelphia Inquirer).

Pam Africa, Robert R. Bryan, Dave Lindorff, Michael Schiffmann, and Linn Washington Jr. respond here.

With the pending federal ruling now more crucial than ever, "day after" demonstrations are planned.

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Presentation Videos Online

Dec. 8 Crime Scene Photo Presentation
Dec. 4 "Murdered by Mumia?" Press Conference

Our recent slideshow presentation of the Polakoff photos is now available on You Tube and Google Video.

The "Murdered by Mumia?" press conference has just been made into a short video: "This government, using corporate media, is laying the groundwork for a murder." (VIEW PARTS ONE AND TWO)

This is also available UNEDITED in two parts on Google Video (1/2, 2/2) and in 11 parts on You Tube: Hans Bennett, David A. Love, Dave Lindorff (1/2, 2/2), Linn Washington, Jr. (1/2, 2/2), Pam Africa (1/2, 2/2), and questions about The Polakoff Photos (1/2, 2/2), Media Bias, and The May 17 Oral Arguments.

Along with The SF Bay View, the photos have now been spotlighted by Reuters, NBC's Today Show, National Public Radio, Indymedia.org, Counterpunch, The Philadelphia Tribune, The Black Commentator, Dissident Voice, Media Channel, Workers World, and The Philadelphia Weekly.

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WHYY Asks Maureen Faulkner about the Photos

When asked about PO Forbes' handling of the guns, Faulkner said: "I don't know if his hands are actually on the grip of the gun, it seems like he has his finger holding the gun through the actual trigger part, but not on the handle of the gun. At that time, I'm sure the evidence was somewhat contaminated."

Read Abu-Jamal-News.com's response

Listen to interview via Real Player

Listen to the next day's debate between Dave Lindorff and John Hayden via Real Player or MP3.

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NBC Today Show Spotlights Crime Scene Photos!

Read Abu-Jamal-News.com's Analysis of the Dec.6 show, including Michael Schiffmann's response to Maureen Faulkner's criticism of the new photos.

Listen to the Dec. 6 WBAI Show reflecting on The Today Show featuring Suzanne Ross, Orie Lumumba, Hans Bennett, Linn Washington Jr, and Pam Africa.

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Reuters Spotlights Crime Scene Photos!

More big media coverage to come?

Read the Reuters article!

At the "Murdered By Mumia?" press conference, journalists and activists present evidence of an unfair trial and Mumia's innocence.

Listen to the Press Conference audio

Download / View "Murdered by Mumia?" flyer

The video footage will be available (and posted here) very soon!

The press conference featured a presentation of the new crime scene photos. Guest speakers at the conference included David A. Love, Dave Lindorff, Linn Washington Jr, and Pam Africa of ICFFMAJ.

Also check out David A. Love's Black Commentator report on the press conference.

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MySpace and YouTube Videos

We have just started our own YouTube and MySpace pages, with online videos like the McMahon Phila DA Training Video and Framing an Execution (about 20/20).

Also check out: Dynamax feat. Chuck.D: "Get It Started", April 24, LGBT Forces, Mumia Abu Jamal; Justice Denied, "Behind These Walls", Meditation on Mumia, Phila FOP hq, Harry Belafonte, Pam Africa, Kathleen Cleaver, Sonia Sanchez, and more.

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Photos Bolster Claims of Mumia's Innocence and Unfair Trial

by David A. Love, The Black Commentator

"A group of journalists is determined to seek a fair retrial of death row prisoner, noted journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, and they point to evidence they say provides further proof of his innocence: photos from the crime scene that the jury never had the chance to see."

David Love's article is featured in the SF Bay View Newspaper, which is now the first publication in the US (besides Abu-Jamal News) to publish Polakoff's photo of Officer Forbes mishandling the guns.

Click here for full article

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The FBI's War on Black Liberation:
COINTELPRO and the Panthers

By Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch, October 20 / 21, 2007

While also spotlighting the cases of The SF 8, Veronza Bowers, Jr., and Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown), Ron Jacobs writes that the new Mumia Abu-Jamal crime scene photos in German author Michael Schiffmann's book:

"cast more doubt on the state's case by apparently disproving the prosecution's statements that Mumia stood over Officer Faulkner and fired at him several times. The photos show no marks from the bullets that were supposedly fired in this fashion. In fact, the sidewalk was not damaged in any way. Schiffmann goes on to write: 'it is thus no question anymore whether the scenario presented by the prosecution at Abu-Jamal's trial is true. It is clearly not, because it is physically and ballistically impossible.' The remainder of the photos show a scenario that constantly contradicts the testimony of officers and witnesses (apparently coerced) and the nature of the scene they described in Mumia's original trial."

Click here for full article

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In Prison My Whole Life

This new British documentary about Mumia premiered at the London Film Festival and at Rome's International Film Festival on October 25 (ScreenDaily.com review). Read our exclusive interview with William Francome, who reveals for the first time that In Prison My Whole Life prominently showcases the newly discovered crime scene photos, featuring interviews with German author Michael Schiffmann and Philadelphia photographer Pedro P. Polakoff.

Read the Amnesty International UK report

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Courtroom Audio: May 17 Oral Arguments

Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal presents the courtroom audio from Mumia Abu-Jamal's May 17 oral arguments before the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals .

Listen to the unedited, complete 2 hr. 15 min MP3 file or listen to the short excerpts selected by Abu-Jamal-News.com:

• Marching Up San Juan Hill?
• You Don't Deny That McGill's Statements Were Inappropriate?
• A Violation of the Bill of Rights?
• Jenny Dawley
• Peremptory Strikes
• McMahon Videotape
• Robert R. Bryan's Closing Arguments
• and more

Click here for audio and article

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Racism and Injustice:
The Trials of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Read Prescod's interview with Mumia

By Margaret Prescod, Pacifica Radio National Special, August, 2007. Features Danny Glover, Linn Washington, Jr., Dave Lindorff, Robert R. Bryan, Michael Schiffmann, and Mumia himself.

Click here for article

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Mumia Abu-Jamal: On the Road to Freedom?

By Jeff Mackler

It is difficult to imagine that the systematic race and class bias that permeate America's criminal "justice" system could be set aside and that the nation's most famed and innocent death row inmate and political prisoner of 25 years, Mumia Abu-Jamal, could win a new trial and freedom.

But that is precisely what appeared to be unfolding on May 17 in the packed Ceremonial Courtroom of the Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia as a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in full view of 200 riveted Mumia supporters and others from across the country and around the world, mercilessly queried Pennsylvania's lead prosecutor and persecutor, Hugh Burns.

In contrast, Mumia's three-person legal team of Robert R. Bryan, Judith Ritter, and NAACP Legal Defense Fund amicus curiae (friend of the court) counsel Christina Swarns appeared to have the rapt, if not sympathetic, attention of the three judges during most the two-and-a-half-hour proceeding.

Click here for full article

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Attention, MOVE: This is America!

The MOVE 9 prisoners were sentenced 30-100 years for the death of Philadelphia Police Officer James Ramp during the August 8, 1978 police assault on MOVE's headquarters. The remaining MOVE 9 prisoners (Merle Africa suspiciously died in 1998) are still in prison despite (1) extensive destruction of evidence by the police and (2) powerful evidence that Officer Ramp was actually killed by police "friendly fire."

The eight remaining MOVE prisoners will be eligible for parole in 2008, and MOVE has begun to organize around the upcoming hearings.

Mumia Abu-Jamal was one of the few journalists who reported fairly on MOVE. The frightening examples of illegality and fraud used to convict the MOVE 9 provide a proper historical context for Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial.

Click here for full article

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The Forgotten Trial: Spurious Witnesses, Impossible Events

What the "eyewitness" testimony from Billy Cook's March 29, 1982 trial for aggravated assault reveals, by Michael Schiffmann

There was no credible evidence that Billy Cook ever struck at Officer Faulkner. The stories the witnesses claiming this told were unbelievable. With regard to the quarrel between Cook and Faulkner, the only undisputable and proven fact was that Cook was beaten bloody, almost certainly by the very same officer who was killed only a couple of seconds later shot not in the line of duty, but while engaged in an ordinary act of police brutality.

What the March 29, 1982 assault trial also showed was the abominable quality of the evidence against Mumia Abu-Jamal. Already there, two of the three key eyewitnesses at his later murder trial emerged as totally incredible, recounting events that could never have happened the way they described them. Here, too, with regard to what happened between Abu-Jamal and Faulkner, only one fact was undisputable, namely that Abu-Jamal was shot and nearly killed by Officer Faulkner's gun.

Click here for full article

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Interview with lead attorney Robert R. Bryan

As reported in two recent Associated Press articles, the Philadelphia District Attorney has filed a motion asking the entire 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to recuse itself from black death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case on grounds that Gov. Ed Rendell, whose wife serves on the court, was district attorney during Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial. The DA argues that if the court rules unfavorably for Abu-Jamal, the defendant could then argue that the ruling was a result of bias from the court, and as the Associated Press wrote, the DA allegedly “wants to leave Abu-Jamal no grounds for any future appeal.”

This request followed the March 22 announcement that Abu-Jamal will have oral arguments in Philadelphia on May 17, where the court will consider four different issues that have already been certified for appeal. Supporters have already begun organizing a mass-demonstration in Philadelphia on May 17, and many feel that the DA’s request is actually designed 1) to delay the oral arguments and 2) to move Abu-Jamal’s case to a more conservative circuit that will be less sympathetic to the issues being presented for a new trial.

Click here for full article

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German Book Reveals New Evidence

The history of the criminal case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, which is by now almost 25 years old, has been characterized by bias right from the start: against a black man whom the court denied a jury of his peers, against a member of the economic underclass who did not have a real claim to a qualified defense, and against a radical, whose allegedly dangerous militancy obliged the state to eliminate him from the ranks of society.”

So writes German author Michael Schiffmann in his new book Race Against Death. Mumia Abu-Jamal: a Black Revolutionary in White America (an expansion of Schiffmann’s PhD dissertation at the University of Heidelberg), just released in Germany this past month.

Click here for full article

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Mumia's Battle in the Courtroom : The Four Main Issues Made Simple

In December, 2001 Federal District Court Judge William Yohn affirmed Mumia Abu-Jamal's guilt but overturned the death sentence. Citing the 1988 Mills v. Maryland precedent, Yohn ruled that sentencing forms used by jurors and Judge Sabo's instructions to the jury were confusing. Subsequently, jurors mistakenly believed that they had to unanimously agree on any mitigating circumstances in order to consider them as weighing against a death sentence.

Mumia's case is now in the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals, with oral arguments set for May 17. District Attorney Lynne Abraham is appealing the death penalty ruling while Mumia is appealing the guilty verdict.

If the penalty ruling is overturned, a new execution date will be set for Mumia. If Yohn’s ruling is upheld, the DA can still impanel a new jury to rehear the penalty phase, which could then sentence Mumia to death—regardless of the 3^rd Circuit ruling.

Click here for full article

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Imus isn't the Only Issue to Address

Animals! Piece of Trash! Scum bag!

These venomous words are some of the verbal vomit hurled recently at Philadelphia’s Clef Club expressing outrage toward a program scheduled for next Tuesday at the jazz venue on South Broad Street featuring famed actor/activist Danny Glover.

A centerpiece of this program was the planned showing of a documentary video narrated by Glover examining the controversial case of Philadelphia born, death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Because this program examines the case of Abu-Jamal and is scheduled to take place on Abu-Jamal’s birthday, it immediately sparked the ire Philadelphia’s police union (the FOP) and local radio personalities supportive of Abu-Jamal’s execution for the December 1981 death of Policeman Daniel Faulkner.

Click here for full article