Revolutionary Journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal – Was 69 years old on 24th April – Still Behind Bars
London: Mumia Abu-Jamal is a revolutionary journalist, former Black Panther, and political prisoner. After being falsely convicted of the 1981 killing of a police officer, he was sentenced to death. In 2011 this was revised to life without parole – a living death behind the bars of the US incarceration machine. Mumia’s latest appeal has now been rejected. Solidarity is needed now! Prior to his arrest Mumia was a target of the infamous COINTELPRO, the FBI’s system of covert and illegal projects aimed at destroying the activities of political activists, involving every tactic from phone-tapping to murder. From the outset, the prosecution case against Mumia’s was beset with racism, coercion, and corruption.
As a teenager, Mumia helped form the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party. He became a distinguished young journalist and is known for defending MOVE, the multi-racial, Black-led commune advocating for nature and animal rights. In 1980 Mumia was framed for killing a policeman in a trial drenched in racism. Black jurors were excluded, the judge a known racist, key evidence was withheld and ‘lost’ for decades, witnesses bribed and coerced. Mumia’s real ‘crime’ is to be outspoken, articulate, and a dedicated movement journalist. Mumia has inspired support around the world because he uses his talents and energy to strengthen every movement for justice, including environmental justice.
Our Exonerated: We love Philadelphia and agonize how many of our Native Sons (Black men) are framed up by ambitious District Attorneys, racist police, and compromised judges. The newest Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) and its detailed review of suspicious cases have, so far, exonerated 29 innocent men. All Black. All were framed for murder. Read their stories. All defendants exonerated by the Conviction Integrity Unit, except one, were initially convicted in the 1990s and in the 2000s. It’s time to open up the cases that were litigated in the darkest, the most racist period in the history of Philadelphia’s criminal punishment system.
The new evidence that emerged again in the last number of months, filed by Mumia’s defense attorneys on Feb 22, proves further that Mumia was framed in 1982 by the DA’s office and that the subsequent DA’s continued to cover up the wrongful conviction. The whole point of the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) is to throw out corrupt, wrongful convictions and set free the wrongfully convicted prisoner. Larry Krasner’s office has exonerated 29 people since he took office. Let Mumia be number 30.
Read more: https://bringmumiahome.com/
