Rockbites: Mumia Abu-Jamal conviction upheld, sentence overturned

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December 2001 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Mumia Abu-Jamal conviction upheld, sentence overturned
19 December 2001

Twenty years almost to the day after his arrest, former Black Panther activist Mumia Abu-Jamal has been released from his death sentence by a federal judge. His murder conviction, however, stands.
    Abu-Jamal has consistently maintained his innocence. The evidence against him is dubious. For example, the bullet that killed Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in early December 1981 could not be conclusively traced to Abu-Jamal’s gun, according to trial testimony. Human rights group Amnesty International discovered a variety of deficiencies in the case against him, including inadequate legal representation, judicial incompentence, and politicization of the process leading to possible bias against Abu-Jamal’s appeals.
    The case has been a rallying point for lawmakers around the world, for human rights advocacy groups, and for social minded musical artists including Rage Against The Machine, The Beastie Boys, Jello Biafra, and Bad Religion. Benefit concerts for Abu-Jamal have raised some of the funds used by his legal defense over the years, and have helped to keep his case in the news.
    The United States stands alone in the world as the only major democracy pursuing the death penalty. Other laggards who still enforce it to a significant degree are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Sierra Leone, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Belarus and Kyrgistan.
    European officials from Denmark, France, Germany, and elsewhere praised yesterday’s ruling. Raymond Forni, president of the French National Assembly, visited Abu-Jamal in prison a year and a half ago. Yesterday he wrote “I pay homage to those who mobilized in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal and I hope that true justice will finally be delivered to him.” | Mumia Abu-Jamal | | Amnesty Int'l report on Abu-Jamal case | | Books by Mumia Abu-Jamal | | top of page |

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