Designed for Airdate 11-13-98 16:08 [play Free Mumia Chant, 5-6seconds] Welcome to Under Lock and Key, news and commentary about prisons from the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. The U.$. incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other country. The rate for imprisonment of Blacks is 4 times that of apartheid South Africa, and the U.$. sends more Black men to prison than college. The purpose of this program is to educate about, and inspire activism against, the Amerikan lockdown. On October 29, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against a new trial for incarcerated revolutionary leader and former Black Panther Mumia Abu- Jamal. This rejection is currently under further appeal at the state level, but Mumia has moved significantly closer to falling victim to state-sponsored murder. Mumia was framed for the righteous 1981 killing of a Philly cop engaged in an act of police brutality. Someone else killed the cop, but the Amerikan system of injustice-backed up by the fascist anti-crime fever among a great majority of whites-demands that someone die for the killing of a pig. These fascists prefer to kill Mumia than the real killer, because Mumia is an outspoken leader who generates public opinion against the system. His political views, including his agreement with Mao Zedong that "power grows out of the barrel of a gun" were used as evidence against him in his trial and in the imposition of the death penalty. Mumia has spent 16 years appealing his death sentence, but now things are poised to move very quickly from the Pennsylvania state courts to through the Federal Courts and from there to murder by lethal injection. The "Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act" passed by Congress after the bombing in Oklahoma City is going to make it very difficult to convince the federal courts to overturn the conviction and death sentence. This 1996 law restricts habeas corpus appeals. A petition for habeas corpus is a vehicle for a prisoner to get a federal court to review his state court conviction, by arguing that the conviction itself, or the length of the sentence in some cases, was a violation of his or her federal constitutional rights. The new law affects Mumia and other existing cases, even though Mumia's case is more than a decade old. According to an explanation by Mumia's Attorney, Leonard Weinglass, the law not only places brutal time limits on appeals of state decisions to Federal courts, the law also "moves the goal posts," requiring Federal judges to apply a "presumption of correctness" standard when reviewing state decisions. This means that the Federal Courts will be restricted from examining the findings of fact made by the State Courts. Unfortunately for Mumia, the findings of fact and other State Court actions are precisely the issue. The judge at Mumia's original trial and his appeals was Albert Sabo. Known as the "Hanging Judge", Sabo is a lifetime member of the Fraternal Order of the Police and has sent more men to death row than any other judge in the country. Sabo has earned the label "judge beyond reason" from American Lawyer Magazine, and his bias at Mumia's trial was severe enough to merit criticism from the prosecution! Sabo made his bias clear in the record, but since Sabo declared himself "unbiased" during the initial appeals, the Federal Courts are restricted to maintaining that assumption. In a speech in Amherst Mass after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, Attorney Weinglass expressed hope that the U.$. Supreme Court would strike down this Federal Law. Mumia is an outspoken advocate and leader of the Black Nation. He was a Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party, and later a radio journalist. Mumia was hated by the Philly police and government for his work exposing police brutality. Years ago, the major of Philadelphia singled Mumia out at a press conference for this ominous warning: "Someday you'll pay for what you've done." What Mumia Abu Jamal did do, was raise the consciousness of the Black nation about their colonization by white Amerika. This commentary, recorded on Death Row for National Public Radio, shows by example why Amerika and Philadelphia hate Mumia. [Mumia, Black August. 5:30] That excellent commentary by Mumia was never aired on National Public Radio. NPR hired Mumia as a commentator, but they decided instead to curry the favor of the government and censor Mumia's revolutionary voice. We have here a statement from Mumia Abu Jamal written in response to the October 29 denial of a new trial. [Note: Original uses FOP as abbreviation for Fraternal Order of Police throughout] A Statement From Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal, Once again, Pennsylvania's highest court has shown us the best justice that Fraternal Order of Police money can buy. Ignoring right reason, their own precedent, and fundamental justice, they have returned to the stranglehold of death. In their echoes of the tortured logic of Judge Albert Sabo, they have reflected a. striking fidelity to the DA's office. If it is fair to have a tribunal who are in part admittedly paid by the Fraternal Order of Police---and at least one justice who can double as DA one day and a judge the next in the same case--then fairness is just as empty a word as "justice." To paraphrase Judge Sabo, it is "just an emotional feeling." In recent months the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld death sentences in cases where an impartial reading of transcripts or pleadings would make an honest affirmation all but impossible. They have ignored all evidence of innocence, overlooked clear instances of jury taint, and cast a dead eye on defense attorneys' ineffectiveness. What they have done in my case is par for the course. This is a political decision, paid for by the Fraternal Order of Police on the eve of the election. It is a Mischief Night gift from a court that has a talent for the macabre. I am sorry that this court did not rule on the right side of history. But I am not surprised. Every time our nation has come to a fork in the road with regard to race, it has chosen to take the path of compromise and betrayal. On October 29th, 1998, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court committed a collective crime: it damned due process, strangled the fair trial, and raped justice. Even after this legal legerdemain [sleight of' hand] I remain innocent. A court cannot make an innocent man guilty. Any ruling founded on injustice is not justice. The righteous fight for life, liberty, and for justice can only continue. Mumia Abu-Jamal October 31st, 1998 Mumia's last scheduled execution date was in August 1995. That date was postponed in response to the huge outcry around the world for a new trial for this revolutionary leader. A new death warrant can be signed whenever the current appeal is denied. For this reason, 2,500 people demonstrated in Philadelphia in support of freedom for Mumia the weekend after the negative decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The most effective way to build a movement to free Mumia and our revolutionary leaders will be to paint this rotten system as it truly is. It is useful emphasize the fact that the judge in Mumia's trial was more of an animal than most judges, but it is counter-productive to the long term struggle for justice to endorse the rest of the system in the process of freeing Mumia. Mumia addressed the error of looking at individual "bad apples" rather than corrupt systems in a commentary on the May 13, 1985 police bombing and mass murder of MOVE members. (MOVE is a Black nationalist back-to-nature group that was singled out by the Philadelphia police for extermination.) "Why did May 13 happen? To look at May 13, 1985 as an isolated act of official evil is to fall victim to the wave of propaganda that washed over much of America since that fiery, fateful day. City officials and much of the media have painted a picture of bungling, errors of judgment and misfortune. Who can forget the idiotic imagery of the Major of the City of 'Brotherly Love' defending the carnage of Osage Avenue with the words, 'Perfect ... except for the fire'? "The truth points a far more felonious finger at authorities and exposes such portraits as pure fraud, for the May 13 massacre was not a monumental 'boo-boo,' as in the sense suggested by both the politicians and press. May 13 was no mere 'mistake,' not a 'bad day' nor an incident showing 'bad judgment.' No. May 13 was an exercise of *deliberate mass murder*, one *planned* and premeditated for months beforehand! For months prior to May 13, 1985 police tested high explosives at a city facility in its Northeast section. Was it mere 'coincidence' that a federal agent of the United States Department of Justice (FBI) would *give* Philadelphia police over 37 1/2 lbs of a potent military explosive (C-4)? How about the cop who 'happened' to add C-4 to the satchel bomb--William Klein? Was that a 'boo-boo?' And what of the commissioners of the Police and Fire Departments? When else will people see such 'civil servants' as these, who: (a) start a residential fire; (b) fail to fight it; and (c) use it as a 'tactical weapon' of mass murder and destruction? How does one plan, construct, drop and detonate an incendiary bomb by mistake? How does one barbecue babies by 'boo-boo'?" Mumia Abu-Jamal's case is one of many crimes committed against the people by the imperialist state and its murderous Amerikan followers. Every day, hundreds of thousands of members of Amerika's oppressed internal colonies are held captive behind the bars of one of the world's most repressive legal establishments. Most of these people were not political activists when they were jailed, but more of them are becoming activists and revolutionaries every day. The struggle to end oppression in Amerika is much bigger than one case. RAIL urges listeners to learn about Mumia Abu-Jamal's case, and to take action to stop the murderous execution. With the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's denial of Mumia Abu- Jamal's appeal for a new trail, his case has an exceptional urgency. We also urges listeners to see this case as a symbol of the repressive injustice system, which itself is a tool for imperialist oppression in the USA and all over the world. This has been Under Lock and Key, a weekly Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League program about prisons. For more information, contact: RAIL PO Box 712 Amherst MA 01004, or email mim@mim.org.Return to Under Lock and Key RAIL Radio Program page