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Vol.63/No.38       November 1, 1999 
 
 
'Stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal'  
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BY CANDACE WAGNER 
PHILADELPHIA — "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!" demanded some 1,000 protesters who rallied outside the state office building here October 16.

They turned out in response to Pennsylvania governor Thomas Ridge's signing of a death warrant for Abu-Jamal three days earlier. Local protests, from New York to Chicago and San Francisco, drew hundreds of people within days of the setting of the December 2 execution date.

Abu-Jamal, a journalist and Black rights activist, was railroaded to death row in 1982, accused of killing Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner.

The fight to prevent his execution and win a new trial that could lead to his release has gained international support.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused on October 4 to consider an early appeal on several specific charges that the state of Pennsylvania denied him a fair trial. This decision does not preclude the top court from considering these same issues following lower federal court appeals.

On October 15 Abu-Jamal's lawyers, Leonard Weinglass and Daniel Williams, filed a motion for a new trial in federal court and a request for a stay of execution pend- ing that appeal. They want to call witnesses who did not testify in the original trial, to present new evidence and bring evidence of police coercion of witnesses.

U.S. District Judge William Yohn, who has been assigned to the case, has the option of issuing a ruling solely on the written record of the 1982 trial. The 1996 "Effective Death Penalty Act" signed by President William Clinton was designed to discourage federal courts from granting new trials in state death penalty cases.

If Yohn rules that the appeal can be dealt with rapidly, before the December 2 execution date, he may refuse to stay the execution. The appeals process could take several years or go much more rapidly.

With the new stage in the fight, marchers expressed an increased urgency to campaign against the execution. The majority of those who rallied here were young people from all over the East Coast and beyond.

Atiya Hoya came up from Washington, D.C. Originally from Philadelphia, she recalled when a police bomb was dropped on a house occupied by the group MOVE in 1985. "Kids in school came in talking about the smoke in their houses," she said. Then Philadelphia mayor, Wilson Goode, ordered the bombing and blocked firefighters from battling the blaze. Eleven people were killed in the house and an entire city block of homes in the Black community was destroyed. Abu-Jamal wrote and spoke extensively of previous attacks on this group as well as other cases of police brutality.

Having lived through that experience, Hoya said she felt that "we aren't told the whole story by the government and the media. It isn't enough to learn the truth but we have to organize to get the word out."

The day before the rally Liz Sanger saw a flyer up at her school, Columbia College in Chicago, announcing that a bus was leaving in an hour to come to Philadelphia for the march. She got on the bus for the 14-hour trip.

Among the 32 others on that bus were Anita Mechler and Alexandra Gonzalez. They organize support for Abu-Jamal on their respective college campuses — Loyola and DePaul. They reported that recent cases of police brutality in Chicago have spurred interest in the Mumia Abu-Jamal case.

Fabio Ortiz traveled on a bus from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is a member of the Human Rights Club at his school. Ortiz said that besides building support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, death penalty opponents in North Carolina have been organizing opposition to the recent execution of a Black man in Greensboro.

Micah Wood came to the rally with friends to learn about the case of Abu-Jamal. His issue is the fight for a united Ireland.

Gordon Everett and David Gaiter are members of the United Auto Workers and work together at a General Motors parts plant outside of Pittsburgh. They estimated that 30 marchers came from that city. The two are veterans of past marches for Abu-Jamal. They reported that on the Thursday before, hundreds marched to the courthouse in Pittsburgh to protest the setting of an execution date.

While many motorists passing the march honked in support, an ambulance driver used his loudspeaker to shout, "let him fry, let him fry." A van passed the march with a sign painted "fry Mumia." In recent months the Fraternal Order of Police and Daniel Faulkner's widow have stepped up their campaign for the execution of Abu-Jamal.

Continuing actions are planned in Philadelphia and other cities to stop the execution and to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.  
 
 
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