BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
PHILADELPHIA - The death penalty was dealt a blow here August 12 as more than 3,500 people marched to celebrate the stay of execution for Black activist Mumia Abu-Jamal and to demand a new trial for him. Thousands of young people from around the country chanted "Free Mumia Now" as they left city hall and marched to the Constitution Mall. Abu-Jamal, scheduled to be executed August 17, was granted a stay of execution by Common Pleas judge Albert Sabo on August 7.
Sabo, known as a "hanging judge," put Abu-Jamal on death row for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia cop. Members of Sabo's staff said this was the first stay of execution he has ever granted.
The judge has slated twice as many people for state- sanctioned murder than any other judge in the United States.
"No one could have predicted that this movement would have grown and mushroomed as it has among such a broad spectrum of people," Abu-Jamal told radio reporters in an interview the week before the rally.
Support for Abu-Jamal picked up steam as the execution date drew near. Several rallies were organized on his behalf in other cities around the United States including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, St. Louis, Houston, and Chicago. Similar actions took place in Paris; London; Dublin, Ireland; Sydney, Australia; Pretoria, South Africa; and Volta Redonda, Brazil.
"We are here to tell the powers that be that there should be an end to capital punishment," Clarence Brandley, a former death row inmate, told the crowd. "We want to demand a new trial."
Brandley was framed up on charges of rape and murder in Texas and freed after protests won him a new trial. Brandley had been in Philadelphia for a week before the demonstration to organize support for Abu-Jamal. "Keep up the fire because the war has not been won," Brandley added.
A broad range of organizations and prominent individuals endorsed the demonstration, including former New Mexico governor Toney Anaya, actor Ed Asner, writer Alice Walker, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Jesse Jackson, and movie producer Oliver Stone. Some of the groups sponsoring the action were the American Friends Service Committee; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District Council 37 in New York City; International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union; and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Mandela sends message of support
Dennis Mumble brought greetings from the African
National Congress of South Africa. "I bring words of
solidarity, of encouragement, of hope," he said. "As surely
as the death penalty was finally outlawed in South Africa,
so shall it be put to sleep in the rest of the world."
Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa and of the ANC, sent a letter to Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge. "On humanitarian grounds I urge you to use your power as Governor of the State of Pennsylvania to commute the death sentence imposed upon Mumia Abu-Jamal," Mandela wrote. "The Constitutional Court of South Africa has recently declared that the death penalty is inconsistent with the right to life, the right to dignity and the right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment as enshrined in the Bill of Fundamental Rights in the South African Constitution."
"I was in Cuba when I heard about the stay," said Safiya Bukhari, co-chair of the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition in New York. "In Cuba the people are behind us 100 percent," she continued.
Leaders among established civil rights groups have begun to add their weight to demand a new trial for Abu-Jamal. "Injustice brings me here, said Rev. Randel Osburn, national administrator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. SCLC issued a "solidarity statement in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal" demanding "that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court remove Judge Sabo from Abu-Jamal's case and that he be granted a new trial."
Movement growing for new trial
Thousands of youth have been drawn to the fight for
justice for Abu-Jamal and the hundreds who turned out in
Philadelphia added a militant spirit to the action. A rap
group of young Blacks who called themselves "Nam" performed
skits during the march to the mall. "We're not just a rap
group, we're political activists," said Jeremiah Muhsin,
21. "We call Philadelphia `Killadelphia' because of the
unjust murders by cops that occur in this city. We saw what
happened with MOVE."
On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a row house where members of the Black group MOVE resided. Eleven people were killed, including four children, and 61 homes burned down in the murderous assault.
Many youth active in struggles against cop violence made their way to the march. Pedro Pagan, 22, and Jermaine Harris, 16, were part a group of young activists from Paterson, New Jersey, who participated in the demonstration.
The two were members of "We, the Youth," which was formed out of a struggle to win justice for Lawrence Myers. Myers died in February after being shot in the head by a Paterson cop. "I want to learn, to find out what is going on, and take it back home," said Harris, who was on the basketball team with Myers at Kennedy High School.
Several auto workers, members of United Auto Workers Local 980 at the Ford plant in Metuchen, New Jersey, came on the two buses organized from New Brunswick.
"It's important for everyone at this rally to remember that pressure has to continue as it has today," said Bud Haithcoat, who has worked at the Ford plant for the past 25 years. Haithcoat said he plans to spread the word about Abu- Jamal's case and this demonstration throughout the plant when he returns to work.
Latinos United for Mumia Abu-Jamal brought three buses from Washington Heights in New York City. "Mumia Querido, el pueblo está contigo!"(Dear Mumia, the people are with you) they chanted during the march.
Silvio, a member of the Dominican Workers Party and a participant in the coalition, said, "Mumia Abu-Jamal is a brother of the Latin community. His struggle is our struggle. We are opposed to the death penalty, which is a racist law."
In Vancouver, British Columbia, 200 people rallied August 10 to oppose the execution of Abu-Jamal, while in Auckland, New Zealand, 40 people marched to the U.S. consulate in support of his case.
The National Union of Journalists organized a meeting in London August 10 to demand justice for Abu-Jamal. NUJ deputy general secretary Jacob Ecclestone reported that his union made Abu-Jamal an honorary member, the only time this has been done in the group's history.
The cops' countercampaign against Abu-Jamal continues, however. Lynne Abraham, the Philadelphia district attorney, wrote a guest editorial for the August 13 New York Times castigating Abu-Jamal's supporters for organizing a "well financed propaganda machine bent on perverting justice" and trying "to turn a murderer into a martyr."
Glova Scott, member of United Transportation Union in Philadelphia, and Brian Williams, member of United Food and Commercial Workers union in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.