Vol. 72/No. 41      October 20, 2008

Abu-Jamal was a prominent fighter for Black rights, served as the president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, and had been a founding member of the local chapter of the Black Panther Party. While being held on death row, he has continued to write about politics and champion the defense of other frame-up victims, including American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier.

On the first day of its new session, the court refused to take up hundreds of cases appealed to it over the last year, including Abu-Jamal’s unjust conviction.

The rejected appeal challenged Abu-Jamal’s conviction because of evidence discovered after his trial that the cops and the prosecution pressured witnesses to lie in an effort to drive their frame-up effort through.

Abu-Jamal won an important victory earlier this year, when a federal court here overturned his death sentence on the basis that the jury had been incorrectly instructed. But that court also upheld his conviction. The state continues to hold him on death row.

The fight to win a new trial for Abu-Jamal has won support around the world, from Nelson Mandela to Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, to the national NAACP.

Robert Bryan, Abu-Jamal’s lawyer, said that the defense will go before the Supreme Court again later this year, presenting evidence that African Americans were improperly excluded from the jury. Ten clearly qualified Blacks were barred from the jury by prosecutors, leaving a jury of 10 whites and two Blacks in a city that is nearly half Black.

“I will not rest until Mumia is free,” Bryan said. “That he remains in prison and on death row is a travesty of justice and an affront to civilized standards. We must all continue to fight for what is right, and not lose hope. Free Mumia.”

For more information or to get involved in defense efforts, contact International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal at www.mumia.org.  
 
 
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