BY PETE SEIDMAN
PHILADELPHIA - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the
post-conviction appeal of death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal
October 29. Gov. Thomas Ridge is expected to sign a new death
warrant shortly. State law requires a death date be set within
60 days after that. If a warrant is issued, Mumia will be
stripped of his legal materials and possessions and denied
visitors.
In a statement, Mumia Abu-Jamal blasted the ruling. "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."
The court's ruling sparked immediate protests, from San Francisco to New York and Minneapolis. It marks a turning point in this case, which has been a focal point of death penalty opponents since Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and prominent Black journalist, was framed-up and convicted in 1982 for the shooting death of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner a year earlier.
About 500 people marched through midtown Manhattan October 31 to denounce the court ruling against Abu-Jamal and protest any move toward his execution. In addition to longtime supporters of his fight for justice, young people who had never taken part in such an action before joined the demonstration. Five young women from Europe who are working as au pairs in Connecticut, in New York for an evening away from tending children, were among the passersby who decided to join in the march. Several other protest actions took place over the next couple of days. Eighty people rallied in Minneapolis November 1, including relatives of a young man who was beaten to death by the city police October 12. Organizers of the protest announced plans for another march and rally November 14.
The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu- Jamal (ICFF) is urging all supporters to attend a rally on Saturday, November 7 at 12 noon at the Pennsylvania State Office Building at Spring Garden Street and Broad Street in Philadelphia.
Abu-Jamal's attorney, Leonard Weinglass, announced that he would soon file a habeas corpus appeal in Philadelphia Federal District Court. Since 1977, such appeals have resulted in federal courts overturning approximately 35 percent of all death sentences handed down by state courts -a partial indication of the flagrant violations of the rights of the disproportionately Black, Latino, and overwhelmingly working- class victims of the capitalist legal system.
But under the 1996 "Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act," rushed into law by Congress and signed by President William Clinton using the pretext of the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, severe restrictions have been placed on such appeals.
According to literature distributed by the ICFF, the effect of these new rules on Abu-Jamal's case are substantial. "They require the federal courts to assume that findings of fact by the state courts are true. In the past, the federal courts conducted a new and independent examination of the facts in the case. Now the federal courts are not supposed to reassess the evidence. They are to presume whatever the state court found to be true. This.... puts the burden on the prisoner to prove he is clearly innocent, rather than the state having to prove he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."
Because the Pennsylvania high court's 71-page ruling rejected out of hand all the important new evidence presented by Mumia Abu-Jamal's defense at his Post Conviction Review Appeal, under the 1996 law the Federal District Court is not supposed to look into any of those revelations.
At Abu-Jamal's 1995 hearing, several prosecution witnesses said they had lied at the original trial under pressure from the cops. New evidence of police favors granted to other witnesses who testified against Abu-Jamal was presented, and the pro-prosecution conduct by presiding Judge Albert Sabo was so blatant that afterward he was removed from the bench. Following the appeal, a scandal developed when official videos from the Philadelphia Attorney General's office became public. The training videos offered suggestions for how to exclude Blacks from juries.
The day after Judge Sabo was removed from the bench by the State Supreme Court, the Philadelphia Inquirer commented Nov. 26, 1997, that he had "acquired the reputation of being the king of death row. For 14 years, he presided over nothing but homicide cases, and 31 defendants left his court with death sentences. An Inquirer survey several years ago found no other judge in the country with as many defendants on death row."
One of the judges who presided in the State Supreme Court's ruling is Ronald Castille. He submitted a document along with the ruling explaining why he shouldn't recuse himself from it despite defense charges that he was the District Attorney of Philadelphia during the time that office was blocking efforts Abu-Jamal's to win a new trial. Castille signed all the prosecution's briefs against Abu-Jamal's earlier appeal in the State Supreme Court.
Cecelia Moriarity, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in the November 3 elections, issued a statement condemning the Supreme Court's ruling. "Now is the time for all supporters of justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal and all those opposed to the death penalty to mobilize," she said. "All working people have a stake in fighting the death penalty, a weapon of terror against all of us that falls hardest on Blacks and other oppressed nationalities. We should keep up the demand a new trial.
"The Supreme Court's ruling comes at a time when there is growing revulsion against the systematic police violence, corruption, frame-ups, and cover-ups. The opportunity to mobilize all working people, who are increasingly on the receiving end of trouble from the cops, not only in our neighborhoods but on our picket lines, is growing.
"And the gravity of the October 29 ruling will prompt new layers of fighters to join this struggle, as happened the last time a death warrant was signed - resulting in big street protests that forced the government to retreat from their long- term goal of executing Abu-Jamal. Now is the time to make the government pay the highest possible political price for the crimes of its cops and its courts."
Glova Scott in New York and Gaetan Whiston in Minneapolis contributed to this article.