Supporters of democratic rights need to build on this victory to demand a new trial for Abu-Jamal, urge that he be freed immediately, and condemn the judge's decision to uphold the frame-up murder conviction.

Over the course of two decades of speaking out against the brutal conditions in U.S. prisons and on behalf of hundreds of thousands of toilers who find themselves behind bars, Abu-Jamal has become an emblem of the struggle for Black rights, for justice against frame-ups, and against state-sanctioned murder--including on-the-spot executions by killer cops. On two occasions, execution dates set by former Pennsylvania governor and now Homeland Security chief Thomas Ridge for the death row inmate were beaten back by protests and the stepped-up working-class resistance to the bosses' assaults on working people.

As the U.S. rulers have dramatically expanded the use of the death penalty, wider layers of working people in the United States have begun to reject the rationalizations and right of the government to execute people. As workers and farmers resist employer and government assaults, it is easier to see the inherent class bias of the death penalty's use; the workings of the racist police and justice system that puts a higher percentage of people of color on death row; and the fact that frame-ups of workers and farmers are the norm under capitalism, putting completely innocent people on death row.

The U.S. big-business media has noted the waning support for the death penalty--a trend that is aided by fights by working people facing execution who have exposed their trials as a sham. One Supreme Court justice admitted that among dozens of death row inmates whose cases appeared before the High Court, not one received adequate legal representation.

In addition, Washington's imperialist rivals in Europe are scandalizing the grisly U.S. death chamber production line. In this way they try to paint themselves as more civilized and a better option for working people around the world. Official capital punishment has been outlawed or suspended in virtually every country of Europe, while executions on the street, death on the job, and other forms of capital punishment against working people continue apace.

One aspect of the imperialist assault on working people over the past months has been to use the "terrorism" scam to recoup some of the ground the U.S. rulers have lost on the death penalty. Using the events around September 11, the rulers are making preparations to impose a death sentence on Zacarias Moussaoui, a Moroccan man accused of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. They are pressing full steam ahead despite their acknowledgment in the media that no evidence links him to the attack on the World Trade Center, and that he had been held in prison since August--weeks before the attacks. And they hold the option of using military tribunals--virtual kangaroo courts--to impose the death penalty on those hauled before them.

Opponents of the death penalty, along with all working people, can use this victory to press forward in the fight for a new trial for Abu-Jamal and to renew the demands: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Abolish the death penalty!
 
 
Related article:
Judge lifts death sentence in case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, denies new trial  
 
 
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