International struggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal

A critical hearing is scheduled Nov. 9 in the nearly three-decade-old case of journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who sits on death row in Pennsylvania. Mumia was severely wounded and arrested on Dec. 9, 1981, in Philadelphia and was later charged, tried and convicted of the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner.

After a grossly unjust prosecution was carried out in 1982, Mumia, a former Black Panther Party leader and MOVE organization supporter, was given the death penalty. Although Mumia’s death sentence was subsequently overturned, the prosecution has repeatedly attempted to reinstate the penalty and carry out his execution.

A Jan. 19 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the 2001 and 2008 decisions that rescinded the death penalty in Abu-Jamal’s case. There is an ongoing campaign by law enforcement agencies across the country to pressure the courts into carrying out Mumia’s execution.

An international defense campaign for both Abu-Jamal’s freedom and the elimination of the U.S. death penalty has grown since the early 1980s. The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, MOVE and other organizations have been consistent over the years in fighting not only to save the life of this award-winning writer and hero to millions around the globe, but to raise the profile of other political prisoners incarcerated in the U.S.

Two death warrants were signed for Mumia: one in 1995 and another in 1999. Both warrants were stayed by the courts after campaigns to save Mumia’s life mobilized people from all over the U.S. and the world.

A key element in building massive support was the role played by activists, journalists, trade unionists, intellectuals and political officials in Western Europe, Africa, Japan and other parts of the globe.

Leading figures such as former South African President Nelson Mandela and his ruling African National Congress, along with former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, demanded that the scheduled execution be stopped. These developments took place in the aftermath of the defeat of the racist apartheid systems in South Africa and Namibia, in which people in the U.S. and all over the world had participated.

Mumia’s articles, interviews and books have been published in numerous countries and have served to win further support for his release as well as the abolition of the U.S. death penalty, which has for more than a century been implemented in a racist and class-oriented manner. In Mumia’s case, the fact that he had been a leading member of the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia was used during the penalty phase of his trial to place him on death row.

European Union discusses Mumia’s case

The death penalty in the U.S. has gained attention in recent weeks due to the execution of two mentally disabled inmates: Teresa Lewis of Virginia and Holly Wood of Alabama. At present 35 states in the U.S. still have the death penalty, although four have not carried out any executions since 1976, when the practice was reinstituted after it was overturned in 1972.

The Obama administration is not opposed to the death penalty and has not spoken out about the executions in Alabama and Virginia.

The European Union foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton was recently urged to raise the U.S. death penalty, along with the plight of Abu-Jamal. In a European parliamentary debate on Oct. 6, Danish Member of European Parliament Soren Sondergaard stated that he “deplored” the execution of defenseless inmates, including Abu-Jamal.

Sondergaard noted: “The death penalty itself is a crime. But it is often more than that; waiting on death row in miserable conditions for years is torture. Capital punishment is also a form of terror, used to frighten people from resisting oppression and dictatorship.

“African-American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal — the voice of the voiceless — is a key symbol of struggle against the death penalty. For nearly 30 years he has sat on death row, convicted in a trial notable for its errors and racism. High representative Ashton should raise the case with U.S. authorities — in the fight against the death penalty there is no room for double standards. In the fight against the death penalty there applies only one standard: unconditional rejection.” (The Parliament, Oct. 7)

The European Parliament passed a resolution Oct. 2 opposing the executions of both Mumia Abu-Jamal and Troy Davis of Georgia. Davis, who has also won international support, remains on death row for a crime he did not commit.

German Left Party delegate Sabine Loesing was pleased that the resolution passed with broad support. She said she would make sure that adequate pressure was placed on Ashton’s office to raise this issue during meetings with the Obama administration. (www.sabine-loesing.de, Oct. 9)