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Justice
Fellow Columbaens,
I wanted to let you know about a couple of events taking place next week
relating to a cause I feel strongly about: the reform of our so-called
criminal justice system, which is utterly fucked up. Both events relate
to Mumia Abu-Jamal, the journalist and former Black Panther who is on
death row in Pennsylvania. I plan to go to the 12/6 march, so if anyone
else wants to go, talk to me.
On Thursday, December 4 at 8 pm, "Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case For Reasonable
Doubt" is being screened in Annenberg Auditorium.
On Saturday, December 6, there is a march and rally in San Francisco.
"FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL! End the Death Penalty! Stop Police Brutality!"
Assemble: 11:30 am Panhandle Oak & Baker
SF Rally: 1:30 pm UN Plaza - Market & 7th Street
If you want more information, talk to me, or read on: I've inclued lots
more below.
Refuse and Resist,
--Brian
*******************************************
to the racists and women-haters
to the gay-bashers and welfare slashers
to the prison builders and executioners
we say: the future is not yours!
*******************************************
The rest of the message:
1) About Mumia Abu-Jamal
2) Dec. 4 screening
3) Dec. 6 rally
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a revolutionary journalist and a former member of the
Black Panther party.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is currently a political prisoner.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is on death row in Pennsylvania, convicted under extremely
questionable circumstances of the murder of a police officer. There is an
international movement to grant Mumia a new trial, endorsed by Toni
Morrison, Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Cornel West, and Jacques Derrida,
among many others.
For more information about Mumia:
http://www.calyx.com/~refuse
The facts surrounding Mumia's trial, the movement to get the verdict
overturned, and more.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ***************************************************************************
> Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt
> Thursday, December 4, 1997
> 8 pm
> Introduction by Noelle Hanrahan
>
> Sponsored by the Stanford Film Society
> ***************************************************************************
>
>
> The Stanford Film Society (SFS) is presenting "Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for
> Reasonable Doubt?" on December 4th at 8 P.M. in Annenberg Auditorium. Come
> join us for this screening which examines "inconsistencies" in one of
> America's most controversial death penalty cases. The December 4th showing
> will be introduced by the former Stanford graduate, Noelle Hanrahan.
>
> Noted author, Alice Walker, responded to this film by saying, "Can a film
> help to open a jail cell? I think so. This film is a powerful statement
> about the state of democracy in North America today."
>
> When an earlier, shorter version of "Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable
> Doubt?" aired on HBO's "America Undercover" series, the President of the
> Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police was so outraged by what he
> interpreted as a sympathetic slant toward Abu-Jamal, that he asked the
> FOP's half-million members nationwide to cancel their subscriptions to the
> cable channel.
>
> In 1982, Mumia Abu-Jamal, a well- known journalist and writer, a former
> member of the Black Panther party and a supporter of the MOVE organization
> in Philadelphia, was convicted and sentenced to death for the December 9,
> 1981, murder of Daniel Faulkner, a white 25 year-old Philadelphia
> policeman. A world-wide movement to gain Abu-Jamal a new trial has raged
> ever since.
>
> Ms. Hanrahan (former graduate of Stanford) is a leader in the national
> movement to free Mumi Abu-Jamal. She is also an expert on censorship, media
> activism and investigative journalism. As Director of the Prison Radio
> Project, she is the producer of Mumia's recorded essays which were later
> compiled into the book Live from Death Row.
>
> for more information, contact:
> Seeta Gangadharan
> e: spun@iaj.xo.com
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
>
> There is a hard wind of cruel politics blowing across this land. Down from
> the highest offices of power, a whole political atmosphere and broad
> reactionary agenda is being generated. Mumia's case concentrates the
> silencing of political dissent, the criminalization of Black men, everything
> that is wrong with the death penalty, the gutting of defendants rights, the
> issue of police brutality, and judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.
>
> Refuse & Resist! joins with the International Concerned Family and Friends of
> Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Ad Hoc Coalition for a People's International
> Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu4arnal in Philadelphia, the December 6
> Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal in San Francisco, and the many other
> organizations and individuals to call for The People's International
> Tribunal in Philadelphia and The Mass March and Rally in San Francisco. We
> urge you to attend these events and
>
> Make December 6 a National Day of Protest!
>
> In December 1981 Mumia was shot by a Philadelphia cop and almost died when he
> came upon a scene where his own brother was being beaten by that cop. The
> police officer was also shot and killed, and witnesses saw two men run from
> the scene. When the Philadelphia police found that the surviving victim was a
> former Black Panther leader and revolutionary journalist who had exposed the
> police attacks on the MOVE organization, they immediately charged Mumia with
> murdering the police office. Known as the "Voice of the Voiceless," Mumia has
> consistently spoken and written in support of those under the gun. In
> retaliation, the Philadelphia media and the Fraternal Order of Police have
> since orchestrated a national campaign, speaking for the most powerful
> authorities in Pennsylvania and in the country, to have Mumia executed for a
> murder he did not commit.
>
> Today to Take a Stand for Justice and Against
> Racism Is to Take Up the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
>
> It is tempting to believe Mumia will eventually get a fair hearing in Federal
> Court. Over the past decade 35% of all death sentences appealed to federal
> court have been overturned. Many innocent people have been saved. But in 1996
> Congress passed and Clinton signed into law the "Anti Terrorism and Effective
> Death Penalty Act" that sharply restricts federal judicial review of death
> penalty cases. It even requires federal courts to accept as true any finding
> of fact by state courts. Before than, in 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
> that a defendant^Òs actual innocence was not relevant as long at the proper
> procedures were followed, and defendant Leonel Herrerra, an innocent man, was
> put to death by the state of Texas. This is the atmosphere in which Mumia
> would have to seek relief from the federal courts., should the Pennsylvania
> Supreme Court rule against him.
>
> Mumia's defense team has destroyed the prosecution's manufactured case
> against him. And yet the railroad continues. They are still out to murder
> Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia's case can only be won by massive and international
> protest, just as the frame-up and threatened executions of the Scottsboro
> Boys in 1932 was defeated, the prosecution of Huey Newton was overturned, and
> Geronimo Ji Jaga has been freed. In the summer of 1995 the power of the
> people stepped the execution of Mumia once. Building on that example, our
> movement must continue to grow in breadth and determination. Our demand is to
> drop the phony charges once and for all and to free Mumia.
>
>
> Now Is The Time To Act!
>
> Refuse & Resist!, 305 Madison Avenue, Suite 1166, New York, NY 10165, Phone:
> 212-713-5657. Fax: 212- 822-8535. E-mail: refuse@calyx.com. Web site:
> www.calyx.com/~refuse.
>
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
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