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Mumia's Life Is In Our Hands
By Donna Wallach & Kiilu Nyasha
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been living on Pennsylvania's death row since 1982 when he was convicted of murdering a police officer. The Philadelphia police, FBI, and prosecutors know Mumia is innocent. In the original trial, the prosecution and police coerced witnesses to falsify testimony, fabricated evidence, unconstitutionally dismissed 11 qualified African-American jurors from the jury, conspired to remove Mumia from the courtroom for most of his trial, and saddled him with an unqualified public defender while denying him his right to represent himself and choose his own co-counsel.
Moreover, Mumia's trial was adjudicated by "hanging judge" Albert Sabo, notorious for his alliance with Philadelphia's racist Fraternal Order of Police (a card-carrying member) and overt bias in favor of the prosecutors.
Mumia's latest Federal appeal (and mostly likely his last) was filed over a year ago with Philadelphia Federal District Court Judge William Yohn who has failed to schedule a hearing for oral arguments to date. We had hoped to see Mumia in court last April, but have since learned that Judge Yohn doesn't even have to call Mumia into Court in order to rule.
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