[Image] CURRENT PRESS RELEASES Please print this file and circulate this information. Press Contact Numbers: 215-476-8812 Pam Africa; 203-847-6721 Susan Burnett Fax: 215-476-7551 or 203-846-1937 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRIBUNAL VERDICT GIVEN TO UNITED NATIONS International Judges Demand Mumia's Freedom 12/09/97 Planning Committee, People's International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu- Jamal New York, N.Y. For further information contact: Linda Thurston (718) 857-7167 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL CONCLUDES MUMIA ABU-JAMAL'S CASE VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PRESENTS ITS FINDINGS TO U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY On Wednesday, December 10, 1997, which is International Human Rights Day, the U.N. Human Rights Commission will receive the document expressing the conclusions drawn at the People's International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal convened last week-end in Philadelphia. Roger Wareham, one of several attorneys who presented evidence, along with Gamal Nkrumah and Julia Wright, who served as Tribunal Judges, will deliver the document to the Center for Human Rights at the United Nations' New York headquarters. Twenty-three citizen judges, drawn from France, Haiti, South Africa, Egypt, Spain, Germany and the United States, signed the document condemning the violation of Mumia Abu-Jamal{s human rights, and called for his immediate release from Pennsylvania's death row. The People's International Tribunal was convened to hear the evidence supporting charges brought against a host of defendants, including the Governor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Ridge, The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Police Department of Philadelphia, Mayor Ed Rendell, former Judge of Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas Albert Sabo, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Attorney General Janet Reno. The accused federal, state, and city agencies and officers are bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the 1984 Convention on the Suppression of Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, all of which the United States has ratified. The judges received a day long compilation of visual, spoken, and written testimony. Experts, fact witnesses, and community members, revealed the material excluded from the court proceedings, and presented some previously unknown information about the behavior of the individuals and agencies charged with conspiracy to violate Mumia Abu-Jamal's legal, civil, and human rights. The Tribunal, constituted along accepted international law principles articulated in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, did not sit as a court of law but has the authority to examine crimes against peace, the crime of genocide, and crimes against humanity. The People's International Tribunal adopted the procedures approved by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The judges heard and watched background information on the 1960s about the city, state and federal government surveillance of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther Party member who later became an award-winning journalist before his arrest on charges of murdering a Philadelphia policeman in 1981. At the conclusion of the day long hearing, the judges conducted private deliberations. Their conclusions were summarized in a three page document that stated the named agencies and officials blatantly violated Mumia Abu-Jamal's constitutional and human rights, which led to "his unjust conviction, unlawful incarceration, and illegal death sentence." The document also recommended holding a thorough, impartial, international investigation into the conduct of the Philadelphia Police Department, the CounterIntelligenceProgram (COINTELPRO) of the FBI, the 1985 bombing of the MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia, and that those public officials found responsible for violation of Mumia Abu-Jamal's human rights should be removed from office. The document from the People's International Tribunal was signed in front of hundreds of people who traveled to the hearing from all over the country. The signatories included FrancŽse Araneu,(Spain), Christoph Arnold, Barbara Nimri Aziz, John Black, Dennis Brutus (South Africa),Gilma Camargo, PhilŽ Chinosesu, Asia Coney, Myriam Falco-Mairat (France), Herman Ferguson, Marita Golden, Rev. Cecil Gray, Martha Grevatt, Mattie Humphrey, John Judge, Yuri Kochiyama, Pierre Leroy (Haiti),Jim Lester, Gamal Nkrumah,(Egypt) Ulf Panzer (Germany), Queen Ivory, Father Paul Washington, and Julia Wright. Attending also were international observers: Benoit Bechet, (Guyane), Gilbert Pago (Martinique) Human Rights attorney Richard Harvey, of the New York firm of Steven, Hinds and White (212-864-4445), served as counsel to the Tribunal. Michael Warren, Esq. (718-230-9790) was the lead prosecutor. The entire proceedings were video-taped and audio taped. For further information, contact human rights activist Linda Thurston (718) 857-7167. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Geronimo Ji Jaga to Attend People's Tribunal Ex-POW still faces legal battle 12/01/97 PRESS RELEASE Geronimo Ji Jaja Pratt will be attending the People's International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu Jamal on December 6th and 7th in Philadelphia, PA. Learn about Geronimo's upcoming legal fight for his freedom! Be sure that you are there for this historical event. We are demanding that the state Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and dismiss all charges against him. We have the evidence to prove his innocence! Funds are critically needed to make sure this tribunal is a major success. Make out all contributions to Black United Fund/Mumia Abu-Jamal - Tribunal and send to International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal PO Box 19709 Philadelphia, PA 19143 Voice 215-476-8812 Fax 215-476-7551 All contributions are tax deductible ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PEOPLES TRIBUNAL UPDATE Directions to the Blue Horizon 12/01/97 From New York and points North: Take NJ Turnpike and exit at 7 A. Proceed West on 195 and exit at 295 North (Princeton exit). Remain on 295 North as it will automatically turn into 95 South. Remain on 95 South for approximately 40 miles (or less). It will take you into Philadelphia. Take the right 4 lanes and exit into Central Philadelphia. After exiting right, get into the 2 left lanes for 676 West, then exit on Broad Street going North. The Blue Horizon is at 1314 Broad Street, one block North of Girard. (Broad St. would be the numerical equivalent of 14th St.) From Delaware, Maryland and points South: Take 95 North. Take the first exit after the Philadelphia International Airport exit. It will be for Central Philadelphia. Stay right and exit again at the sign for Central Philadelphia. After exiting, stay in the left lane and semi-circle to the left and over the bridge. Stay in the left lanes and turn left at the bottom of the bridge onto Penrose Ave. This will lead directly to 76 West after and work yourself over to the right lane. Exit onto 676 East to Central Philadelphia. Stay in the right center lane and exit at Broad Street North. Proceed to the Blue Horizon at 1314 Broad Street, one block North of Girard. From Southern New Jersey, Camden, etc.: Proceed across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and take 676 West. Exit on Broad Street going North. The Blue Horizon is at 1314 Broad Street, one block North of Girard. From the West or Northwest: Take the Philadelphia Turnpike 76 into Philadelphia. Proceed on 76 East to Central Philadelphia and exit at 676 East to Central Philadelphia. Stay in the right center lane and exit at Broad Street North. Proceed to the Blue Horizon at 1314 Broad Street, one block North of Girard. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CIVIL SUIT APPEAL DATE SET December 8th at Federal Court 12/01/97 The appeal of Mumia{s civil suit against prison officials is going to be heard in the Federal Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on December 8. Mumia is not allowed to attend, but is asking his supporters to pack the courtroom. The oral argument will last only 30 minutes. The Court's address: Federal Building 6th and Market Streets Philadelphia, PA Please be there at 9AM ----------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR JUSTICE 11/09/97 Ad Hoc Coalition for a Peoples International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143 tel: (215) 476-8812 fax: (215) 476-7551 email: mumia@aol.com URL: http://www.mumia.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Marilyn Kai Jewett (215) 842-9055 Pam Africa: (215) 476-8812 Susan Burnett: (203) 846-1937 INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR MUMIA TO BE HELD IN PHILADELPHIA PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 30 -- People from throughout the world who believe in truth and justice will descend on Philadelphia's Blue Horizon Saturday, December 6 to witness the Peoples International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Initiated by the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the tribunal will investigate the government's conspiracy to silence, deny justice to and take the life of Abu-Jamal. An outspoken journalist and people's advocate, Abu-Jamal was convicted of the murder of a Philadelphia police office and now sits on Pennsylvania's death row. The tribunal will consist of an international panel of prominent jurists, political leaders, labor and community activists, cultural figures and others concerned with truth and justice. The panel will hear the true facts of the case and expose the evidence that was suppressed in Abu-Jamal's trial. Witnesses who were barred from the courtroom will be called to testify on their personal experiences with police corruption and racism. Representatives of other political prisoners, families of victims of police brutality and the death penalty and former prisoners will also participate in the historic tribunal. People are organizing worldwide to attend this important event in the "City of Brotherly Love." "The government has used false charges, a fraudulent trial, brutal imprisonment and has imposed the death penalty in an effort to silence our brother forever," explained Pam Africa, coordinator of the tribunal who has fought for a new trial on behalf of Abu-Jamal since 1982. "We want people to understand that this is not just about Mumia. The conspiracy against Mumia is part of a larger pattern of police brutality, corruption, racism and disparity in sentencing the poor. Only through a mobilization of the masses demanding truth and justice for Mumia and all political prisoners will the conspiracy be exposed." Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge has stated publicly that he will sign the death warrant if the State Supreme Court denies the motion for a new trial. Given the make-up of the court and the narrow body of evidence allowed, the prospects for a new trial are dim. The Ad Hoc Coalition For A People's International Tribunal For Justice For Mumia Abu-Jamal was formed to organize the tribunal to raise the consciousness of the people and bring the true facts surrounding this case to light. To join the coalition to help make this effort a success call (215) 476-8812. "Today it's Mumia. Tomorrow it may be you," said Africa. GO TO: PARTIAL LIST OF ENDORSERS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SAN FRANCISCO SOLIDARITY MARCH & RALLY Dec. 6: End the Death Penalty! Stop Police Brutality! 11/08/97 Assemble: 11:30 a.m. Panhandle - Oak & Baker Rally: 1:30 p.m. UN Plaza - Market & 7th Speakers: Ramona Africa, Move Organization Ossie Davis, actor, Co-chair, Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal Afeni Shakur, former political prisoner [Panther 21]; mother, Tupac Shakur Noelle Hanrahan, Prison Radio Project/Quixote Center Ron Kovic, Vietnam vet, author Robert Meeropol, son of executed political prisoners [The Rosenbergs] Angela Davis, prof., UC Santa Cruz and others Entertainment: African Roots of Jazz, Dr. Loco's Rocking Jalapeno Band, others Sponsored by December 6th Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, 3425 Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco, CA 94110; Phone: (415) 821-0459; Fax: (415) 821-0166 Want to help free Mumia? The coalition meetings are open to all. Meetings are at Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia (near 16th St.,), S.F., at 10:30 a.m. on the following Saturdays: Nov. 15, Nov. 22, Nov. 29. Be There! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL THINGS CENSORED From the NEA to NPR 11/08/97 Limited seats available please call early. All Things Censored: From the NEA to NPR featuring: Martin Espada, Cherrie Moraga, Dorothy Allison, & Amy Goodman (host of Democracy Now!) reading their work & Commentaries by Mumia Abu-Jamal A benefit Saturday November 22nd Brava Theater Center (24th at York) San Francisco, California 7:30 Performance $25 general admission, $50 rsvd, $100 sponsor/reception (5:30) for tickets call 415-648-4505 Prison Radio/Quixote Center and Brava! for Women in the Arts join for All Things Censored: From the NEA to NPR, a benefit on November 22 at 7:30 pm to celebrate freedom of expression with some of the Bay Area's most gifted writers and thinkers and to welcome New York poet Martin Espada to the West Coast. Espada, the recipient of the American Book Award for his fifth book of poetry, Imagine the Angels of Bread, has been called "the Latino poet of his generation." In addition, Cherrie Moraga, Amy Goodman, and Dorothy Allison will be reading both their own work and commentaries by Mumia Abu-Jamal, the award winning radio journalist who has spent the last 16 years on Pennsylvania's death row. In 1994, Abu-Jamal became a regular commentator for National Public Radio (NPR), only to see the broadcasts censored. Several of this event's participants also have experience with censorship. In the wake of Abu-Jamal's imbroglio with NPR, the station hired Puerto Rican poet and professor Martin Espada as a regular commentator. This was a lucrative financial and career opportunity by anyone's standards, but after NPR commissioned him to write a poem for All Things Considered, Espada made a bold move and wrote about Mumia Abu-Jamal. NPR immediately fired him. After media mogul Ted Turner bought the rights to Dorothy Allison's novel Bastard Out of Carolina, he rejected Anjelica Huston's film version, which many considered to be a ground-breaking treatment of incest. BRAVA's Drama DIVAS program, an organization serving young lesbians and gays with which Cherrie Moraga works closely, recently got caught in the crossfire of the latest round of attacks on the NEA. All Things Censored: From the NEA to NPR takes place Saturday November 22, 7:30 pm at Brava Theater Center (24th at York). Tickets for the benefit are $25 general admission, $50 reserved, and $100 for the event and the 5:30 p.m. reception. For more information call 415-648-4505. This tribute to the First Amendment will premiere a series of monthly commentaries by notable artists reading Abu-Jamal's essays on Pacifica Radio's daily award winning public affairs show Democracy Now!. At a time when 5.1 million people and one out of every three Black men are under correctional control, these essays will air monthly until the ban on prison recordings is lifted and the world can once again hear Mumia Abu-Jamal's voice. For the past seven years, the San Francisco based Prison Radio Project (PRP) has been fighting censorship on the front lines of the cultural wars by producing the radio essays of Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose voice from death row adds immediacy, depth, and passion to the nationwide controversy surrounding race, capital punishment, and freedom of speech. When NPR's All Things Considered banned Abu-Jamal's commentaries in 1994 after intensive pressure from the conservative right, PRP responded by producing and distributing his powerful essays throughout the world. The Prison Radio Project initiated the publication of Live From Death Row (Addison Wesley), a best-selling collection of these essays which are also featured in the HBO film Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt. Martin Espada has been called "the Latino poet of his generation". His fifth book of poetry, Imagine the Angels of Bread (W.W. Norton), won the American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. Dorothy Allison is an acclaimed novelist whose titles includes Bastard Out of Carolina and Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. She is currently at work on a new novel entitled Cavedweller. Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist on Pennsylvania's death row. He is the author of Live from Death Row and Death Blossoms. According to Time Magazine, he is "perhaps the most publicized death row case... he has developed a worldwide following." In addition, his voice can be heard on the collection of essays From Death Row: This is Mumia Abu-Jamal (Prison Radio/Quixote) as well as a spoken word album entitled Mumia Abu-Jamal (Alternative Tentacles) Amy Goodman is an award-winning reporter and host of Democracy Now!, Pacifica Radio's daily national radio show. As News Director of WBAI, Amy has won numerous awards for her investigative reporting, most notable of which was for her courageous coverage of the massacre in East Timor. Cherrie Moraga is a poet, playwright, and essayist and is co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. She is the author of numerous plays including Shadow of a Man and Watsonville, both of which received the Fund for New American Plays Award from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Heroes and Saints, winner of the 1992 Pen West Award for Drama. Moraga's new book, Waiting in the Wings, was released in October by Firebrand Press. She teaches in the Drama Department at Stanford University. Prison Radio/Quixote is the producer of Mumia Abu-Jamal's recorded essays and other groundbreaking radio programs from the depths of America's prisons. Brava! for Women in the Arts is recognized as one of the nation's few non-profit theaters that specializes in the creation of original work and the only one in the country whose primary purpose is to produce world premieres of new plays by outstanding women of color and lesbians. It's mission is to develop and produce new theatre works that give voice to the unspoken realities of women's lives and bring a multicultural and feminist aesthetic to the American stage. In a time when conservatives are defining, and therefore limiting, what is acceptable public art and public discourse, grassroots community organizations are taking an aggressive stance in order to reclaim lost territory. For Brava! for Women in the Arts, this has involved the purchase and renovation of a 13,000 square foot building in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District. Over 20,000 people have already passed through the doors of the Brava Theater Center (former York Theater) in the past year. After the building renovations, the BTC will be a thriving community cultural center that will act as a haven for progressive artistic, social and political expression P.S. In order to be on the ZAP fax alert e-mail send your email address to radioqc@sirius.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ONE MILLION WITNESSES RENDELL SERVED WITH INDICTMENT 11/08/97 OPEN LETTER TO THE MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA, ED RENDELL, FROM JULIA WRIGHT READ FROM THE PLATFORM OF THE MILLION WOMAN MARCH IN PHILADELPHIA ON OCTOBER 25TH 1997 Mr. Mayor, It seems that I am addressing an empty chair since, after inviting yourself to the platform of the Black Women of the People, you left early when the booing started. Mr Mayor, on June 5th of this year, a historical delegation came to see you from across the seas, from across the world. These ambassadors of good will had asked to be received by you to enjoin you, in your capacity as the former district attorney at the time of Mumia Abu Jamal's trial, to speak up in favour of a new trial for an internationally respected journalist, writer and community leader. The fact remains that after 16 years on your death row, Mumia, who is black and poor, was never given a fair chance to prove the innocence he has maintained from day one, the innocence his defense team has ample new evidence to substantiate. The reason why the international peace delegation travelled so far to be guests in your city and be received by you was that they knew that, back then, as district attorney, you could have chosen to say that the Commonwealth had no case against Mumia, the native son of Philadelphia. But you did not so choose. And Mumia was sentenced to death. With your blessings. The members of that delegation and dozens of supporters were left in a narrow corridor in front of your closed door guarded with selected members of your discredited police force and an unusual number of plainclothes officers. Mr Mayor, I was part of that delegation and I was shocked. After an hour of this face-to-face, we were informed that you were not available, that there was no member of your staff to receive the delegates on your behalf. We were left in front of your door, packed like animals, guarded like delinquents not the delgates of world opinion we were. Let me remind you who some of those animals were, Mr Mayor. One of them was the son and political heir of the greatest statesman of Africa to this day: the late President Kwame Nkrumah who brought panafricanism to power in Ghana and who succesfully obtained from President Eisenhower in 1958 that the governor of Alabama reverse the death sentence of a man both black and poor. Another one of the animals you left in your hallway was none other than the son and intellectual heir of W.E.B. DuBois, one of our nation's historical thinkers as well as a writer you should have studied and been tested on in college, that is if you are at all educated, Mr Mayor. In fact, Mr Mayor, that hallway of yours was ringing with history. But your door remained closed. My own father, the late Richard Wright, wrote books your own children have to read before being considered educated. My father also saved a man, black and poor, on death row in 1941 when it was still possible to awaken a sense of the human in elected officials like you. But, on June 5th, your door slammed shut on history, Mr Mayor, as you chose to insult the peace delegation who had come to your city not as lucrative tourists but to uphold the civil, constitutional and human rights of a man, any man, in the city of the Liberty Bell. Today, Mr Mayor, from the platform of the Million Woman March, I am privileged on behalf of legions of us here to inform you that a People's International Tribunal will grant a new trial to Mumia Abu-Jamal in your city on December 6th. According to the document I hold here, you are one of the officials who will be indicted, on that day, on charges of a co-conspiracy to target journalist and people's advocate, Mumia Abu Jamal, using false charges, a fraudulent trial, brutal imprisonment and imposing the death penalty to silence him forever. Mr Mayor, it is an honour for me to present you with this notification of charges for your indictment emanating from the highest authority in the land, the people, the black women of the people, assembled here today in the presence of two million of us. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Sisters, On'a Move! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM PAM AFRICA re: Dec. 6 Tribunal for Justice 09/29/97 Dear Friends of Mumia: The race for justice for Mumia continues at the heightened pace as we approach a very critical stage in the case. We are still awaiting a ruling from the Suprerme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as to weather or not Mumia will be granted a new trial. The prospects look grim in terms of that court's ruling, given the makeup of that court and the narrow body of evidence which they will be examining. The restriction of the evidence is a result of Judge Albert Sabo's consistent rulings that all of the powerful new evidence submitted by the defense in 1995 through 1997 is irrelevant to the case. Governor Ridge has already indicated that if and when the PA State Supreme Court rejects Mumia's motion for a new trial, he will once again sign the death warrant. If that happens, Mumia's attorneys would seek a stay of his execution by filing a petition for habeas corpus review of the case in the federal district court in Philadelphia. This stage of the proceeding has always been considered critical by Mumia's attorneys, because until recently federal judges have reversed over 35% of state death convictions for violations of federal rights. But the 1996 signing into law of the "Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act" has changed the picture drematically. The new law requires federal judges to defer to the state courts and mermits state confictions to stand even if violation of federal rights occurred, as long as they are not "unreasonable." We cannot be lulled into waiting, hopefully or cynically, for the State Supreme Court nor for the federal district court to rule, and be immobilized by either our hope or our cynicism. We must intensify our efforts so as to create a consciousness and climate where it will be impossible for both the PA State and the Federal judicial bodies to rule negatively. We dare not wait for the "normal" wheels of injustice to take their course lest the end result be precisely what the various official and unofficial bodies of this government are seeking -- Mumia's execution. Given the gravity of the moment, we are embarking on a major new project to gain justice for our beloved brother and comrade Mumia who, despite all our collective efforts, remain on death row without having been granted a new trial. It is with that reality and the spirit before us that we are calling for a PEOPLE'S INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR JUSTICE FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, to be held on December 6th in Philadelphia. We are charging judicial and policie forces on both the state and federal levels with conspiring to deny Mumia justice and, ultimately, his life. At the People's Tribunal various witnesses and peoples prosecutors will present the evidence which emerged in 1997, 1996 and 1995 and which is not being presented to the State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania because of Judge Sabo's extreme favoring of the death penalty, his outrageous support for and identification with the police (to the point of having been a member of the Fraternal Order of Police), and his visible hatred for Mumia and his supporters. This evidence dramatically challenges all three major tenents of the prosecution's case against Mumia: 1) that the witnesses on the crime scene identified Mumia as the only person who could have killed Officer Faulkner, (2) that Mumia's gun was the murder weapon, and (3) that Mumia confessed to the shooting at the hospital. The new evidence would guarantee Mumia's freedom were there an iota of justice or even fairness in the judicial process to which he has been subjected. The tribunal will provide a dramatic venue for presenting this evidence in addition to the history of the arrest, indictment, "jury" process, conviction, sentencing and, ultimately, the incarceration of Mumia on Death Row. The defendants will be: the Governor of Pennsylvania, the Mayor of Philadelphia, the Judge (Sabo), the FBI and its COINTELPRO operation, the U.S. Justice Department, the State Attorney General, the Philadelphia District Attorney, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the ruling establishment of Pennsylvania and others to be named. The people attending the tribunal as well as a panel of distinguished jurists will judge the defendants as to their innocence or guilt. The panel composed of attorneys, political leaders, labor and community activists from around the world will announce it and the plenary's rulings at a press conference on Monday, December 9, 1997 in Philadelphia. We feel this tribunal will raise peoples' consciousness about the nature of Mumia's case and all the political and social issues his case embodies: police brutality, cover-up, and criminality, -- the death penalty and the situation in the U.S. prisons today, and the continued imprisonment and torture of our political prisoners, over 150 of them, despite the U.S. Government's denial of the existence of any political prisoners in this country. We feel the Tribunal will inspire people and intensify our collective level of activity and militance. We also see the Tribunal and the publicity it will receive as intensifying pressure on those both within and outside the judicial structures, who are making the decisions about Mumia's life. This is a call for everyone who supports Mumia, who is concerned about justice, who wants to see our political prisoners free, who is against police brutality, the death penalty and the franzy to incarcerate . . . to join the work for the Tribunal. We need everyone's help. Free Mumia! Free All Political Prisoners! Stop Police Brutality! Abolish the Death Penalty! Ona Move! Pam Africa International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Ad Hoc Coalition for a Peoples International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal P.O. Box 19409, Phila., PA 19143 Tel: (215) 476-8812; Fax: (215) 476-7551 email: mumia@aol.com URL: http://www.mumia.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PEOPLES INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR JUSTICE FOR MUMIA ABU JAMAL Heed the Call! 09/20/97 To Investigate a Criminal Conspiracy to Deny Justice and Take the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and to Hear Charges for an Indictment of the following co-conspirators: á Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Ridge á Pennsylvania Supreme Court á PA State Attorney General á Pennsylvania Department of Corrections á Philadelphia Mayor Edward Rendell á The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) á Philadelphia Police Department á Judge Albert Sabo á Lynn Abraham and preceding Philadelphia District Attorneys á The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and its Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) operation á The United States Justice Department á The ruling establishment of Pennsylvania including the Media and others to be named. The above have been charged with conspiracy to silence journalist and peoples' advocate Mumia Abu-Jamal using frame-up charges, a fraudulent trial and brutal imprisonment, and imposing the Death Penalty to silence him forever. This conspiracy against Mumia Abu Jamal is part of a larger pattern of police brutality and corruption; of racism, discrimination and disparity in sentencing of the poor; and the collaboration of different government departments with so-called "private institutions" to silence revolutionaries or anyone who fights for justice. Further, it is believed that the conspirators will not allow a new and fair trial, despite the demands of millions of supporters around the world. The tribunal will be made up of an international panel of prominent jurists, political leaders, labor and community activists, cultural figures and others concerned with social justice, who will hear evidence on the charges. The tribunal will expose to public view the facts that have been suppressed. Witnesses will be called to testify on their direct experiences with police brutality, corruption and racism. These will be witnesses who have been barred from judge Sabo{s courtroom, as well as representatives of other political prisoners, former prisoners and the families of victims of police murders, victims of the death penalty and others. The Peoples International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu Jamal can bring to the world's attention the case of Mumia and the broader pattern of injustice and the death penalty which his case represents. Your active participation and support can help magnify the impact of the work of the Tribunal and to prevent the establishment media from covering it up. By lending your name and support, you will be endorsing the need for the truth to come to light and for these serious charges to be fully investigated. Expose the Conspiracy! Stop the Cover-up! Let ALL the evidence be heard! Saturday, December 6, 11 AM at the Blue Horizon, 1314 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA Initiated by International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal and the Ad Hoc Coalition for a Peoples International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia Abu Jamal Address: P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143, Tel (215) 476-8812, Fax: (215) 476-7551 E-mail: Mumia@aol.com, Web Site: http//www.Mumia.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SABO MAKES A BIG MISTAKE Rules Against Mumia and Pamela Jenkins' Testimony 07/29/97 On July 24, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Albert Sabo announced his ruling on the evidence presented by Pamela Jenkins and other witnesses in the hearings held June 26 to July 1: "Upon review and consideration of the testimony offered by Pamela Jenkins it is hereby ordered and decreed that the Defendant, Mumia Abu-Jamal's petition for Post Conviction Collateral Relief is denied." In his twenty-page opinion, Sabo rejected every piece of testimony offered by Mumia's defense team, and accepted every claim offered by the prosecution. In particular, he accepted the District Attorney's claim that the 1982 trial witness Cynthia White was dead, based on a partial copy of a death certificate for a Cynthia Williams. This claim was substantiated solely on verbal assurances by several police officers that they had found the fingerprints of the deceased to match those of the Cynthia White. Yet the fingerprints themselves were never produced and the fingerprint code on the death certificate did not match that given for Cynthia White in Philadelphia police records. Still Sabo concluded that: "Jenkin's testimony was effectively discredited by the Commonwealth and conclusively proven to be fabricated. A great part of Jenkins' testimony involved purported communications with and sightings of White at a time when White was deceased." Judge Sabo also included a succinct statement of his own bias in the case, as follows: "Finally, it should be noted that the evidence against Abu-Jamal was overwhelming, including multiple eyewitness accounts, highly compelling circumstantial evidence and incriminating admissions by the Defendant." This last point is a reference to the "confession" allegedly made by Mumia the night of the shootings - a "confession" that police officers suddenly "remembered" two months after the incident. Sabo's opinion on Pamela Jenkins' testimony will be forwarded to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which is still considering Mumia's appeal of Judge Sabo's 1995 decision not to grant him a new trial. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- GO TO: MORE PRESS RELEASES ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to: Top of this Mumia Home Articles by Jamal News Page Page Mumia Abu-Jamal Service