Edited: MUMIA'S DEATH SENTENCE OVERTURNED

Federal Judge Throws Out The Death Sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal.


By STEVE ARGUE
On Tuesday December 18th Federal Judge Yohn threw out the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The State was ordered to conduct a new sentencing hearing within 180 days. If the state does not conduct a new hearing Mumia will, according to Yohn's ruling, be sentenced to life in prison.

In earlier sentencing Mumia had been given the death penalty largely based on arguments that he had been a member of the Black Panther Party. This was in violation of Mumia's 1st Amendment rights. Former membership in the Black Panther Party was used against Mumia effectively. This is largely because of the way the party was portrayed in the corporate media while the FBI, working with local police departments, carried out a systematic campaign of murder and frame-ups against the members of the Black Panther Party killing 39 members in 1969 and 1970.

While Mumia Abu-Jamal survived that period of bloody political repression in American history, he was later framed up for a crime he did not commit.

Judge Yohn did not, however, overturn Mumia's conviction or grant him a new trial based on new proof of his innocence. The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

On November 21st Philadelphia State Judge Pamela Dembe also rejected political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal's appeal to have new evidence heard in state court. That new evidence includes the confession of Arnold Beverly to killing Officer Faulkner, the crime Mumia has been framed of committing. One of Mumia's attorney's, Eliot Grossman, has stated that Dembe's decision will be appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The government's attempt to murder Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1995 was halted by mass protests and international support, stopping his execution within days of it being scheduled to take place. Continued support for Mumia in the streets will be necessary to keep Mumia alive and free him.

As a freelance journalist Mumia exposed the murderous police brutality and political repression carried out by the police against the MOVE organization in Philadelphia. That murderous repression was then directed at Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1981.

On September 4th, Sam Jordan, Director of the Amnesty International USA Program to Abolish the Death Penalty, gave speeches on the innocence of Mumia Abu-Jamal in Durban, South Africa, in connection with the UN Conference on Racism. Other prominent endorsers of Mumia's campaign include the European Parliament, Nelson Mandela, the Japanese Diet, the Congressional Black Caucus, The Rev. Jesse Jackson, and many unions in the United States and around the world.

The frame-up trial of Mumia twenty years ago included the testimony of three eyewitnesses (Veronica Jones, William Singletary, and Robert Chobert) who later said they were threatened, coerced, or made promises by the police to get them to give false testimony against Mumia.

False evidence against Mumia also included a supposed confession to the police by Mumia the night he was arrested. The original police report by Officer Gary Wakshul who was with Mumia the entire time through his arrest and medical treatment stated, "during this time the Negro male made no comment." Yet Gary Wakshul testified at Mumia's trial that he heard Mumia confess that night. Gary Wakshul didn't "remember" this confession until almost three months after Mumia's arrest when prosecutor McGill met with police asking for a confession. Officer Wakshul absurdly stated that he didn't think the confession was important at the time he wrote his original report.

This past August 17th Mumia was not even allowed into his own hearing in State Court on the incredible excuse that there was no room for Mumia to be transferred to a Philadelphia jail where the hearing was taking place.

Mumia's exile from his own hearing was reminiscent of 20 years ago, when Mumia was barred from attending his own trial. At that time Mumia was convicted in his absence. Judge Albert Sabo claimed that Mumia was barred for being disruptive. Yet court records have now revealed that Sabo barred Mumia from his own trial at the request of Mumia's incompetent and now disbarred defense attorney, Anthony Jackson. The court appointed attorney made his request on the grounds that Mumia was about to fire him and would if Mumia wasn't barred from the trial. Sabo's granting of Jackson's request was a clear violation of Mumia's right to legal representation of his choice and of his right to be present at his own trial.

This past May Mumia's attorneys dropped a legal bombshell by submitting into court a sworn affidavit that contains the confession of Arnold Beverly to the murder that Mumia is accused of committing.

The new evidence the court is refusing to hear includes the confession of Arnold Beverly who states in his sworn affidavit, "I shot Faulkner at close range." Faulkner was the cop Mumia is framed for killing. Beverly also states very clearly, "Faulkner was shot in the back and in the face before Jamal came on the scene. Jamal had nothing to do with the shooting."

Arnold Beverly's confession is corroborated by eyewitness statements. Beverly says he was wearing a green army jacket the night he shot Faulkner. William Singletary was there the night of the shooting. He says he saw a man shoot Faulkner and it was not Mumia. He also states that the actual killer was wearing a green army jacket.

Four eyewitnesses, including two cops, put a man wearing a green army jacket on the scene.

Five eyewitnesses described a man fleeing the scene the way Beverly describes he did. Mumia of course was not running anywhere, he was lying on the ground with a bullet in his chest.

According to Arnold Beverly, Mumia arrived on the scene after Beverly had already shot Faulkner. Beverly says that Mumia was then shot by an arriving officer. The prosecution claims that Mumia was shot by Faulkner in self defense as Faulkner laid on the ground dieing. Yet Beverly's story does fit with forensic evidence and the report of a cop at the scene that night. The cop stated that Mumia was shot by an arriving officer. The downward trajectory of the bullet into Mumia's chest also makes it physically impossible for Faulkner to have shot Mumia from the ground. In fact five hours after the shooting a police medical examiners report states that Mumia "was shot subsequently by arriving police reinforcements."

On every level Arnold Beverly's sworn confession to a capital offence is in fact backed up by evidence while the prosecutions version of events is not. This, however, has not been cause enough for the prosecution to reconsider pushing for the execution of an innocent man. Instead they are arguing that the new evidence was not brought forward in a timely manner.

Ramona Africa spoke on this point at demonstration of 3,000 for Mumia on August 17th stating, "Judge Dembe has said she wants, in three weeks, some briefs to determine whether or not it's too late to prove his innocence, whether or not this information comes too late. We're saying it's never too late! What is she talking about, too late?… We aint interested in legalities. We're interested in what's right. Slavery was legal, but that wasn't right! Apartheid was legal but that wasn't right! The murder of Shaka Sankofa down in Texas, despite his innocence, was legal but that wasn't right! We don't care about legality. We care about justice and what is right."
Mumia's attorney, Eliot Grossman put forward important legal arguments on why the 60 day limit should not apply to Beverly's confession which was first made in 1999. He pointed out that Mumia's former, and fired, legal team of Leonard Weinglass and Dan Williams misinformed Mumia that they were investigating Arnold Beverly's confession when in fact they never had any intention of presenting it for evidence. Williams makes this point clear in his new book "Executing Justice" where he states that he doesn't believe the Beverly confession and that he doesn't believe the police would ever frame up an innocent man. These attorneys allowed the 60 day time line to expire without Mumia's permission or knowledge.

Mumia fired Weinglass and Williams after Williams betrayed attorney client confidentiality in May by publishing the money making book, "Executing Justice," purported to be an insiders account of Mumia's case. The publication of the book at a critical time in Mumia's appeal process shows that Williams was not looking out for Mumia's legal interests. Weinglass also knew the book was coming out, but did not inform Mumia. This, like their treatment of the Arnold Beverly confession, was a betrayal of the interests of their client and shows that they were not adequately representing him.

Mumia had not gotten any favorable rulings in federal court or state court in terms of hearing new the new evidence. Before today, Judge Yohn had already ruled that Beverly's confession is inadmissible citing the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996. The act, among other things, sets a time limit of one year for death row inmates to present new evidence. Yohn echoed the prosecution by falsely stating the "petitioner chose not to present his claim to the state court or even to this court until May 2001."

Yohn's chilling decision also cited the infamous 1993 Herrera decision that proof of innocence is no bar for execution.

Faced with this situation Mumia's legal team saw the need to attempt a hearing with the new evidence in state court. Yet the rulings and statements of both Judge Dembe and Judge Yohn, along with those of Judge Sabo before them, are in effect saying that an American court of law is no place for evidence proving Mumia's innocence.

On September 4th of this year Terri Maurer-Carter, an official court stenographer in the courts where Mumia was framed, came forward with more information on the state of mind of Judge Sabo during the trial. She states in a newly submitted affidavit, "Judge Sabo and another person were engaged in conversation. Judge Sabo was discussing the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. During the course of that conversation, I heard Judge Sabo say, "Yeah, and I'm going to help them fry the n______." There were three people present when Judge Sabo made that remark,
including myself."

Judge Sabo presided over Mumia's original frame-up trial, but he didn't just do that. He came out of retirement to rule against Mumia at subsequent appeal hearings on whether Mumia got a fair trial. At these hearings Sabo ruled that Sabo had not violated Mumia's legal rights by denying him legal representation of his choice and denying him the right to attend his own trial.

Judge Sabo also ruled for the prosecution against the admissibility of the testimony of a key eyewitness in the original trial, Veronica Jones, who stated that she was coerced through threats from the police into giving false testimony against Mumia in the original trial. Jones was a prostitute who says that the police threatened her with prison on warrants and of taking her children away if she didn't say what the police wanted. She was later arrested off of the witness stand on a petty warrant while she told the truth testifying at the hearing for a new trial. This testimony was important evidence of the fact that a frame-up had taken place. Yet Sabo did not allow a new trial based on this information or any of the other evidence brought forward.

Another key ingredient missing in the prosecution's case against Mumia is a motive. Beverly's confession, however, does contain a clear motive. Beverly states, "I was hired, along with another guy, and paid to shoot and kill Faulkner. I had heard that Faulkner was a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area."

The entire chain of police command that "investigated" Mumia have in fact since been removed from the Philadelphia police force for corruption. At the time Faulkner was killed in December 1981, the FBI was involved in at least three investigations of the police in the center city area for corruption including extortion and bribery connected to the mob, prostitution, after-hours clubs, and gambling in the center city area. Targeted in the FBI investigation were Inspector Alphonzo Giordono, the senior cop at the scene of Faulkner's shooting, James Carlinini, head of homicide, and John DeBenedetto, head of the division where Faulkner worked.

Witnesses and informants in the FBI investigation were murdered. This included a witness who testified against DeBenedetto in 1983.

Police concern that Faulkner may have been an FBI informant could easily have led to his murder. Donald Hersing who was a source for the FBI at the time testifies in an affidavit for the defense that the Philadelphia cops were very concerned about possible FBI informants at the time. In a similar situation the LAPD Rampart cop who blew the whistle on police corruption and murder in LA was released from prison this summer. He immediately went into hiding out of fear for his life from fellow officers.

Attorney Eliot Grossman stated at a press conference, "Mumia Abu-Jamal was in the wrong place at the wrong time when a hit was in progress on a police officer causing problems interfering with police corruption." But for the Philadelphia police he was at the right place at the right time. He had exposed the murderous police violence used against the MOVE organization. Corrupt police officers used the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

Today that conspiracy to murder or lock up for life Mumia Abu-Jamal includes judges, DAs, key Democrat and Republican politicians, and the corporate media who are doing everything they can to prevent the truth from being heard.

Mumia has sat on death row for the past 20 years, removed from his family. Yet he now stands out as an uncompromising voice for the oppressed and exploited. Many have called him the voice of the voiceless. Mumia stands up for unions, against war, against racism, for equality for gays and lesbians, for the poor, against the many injustices of the so-called criminal justice system, for the people, and against the government. Mumia speaks up on many of the issues ignored, lied about, or glossed over by the corporate media and the corporate politicians. We need Mumia, yes we need him alive, but we also need him free. Yet all of the evidence shows that Mumia won't get justice in America's capitalist courts unless we turn up the heat.



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