Celebrate Mumia's 51st Birthday With Michael Franti and Friends

Mumia Abu-Jamal: An innocent man on death row
Last summer's National Convention of the NAACP, the nation's largest civil rights organization, voted to engage its chapters across the country in the fight for justice and a new trial for innocent death row inmate, political prisoner, award-winning journalist and author of seven books, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia's struggle for justice, a new trial and freedom is supported by Amnesty International, the European Parliament, the city governments of San Francisco, Detroit, Berkeley, Paris, France, the Episcopal Church of the U.S., the ILWU, AFSCME and SEIU, the Calif. Labor Fed,/AFL-CIO and millions of people who cherish democratic rights across the globe.

Mumia's case has made the fight against the racist and classist death penalty a national and international priority. The "legal" decisions involved in 22 years of litigation have made a mockery of the criminal justice system. A federal judge involved, William H. Yohn, disregarding evidence of innocence on the grounds that is was submitted too late, ruled that "innocence is no defense."

Here are some eye-opening facts on the case: • Mumia, prior to his frame-up, was the leading media critic of the federally indicted Philadelphia Police Department. • He has been sentenced to death for a crime, the killing of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, that he did not commit. • Several eyewitnesses saw the real killer flee from the murder scene. They state that Mumia was not involved. • Several of the Philadelphia police officers involved in Mumia's case have been convicted of frame-up activities including intimidation of witnesses, planting of evidence and involvement in prostitution and drug peddling.

• Critical evidence has been presented that both of the prosecution's "key witnesses" (Cynthia White and Robert Chobert) have admitted that they did not see the shooting and were not present at the murder scene. The evidence indicates that their trial testimony was the result of police coercion. • A man who confessed to the actual murder, Arnold Beverly, has been prevented from testifying in court.

• Eleven of fourteen Black jurors were disqualified from serving on the jury for racist reasons. • The Philadelphia prosecutor's office had actually produced a video to teach prosecutors how to exclude Blacks from juries.

• The judge who presided over the trial, "hanging judge" Albert Sabo, had sentenced record numbers of defendants, especially Blacks, to death. • His overt racism was attested to in a sworn deposition by award-winning court stenographer Terri Maurer Carter, who heard Sabo state before entering the courtroom to judge Mumia's case, "Yeah, and I'm going to help 'em fry the n****r."

• Evidence has been submitted that Mumia's so-called confession was fabricated by the police two months after his arrest. • Critical evidence proving his innocence was concealed by Philadelphia police and prosecutors. • Forensic evidence proving his innocence was never heard by the jury.

Many of those who helped frame Mumia, or keep him on death row, have risen to the highest levels of national politics, including former Pennsylvania Republican Governor Thomas Ridge, George Bush's first Director of Homeland Security and the present Pennsylvania Governor, Democrat Ed Rendell.

These are just some of the many facts in this amazing case of police, prosecutorial, and judicial misconduct and racism, which, if not countered, could lead to the death of an innocent man. Mumia's attorney, Robert R. Bryan, says that "Mumia's case, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, is moving forward on the fast track. He is in grave danger. Pennsylvania state authorities want to silence his voice and are pressing hard once again for the death penalty."

Contact the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal at: 298 Valencia St., SF CA 94103,415-255-1085 email jmackler [at] locrian.com http://www.freemumia.org Send a contribution! Funds urgently needed. Help distribute flyers to build the April 24,2 pm Mission H.S. mass rally for Mumia with Michael Franti and Lynne Stewart. Tables $25