Report from Len Weinglass talk at Jamal Summit, July 6, 1996
Submitted by: Sis. Marpessa
The Philadelphia District Attorney's office filed a vicious, 190- page response to Mumia's appeal before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. "It's an incredible attack," Weinglass stated. "None of us have ever seen a legal attack like it in an appellate court." The D.A. contends that Mumia's supporters, the media and the legal team manufactured bias on the part of Judge Sabo. Much of what the D.A. cites is "off the record and highly improper," Weinglass added. The D.A. also called on the court to dismiss the Veronica Jones evidence out of hand.
Mumia's lawyers must file their response by August 5. Court is in recess for the summer, so there will be no decision made before the fall. The court must rule on whether it will allow the Veronica Jones evidence to be heard in the Common Pleas Court, and also whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear oral arguments.
Judge Nix, the only African-American on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, retired this past week, leaving Governor Ridge to appoint a temporary replacement until elections. The only two judges remaining from Mumia's direct (1989) appeal are Flaherty and Zapalla.
On June 27, the highest court in Italy refused to extradite an Italian national back to the United States where he faced a death penalty case in Florida. Bowing to pressure from the United States, the Italian Prime Minister and Senate had at first approved the extradition. Following a press conference and visit to the Senate by Weinglass, who was in Italy to discuss Mumia's case, the Italians announced that the death penalty is a violation of international standards of human rights, and reversed their decision to allow the extradition.
This is a clear victory for death penalty foes and an example of how Mumia's case has helped galvanize the abolitionist movement. Italy is one of 56 countries that have abolished the death penalty, leaving Japan and the U.S. as the only two industrialized nations to still execute their own citizens. Japan has 32 people on death row, while the U.S. has 100 times as many.
The next day, June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld certain aspects of the Anti-Terrorist/Effective Death Penalty Act when it ruled on the Felker case. The Felker case was the first constitutional challenge to that Act to be heard by the Supreme Court. The Felker case is only one of several constitutional challenges to the Effective Death Penalty Act. Other cases which more directly challenge the issues affecting Mumia have not yet been heard by the court.
Weinglass projects that it will be early to mid 1997 before Mumia's case is heard in federal court in Philadelphia if we lose in the state court. It is unclear whether the old (pre-Effective Death Penalty Act) or new rules apply. But some legal scholars think that, in light of the Felker decision, Mumia will have to be heard under the new rules, which makes massive public support even more critical.
The same week that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Felker, a wrongly convicted man in Chicago was released after *eighteen* years on death row! The prosecutor admitted they had the wrong person. Yet, the court now restricts a death row prisoner's right to have his case reviewed to *six months*. Weinglass reminded the audience of the Spaziano case, where it took fourteen years to win a new trial based on perjured testimony. In Mumia's case, it's taken nearly fourteen years to bring Veronica Jones' story to light.
Meanwhile, the magistrate judge's recommendation in Mumia's civil rights case further isolates him from his legal team, by barring the paralegals and allowing the opening of legal mail outside of his presence.
Even prison wardens say 1-3% of their prisoners are innocent. With 3000 people on death row in the U.S., that means 30-90 innocent people will be executed. That's part of why a massive public reaction is so critical. We must consolidate a reaction to all the above events. With Mumia's story being aired on HBO through the U.S. and Europe, now is the time to act.
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