BREAKING NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 26, 1999
Contacts:
Leonard Weinglass, Esq. - Ph: 212-807-8646/ Fax: 212-242-2120
Daniel Williams, Esq. - 212/883-1200
Steven Hawkins, Esq. - 202/387-3890
Habeas Corpus Raises New Questions About Prosecutorial Misconduct and Racial Bias
Proof of 29 Constitutional Violations Should Warrant New Trial, Defending Attorneys Say
Federal Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. granted a stay of execution for Mumia Abu-Jamal in the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, which will take effect either today or tomorrow. The stay was granted 13 days after Governor Ridge of Pennsylvania signed Jamal's death warrant and will last until the end of the proceedings in Federal District Court.
Judge Yohn will begin to review the habeas corpus petition that was filed on October 15 by the defendant's lawyers, containing 29 separate issues of Constitutional violations that occurred in Jamal's trial and appeal. The habeas document is more than 150 pages, and contains more than 600 paragraphs of factual allegations, including fabrication and suppression of evidence; racial bias in selecting jurors; and denial of the right to self- representation, among other arguments.
"It is our hope that for the first time in 17 years we will have the opportunity to present the facts concerning this case in a neutral and fair courtroom," said Leonard Weinglass, Jamal's lead attorney. "Any one of the 29 Constitutional violations should warrant a new trial."
According to Jamal's lawyers, several arguments are raised in the petition demonstrating that Jamal never received a meaningful trial and that compelling evidence of innocence was ignored by the state courts of Pennsylvania.
The stay also entitles Jamal to be released from the "Phase Two" area of the State Correctional Institute, Greene County, where he was sent when his death warrant was signed on October 13. In Phase Two, Jamal has been under 24-hour surveillance, subjected to strip searches, a cell with lights on 24 hours a day, and limited to only one book. Jamal was not allowed any visitors outside his immediate family and attorneys. Jamal will now return to death row and await further proceedings before Judge Yohn.
"We are encouraged by the assignment of Judge Yohn to this case, who has acquired a reputation as a judge of integrity," said Daniel Williams, co-counsel. "It's about time we de-pollute the waters since (Pennsylvania state) Judge Sabo had poisoned the well from the beginning."
Judge Albert Sabo presided over Jamal's initial trial in 1982 -- when he had sentenced more people to death than any other sitting judge in the U.S. -- as well as the post-conviction trial in 1995. Six former Philadelphia prosecutors have sworn in court documents that no accused defendant can receive a fair trial in Sabo's court.
The Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Bar Associations' recently called for a moratorium on all executions until the state's death penalty system was proven just.
One of the system's infirmities, acknowledged by the bar associations, has to do with racial prejudice. While nine percent of Pennsylvania's total population is African-American, for example, the percentage on death row is nearly seven times that (62%). This is the largest racial disparity of any state in the United States.
In addition, a 1998 study by Professor Baldus at the University of Iowa found that a young African-American growing up in Philadelphia is 11.5 times more likely to end up on death row than in Georgia or Alabama.
In addition to the defending attorneys, those working to ensure a fair trial for Jamal include: Amnesty International, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the European Parliament, Reverend Jesse Jackson and many others.
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ATTENTION JOURNALISTS: For more information please call Leonard Weinglass at (212) 807-8646, or any of the other attorneys listed above.
[posted 10/27/99]
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