by the Executive Committee of Refuse & Resist!
March 8, 2001
Mumia Abu-Jamal, the internationally known political prisoner on Pennsylvania's death row, has filed a motion to dismiss his legal team. According to Pam Africa of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the background for this is that defense attorney Dan Williams wrote a book that is soon to be published about Mumia's case that "breached attorney-client privilege" and that "Mumia has never seen."
In our view, Mumia's right to counsel of his choice must be upheld and recognized by the courts.
Further, we think it was a serious mistake for Dan Williams to publish such a book, even if written with the best of intentions, without consulting Mumia.
In a radio interview, Leonard Weinglass, Mumia's lead attorney for many years, said in response to Mumia's decision that "the important thing is that Mumia must be free - I remain available to do whatever I can." At a time of transition, it is important to keep focused on the essential issues. Mumia was tried before a notorious pro-police judge who had sentenced more people to death row than any other, in a city - Philadelphia - infamous for its persecution of Black political dissidents. They denied Mumia the right to defend himself. They not only saddled Mumia with an utterly unprepared attorney whom he did not want, they drew this attorney into their plot to railroad Mumia. They worked to strike Black people from the jury. They intimidated and/or bribed witnesses and they had cops and a security guard cook up a story of a phony confession. They brought up Mumia's political statements in the sentencing phase of his trial to argue for the death penalty.
For 19 years Mumia has sat on death row as a result of this travesty. During that time, against great odds and under unimaginable pressure, he has transformed his 6 x 8 prison cell into a platform from which he has exposed the many injustices that are brought down on people and upheld the people's right to resist injustice. For these reasons Mumia occupies a special place in our hearts, and we join tens of thousands of people in saying that Mumia MUST NOT be executed. Moreover, we pledge to continue our work, together with many, many other people and organizations, to grow those tens of thousands into hundreds of thousands and even millions, and to force the authorities to not only drop their plans to execute Mumia, but to free him once and for all. For ultimately the most decisive thing in this battle will be the united resistance, in many different forms, of the people themselves.
Refuse & Resist! has stated that the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal has become a battleground in society precisely because it concentrates so many elements of the reactionary agenda riding high in the U.S. These include the criminalization of Black men, the suppression of dissent, the expanded death penalty, the gutting of defendants' rights, and a whole political atmosphere based on blame and punishment of the most oppressed.
The battle to win justice for Mumia is one of the defining battles of this generation. Like all great battles it must constantly face new challenges and summon up new strength to meet those challenges. We call on all to stay focused on our goals, to make this story of towering injustice and heroic resistance even more broadly known, to unite even more diverse organizations and social streams in this struggle, and to step up our determination.
[posted 3/8/01]
Mumia Index | Protests Planned | R&R Main Page
Join Refuse
& Resist!
305 Madison Ave., Suite 1166, New York, NY 10165
Phone: 212-713-5657
email: info@refuseandresist.org