For the first time in 20 years of injustice, a judge has made a substantive ruling in Mumia Abu-Jamal's favor.
This is the first time that a court has ruled that there was anything wrong in the way Mumia was prosecuted. This decision was front-page news everywhere. It gives heart to those who support Mumia, oppose the death penalty, and hunger for justice. More importantly, the fact that millions more people know about Mumia's case creates an extraordinary opportunity take Mumia's case the public, and redouble our efforts to get his fraudulent conviction itself overturned and win his release.
The power structure of Philadelphia, along with others who have been clamoring for Mumia's blood, immediately set up a howl. The fact that Yohn was forced to admit even one iota of the injustice that has been done to Mumia is apparently too much for these people. The widow of police office Daniel Faulkner (whom Mumia was falsely accused on killing) said "I think Judge Yohn is a sick and twisted person."
The idea that Mumia might get a chance to argue even part of his case to a jury once again -- even where the odds will still be stacked against him particularly in today's pro-police and ant-dissent climate -- was too much for these people. The Philadelphia District Attorney rushed onto the airwaves to declare her determination to get Yohn s ruling overturned and to put Mumia to death.
They have been eager to murder Mumia as soon as possible for a long time, eager to bury not only Mumia but the whole story of Philadelphia justice exemplified by his case. Moreover, they have been eager to murder him and the whole spirit of resistance which he has embodied and has come to represent to millions. To them, Yohn's ruling amounts to a stunning admission that something is wrong with the case, and it threatens to be the first official unraveling in their tapestry of injustice.
But anyone who gives a damn about justice must have a different standpoint; for us, it is absolutely necessary that even this small admission of injustice not be overturned. MUMIA MUST NOT DIE!
We have to keep clearly in sight that Judge Yohn acted behind closed doors to deny all the issues in Mumia s petition relating to his fraudulent guilty verdict, without hearing any argument in open court and without even hearing a single witness! The consciously racist jury selection by the original prosecutor and judge; the self-confessed incompetence of Mumia's trial attorney; the utter mishandling of evidence in a way prejudicial to Mumia; the judges over-ruling of defense efforts to uncover a conspiracy among the police to claim that Mumia confessed; the use of Mumia's prior affiliation with the Black Panther Party: all these injustices to Mumia were approved by the federal court. This goes along with Judge Yohn's earlier refusal to allow consideration of new, possibly exculpatory evidence, and means that the federal courts now accept the trial record from 1982 under the openly racist Judge Sabo.
The battle is now into a new phase. This crack in the facade of Mumia's case must be pried open and the great injustice of his persecution put before millions and millions. Now we must intensify our efforts. We must not and will not allow the Philly DA, the Fraternal Order of Police, and all the racist zealots to put Mumia back on track to execution. We must not and will not let this happen.
Stop the Execution!
Overturn the Conviction!
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
[posted 12/26/01]
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