Demonstrate Against the Death Penalty
in Philadelphia

Refuse & Resist! joins with the Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty and the many other organizations and individuals of conscience who are calling for a

[All participants must attend a nonviolence training. For more info call 610-891-8968.]

The choice of Lynne Abraham as the target of these actions is more than symbolic. Described by the New York Times Sunday Magazine as "America's Deadliest D.A.," Lynne Abraham demands a death sentence in every conceivable case. Her office is responsible for 55% of all death sentences in Pennsylvania, even though Philadelphia has only 15% of the state's population. Only four states have more than 200 people on death row, and Pennsylvania is one of them. On top of this, it must be remembered that Philadelphia's D.A. has regularly obtained convictions on the basis of fabricated evidence and perjured testimony by police officers, and the unconstitutional exclusion of Black jurors.

Refuse & Resist! takes up this battle as a part of its fight against the whole political climate of pun-ishment, poverty and injustice which calls forth and nourishes state sponsored violence against the oppressed. Police brutality and the death penalty are the cutting edge of enforcement for a politics of cruelty. No where is this more blatant than in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His case concentrates the suppression of political dissent, the criminalization of Black men, the expanding death penalty, the gutting of defendant's rights, police and prosecutorial misconduct, and a whole political atmos-phere based on blame and punishment for those on the bottom of society.

Lynne Abraham has been instrumental to the railroading of Mumia, from presiding over his hospital room arraignment in 1981 to pursuing his death sentence before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court today. Recently, Time magazine highlighted the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal as "the most publicized death-row case outside of Dead Man Walking." His case exemplifies everything that is wrong with the death penalty in this country, and it's potential for use as a weapon of political suppression. And his voice and writings have done much to make the public aware of the realities of the death penalty. There is much at stake here, because how this case is resolved is going to set a climate in this coun-try for years to come.

To stand aside now in silence is to be complicit. People must act.

To take part in these important actions, contact the Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty, P.O. Box 58128, Philadelphia, PA 19102. Phone 610-891-8968.

Refuse the Politics of Cruelty! Unleash a Spirit of Resistance!

Stop Police Brutality index | R&R Main Page

Join Refuse & Resist!
305 Madison Ave., Suite 1166, New York, NY 10165
Phone: 212-713-5657
email: info@refuseandresist.org