SUPREME COURT DENIES APPEAL
by Mumia Abu-Jamal It was not unexpected that the Supreme Court would deny my appeal [for Writ of Cer-tiorari]. The Supreme Court hears only a tiny percent of the cases that are brought before it, roughly 75 out of 7,000 in one semester or a term of the court. I entertained no expectations that mine would be granted.
We have to remember that we are working with a conservative court that has worked assiduously in the Bush and Reagan administrations and now in the Clinton administration to narrow the chances of anyone having their case heard, not just a prisoner on death row.
Even the most charitable observer must agree that by virtue of the court taking such a small fraction of the important cases that are filed before it, it is impossible to ignore the fact that many grave injustices are going unresolved.
Given the tone and tenor of recent Supreme Court opinions, there is even a sense of relief that they didn't grant my third appeal. And the trend is increasingly in favor of the State, the trend is increasingly to disfavor the defendant and the accused. Certainly there are exceptions, but that's the undeniable trend, the expansion of state power and police power in the retractions of prisoners' rights.
The struggle continued, the same old forces are still at work. Look what happened when I called into WBAI. I was literally pulled off the air a few weeks ago. The recent Phillip Block debacle reflects too how desperate the state is, and their desperation is really an acknowledgment that none of them believed Phil's confession story to begin with. Still, we can't forget the old saying that the truth shall set you free. I still believe that. I'd be a fool not to.
WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
by Alice Walker
Why should we care that Mumia Abu-Jamal's life is spared? Why should we care that he should be set free? It is because he, like Nelson Mandela before him, reminds us of our irreducibility as human beings. He shows us our best self, what we are capable of remaining, under the most oppressive, humiliating, and soul shattering conditions. Mumia has refused to be reduced. He remains a full human being. Thoughtful, compassionate, intelligent, loving, and fierce.
This is no small accomplishment. From his tiny cell at SCI Greene, he manages to inspire and encourage the world.
In this time, which is so filled with grief; when we see our own destruction as a species looming just ahead of us; when we see there is little unpoisoned grass and almost no pure water to drink; when our children follow in their elders' footsteps and bomb and murder other children; when no one is safe anywhere on earth anymore; where does a voice of sanity seem to be coming from?
From a small cell on death row. Isn't this amazing? Mumia must be saved to help heal us. To show us the beauty of resistance and compassion that is also our own.
The last time I saw Mumia Abu-Jamal was about two years ago. I cried as I was leaving him behind the thick glass wall that separated us in SCI Greene prison in the backwoods of Pennsylvania.
I said to him: I do not want to leave you here. He said, smiling: But I am going with you. We are all about to be launched into a new century whose benchmark appears already to be disruption, pain, and acute anxiety about the trustworthiness of leaders and of life itself. We are about to leave everything that has been familiar to us, and to go off into the unknown.
Who do we want to go with us? The so-called wise ones who believe you can stop a war by dropping a bomb?
Or do we want, instead, to be holding the hand of our brother who clearly loves us, Mumia Abu-Jamal?
We demand the opportunity to walk into the future with this man.
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
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Stay in Touch with Mumia's case:
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, P.O.Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143, (215) 476-8812/Fax (215)476-7551, <mumia@aol.com>, <www.mumia.org>.
Refuse & Resist, 305 Madison Avenue, #1166, New York, NY 10165, (212) 713-5657,<refuse@calyx.com>, <www.calyx.com/~refuse>.
National Peoples Campaign/Millions for Mumia, 39 West 14th Street, #206, New York, NY 10011, (212) 633-6646, Fax (212) 633-2889, <npcny@peoplescampaign.org>, <www.peoplescampaign.org>.
To Contribute to Mumia's Legal Defense Fund: Black United Fund, 2227 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19132.