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NEWS & LETTERS, March 2002
Mumia's new defense
Chicago—Anti-death penalty
activist Sam Jordan detailed recent developments in the case of imprisoned Black
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal at a public meeting on Chicago’s south side on Feb.
17. Jordan is a spokesperson for the International Concerned Friends and Family
of Mumia Abu-Jamal and a former director of Amnesty International’s Death
Penalty Project. Jordan described a major shift
of emphasis in the defense’s case. Mumia chose a new legal team to represent
him after dismissing one of his previous lawyers for surreptitiously publishing
a book about the case. “Before May 2001,” Jordan explained, “Mumia’s
defense was based on procedural issues. Now we talk about exculpatory
evidence.” The new legal team has secured
a videotaped admission by a man named Arnold Beverly that he was paid by
elements in the Philadelphia police force to kill Daniel Faulkner, the police
officer Mumia is accused of murdering. Faulkner was allegedly interfering with
police corruption in his district. Mumia’s death sentence was
overturned on Dec. 19 by Philadelphia Federal District Court Judge William Yohn.
The state now has to hold a resentencing hearing for Mumia, or he will face
mandatory life in prison. Jordan condemned this move as
an attempt to demobilize the movement to defend Mumia. “It’s no great shakes
to have a resentencing hearing under these conditions,” he said. “Mumia has
more in common with the 99 people released from death row since 1976 than he
does with anyone else in the criminal justice system.” —Kevin Michaels |
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