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NEWS & LETTERS, July-August 2010
Mumia Abu-Jamal betrayed with secret memo
It's outragous that some members of the anti-death penalty movement are willing to sacrifice Mumia Abu-Jamal so that the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) will join the movement!
At the 2010 Fourth World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Switzerland, members of the U.S. Steering Committee of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty signed a secret memo to pressure the French organizers of the World Congress to confine Abu-Jamal's supporters and attorneys to attendance only, precluding them as speakers. "Involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal endangers the U.S. coalition for abolition of the death penalty" the memo asserted. This was an attempt to gain the support of the far-right and pro-death penalty -- especially Mumia's death -- FOP. The Congress would not be pressured and Abu-Jamal did speak via his attorney Robert R. Bryan's phone.
Some members of groups including Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, Death Penalty Focus, and Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty are signers of the memo. Yet, several "signers" didn't know they had signed until the scenario was brought to light.
Most anti-death penalty groups, including those mentioned above, and the majority of their members support Mumia and denounce the memo.
Mumia Abu-Jamal's case embodies so much of what is wrong in the U.S.'s so-called justice system. If Mumia really does get justice, what a turnaround it could be for the justice system!
--Kaitlin, Chicago
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