From: "C. Clark Kissinger" <cck1@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 12:00:45 -0400
The U.S. Supreme Court opened its Fall Term on Monday, October 4, by
announcing a list of petitions it is rejecting. Among these was a petition
for a "writ of certiorari" by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
On April 22, lawyers for Mumia had filed this petition with the United
States Supreme Court. This is a request that the court use its discretionary
power to examine important legal issues in Mumia's case, without waiting for
his case to work its way up to the Supreme Court through normal appeals.
The issues raised in this petition concerned Mumia's Sixth Amendment rights
to a fair trail. These rights were abridged when the Pennsylvania trial
court refused to let Mumia function as his own attorney, when it held a
meeting in the judge's chambers to remove a juror without Mumia being
present, and when Mumia was removed from the courtroom without provisions
for him to follow the proceedings in which his life was at stake.
The refusal of the court to consider these issue is consistent with its
recent trend to “federalism,” which is just a fancy word for states rights.
The doctrine of states rights was promoted by the white supremacist Southern
states between the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. It opposed
review by the federal government of state government functions--even where
extreme injustices were being com-mittee.
The next legal step by Mumia will be to petition for a writ of habeas corpus
in the federal district court in Philadelphia, which will begin the normal
federal appeals process. Under the restrictive measures of the 1996
Effective Death Penalty Act, the federal courts are now supposed to give a
“presumption of correctness” to finding by the state courts. In Mumia’s
case, these means accepting finding by Judge Sabo and the FOP-supported
Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
As further information becomes available we will pass it on.
==================================================>
MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORT
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter convicted in police killing loses Supreme Court appeal<
-------------------------------------------------------------------
(Harrisburg-AP) -- Governor Ridge's spokesman says a new death
warrant for Mumia Abu-Jamal will be signed within 30 days --
following state policy.
The former radio reporter lost a U-S Supreme Court appeal today.
Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1981
killing of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner.
The court, without comment, today turned away arguments that
Abu-Jamal was denied a fair trial.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has twice upheld Abu-Jamal's
conviction and death sentence -- most recently last year. The state
court found no merit in the various arguments his lawyers raised.
(Copyright 1999 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APNP-10-04-99 1208EDT<
================================================>
From: "xica - sf bay area" <xicaj@hotmail.com>
I just got word that the US Supreme Court has denied Mumia's appeal and that
Gov. Ridge intends to sign a new death warrant and assign a date of
execution WITHIN 30 DAYS.
It's time to turn on our emergency response networks. HOOK UP WITH YOUR
LOCAL FOLKS QUICK!! DON'T WAIT FOR THE WARRANT TO BE SIGNED TO ACT!!! GET
WORD OUT - THIS IS IT..............
**For those of you in the SF Bay Area:
There will be an organizing meeting on Wednesday, 10/06 at 7pm, at 548 20th
St. near Telegraph in Downtown Oakland called by the Third Eye Movement
(formerly the People of Color Task Force to Free Mumia). This is a general
organizing meeting. EVERYBODY GO THERE.
As we all have our various reactions of rage and sadness and frustration and
rage again, I want to just remind people of something (actually I want to
paraphrase someone):
When the enemy attacks, it is a good thing. It means that we have clearly
drawn a line between the enemy and ourselves. It is even better when the
enemy attacks wildly, painting us as utterly dark and without virtue,
because it means that we have done our work very well.
- I'm paraphrasing Mao - I didn't happen to have that quote on me, but the
point is that the fact that they want so badly to kill this revolutionary
brother is because he does his work very well indeed and because we do too.
Somewhere between the recent media attacks and the few crumbs thrown down to
us in the form of clemency for the Puerto Rican political prisoners, it
seemed that they were definitely gearing up to go ahead and kill him. But
they know they risk a lot in doing so. They risk deepening the rebellion
and revolutionary sentiment in all of us, internationally, including all the
nearly mainstream folks we have here with us, and they risk losing more
folks to our side as we enter this stage of the struggle. It seems they
have decided that, still, he is more powerful in life than in death.
It also seems that they would like us to know where our "boundaries" are,
that we if we live like Mumia, they will try to murder us too. They would
like us to feel demoralized, they would like us to feel hopeless - we are a
lot less threatening that way. They want to kill our brother, not just
because they want *his* silence, they want to kill him because they want
*ours*, too.
We just can't let them have that. Right now, we have to scream it from the
rooftops, we have to make the walls shake, and if they finally lynch him, we
have to make his spilled blood as worth while as possible for a very long
time to come.
go call your people......
~(no justice, no) peace.
==========================================>
ICCFMAJ STATEMENTS TO COME... STAY TUNED ... GET THE WORD OUT ....
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 19709 - Philadelphia, PA 19143
Ph: 215-476-8812 / Fax: 215-476-7551
Web: www.mumia.org / E-mail: mumia@webcom.com
MUMIA MUST LIVE! TIME IS RUNNING OUT!