TEACH-IN ON MUMIA ABU JAMAL
"EVERY GENERATION HAS A MORAL ASSIGNMENT. OURS IS TO SAVE THE LIFE OF
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL" - Ossie Davis
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
112 SOUTH MICHIGAN, CHICAGO
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 6PM - 9PM
INTRODUCTIONS: MENDY NEWMAN & MOSES X BALL, SAIC STUDENTS
SPEAKERS:
1. BERNADINE DORN, NORTHWESTERN SCHOOL OF LAW
2. REPRESENTATIVE FROM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
3. KAMARIA NGOZI, BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS, CHICAGO COMMITTEE TO FREE MUMIA
ABU JAMAL
4. CHRIS BRATTON, SAIC FACULTY MEMBER, VIDEO DEPARTMENT
5. IRIS PASIC AND VERLENA JOHNSON, SAIC STUDENTS
MODERATOR: LISA BROCK, SAIC FACULTY MEMBER, LIBERAL ARTS
All are Welcome!
Come and hear the latest on this nearly 25 year historic struggle, which
has been sited by International Human Rights organizations as an example
of a Criminal Justice System that politically targets and grossly
discriminates against African-Americans and Latinos, all under the guise
of the War Against Crime. The use of the death penalty has become so
problematic that the American Bar Association has recently come out
against its use all together!
In 1982, Mumia Abu-Jamal, noted journalist and author, was sentenced to
death for the murder of a Philadelphia Police Officer. Millions around the
world are calling for a new trial. Why?
* The police silenced eyewitnesses whose testimony would have exonerated
Mumia and coerced others to testify against him.
* Police ballistics tests were incomplete and inconclusive and important
evidence was misplaced
* Mumia was not allowed the attorney of choice and was prevented from
representing himself
* Mumia's court appointed lawyer was not capable of mounting an adequate
defense
* Mumia's youthful membership in the Black Panther Party was used to argue
for the death penalty
* Mumia himself was barred from large parts of his own trial
* African Americans were systematically excluded from the jury
* The original judge was a former member of the Fraternal Order of Police
who has sentenced more people to death than any other judge in the USA,
most of them people of color
=======================================================>
From: "Greg Butterfield" <theredguard@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 09:22:43 PST
Amnesty members hold lock-in at U. Arizona
for imprisoned activist
Updated 12:00 PM ET November 17, 1999
By Audrey DeAnda
Arizona Daily Wildcat
U. Arizona
(U-WIRE) TUCSON, Ariz. -- Members of the University of Arizona chapter of
Amnesty International are taking turns sitting inside a jail cell replica in
an effort to bring attention to a 1980s trial that resulted in the
imprisonment of a Black Panther Party activist.
In 1981, Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police
officer. The journalist and activist, a member of the Black Panthers since
he was 15, was sentenced to death in 1982 in what many human rights groups
say was an unfair trial.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups are campaigning to give
Abu-Jamal a new trial, said Anjali Bhasin, a creative writing junior and
Amnesty member.
"There's a lot of evidence that reflects he's likely innocent and he's on
death row right now," Bhasin said. "We're asking people to support his
evidentiary trial."
Besides taking turns sitting inside a jail cell behind Old Main for the next
three days, members are also asking University of Arizona students to sign a
petition to ask Philadelphia Judge William Yohn for a new trial.
Bhasin said new evidence has been discovered since the trial, which could
prove Abu-Jamal's innocence. A Philadelphia medical examiner has determined
the bullet that killed the officer was from a .44 caliber pistol.
Abu-Jamal had a .38 caliber gun for protection while he was a cab driver,
she said.
Bhasin added that during the trial, evidence from Abu-Jamal's time with the
Black Panther Party was used "out of context" by prosecutors.
Bhasin said Amnesty members are not on the UA Mall to prove Abu-Jamal's
innocence, but rather to promote awareness of human rights violations.
"We're not claiming he's innocent," she said. "We're saying his human rights
were violated."
Along with the jail cell replica and petition, the group also has a booth
with information and statistics about the death penalty.
Amnesty member Sabin Calvert, a media arts junior, said the demonstration
was not only about Abu-Jamal.
"Part of this is to promote awareness of the death penalty," Calvert said
from inside the cell. "We work against the death penalty."
Calvert added that Abu-Jamal had accumulated an FBI file because he was an
active member of the Black Panther Party.
"We feel he is a political prisoner because he had been watched by the FBI
before this incident occurred," Calvert said.
Some UA students agreed with Amnesty's stand against the death penalty.
Mandy Siegal, creative writing and political science sophomore, signed the
group's petition.
"I signed the petition because we're the only major world power who still
uses the death penalty," Siegal said. "Anything I can do to further the
cause against the death penalty, I will do."
Other students said they didn't understand the Abu-Jamal case that caused
the Amnesty group to be out on the mall.
Amanda Hensal, a business freshman, said even though the cell caught her
attention and made her stop by the booth, she did not understand the
demonstration's purpose.
"I really don't know what the issue is," Hensal said. "They should have a
print-out about what (Abu-Jamal) is about."
(C) 1999 Arizona Daily Wildcat via U-WIRE
*********************************
Activist calls for reform in prison system
during U. Wisconsin speech
Updated 12:00 PM ET November 17, 1999
By Molly Schmidt
Badger Herald
U. Wisconsin
(U-WIRE) MADISON, Wis. -- Internationally known political activist Angela
Davis tackled issues of racism, sexism and classism in the penal system
during her lecture at Memorial Union Tuesday.
Davis' visit is part of the Distinguished Lecture Series.
African-American Studies Professor Richard Ralston introduced Davis, famous
for her activism in the 1960s and '70s, using one of her most famous quotes.
"I have given my life to struggle," he quoted. "My life belongs to struggle.
If I have to lose my life to struggle, then that's the way it's going to
be."
Born in segregated Birmingham, Ala., Davis attended Brandeis University and
graduated in 1965. She went on to graduate school at the University of
California-San Diego and continued her academic career there as an assistant
professor until 1969, when the University of California Board of Regents
dismissed her for her extreme political views.
At that time, Davis was a member of the Communist Party and also worked with
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers. In
1970, Davis was associated with the courtroom escape of the Soledad Brothers
for allegedly supplying the guns used in the controversial black prisoners'
failed attempt to escape. Davis was placed on the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's Most Wanted criminal list until her arrest. After a 16-month
incarceration on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, Davis was
acquitted in 1972 by an all-white jury. In 1980 she ran for office as the
Communist Party's vice presidential candidate.
Davis is the author of five books including an autobiography, and is
currently working on a book detailing racism and classism in the U.S.
criminal justice system.
"We have to abolish prisons and the idea of them as solutions for spurious
problems that they cannot possibly begin to solve," Davis said. "We should
start to think imaginatively about the kinds of institutions that would
solve the problems that prisons cannot ... like schools and mental health
care. ... Affirmative action is also an alternative."
Davis used the controversial Mumia Abu-Jamal conviction as an example of the
problems in our justice system.
"In the next few months, if we do not generate public, dramatic, visible
concern about Mumia Abu-Jamal, he will be put to death," Davis said.
On Oct. 12, Davis visited Abu-Jamal on death row in Pennsylvania.
"I've been in many prisons all over the world," Davis said, "and that was
the scariest. "
Davis also spoke out strongly against the death penalty.
"The U.S. is the only country in the industrial world that routinely puts
people to death," she said. "Currently there are 536 people on death row in
California alone, more than were on death row in the entire country in
1969."
As a solution, Davis suggests a justice system that rehabilitates rather
than incapacitates criminals.
"Think of the contradiction in a criminal justice system that robs people of
their housing in a free world," Davis said. "[The U.S.] sacrifices social
services, health care and jobs for a profitable prison system where
ever-increasing numbers of people are sent to death row."
Davis urged the gathering to think critically about racial injustice in the
criminal justice system.
She pointed out that 84 percent of those on death row are there for killing
a white victim, while only 50 percent of murder victims are white.
She also pointed out that most of the white people on death row are poor.
She ended her lecture with a final plea for Abu-Jamal.
"The only reason I was able to defeat the plans of the state of California
to execute me was the enormous movement around my case," Davis said. "The
jury that found me not guilty knew that they not just have to answer to me,
but to thousands of people. Mumia's case happened when nobody was watching.
He needs to have his day in court."
(C) 1999 Badger Herald via U-WIRE