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U.S.A.: Political Prisoners: Lessons for Occupationists and Us All
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A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR editor and columnist Jared Ball
December 15, 2011
blackagendareport.com
“We need to encourage a renewed focus on the politically incarcerated because we are likely to see those ranks increase.”
After this week's rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal in Philadelphia, at which much of the focus was his being removed from death row, at least one thing has again been made clear; going forward all movement building must deeply involve the plight of political prisoners. This point was made several ways by several different speakers, including Cornel West who described the more than 30 years of this particular fight, and Desmond Tutu who cautioned that the move of Mumia from death row was cool but not a real victory – and who better than a veteran of the freedom struggle in Azania to tell us about incomplete “victories.” And there was the tireless Ramona Africa who echoed Tutu’s sentiments by acknowledging that not being in solitary confinement was itself no guarantee of safety, and how Mumia’s enemies considered this move a close second to actual execution since he would now be in general population with “his own kind” and likely, hopefully, to be killed by one of them. So what was a rally and tribute to Mumia was also a lesson to be learned about the kinds of struggle required, a lesson we all can use at this time of outspoken frustration with the current world.
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U.S.A.: High Court Allows Mumia to Breathe, But He is Still Condemned to Social Death
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By Glen Ford
October 16, 2011 - blackagendareport.com
“The ruling allows the Philadelphia district attorney to once again seek the death penalty in a new sentencing hearing.”
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty imposed on Mumia Abu Jamal, the world’s most famous political prisoner, is unconstitutional because the sentencing jury was not allowed to consider evidence that supported a sentence of life in prison. But the ruling allows the Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, a Black man who has based his career on executing Mumia, to once again seek the death penalty in a new sentencing hearing. If Williams does not seek, or fails to get, a another death penalty, Mumia Abu Jamal will automatically be sentenced to life with no possibility of parole in the 1981 death of a Philadelphia police officer.
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