For Ras Legacy and anyone else interested:
Kevin Cooper has been granted a stay of execution and a review of some of the evidencin his case has been ordered. For more details go to
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/ (Campaign to End the Death Penalty). For specific ways you can get involved go to
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/getinv.html and
http://www.savekevincooper.org (this wasn't working last I checked but it might be back up now).
It's important to keep the pressure on in this case. Without all the folks who called, e-mailed and demonstrated, Kevin Cooper would certainly be dead as we speak. NUFF RESPECK TO ALL WHO E-MAILED, and sorry to sound all self-righteous and accusatory in my message- I don't do enough about these issues myself so I have no right to be self-righteous.
I got e-mail about the case from the AWOL magazine listserve. e-mail Mario Africa (
mario@objector.org) and he'll put you on the list. Mario is a member of the MOVE organization who were bombed by the Philly police on May 13, 1985, when 11 men, women and children were burned to death by a C-4 bomb. 9 MOVE members have been imprisoned since 1978 on completely trumped-up charges (one, Merle Africa, passed on in prison in 1998). For more info about MOVE, go to
http://www.onamove.org And for updates on Mumia Abu-Jamal's case and to read his articles, go to
http://www.mumia.org Lastly, AWOL magazine is a great project published from Philly and focusing on anti-militarism and related issues. Each issue also contains a CD with all types of music, poetry, etc. They need people to submit articles and music and they need folks to distribute the mag. Go to
http://awol.objector.org/ (I'll also post that on the arts & music section and on the other message board later).
To reply to your other question (briefly cos I have to run): To judge from the amount of people who have been released after years on death row due to new evidence being uncovered, etc, you figure there must be many more who have been put to death and many more awaiting death. Some cases are very clear-cut, like Mumia's for example. He's innocent and even if he was 'guilty', he would be 'guilty' of defending his little brother from a cop engaged in beating him over the head with a metal flashlight, a potentially deadly weapon. Other cases are shadowy and of course in some cases people really are guilty. But the only way to ensure no one innocent gets put to death is to entirely eliminate the racist, classist death penalty. The gov't is the biggest murderer of all and has no right to put anyone to death, guilty or innocent.