Friday, February 28, 2020 at 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST
Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office
Three South Penn Square, Philadelphia
DA Larry Krasner to supposed announce whether or not he challenges Mumia’s appeals on Feb 28. We call for Mumia’s release.
Abu-Jamal’s supporters rallied outside Philadelphia District Attorney ‘s office on Friday, January 31, on the day he was expected to announce his response to legal briefs for Post Conviction Relief Act hearings and a request to remand Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case back to Common Pleas court, filed by his attorneys in early September 2019.
Krasner instead asked the court for a 30-day postponement.
Once again, after 38 years held behind bars for a crime Abu-Jamal is innocent of, justice continues to be denied.
Recent exonerations of 10 Philadelphia residents unfairly convicted for crimes they did not commit reveal a simple truth – the Philadelphia police, courts and prosecutors convict innocent Black men based on gross violations of their constitutional rights. The same patterns of constitutional violations plague the case of Abu-Jamal.”
Since Jan. 2018, investigations by the Conviction Integrity Unit of the DA’s office have resulted in exonerations of Sherman McCoy, James Frazier, Dwayne Thorpe, Terrance Lewis, Jamaal Simmons, Dontia Patterson, John Miller, Willie Veasey, Johnny Berry and Chester Holmann III.(Washingtonpost.com, 11/12/19)
Pam Africa of the MOVE Organization said to the crowd, “Krasner, do for Mumia what you’ve done for these men here.” Based on his innocence, he should be released like they were.
Philadelphia is not alone. The National Registry of Exonerations counted 165 exonerations in the US last year. The registry has tallied 2,500 wrongful convictions since 1989, costing defendants more than 22,000 years of incarceration.(law.umich.edu/special/exoneration)
Seven of the ten men released in Philadelphia were convicted by longtime district attorney Lynne Abraham, a “tough-on-crime” prosecutor who regularly sought maximum punishments and death sentences. In 1981, Common Pleas Court Judge Abraham arraigned Abu-Jamal and years later as District Attorney fought against his appeals in post conviction relief hearings.
Ineffective counsel, false witness testimony, witness coercion and intimidation, phony ballistics evidence, prosecution failure to turn over evidence to the defense as required by law, racist jury selection — these and other legal errors led to the exoneration of the 10 innocent defendants after decades in prison. These are the same injustice practices Abu-Jamal’s attorneys and supporters have been citing since 1982.
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