- Von: „Steve Bloom“ <……………
- Betreff: FW: [MumiaNYC] Legal Update Mumia Abu-Jamal
- Datum: Donnerstag, 27. Mai 2004
- —–Original Message—–
- From: mumianyc [mailto:………………]
- Subject: [MumiaNYC] Legal Update Mumia Abu-Jamal
- ——-~-
- ADDENDUM: The Significance of the
Recent Supreme Court Decision
- Since the previous piece was written, Mumia’s legal team has
- filed two petitions for relief in the courts. There has been a
- ruling on one.
- Earlier this year lead counsel Robert R. Bryan, joined by
- Steven W. Hawkins, Professor Judith L. Ritter, and Jill Culbert,
- filed for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court. Such a
- writ is a device used by the court to consider issues which it deems
- especially significant. The team’s petition sought a review of the
- Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s October 8 decision denying any relief
- to Mumia; in particular:
- (1) Whether it is constitutionally permissible under the 5th, 6th,
- and 14th Amend-ments for a judge to preside over a capital murder
- trial of a Black man in which he is overheard stating during the
- proceedings talking about the defendant: `Yeah, and I’m going to
- help `em fry the n—‚. The judge, Albert Sabo, though
- retired since 1990 and now dead, still holds the dubious
- distinction of having
- sentenced more people to death than any other U.S. judge in modern
- times. Of the 32 people so condemned, all but two were Black,
- Latino or Asian.
- (2) Whether it is constitutionally improper under the 5th, 6th and
- 14th Amend-ments for a judge (Ronald Castille) to participate in
- deciding a case on appeal where in his former capacity as District
- Attorney, he had opposed the defendant’s efforts for appellate and
- post-conviction relief, and asked that the death judgement be
- carried out.
- On May 17 the Supreme Court declined to review the petition.
- It made its decision `without prejudice‘, which means that the
- issues can be brought before it again as part of Mumia’s pending
- appeals in the lower federal courts. But at the same time the Court
- evidently didn’t consider the issues, which graphically expose the
- racism and political corruption in the legal system, to be
- sufficiently important for consideration by themselves.
- Overall, the Supreme Court grants only about 2% of petitions
- for certiorari.
- Previously, Mr. Bryan and the legal team had filed on December
- 8, 2003, a Petition for Habeas Corpus Relief in the Court of Common
- Pleas in Philadelphia based on new evidence of innocence. Included
- was a sworn declaration by Yvette Williams, in which she revealed
- that a principal prosecution witness, Cynthia White, had admitted
- she was planning to lie at Mumia’s 1982 trial. Contrary to her
- statement at trial, White did not witness the shooting, but was
- bribed and coerced by the police to give perjured testimony against
- Mumia. She also lied with the help of the prosecutor, Joseph
- McGill, when she stated that no one was at the crime scene except
- Mumia, his brother and the cop. This petition is still pending.
- May 2004
- –Mumia is Innocent! Stop the Frame Up! Free Mumia!–
- Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC, P.O. Box 650, NY, NY
- 10009 212-330-8029, www.FreeMumia.com, info@FreeMumia.com
- YC, P.O. Box 650, NY, NY 10009
- 212-330-8029, www.FreeMumia.com, info@FreeMumia.com