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Title: Punishing Lynne -- From Death Row, This Is Mumia Abu-Jamal
Source:
worker's vanguard
URL Source: http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/964/mumia.html
Published: Sep 28, 2010
Author: Mumia Abu-Jamal
Post Date: 2010-09-28 19:08:26 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 18206
Comments: 29
Lynne Stewart, the activist lawyer, was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison. This outstanding lawyer, a 70 year old grandmother, who is facing the serious threat of breast cancer, was originally sentenced to 2 years and 4 months, but the federal appeals court apparently felt that wasn’t enough. The same appeals courts that traditionally reverse the convictions of cops who torture or kill Black citizens, and who traditionally rely on the judgments of the trial courts, reversed Stewart’s sentence as not tough enough. So much for judicial tradition. For Lynne’s tradition wasn’t that of the tony, tie and tails law firms of downtown Manhattan. She didn’t represent the rich, the powerful, the well-heeled. She represented the poor, the oppressed, the destitute and the dispossessed; the Black, the Latino, the Arab, the damned; those whom Frantz Fanon famously called “the wretched of the earth.” A juxtaposition: Many, many lawyers on the Office of Legal Counsel, in the White House, the CIA, and the Defense Dept. violated criminal laws, the military legal code, the Geneva Conventions, and the Convention Against Torture (CAT) [not to mention the U.S. Constitution!] to aid and abet violations of law—for years. Guess how many of them faced trial? Guess how many of them will in future? How many of them will ever face prison? None, None—and none. For their crimes were on behalf of the powerful; the state; hence their immunity. Or consider what is known in international law as the “supreme crime”: wars of aggression. Iraq will be a basket case for generations, thanks to American arrogance and greed. Will anybody be brought to book for this crime, that shattered a nation, that sent millions into exile, and killed perhaps a million men, women and children? Don’t hold your breath. There are still black sites, secret prisons, where tortures happen daily. There is still extraordinary renditions—clear violations of the Convention Against Torture (CAT). But politicians are doing it—not to “protect” the nation—but to secure elections. Torture for votes. And a 70 year old grandmother, a lawyer, is sent to prison for 10 years—for violating a prison rule that is an unconstitutional relic of the so-called war on terror. This is what an empire in decline looks like. 18 July 2010 ©2010 Mumia Abu-Jamal Send urgently needed contributions for Mumia’s legal defense, made payable to “National Lawyers Guild Foundation” and earmarked for “Mumia,” to: Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal, P.O. Box 2012, New York, NY 10159. If you wish to correspond with Mumia, you can write to: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM8335, SCI Greene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg, PA 15370.
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#17. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Want to debate, or are you just into amusing me with your cyber commando without a brain act? Arnold Beverly on 8 Jun 1999 signed a sworn confession of witness that he, Beverly, had shot and killed police officer Daniel Faulkner, and that "Jamal had nothing to do with the shooting." Beverly confessed that he and another man were hired to kill Officer Faulkner, that organized crime leaders and police officers were involved in the plan to kill Faulkner, and that police officers were present at the shooting. Co- counsel Daniel Williams agreed with him and was complicit in the suppression of this evidence. Rachel H. Wolkenstein signed a sworn deposition she resigned from Jamal's defense team because lead counsel Leonard Weinglass refused to submit this exculpatory evidence at the initial Petition for Post-Conviction Relief of Mumia Abul-Jamal in Pennsylvania state courts. Beverly's confession does not stand alone but is supported by a wealth of evidence in the record. This confession helped to lay bare the extent and consciousness of police and procecutorial misconduct in prosecuting and convicting this man for a crime he did not commit. Now, if you and Badeye are so sure and know so much on the case, let's hear a coherent argument debunking the overwhelming evidence that Mumia is innocent and should be freed.
If it ever becomes a top of the news issue, then I'll go there. Right now, he's convicted, never to be released, and I'm 100% satisfied. There are more important issues in the 'here and now'.
Yeah, I haven't been spinning that issue - which isn't the header topic anyway, and he merely wrote the piece. I just respond as others bring the Mumia issue up. This is not the sort of forum with that level of interest in open debate on the case where I would look to do a structured run through like I would have on say Time.Com/Politics which was more an open forum with a more balanced mix of viewpoints on the issues and politics. No problem Badeye, I definitely don't agree with you on many things. But respecting your disinterest in an exchange on any topic is not a problem. Hope your weekend is a good one.
#28. To: Ferret Mike (#27)
So far its been a good weekend, thanks.
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#19. To: Mad Dog, Badeye (#17)
#24. To: Ferret Mike (#19)
Now, if you and Badeye are so sure and know so much on the case, let's hear a coherent argument debunking the overwhelming evidence that Mumia is innocent and should be freed.
#27. To: Badeye (#24)
Replies to Comment # 27.
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