December 27, 2008

mumia abdul jamal and more on the wm3

Soon I will be donating some tattoo time with me to skeletonkeyauctions.com. We will be working out the details soon. All the money raised will go to support the defense fund for the West Memphis Three. I will announce on this site when we start the auction, but in the meantime, stop by skeletonkeyauctions.com and show your support. Also, check out www.myspace.com/almosthomevol1 and www.WM3.org for more information on supporting the West Memphis Three.

This week we are going to be talking about Mumia Abdul Jamal.
I remember reading and hearing little bits and pieces about Mumia growing up, but not knowing the full story until I got older. He was one of those names you here, growing up in the punk rock community, but didn’t know the details and importance of his actions and life. Here’s a little run down on Mumia.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a renowned journalist from Philadelphia who has been in prison since 1981 and on death row since 1983 for allegedly shooting Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. He is known as the “Voice of the Voiceless” for his award- winning reporting on police brutality and other social and racial epidemics that plague communities of color in Philadelphia and throughout the world. Mumia has received international support over the years in his efforts to overturn his unjust conviction.

Mumia Abu-Jamal was serving as the President of the Association of Black Journalists at the time of his arrest. He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Black Panther Party as a teenager. Years later he began reporting professionally on radio stations such as NPR, and was the news director of Philadelphia station WHAT. Much of his journalism called attention to the blatant injustice and brutality he watched happen on a daily basis to MOVE, a revolutionary organization that works to protect all forms of life–human, animal, plant–and the Earth as a whole.

On a side note, MOVE also had some interesting events happen. On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department attempted to clear a building in which the MOVE members lived. The police tried to remove two wood-and-steel rooftop bunkers by dropping a four-pound bomb made of C-4 plastic explosive and Tovex, a dynamite substitute, onto the roof. The resulting explosion caused the house to catch fire, igniting a massive blaze which eventually consumed almost an entire city block. Eleven people, including John Africa, six other adults and four children, died in the resulting fire.
It was reported later that John Africa was not killed by the fire but by actions of the Philadelphia Police as they set off explosives in an effort to knock down a common wall of an adjacent property to the MOVE compound. John Africa was killed by one of these explosions.
Mayor Wilson Goode soon appointed an investigative commission, the PSIC or MOVE commission, which issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that “Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable.” In a 1996 civil suit in U.S. federal court, a jury ordered the City of Philadelphia and two former city officials to pay $1.5 million to a survivor and relatives of two people killed in the incident. The jury found that the city used excessive force and violated the members’ constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

In 1981, Mumia worked as a cab driver at night to supplement his income. On December 9th he was driving his cab through the red light district of downtown Philadelphia at around 4 a.m. Mumia testifies that he let off a fare and parked near the corner of 13th and Locust Streets. Upon hearing gunshots, he turned and saw his brother, William Cook, staggering in the street. Mumia exited the cab and ran to the scene, where he was shot by a uniformed police officer and fell to the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. Within minutes, police arrived on the scene to find Officer Faulkner and Mumia shot; Faulkner died.

The trial began in 1982 with Judge Sabo (who sent more people to death row than any other judge) presiding. Mumia wished to represent himself and have John Africa as his legal advisor, but before jury selection had finished, this right was revoked and an attorney was forcibly appointed for him. Throughout the trial, Mumia was accused of disrupting court proceedings and was not allowed to attend most of his own trial. Sabo lived up to his nickname of “Prosecutor in Robes.”

The prosecution claimed that the shot which killed Faulkner came from Mumia Abu-Jamal’s legally registered .38-caliber weapon, contradicting the medical examiner’s report that the bullet removed from Faulkner’s brain was a .44-caliber. This fact was kept from the jury. Moreover, a ballistics expert found it incredible that police at the scene failed to test Mumia’s gun to see if has been recently fired, or to test his hands for powder residue. One of the most damning prosecution claims was that Mumia confessed at the hospital. However, this confession was not reported until nearly two months after December 9th, immediately after Mumia had filed a brutality suit against the police. One of the officers who claims to have heard the confession is Gary Wakshul. However, in his police report on that day he stated, “the Negro male made no comments.” Dr. Coletta, the attending physician who was with Mumia the entire time, says that he never heard Mumia speak.

Mumia was found guilty. He was sentenced to death during the penalty phase, and have been on death row ever since.

In 1999, Arnold Beverly confessed to killing Officer Faulkner. This confession is validated by a lie detector test administered by eminent polygraph expert Charles Honts. Despite concrete evidence supporting this confession, the Philadelphia District Attorney has refused to investigate, and the courts have not even allowed it to be heard.
here’s a video of that confession,

Here also is a video from Mumia in his own words.

click the next buttons to see parts 2 and 3

Check out www.freemumia.com to see how you can help.
Also, check out www.workers.org/2007/us/pvn/ to watch a video of Mumia from death row.
Next week we are going to be discussing Leonard Peltier and what led to his imprisonment.

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December 19, 2008

free the three

When I first heard this story when I was a kid, I couldn’t believe it was true. The idea that people could imprisoned for not committing a crime was completely foreign to me. Your average person thinks the same way, how can someone go to jail, face the death penalty, for not committing a crime. Isn’t the justice system suppose to make sure that that doesn’t happen? Aren’t we suppose to live in a country that protects it’s people? Here again is a wool being pulled over the eyes of all of us.. For the next month we are going to be discussing people who are now in prison for crimes they did not commit. Many of these are on death row. People facing death because of an unjust judicial system.

I think we have all heard about the west memphis 3, here’s some of the story.
This comes from www.wm3.org.

Shortly after three eight-year-old boys were found mutilated and murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, local newspapers stated the killers had been caught. The police assured the public that the three teenagers in custody were definitely responsible for these horrible crimes. Evidence?

The same police officers coerced an error-filled “confession” from Jessie Misskelley Jr., who is mentally handicapped. They subjected him to 12 hours of questioning without counsel or parental consent, audio-taping only two fragments totaling 46 minutes. Jessie recanted it that evening, but it was too late— Misskelley, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols were all arrested on June 3, 1993, and convicted of murder in early 1994.

Although there was no physical evidence, murder weapon, motive, or connection to the victims, the prosecution pathetically resorted to presenting black hair and clothing, heavy metal t-shirts, and Stephen King novels as proof that the boys were sacrificed in a satanic cult ritual. Unfathomably, Echols was sentenced to death, Baldwin received life without parole, and Misskelley got life plus 40.

For over 15 years, The West Memphis Three have been imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. Echols waits in solitary confinement for the lethal injection our tax dollars will pay for. They were all condemned by their poverty, incompetent defense, satanic panic and a rush to judgment.

here’s a documentary called “Paradise Lost” that is about this crime.

click on the “next” part to see all 16 parts of this documentary.

Here is also an update since the making of this documentary.

and here is another update.

you can do something and help,
visit www.wm3.org and click on the “how to help” button.

Next week we are going to be talking about Mumia Abu Jamal, another person unrightfully imprisoned in this country.

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