Mumia Abu Jamal
The following paper will discuss the topic of racial injustice in the
United
States Legal System. Since this topic is so broad, it will deal
with the trial
of Mumia Abu Jamal in 1982. This paper will show how the
"system" will
try anything to keep a minority down. The system consists of
upper middle class
to upper class whites that believe minorities are inferior
to them. The system
is used is a "political machine" used by whites to keep
these
minorities from becoming powerful. If minorities can speak their minds,
have
power, or bond together, they can be a threat to the status quo.
This
"system" still thrives in our world. A stunning article, Race and
the
Death Penalty reminds us that a low percentage of Whites were being
executed for
the death of a Black person. Meanwhile, almost triple the number
of Blacks that
were being put to death for the killings of a White people.
Where is the justice
in this so-called democracy? Imagine driving up to an
intersection and seeing
your own flesh and blood being beaten... What do you
do? Any normal person would
try and help out. What if the one who is
assaulting him/her is a police officer?
Should it make a difference? A
police officer is trained to "serve and
protect". When he isn't protecting
you or your relatives, whom is he
protecting? Mumia encountered this same
scenario. He raced to the aide of his
brother. And in the midst of battle,
shots rang out. Mumia was shot, and later
recovered. The police officer was
killed. Witnesses reported two men fleeing the
scene. However, when police
arrived and realized that they had a black critic of
the police department,
who was also a member of the Black Panthers, they
immediately beat him, and
charged him with murder. In an interview with The
Revolutionary Worker,
Mumia referring to the question, "How did they (the
police) treat you?"
stated "I would not say they 'treat' me, I would
say that they 'beat' me.
They beat me in the street. They beat me in the paddy
wagon."(Interview)
Mumia was a broadcast journalist whose purpose was to
give angered civilians
an open forum for discussion. Mumia, like any person who
speaks his/her mind,
has their share of opposition. The only problem was Mumia's
opposition held
some of the highest positions in politics. Having enemies in
those positions
isn't a good thing. During the time prior to the trial, Mayor
Frank Rizzo
had made attacks on several radical organizations. Stings and raids
had
filled the streets. Mumia let the radicals present their sides on the
radio;
this caused them to gain support. This counteracted what the mayor had
planned.
Once again, this angered the politicians who run the "system".
(Weinglass,
L.I., Jones, D.) Being a member of the Black Panther Party
wasn't much help
either. They were upset that a Black man had such power and
influence over his
audience. They "system" once again stepped in and tried to
destroy the
reputation of the Black Panthers. They stated that the Panthers
weren't a
credible organization claiming they were radical and terrorist in
order to
dissuade persons from joining them, or sympathizing with them. In a
Standard
English dictionary, radical means "Departing markedly from the
usual;
extreme." That is what they thought of these groups, and in fact they
were
right. These groups believed in what they thought was right, and were
willing to
pursue it to the very end. The word radical is often paired off
with the word
terrorist. The word terrorist means "The political use of
violence and
intimidation". You may ask where is the connection between the
two? Well,
the government thinks that because these groups are radical and
sometimes are
forced into violent situations, they use this violence as a
motivation builder.
(American Heritage Dictionary) You also may ask where do
they get these ideas of
radicalism and terrorism. Do you think giving food to
the hungry is radical? How
about the creation of several social skills
programs across the US? They aren't
but you can imagine what the government
claims the driving force behind these
groups. Drugs, money, racism, that is
what the government claims is going on. Do
you see that? In the trial, Mumia,
an educated black man, was not allowed to
represent himself. Instead a
court-appointed attorney, who obviously didn't want
any part of the
deliberations, represented him. Mumia was barred from the court
because his
questioning of jurors for the case was so-called
"intimidating". Also,
decreasing the chances of a fair trial, and a
fair jury even more, Mumia's
attorney was threatened with contempt charges if he
attempted to slow the
jury selection process. This caused the selectors to
"overlook" three
potentially dangerous jurors. Two of these had some
connection to the police
department, and one who openly testified that he
couldn't have an open mind
in this case. The most damaging portion of Mumia's
case was that he was not
allowed in the courtroom for most of the trial,
although a majority of the
case was researched and created by him for his
defense. How could someone who
isn't on the same level of thinking come up with
the same defense? They
can't. Mumia's lawyer didn't know what Mumia was
thinking, and he really
didn't care to find out. That is what the court wanted.
If they took
Mumia out of his momentum, gave him an all white jury, and gave him
all these
loose ends to tie up, it was impossible for him to win. To impede
the
investigation on the defense's part, the court only allotted $150 for
expenses.
This money covered only two witnesses, and some other expenses.
There was no
limit to the money the prosecution spent on this trial. They
were allowed to
spend what they deemed necessary for the trial. With the
money they allotted the
prosecution, they had a whopping 125 witnesses, who
"tested"
everything from ballistics and pathology to the events of the days
actions. The
most damaging of the witnesses was a reputed prostitute who had
given many
different stories, and was contradicted repeatedly by the stories
of other
prosecution witnesses and her own testimony. There were reports
stating this
prostitute bargained for immunity in return for this testimony.
As Del Jones
states, the corroborations, which should most definitely count
as reasonable
doubt, were merely passed over as if they were hearsay. The
idea of reasonable
doubt in our legal system is supposed to work to the favor
of the defendant.
Reasonable doubt, in theory means if by any chance a
doubt can be established
about the defendant's guilt, this is reason for the
jury to find him/her not
guilty. Some of these discrepancies are the first
witness accounts had stated
that the man who fired the gun had an
afro-hairstyle. Mumia wears dreadlocks
(dreads). Also for an investigation
like this, a TRACE METAL TEST should have
been performed. However, the police
"accidentally" forgot. This test
would have determined which, if any, of the
assailants fired a weapon. This
information would have been choice piece of
evidence to waive charges. Another
point that was brought out is the supposed
confession of Mumia when he was in
the hospital. The police officer stated
that "...as he lay on the floor he
said 'I shot the mother--cker, and I hope
the mother--cker dies.' "
However, no reports whatsoever were filed, or
released. The guard on duty said
that it was not true. Judge Sabo failed to
call the officer to the stand; for he
was on vacation. After this poor excuse
of a fair trial, Mumia was convicted and
sentenced death. About ten days
before his scheduled execution, he was granted a
stay of execution. His case
has been only one of few that the government has
ever given. Great support by
sympathizers helped influence this decision.
Mumia's supporters haven't
quieted down. They still shout mistrial. Some think
that it was because of
his lack of self-representation, and others think it was
because of who was
trying him. In any case, his supporters won't back down until
Mumia is
free, and walking, or until he receives the fair trial he deserves.
Mumia
still sits and waits inside his 8 x 8-foot cell, for that day to come.
The
cries of his family and friends still shake the walls of that prison.
Hopefully,
he will be returned to the proper earth. With all the press this
story made, it
has brought to the public a new awareness of the racial
injustice around us. As
Ms. Taylor pointed out clearly in a class
discussion on July 5, it is shocking
when you are presented with the facts.
If you are not confronted with them, you
are able to brush off the obvious,
and clear your mind of guilt, and look the
other way. There are a couple of
books that are written to bring out the point
of racial injustices in every
aspect of democracy. In the anthology, In Defense
of Mumia, Writers from all
over the world, write about there feelings towards
The Mumia Abu Jamal
case, the Rodney Kind beating, and other racial crimes
against minorities. In
the poem, "Death to Killer Cops", Haqq gives a
really scary feeling of what
goes on in "amerikkka". He uses the
"KKK" in America to symbolize the control
that the Caucasians have
over the system, and its branches. He also refers to
the coming together of
people to fight for their equality and the release of
Mumia, while making it
clear that corrupt cops should be killed. Once again
this trails back to the
article, which states that a Black man would most
likely get executed than a
White man. The point the author of the work is
tries to get across is that
although they want the corrupt cops to get fried,
since most are White, it won't
happen. In conclusion, I believe that there is
too much racial injustice in this
country, or any country. This would be one
reason why Communism wouldn't work.
Everyone wants to be better than
someone else is, the Whites make themselves out
to be better than the Blacks.
Mixed races try to assimilate themselves into both
cultures, and are usually
criticized for that reason. Where do you go when your
own people don't want
you? The answer is nowhere, which is why more and more
people become racially
biased. The think retaliation is going to solve certain
disagreements between
cultures, when all it really does is create and
everlasting cycle of
violence, and hatred.
Bibliography
Smolowe, Jill (1991, April 29).
Race and the Death Penalty. Time Magazine,
pgs 68. Unknown. Refuse and Resist
[On-line]. Available:
http://www.walrus.com/~resist/mumia/051697brochuretext.html;
date visited:
7/13/98. Weinglass, L. I., Jones, D. The trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal
#'s 1 &
2, [On-line] Available: http://www.walrus.com/~resist/mumia/FFS.html;
date
visited: 7/10/98 Interview with Revolutionary Writer, [Online]
Available:
http://www.walrus.com/~resist/interview.html#assault; date
visited: 7/12/98 The
American Heritage Dictionary; Third Edition (1994)
New York City, NY: Dell
Publishing; pgs. 680, 835. Haqq, Abdul (1996),
Death to Killer Cops, In
Anderson, S. E., Medina, T., Allen, P. A.
(Eds.), In Defense of Mumia (pgs.
29-30) New York City, NY: Writers and
Readers Publishing, Inc.