Mumia Abu-Jamal's May 17 hearing and the Presidential race

The oral argument that will be heard before the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal and hopefully free this innocent man is putting the entire Democratic Party and all of its worthless millionaire death penalty candidates in their well-deserved position of possibly losing the 2008 presidential election as they cannot win without the black vote.

As we can see from the letter from the current attorney for Mumia, Robert Bryan, at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Lawyers Guild have filed amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs on behalf of Mumia. See: http://www.freemumia.com/pdfs/3.22.07Update.pdf

It was Democratic District Attorney Ed Rendell who framed Mumia Abu-Jamal. Rendell later was the National Democratic Party Chairperson in 2000, mayor of Philadelphia and is now Governor of Pennsylvania, in a position to sign a third death warrant against Mumia. Rendell is also a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, the primary promoters of this frame-up of Mumia because as a journalist, Mumia exposed police brutality every chance he had. This is the stinking rotten death penalty Democratic Party, just as rotten as the Republican Party.

It was this same Democratic Party that joined overwhelmingly with the Republican Party to essentially endorse the frame-up of Mumia by denouncing St. Denis, France for naming a street after Mumia. For the full roll call vote of the House of Representatives which passed this resolution on December 6, 2006, Roll Call 527, see http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll527.xml
There you will see the votes for the murder of Mumia by Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Dennis Kucinich and many other so-called "liberals" among the 151 Democrats who joined the 216 Republicans to make clear their contempt for an independent judiciary and their strong support for the death penalty.

Ed Rendell's wife, Marjorie Rendell, is an appellate justice on the 3rd Circuit. The State of Pennsylvania tried to use this as an excuse to have the entire 3rd Circuit recuse itself, an extraordinary request and obviously an attempt to deny or at least delay the appeal, but this request was denied, as we can see from this April 20, 2007 announcment from the freemumia.com website states at http://www.freemumia.com/recusalresponse.html
April 20, 2007
Dear Friends,
Just an hour ago, Abu-Jamal News (the new news format just hot off the press edited by the equally new outfit “Journalists for Mumia”) was informed by Mumia’s lead attorney Robert R. Bryan that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has
1) ruled against the prosecution’s motion that the court recuse itself and
2) given the opposing sides each an extra half hour for their arguments, meaning that both defense and prosecution will have one hour instead of only 30 minutes at the May 17 hearing.
On April 20, 2007, Robert told us via e-mail: “We won on both of my motions [i.e., the defense motion opposing the recusal and the defense motion for more time for arguments at the hearing, MS]. In denying the disqualification of the Third Circuit, the court adopted my argument. Even though I will try to get out more detail over the weekend, you may send out the news.”
This doesn’t tell us yet whether the court’s final decision re Mumia will indeed be just, but it’s great news all the same.
So let’s continue our struggle for life, liberty, and justice for Mumia – and all the many others who are still denied their basic human rights!
With best greetings from AJN,
Hans Bennett & Michael Schiffmann
J4M (Journalists for Mumia)

Philly Indymedia has a good front page and will probably have latest updates. See http://www.phillyimc.org/en/

There are WORLDWIDE picket lines and rallies for Mumia. In San Francisco, there is a rally outside the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals at 7th and Mission Streets from 4 to 6 p.m. on May 17. (The federal appeals courts are divided in circuits across the country. The 9th Circuit covers the West Coast.) No decision will be made on May 17; that will take at least 2 months, perhaps longer. But the massive presence everywhere is important. We have already made the publicity so great that 2 death warrants had to be cancelled and Mumia would be off death row if the State of Pennsylvania had not used its appeal as an excuse to keep him on death row. The price was too high for the ruling class to execute Mumia. Now the success of the Democrats in the 2008 presidential race is on the line, so long as we keep the pressure on. This case is not just a political frame-up of one person and not just another attempt at yet another racist lynching, both horrific enough. This case is about defeating the fascist agenda that is being perpetrated at Guantanamo and all the other torture camps around the world that the Democratic controlled Congress could close just by cutting off the funding. This case is also about putting an end to the death penalty in the US, as it has already been abolished in Europe, most of Latin America including Mexico and many African countries. If you cannot be at the rally, at least stay tuned to what is taking place as this is an historic, watershed time.