Unedited Jack McMahon Philadelphia DA Training Video Now Online

Journalists for Mumia (Abu-Jamal-News.com) presents the 1987 Jack McMahon Philadelphia DA Training Video for viewing online. There is a one minute version, featuring several key excerpts and the full, unedited, one hour version.

The infamous video (produced by DA Ron Castille's office) trains rookie prosecutors on how to select a jury, and among other things, the desire to exclude Black jurors without appearing to violate the 1986 US Supreme Court ruling in Batson v. Kentucky that a defendant deserves a new trial if it can be proved that jurors were excluded on the grounds of race. This Batson precedent is one of the four issues currently before The US Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund supports Mumia's Batson claim, and has filed an Amicus Brief with the court. The LDF concludes that it is an "abundantly clear… prima facie case of discrimination," and cites a survey of homicide cases DA McGill tried from Sept., 1981 to Oct., 1983, showing that "the odds that Mr. McGill would peremptorily challenge an African-American potential juror were 8.47 times greater than for non-black jurors." At the May 17 oral arguments, The LDF's Christina Swarns focused on the Batson issue (hear the courtroom audio), and specifically the The McMahon Video.

For more background, read the Revolutionary Worker article, "Philadelphia: The McMahon Video Training Tape for Racist DAs," June 1, 1997, and The New York Times article "Under Siege, Philadelphia's Criminal Justice System Suffers Another Blow," April 10, 1997

Please visit our new My Space TV (featuring videos of Kathleen Cleaver, Pam Africa, and FOP intimidation) and You Tube pages for the latest online videos related to Mumia's case. Also our My Space blog, featured at our main page will always have the newest information about Mumia's case and our various media-activist campaigns.

Below are several text excerpts from the DA Training Video, and also be sure to view the PDF with graphics created by German author Michael Schiffmann.

"The Wisdom of the Ages": In his 1987 training video for rookie prosecutors, veteran prosecutor Jack McMahon explained the importance of kicking poor people, black people, smart people, teachers, women etc. from juries: they might just not be unfair and biased enough for the prosecution. At the end of the video, McMahon explicitly says that he was doing nothing here but imbuing the rookies with "the wisdom of the ages," i.e., with accepted practices that had been going on for a long time (e.g., certainly back to the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder trial in 1982).

"People from Mayfair Are Good, but People from 33rd and Diamond Stink"

"Other questions you may ask: What section of the city do you live in? You may want to ask that, because that is a strong indicator to you of their leanings. Let’s be honest – I mean, people that live in North Philly have a different perspective on law enforcement and the government than people that live in KNA, or at So­mer­ton or at Chestnut Hill, or any other different areas. You’ve got to recognize those things."

"And people, a lot of people – I mean, I wasn’t from Philadelphia, and when I came here, one of the first things to learn, I guess most or all of you are from here, but I didn’t know sections of the city, and if people would tell me, I’m from a certain location – that wouldn’t mean anything to me. So if you’re not familiar with the city, get familiar with the city, get a list of all the sections, and get people that have been around and tried cases:"

"Say, people from Mayfair are good, and people from 33rd and Diamond stink. And get to know that. I mean 33rd and Diamond at first sounds nice. Hey, 33rd and Diamond sounds like a nice neigh­bor­hood, but you don’t want any jurors from 33rd and Diamond. And so, be familiar with the city, before you start making any of those decisions."

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“The blacks from the low income areas are less likely to convict. There's a resentment for law enforcement and a resentment for authority....you don't want those people on your jury, let's face it.” This was from the mouth of veteran DA prosecutor Jack McMahon, who lectured in support of removing Blacks from jury panels. Explicitly recognizing this practice's illegality, McMahon explained that “the law” calls for a “'competent, fair, and impartial jury.' Well, that's ridiculous. You're not trying to get that.”

If any of these new prosecutors refused to act as such, McMahon warned them that they'd lose their job: “If you're going to be some noble civil libertarian...You'll lose and you'll be out of office; you'll be doing corporate law...You're there to win...and the only way to do your best is to get jurors that are as unfair and more likely to convict than anybody else in that room.”

Because of the illegality, McMahon recommended practical ways to conceal race-conscious jury selection. Describing one technique, he said, “when you do have a black juror, you question them at length. And on this little sheet of paper that you have, mark something down so that you can articulate later if something happens...And then you can say, 'Well the woman had a kid about the same age as the defendant and I thought she'd be sympathetic to him' or 'She's unemployed and I just don't like unemployed people...' So sometimes under that line you may want to ask more questions of those people so it gives you more ammunition to make an articulable reason as to why you are striking them, not for race.”