Subject: AUT: Letters to Judge Yohn for MUMIA
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 22:43:00 -0400


i encourage everyone to write their own letters and to send letters via
their groups, if applicable.

free mumia!!
jeff.

>Greetings, Supporters of Freedom and Justice,
>
>Just received word from Pam Africa of the ICFFMAJ that  the letters going out 
>demanding a new hearing for Mumia should NOT go directly to Judge Yohn but 
>instead go to Leonard Weinglass who will hand them over to Judge Yohn when he 
>goes to court.  This request comes from Mumia himself.  Please don't be 
>frustrated by this, the battle is coming at us so fast and furious that we 
>got to be able to deal with whatever and correct errors wherever necessary as 
>quickly as possible.
>
>So if you have not sent your letter out yet, please send it 
>ASAP to:
>
>Hon. William H. Yohn, Jr.
>c/o Leonard Weinglass
>6 West 20th Street, Suite 10A
>New York, NY 10011
>
>If you want to put the judge's address distributed yesterday in the body of 
>the letter, that's fine, but please address the envelope per the above.
>
>This is EXTREMELY important to do becuz Judge Yohn can deny a hearing and 
>decide the case only on the "evidence" as allowed and interpreted by Judge 
>Sabo!  Only a new hearing can get the facts on the record. Denying a stay of 
>execution could mean that the judge believes the appeal can be disposed of 
>before Dec. 2.
>
>We now have reached a new stage in the movement to Free Mumia.  Hopefully, in 
>a few weeks Mumia will be present in court in Philadelphia for a hearing on 
>this new appeal.  This should be the occasion for a mass demonstration in 
>Philadelphia, bringing people from all over the country.  
>
>CONTINUE TO PROTEST AND EDUCATE NOW!!
>-------------------------
>
>SAMPLE LETTERS
>
>Hon. William H. Yohn, Jr.,
>
>I was shocked and appalled that Governor Ridge signed the death warrant for 
>Mumia Abu-Jamal, knowing that his attorneys were filing an appeal.
>
>New evidence points not only to Mumia Abu-Jamal's innocence but also to 
>police and prosecutorial misconduct during his original trial. There is 
>substantial evidence that the police intimidated and coerced witnesses into 
>giving false testimony and fabricated the existence of a confession. Also the 
>prosecution withheld evidence from the defense and systematically excluded 
>qualified African-American jurors.
>
>I attended the Post Conviction Appeals in 1995 to see for myself whether 
>claims made by the supporters of Mumia abu-Jamal were valid or not.  I can 
>only characterize the behavior of the appeals (and trial) judge, Albert Sabo, 
>as bizarre, biased, and altogether contemptuous of justice.  Having read the 
>transcript now, I am convinced that Mumia Abu-Jamal did not receive a fair 
>trial.  Legal scholars of all
>political sympathies (including conservatives) join with artists, scholars, 
>dignitaries and common people from this country and around the world in 
>demanding justice and a fair trial, so that the evidence can be examined in 
>an open court, presided over by a fair judge, and weighed by a jury chosen 
>according to constitutional guidelines.
>
>All across the United States and throughout the world, attention is focused 
>on Pennsylvania, to see whether a commitment to justice survives in our state 
>and nation today.
>
>Judge Yohn, I urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that Mr. 
>Abu-Jamal receives a new, fair trial.
>
>Thank you.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>(Ms.)  Ronnie Dadone
>
>=======================================>
>Dear Judge Yohn:
>  
>    The case of Pennsylvania death row Habeus Corpus petitioner  Mumia 
>Abu-Jamal, assigned to your court last week after Governor Ridge signed Mr. 
>Jamal's death warrant, casts you as the representative of American law and 
>justice, in a historic controversy involving race, police brutality, 
>prosecutorial misconduct, and fundamental human rights.  I am honored to add 
>my voice to the calls of  many others for a new trial, leading to Mr. Jamal's 
>freedom.  The shocking history of this murder case, and especially the myriad 
>indices of an appalling frame-up of the Defendant, mandate a new trial.
>  
>    You will undoubtedly receive many eloquent pleas for Mr. Jamal's fair 
>treatment at the hands of the State.  This matter is a symbolic test of 
>American freedom. Mr. Jamal, an African American radio journalist who was 
>sentenced to death for allegedly killing a police officer, after a farce of a 
>trial where he was misrepresented by incompetent counsel forced on him by the 
>trial judge, and then excluded from his own trial for refusing to acquiesce 
>in this blatant violation of his legal rights, is himself a symbol: of 
>disfavored groups' dissatisfaction with a biased justice system; of the 
>irrationality of the death penalty in a case where there is not only 
>reasonable 
>doubt of guilt, but substantial evidence of actual innocence; and of the 
>commitment of an independent judiciary to protect cherished constitutional 
>rights, even where the accused is hated by the police.  Mr. Jamal's African 
>American peers were systematically removed by the prosecution from the jury.  
>There is a notorious history of manufactured evidence of guilt by 
>Philadelphia police in countless cases.  In this case there was a fabricated 
>"confession," and offers of legal protection for prostitutes to testify for 
>the prosecution. Several witnesses came forward before and after Mr. 
>Jamal's "trial" and testified they saw another man shoot Officer Faulkner and 
>run away from the scene, while both Mr. Jamal and the officer lay shot and 
>bleeding.   Does the modern concept of "law and order" include a fair trial, 
>and conviction beyond doubt of guilt, before imposition of the ultimate 
>penalty? I certainly hope so, or God help us.
>  
>    In addition to the briefs and evidence I hope you will carefully consider 
>at a thorough hearing of the issues raised in Mr. Jamal's petition, and the 
>pleas you will undoubtedly receive from many quarters, I wish to ask: Why, as 
>noted in Kathy Sheehan's October 16 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, will 
>you be receiving "lots of mail in the coming months" about this case?  And 
>why does Ms. Sheehan, in the same article regarding a rally addressed by Mr. 
>Jamal's supporter Ramona Africa, place Ms. Africa's apt phrase "the system" 
>in quotation marks (as in "Africa railed against 'the system' for more than 
>an hour")?  Answering these questions says a lot about the all-important 
>social context of the life and death legal issues that will come before you.
>  
>    In addition to the tragic facts of the killing that gave rise to this 
>case, and the numerous outrages in Judge Albert Sabo's courtroom that are 
>being put forth by proponents of this execution as justification for their 
>blind vengeance, this case is about the integrity of "the system" of social, 
>economic, racial, legal, political, psychological and cultural norms that 
>govern us all.  Death row inmates.  Police officers. Judges.  Citizens.  
>Blacks and whites. Whether it is a question of electoral politics, career 
>options, or putting a man to death, we share  fundamental interests 
>in the fairness of the norms, rules and procedures used to reach the 
>decisions that shape our lives and our world.  Many people - becoming aware 
>of the facts of Mr. Jamal's case - understand that "the system's" rules and 
>procedures are being applied unfairly; that this  would be a political 
>execution after a political trial; that the police authorities of 
>Philadelphia, as an absolute minimum, should have to confront 
>Mr. Jamal "fair and square", with counsel of his choice and access to the law 
>requiring a fair jury trial, before they kill him.  
>  
>    The eyes of people all over the world are on your court.  The fairness 
>and thoroughness of the hearing you provide on Mr. Jamal's petition will 
>determine not just if he lives or dies, not just if he gets a fair trial 
>after almost 18 years; you will determine if we should still place our faith 
>in the type of justice "the system" provides in this new, interconnected, 
>21st century world.  You represent the power of democracy to stay the killing 
>hand of a biased State.  You hold the constitutional power and authority to 
>require the State of Pennsylvania to cease its frame-up and deal fairly with 
>Mr. Jamal, after all these years.  You are, by the ancient rituals of the 
>Great Writ, the last real hope of averting a horrible and permanent 
>miscarriage of justice.  That's why you'll be getting lots of mail about this 
>case. 
>  
>    If "the system" can put Mumia Abu-Jamal to death on the basis of this 
>transparent frame-up of a "trial", the conclusions to be drawn will be truly 
>terrible:  harsh denunciations of persistent, institutionalized racism in the 
>American legal system; the acts of Philadelphia's police governed not by 
>legal restraints, but by implacable hatred of their critics;  the solemn 
>institutions of the law put to the service of a legal lynching.  Only your 
>action in providing a thorough, fair hearing will protect Mr. Jamal's rights 
>and earn the respect of citizens justifiably alarmed by the history of his 
>case in the Pennsylvania courts.  And when you see and hear the evidence of 
>the systematic vendetta pursued by the Fraternal Order of Police through the 
>Pennsylvania courts, I hope and believe your judgment will stand as a 
>historic monument in the never-ending struggle for human decency.  Mumia 
>Abu-Jamal deserves a new trial. You have the power, and if convinced by the 
>evidence the duty, to grant his fundamental human rights.  I pray that Mr. 
>Jamal's supporters have the courage and energy to make the heavens ring for 
>his freedom.   
>  
>                                                   In justice,
>  
>                                                   Thomas W. Stephens
>                   (address cut out for privacy)
>
>To Contact Pam Africa/ICFFMAJ call 215-476-8812 or fax
>215-476-7551; e-mail icffmaj-AT-aol.com.
>
>!! IT'S CRUNCH TIME !! 
>
>More info to come later ....
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
p.o. box 563			    "The external revolution and the internal 
morgantown, wv			    revolution presuppose one another, and they
26507				    must be simultaneous in order to be 
jeff-AT-tao.ca       		    successful."        -- ricardo mella

	"i want to touch serenity with a finger wet with tears."
					--nadja (from andre breton's _nadja_)

		++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
         ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++
         ++++ see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++

"i feel i can't stop screaming!" --elliot



				


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