llil 'AN"AIIIJ 50e No. 626 ~X-623 28 July 1995 JULY 24-Mumia Abu-Jamal is slated to be executed Jamal's attorneys, led by noted civil rights advo­ in barely three weeks. As the executioner's clock is cate Leonard Weinglass, first argued that Sabo, as ticking, across the country and around the world a retired judge, had no valid jurisdiction in this case. thousands of people are rallying to save the life of In ruling against the defense, Sabo exhibited what this fighter for black freedom. The fight to save would become a pattern of abuse of Jamal's attorneys Jamal has come to symbolize the struggle against and blatant bias in favor of the district attorney's the death penalty and the whole system of racist prosecutorial team. Known as the "King of Death capitalist oppression in America. In these crucial Row" for sentencing more people to death (at least weeks, we must muster all energy and strength for 31,28 of whom are minorities) than any sitting judge the battle which has been engaged. Particularly in the U.S., Sabo served 16 years as a Philadelphia important is to mobilize the power of the organized, 'tmdersheriff and is a "former" member of the Fra­ multiracial working class at the head of oppressed tenial Order of Police (FOP), which is actively cam­ minorities and all those committed to social justice paigning for Jamal's death. Despite overwhelming to demand: Mumia Abu-Jamal must not die! evidence of bias, Sabo refused to remove himself Jamal, the former Black Panther, award-winning from the case. He then refused to rule on the stay black journalist and supporter .of the MOVE organ­ of execution, saying the date was "not close enough." ization, has been on death row since 1982, when he And, in a move that death penalty experts called was framed up on charges of killing a cop. As FBI unprecedented, Sabo asked the defense to provide Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) files witnesses to testify as to why the stay should be show, this champion of black rights had been tar­ granted. geted by the Philly cops and FBI since the late 1960s. When court resumed two days later, Sabo again He was railroaded in a far-reaching conspiracy by refused to rule on the stay, saying that he would the Philadelphia police, judiciary and city rulers who Jennifer Beach take it "under advisement," i.e. delay the ruling as Philadelphia City Hall, July 12-Death row run this 40 percent black city as if it were Philadel­ pOlitical prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal heard long as he wished. He also denied a defense motion phia, Mississippi in the days of Jim Crow. From chants of over 800 demonstrators who for discovery, which would have required prosecu­ arch-racist Frank Rizzo, who as Philly's police com­ rallied in his defense on first day of court tors to turn over evidence that had been withheld. missioner (later mayor) lined up the Black Panthers hearing before "hanging judge" Sabo. The following week, Sabo demanded that the defense naked at gunpoint in the street in 1970, to black call witnesses to begin an evidentiary hearing on Democratic mayor Wilson Goode, who helped carry judge" Albert Sabo from this case. The defense the merits of the appeal on only two days' notice.' out the murder of eleven black men, women and papers give proof of Jamal's innocence and starkly Fighting against this outrageous maneuver, on July children in the 1985 bombing of MOVE, Philadel­ expose the mockery of justice which characterized 18 Jamal's attorneys obtained a one-week continu­ phia has come to symbolize black oppression in Jamal's arrest, trial and sentencing in 1982. Hearings ance from the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court. extremis in America today. on the appeal began on July 12 in front of Sabo in The hearing on the PCRA is scheduled to resume Now Mumia Abu-Jamal struggles for his life, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. on July 26, in Sabo's court. caught in the murderous net of the racist "justice" This court sessililn was the first time Mumia had' Sabo's intentions are crystal-clear: to keep Jamal's system. On June 1, the Harrisburg Patriot-News been able to appear in front of his supporters in appeal in his court as long as possible in order to reported that Jamal's attorneys were about to file Philadelphia since his banishment to death row 13 thwart attempts to appeal to a higher court, while papers for a new trial. That very night, Governor years before. The courtroom was divided, with racing ahead into hearings, giving Jamal's attorneys Thomas Ridge signed Jamal's death warrant, order­ scores of cops-virtually all white-on one side and virtually no time to prepare witnesses. Meanwhile, ing the execution by lethal injection to take place Mumia's family and supporters on the other. As the clock keeps ticking. After watching the proceed­ at 10 p.m. on August 17. The appeal for post­ Mumia entered, his supporters stood in silent soli­ ings on July 12, radical black academic Cornel West conviction relief (PCRA) filed on June 5 calls darity, until his grandson cried out, "Hi, grandpa!" remarked, "I've never ,seen a Jim Crow court until for a new trial. At that point, cheers for Mumia rang out inside the today. The whole atmosphere of this court is Mis­ 30 Together with that, court, and in the hall outside as well, where scores sissippi 1955" (Philadelphia Daily News, 13 July). .... Jamal's attorneys of people waited who could not get in. Throughout As we wrote in our last issue: filed motions for a the morning, and at every court appearance since, "Mumia is being set up to be the first political pris­ stay of execution hundreds of demonstrators rallied and marched out­ oner executed in the U.S. since Julius and Ethel and the recusal of side the court building, where their cries of "Sabo Rosenberg were killed in the electric chair in 1953, 7 25274I 81030I 7 notorious "hanging must go!" and "Free Mumia!" could be heard. continued on page 1 0 Chicago: Hundreds Die in Heat Wave Only wben the bodies started piling retirees were afraid to even open their up on Saturday did Daley declare an windows for fear of the crime that seg­ Victims Are Mainly Poor, Aged, Blacks emergency. The flimsy emergency plan regation, racist neglect and massive entailed the use of "cooling centers" (but unemployment have brought to their CHICAGO-It was business as usual in no longer exploitable by a decaying cap­ made no mention of transporting peo­ neighborhoodS. City Hall when the worst heat wave on italist system, they were killed by offi­ ple to them) and called for issuing press Cook County Medical Examiner record scorched its way across Chicago cial indifference, social service cutbacks, releases about the dangers of 105-degree Edmund R. Donohue called the heat in mid-July. But by Saturday, July 15, declining medical care. temperatures. In other words, city offi­ wave a natural disaster, "an act of God" the thiro day in a row of 100-plus tem­ "We're talking about people who die cials told people it was really hot (Chicago Tribune, 20 July). But Quentin peratures intensified by high humidity, because they neglect themselves," said and they should go somewhere to cool Young, a Chicago physician and presi­ emergency vehicles were lined up out­ city Human Service Commissioner Dan­ down. dent of Health and Medicine Policy Re­ side a city morgue already jammed with iel Alvarez, while Mayor Richard Daley What help did' arrive was too little search Group, told Workers Vanguard, dead bodies. Refrigerated food trucks questioned the medical examiner's too late. Throughout the crisis profit­ "The heat wave was natural enough, but were borrowed to house the cadavers that method of counting the dead. But the conscious hospital administrators saved the disaster was avoidable. It's about as turned up over the next several days in administration's callous portrayal of old on overtime by refusing to beef up emer­ 'natural' as children dying of measles funeral homes and neglected apartments hermits stubbornly baking themselves to gency staffs. As a result, at least 16 hos- . because they don't get their immuni­ across the metropolitan area. By July 20 death was given the lie by the massive pitals went on "bypass" status, refusing zations." Young adds, "Our technical the toll of the dead in Cook County stood 50-60 percent jump in 911 emergency to accept patients. Like planes in- a hold­ resources and communication systems, at 456-mostly elderly, mostly poor, dis­ calls over the two hottest days, a collec­ ing pattern, ambulances were forced to properly organized and inspired, can proportionately black. A social "surplus" tive S 0 S from a desperate population. drive around for 35 minutes or more handle this problem extremely well." before finding a hospital that would take The heat wave struck on the same day heat victims. that welfare cuts ordered by the state Feeling some heat himself, Daley legislature went into effect. The entirely Hiroshima and Nagasaki: War lambasted Commonwealth Edison for preventable heat tragedy merely exposed a weekend power outage in a mostly the growing decay of the capitalist social Crimes of U.S. Imperialism white, upscale North Side neighbor­ order marked by welfare and medi­ August 1995 will mark the 50th anniver­ hood. (Indeed, CornEd scrambled to cal cuts, rampant unemployment and sary of one of the greatest atrocities in world restore power to Wrigley Field in time segregation.