Dec. 9 marked the 25th anniversary of the arrest of African American political prisoner on death row Mumia Abu-Jamal. Hundreds of Abu-Jamal’s supporters protested his unjust imprisonment in Philadelphia on that date.
Just three days earlier, the U.S. House of Representatives launched a frontal attack on the revolutionary journalist. A
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HR 1082 condemned the killing of Philadelphia cop Daniel Faulkner, denounced the French city of St. Denis for naming a street after Abu-Jamal, and urged the French national government to intervene if St. Denis refused to rename the street. The highly reactionary resolution also explicitly praised “all police officers in the United States and throughout the world.”
The House vote ignored the popular sentiment favoring Abu-Jamal in dozens of countries, including the United States. People and organizations all over the world widely recognize Abu-Jamal’s conviction as outrageous, racist and unjust.
Abu-Jamal’s fingerprints were never found on the gun that killed Faulkner. Witnesses saw the shooter running away from the scene. Before the trial, presiding judge Albert Sabo said he was going to “help’em fry the n****r.” Abu-Jamal has always maintained his innocence.
A massive movement supporting Abu-Jamal and demanding his freedom pushed back two attempts by the capitalist state to execute him. The movement spread throughout the United States in the 1990s and quickly became a cause for millions of revolutionaries and anti-racist progressives worldwide.
St. Denis, a suburb of Paris, named a street after Abu-Jamal to honor him in April 2006. The week before the House passed the resolution, St. Denis officials refused to change the name, decrying U.S. government pressure tactics.
Abu-Jamal has been an honorary citizen of France since 2003, when then-mayor of Paris Bertrand Delano? said that the award was to be a reminder of the fight against the death penalty, which France abolished the year of Abu-Jamal’s arrest.
Attempt to reinstitute the death penalty
Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican congressman from the Philadelphia area, drafted the resolution. Pennsylvania reps. Allyson Schwartz, a Democrat, and Charles Dent, a Republican, joined Fitzpatrick in speaking for the resolution. Fitzpatrick, a lame duck, was voted out of office on Nov. 7.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)—the sponsor of last year’s racist, anti-immigrant bill HR 4437, which sparked the massive upsurge for immigrant rights—also advocated the resolution’s passage on the House floor.
The racism fueling the resolution seeped out during the debate. Fitzpatrick’s vitriolic comments slandered Abu-Jamal and the political importance of his case. Fitzpatrick said, “Mr. Speaker, Mumia Abu–Jamal is not a political prisoner. He is a murderer with a penchant for public relations.”
Passing the resolution was a bipartisan affair, with many liberal Democrats voting with their Republican counterparts to support the resolution. Incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) voted for the resolution, as did liberal “heroes” Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Henry Waxman (Calif.) and Loretta Sanchez (Calif.). Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) spoke against the resolution.
A similar resolution was introduced in the Senate by bigoted outgoing U.S. senator Rick Santorum (R-Penn.). No action was taken on the Senate version before Congress adjourned on Nov. 9.
The House resolution also was an overt attempt to sway Abu-Jamal’s legal case. Last year, the U.S. Third Circuit Court
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Reversing previous federal court rulings, the Third Circuit allowed Abu-Jamal to challenge racial bias in his trial and improper instructions to the jury. The appeal also includes a challenge to the systematic and racist exclusion of 11 Black jurors during jury selection in Abu-Jamal’s trial.
The appeal and struggle for a new trial mounted by Abu-Jamal’s legal team and principal supporters do not rest hope in the racist U.S. court system. The tactic is an effort to widen the avenues of struggle to win Abu-Jamal’s freedom, to focus on his case, and to increase pressure on the state.
But the capitalist state is also on the move. Before the same court, the state of Pennsylvania is appealing a lower court’s 2001 reversal of Abu-Jamal’s death sentence. It is seeking to reinstitute the death penalty. The House action adds political weight to Pennsylvania’s racist appeal. The resolution is being used in the ongoing public relations campaign against Abu-Jamal and his supporters.
Pam Africa of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal recently commented, “The House action is designed to weigh in on and promote an atmosphere in the U.S. judiciary that is prejudicial to Mumia’s receiving any form of justice today.”
Abu-Jamal’s supporters are mobilizing to protest the House vote in various U.S. cities this week.
Click here to read more from PSL about Mumia Abu-Jamal.
