Press release . . . Press release . . . Press Release . . .

 

Robert R Bryan, lead attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal

 

Report on the application in the US Court of Appeals for a new trial

Followed by a Reception

Hosted by Ian Macdonald QC

 

Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln ’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LS

 

Thursday 19th October 2006 6.30pm

 

Featured speakers include those organising support for Mr Abu-Jamal in France -- Claude Guillaumaud-Pujol, Le Collectif Unitaire National pour le Soutien de Mumia Abu-Jamal (United National Collective for the Support of Mumia Abu-Jamal); and Germany -- Jürgen Heiser, Internationales Verteidigungskomitee (International Defence Committee).

 

For more information: Legal Action for Women 020 7482 2496, 07956 316 899 law@crossroadswomen.net

 

Robert R Bryan, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s lawyer is speaking in London at a crucial moment in a crucial death penalty case.  After 24 years on Pennsylvania’s death row, Mr Abu-Jamal, an award winning journalist, convicted in 1982 of killing a policeman, has been granted an appeal which if successful could result in a new trial.  This would be the first time his case against conviction is heard by a jury.  The appeal is being heard at a time when public opinion, including in the US , is turning against the death penalty due to an increasing number of death row prisoners being proven innocent. 

 

The US government’s determination to execute Mr Abu-Jamal has to be seen in the context of its treatment of other journalists, many of whom have been killed for trying to speak the truth.  The “unlawful killing” verdict in the inquest of ITN reporter Terry Lloyd is the latest example of the targeting of independent journalists. The International Federation of Journalists estimates that 19 international journalists and other media workers have been killed by US troops since the invasion of Iraq . 

 

Mr Bryan will speak about the issues currently under review by the court, such as racism in jury selection and the bias of the judge and prosecutor, and about the significance of this case for the international campaign to end the death penalty. Mr Bryan is available for interview. 

 

Background

 

Mumia Abu-Jamal, is an award winning journalist, who in the years leading up to his arrest, actively exposed police corruption, racism and violence in Philadelphia.  He continues his journalistic work from prison, recording weekly Dispatches From Death Row, incisive radio commentaries which are broadcast on 100 stations, and writing for other publications.  He has published five books including Live from Death Row and most recently We Want Freedom: a Life in the Black Panther Party.    Mr Abu-Jamal had no criminal convictions before his arrest.  The concerted campaign to deny him a fair trial and execute him, strongly suggests that he is being tried for his record as an outstanding campaigning journalist.  His work as a ‘jailhouse lawyer’, providing legal advice to other prisoners, led to an honorary position with the prestigious National Lawyers Guild in the US .  His Jailhouse Lawyers will soon be published shortly.   Robert R Bryan, distinguished lawyer based in San Francisco , has specialised in death penalty litigation for three decades, and is lead counsel in various murder cases pending at the federal and state level.  Other notable cases include representing Anna Hauptmann, widow of Richard Hauptmann executed in 1936 in New Jersey for the kidnap-murder of Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr. and Jimmy Eagle indicted for the killing of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  He is legal commentator for ABC television in San Francisco and lectures widely on the death penalty and human rights in the US and Europe . Mr Bryan became lead attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal in 2003, and has turned the case around.     His submissions persuaded the US Court of Appeals in December 2005 to grant a review of a number of key issues in Mr Abu-Jamal’s case.  Early next year there will be oral argument before a panel of three judges and a decision is expected shortly after.     Mr Bryan’s London Report is hosted by Ian Macdonald QC who with Legal Action for Women initiated a letter earlier this year, now signed by over 150 UK lawyers, highlighting the racism of Mr Abu-Jamal’s trial and asking the court to redress this grave injustice.  Mr Macdonald is a distinguished criminal trial lawyer and a leading authority on immigration law, author of the standard text Macdonald's Immigration Law and Practice used by immigration practitioners, officials, adjudicators and judges. He was head of Garden Court Chambers until 2003 and is known for notable cases such as the Mangrove Nine whose case against conspiracy was fought and won in the context of massive community support, and as author of the path-breaking report Murder in the Playground, an Inquiry into Racial Violence in Manchester Schools, following the murder of 13-year-old Ahmed Ullah . He was leading counsel for Duwayne Brooks, friend of Stephen Lawrence and key witness in the government Inquiry into his racist murder.

   

Legal Action for Women, founded in 1982, is a grassroots anti-sexist, anti-racist legal service for all women and their families.  LAW combines access to a network of sympathetic lawyers with experienced lay workers. Its insistence that no case is “hopeless”, that something can always be done, has won LAW recognition including from distinguished legal professionals.  LAW has helped prevent many injustices and set important precedents including for the first private prosecution for rape in England .

 

 

Summary of some of the injustices of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s trial and subsequent hearings

• A court stenographer heard the trial judge, Albert Sabo say during the trial in reference to Mr Abu-Jamal: "Yeah, and I'm going to help 'em fry the nigger.”  Judge Sabo sentenced more people to death than any other sitting judge in the US and was known as an avowed racist.
  
• The defense lawyer did not interview a single witness in preparation for the 1982 trial, and lacked adequate funds for defending a capital case.  Mr Abu-Jamal had no money to retain competent counsel, an investigator, or needed experts in such fields as pathology and ballistics.
  
• The prosecutor systematically removed qualified African-Americans from the jury.  He also argued for the death penalty because of Mr Abu-Jamal’s membership in the Black Panther Party, a practice later condemned as unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court. The racism of Philadelphia 's courts has resulted in 120 people being placed on death row, all but 13 of whom are people of colour.
  
• According to the medical examiner, the policeman was killed with a .44 calibre gun.  Mr. Abu-Jamal's pistol, which he was licensed to carry as a night-time taxi driver, was .38 calibre.  The trial jury never heard about this contradiction.
  
• The police never tested Mr Abu-Jamal's gun to see if it had been recently fired.  They did not even examine his hands to see if he had fired a gun.
  
• It was claimed at trial that Mr Abu-Jamal stated, at the hospital shortly after the shooting, that he fired the fatal shots.  Yet, that was contradicted in a written police report by the officer who was with Mr Abu-Jamal from the moment he was placed in the paddy wagon at the homicide scene until he went into surgery for removal of the bullet lodged near his spine. 
  
• William Singletary, a Vietnam veteran and local businessman, saw the whole incident and said that Abu-Jamal was not the shooter. However, the police forced him to change his story and intimidated him into leaving Philadelphia .  Other key witnesses, such as Veronica Jones who at the 1995 hearing testified in support of Mr Abu-Jamal, were harassed into initially giving false testimony.