February 2008; Issue 44

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Supreme Court Ruling on the Death Penalty Puts the United States on the Wrong Side of History The ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the Kentucky lethal injection protocol, likely re-starting executions, makes the United States an international pariah, the Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) said today.   “This ruling puts the United States back in dubious company. China, Vietnam, Iran and the United States carry out the vast majority of the world’s executions,” pointed out Marlene Martin, National Director of the CEDP. “If and when states re-start the execution machine, we will be going backwards as a society. The death penalty is a barbaric relic of the past, and the Supreme Court is on the wrong side of history.”   See CEDP Press release:    4.16.08 Press Release Justice Denied!  Free Mumia!  3rd Circuit Court of Appeals denies Mumia Abu-Jamal a new trial On March 27, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals refused to overturn Mumia's conviction and instead upheld a lower federal court's decision to vacate his death sentence.  Mumia and his attorneys had argued his entire conviction should be overturned citing evidence of racism and corruption by his original trial judge and prosecutors.  The Court's decision will force prosecutors to seek a new sentencing hearing if they wish to reimpose a death sentence -- otherwise his sentence will automatically be converted to life in prison.   Mumia was originally sentenced in 1982 by a mostly-white jury for the murder of policeman Daniel Faulkner.  National and internationally based human rights groups, after investigation, have denounced Mumia's trial as grossly unfair and biased.  An Amnesty International report titled, "A life in the Balance -- the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal," found that prosecutors illegally used political statements made by Mumia as a teenager as evidence against him at his original trial.  They also found that politics has played a role in preventing a full and fair hearing of the facts in his case.   Read Amnesty's Report at:  http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/001/2000/en/dom-AMR510012000en.html   For more updates & actions on Mumia's case, see:  http://www.mumia.org/ ANNOUCING THE 2008 NATIONAL SPEAKING TOUR: A BROKEN SYSTEM … CRYING OUT FOR JUSTICE Our nation is the only industrialized country that still uses the death penalty. It incarcerates more of its population than any other in the world.  In some states, more money is spent on prisons than higher education. One out of three Black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime.   The system is broken. Something is wrong. What can we do?   The first step to action is awareness. Hear these witnesses to injustice and many others tell their stories—and together let's fight for justice.     V O I C E S   O F   T H E   T O U R   I N C L U D E *:   Yusef Salaam, spent seven years in prison for the Central Park jogger case; exonerated in 2002 Darby Tillis, spent nine years on death row in Illinois for a crime he did not commit and was the first exoneree from death row in the state Derrel Myers, whose only son Jo-Jo White was murdered, member of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights and the Campaign to End the Death Penalty Harold Wilson, the 122nd death row exoneree in the U.S., freed from Pennsylvania's death row in 2005 Gloria Johnson, mother of Montell Johnson, who has chronic MS and whose death sentence was commuted to 40 years by former Illinois Governor George Ryan Barbara Becnel, co-author and longtime friend of Stanley Tookie Williams, witnessed his execution in 2005 Veronica Luna, anti-death penalty activist and organizer whose uncle is on death row in California Bill Babbitt, witnessed the executed of his brother Manny in 1999, Board member of Murder Victim Families for Human Rights Greg Wilhoit, spent five years on death row in Oklahoma for a crime that he did not commit, exonerated in 1993 Delbert Tibbs, exonerated from Florida's death row in 1977 Sandra Reed, mother of Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis, Georgia death row prisoner And others! *Note: Speakers will vary at tour stops; return to this web site to find out who is coming to your city. Host a tour stop in your area! For more information contact: dana_blanchard@juno.com   SPONSORED BY THE CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY ENDORSED BY: Amnesty International USA Murder Victims Families for Human Rights National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network

KEEPING IT REAL -- Explaining the settlements

After a yearlong fight to get the City of Chicago to honor its November 2006 settlement, when the city was set to approve the $19.8 million bill, I realized they were being unfair to me. And because of your many questions and letters, it’s only fitting for me to explain to everyone who fought so hard for the settlement why I decided at the last minute to reject the deal. It was reported that the city was finally settling the lawsuits filed by four Death Row Ten members--who were tortured by fired police Commander Jon Burge and pardoned from Death Row in 2003. 

....Read the full story in the New Abolitionist....