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Framed for being a revolutionary
Mumia has been imprisoned for the last 26 years after being convicted for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. The truth is that he is a political prisoner framed for his activism as a Black Panther and then as a revolutionary journalist.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 9, 1981, Mumia was driving a cab on the streets of Philadelphia when he came upon cops beating his brother. When he stopped to intervene, he was shot and wounded. A cop was also shot and killed.
Mumia’s fingerprints were never found on the gun that killed the cop. Witnesses saw the shooter running away from the scene. Mumia himself has always maintained his innocence.
Mumia’s trial was drenched with racism. African-Americans were systematically excluded from the jury panel. The judge, Albert Sabo, was overheard by a court stenographer stating about the case, “I’m going to help ‘em fry the nigger.”
In July 1982, an overwhelmingly white jury convicted Mumia. During the sentencing phase, prosecutors argued that his past membership in the Black Panther party was evidence of premeditation. Mumia was sentenced to death.
At the age of 14, Mumia joined the Black Panther Party and, a year later, was serving as lieutenant of information of the Philadelphia branch.
At the time of his arrest, he was the president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. In 1978, Mumia covered the first police attack on the MOVE organization—a primarily Black communal activist group in West Philadelphia. Nine MOVE members were arrested and given long jail terms in that attack. The MOVE organization was attacked again in 1985, when Philadelphia police launched an all-out assault that included the dropping of a bomb on the MOVE house and the firing of 10,000 rounds of ammunition. Eleven MOVE family members—six adults and five children—were killed in the police attack.
From inside prison walls, Mumia has continued his revolutionary journalism. Through books, radio broadcasts, and especially essays, he provides powerful political commentary that lays bare the machinations and hypocrisy of the U.S. government. His eloquent statements have earned him the title “Voice of the Voiceless.”
Struggle to free Mumia
Ceaseless mobilizations and protests have made Mumia an international symbol of resistance to the racist and repressive U.S. state.
In 2001, after months and years of protests led by Pam Africa of MOVE and the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia, federal district court judge William Yohn overturned Mumia’s death sentence. The district attorney immediately appealed the decision and the matter is now before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Mumia remains on death row in the State Correctional Institution at Greene, Pa.
On May 17, as Mumia’s attorneys argue for a new trial at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, a demonstration demanding freedom for Mumia will take place in front of the courthouse. A solidarity demonstration will be held in San Francisco.
All progressives and revolutionaries must continue to struggle for Mumia’s freedom. Mumia represents more than himself. He represents tens of thousands of others behind bars—predominantly from Black and Latino oppressed communities—who have been snatched off the street, and wrongfully convicted by the so-called “justice” system.
Free Mumia! Free all U.S. political prisoners!
For information on the emergency demonstrations in support of Mumia, click here.
