3150. Philly Prosecutors Discover Mysterious ‘Six Boxes’ Connected to Mumia Abu-Jamal in Storage Room

By Bobby Allyn, WHYY, January 9, 2019 

Days after Christmas, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and some of his assistants went rummaging around an out-of-the-way storage room in the office looking for some pieces of furniture. What they stumbled upon was a surprising find: six boxes stuffed of files connected to the case of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Five of the six boxes were marked “McCann,” a reference to the former head of the office’s homicide unit, Ed McCann. Some of the boxes were also marked “Mumia,” or the former Black Panther’s full name, “Mumia Abu-Jamal.”

It is unknown what exactly the files say and whether or not the box’s contents will shed new light on a case that for decades has garnered worldwide attention.

But in a letter to the judge presiding over Abu-Jamal’s case, Assistant District Attorney Tracey Kavanagh wrote “nothing in the Commonwealth’s database showed the existence of these six boxes,” she said. “We are in the process of reviewing these boxes.”

The surprise discovery comes just weeks after a Philadelphia judge reinstated appeals rights to Abu-Jamal, saying the former radio journalist and activist should get another chance to reargue his case in front of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court due to a conflict-of-interest one of the justices had at the time Abu-Jamal’s petition was denied.

Abu-Jamal’s supporters are seizing on the mysterious six boxes as proof that his innocence has been systematically suppressed by authorities.

“There’s no question in my mind that the only reason they could’ve been hidden like this is that this is the evidence of the frame-up of Mumia,” said Rachel Wolkenstein, who has been a legal advocate and activist for Abu-Jamal for more than 30 years.

“What these missing boxes represent is confirmation of what we’ve known for decades: there’s hidden, exculpatory evidence in Mumia’s case, and that is evidence that Mumia’s guilt was intentionally manufactured by the police and prosecution and the truth of his innocence was suppressed,” Wolkenstein said.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office did not say anything at all about what is in the boxes, or whether there is evidence that the files are exculpatory, or capable of demonstrating that Abu-Jamal did not commit a crime. During his original trial three separate eyewitnesses testified Mumia did commit the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Wolkenstein’s assessment is wild speculation, according to Ed McCann, the former homicide unit chief whose name was scrawled across the six boxes. McCann left the office in 2015 after 26 years there as a prosecutor. He was never directly involved in Abu-Jamal’s case.

“I can’t tell you 100% what is in these boxes,” McCann said Wednesday night. “But I doubt there is anything in them that is not already in the public eye.”

How and why did six boxes tied to one of the most legendary and racially-charged cases the office has ever handled get relegated to a dusty storage room?

McCann is not sure. But he said when the office moved locations in 2006, hundreds of boxes with his name written them were moved into the current headquarters on South Penn Square, just across the street from Philadelphia City Hall.

“I don’t remember these six boxes. But nobody over there discussed this with me before filing this letter,” McCann said. “I would think if they were really interested in what happened, they would have reached out to me.”

In the two-page letter to the court, assistant district attorney Kavanagh wrote that if Judge Leon Tucker would like to review the boxes, prosecutors will turn them over.

Tucker, who is the same judge who ordered that Abu-Jamal should be given a new appeals argument, has not weighed in on the newly-discovered boxes.

But in his opinion last month, Tucker said former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille should have recused himself from hearing Abu-Jamal’s petitions, since Castille himself was Philadelphia’s District Attorney when the case was actively on appeal. “True justice must be completely just without even a hint of partiality, lack of integrity or impropriety,” wrote Tucker, saying a new hearing in front of the state’s high court is warranted.

Prosecutors have not taken a position yet on Tucker’s opinion. The files unearthed in the six boxes could influence whether Krasner’s office supports or opposes a new hearing for Abu-Jamal.

Wolkenstein said the thousands of people who have joined the “Free Mumia” movement around the globe should be able to review the documents themselves.

“These files should be released publicly,” Wolkenstein said. “The remedy for this is nothing less than dismissal of Mumia’s charges and his release from prison.”

3149. Mumia Abu-Jamal Wins Major Court Victory

By Jeff Mackler, Socialist Action, January 2, 2019

A group of two dozen activists briefly block traffic during a rally outside the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office on Friday. The group called on DA Larry Krasner to not challenge a Common Pleas court ruling that allows Mumia Abu-Jamal to file an appeal. (Bastiaan Slabbers for WHYY)

On Dec. 27, Philadelphia Superior Court Judge Leon Tucker ruled in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal, holding that the actions of former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Judge Ronald Castille had demonstrated a “lack of impartiality” and “the appearance of bias.”

Tucker’s decision represents a major victory for Abu-Jamal, which opens the door to a new trial—or dismissal of the murder charges against him—after an appeal to the Pennsylvania courts.

Mumia was incarcerated in 1981 in a racist frame-up murder trial of police officer Daniel Faulkner and on death row for most of the past 37 years. He is a prize-winning journalist and the author of 10 books on various aspects of the freedom struggle. His latest book, “Murder Incorporated: Empire, Genocide, Manifest Destiny,” co-authored in 2017 by filmmaker Stephen Victoria (“Long Distance Revolutionary,” 2014) with a forward by Chris Hedges, is invaluable reading for revolutionary activists who seek the truth about capitalist imperialism’s centuries of horrors and the historic resistance against them.

Mumia’s freedom struggle has been supported by scores of trade unions across the U.S. and in Europe as well as by Amnesty International, the NAACP, the European Parliament and numerous city council resolutions from San Francisco to Detroit.

Tucker’s 27-page ruling was in two parts. He held in Part Two that, with regard to all of Mumia’s numerous denied Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) appeals between 1998 and 2014, Supreme Court Judge Ronald Castille’s actions in campaigning for the Pennsylvania governor to sign death-penalty warrants for all “convicted cop killers” and other biased acts had violated Mumia’s fundamental constitutional rights.

Castille had participated in Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions that denied all of Mumia’s appeals, including a request from Mumia’s attorneys that he recuse himself from deciding the case he had helped to prosecute and another decision in which the same Castille court refused to consider documented evidence submitted by court stenographer Terri Maurer Carter that Mumia’s trial judge, Albert “the hanging judge” Sabo, had stated in his antechambers before entering the courtroom to adjudicate Mumia’s case, “Yeah, I’m going to help ‘em fry the nigger.

Mumia’s decades-long sojourn through the racist U.S. “criminal justice system” is replete with what has become infamously known as “the Mumia exception,” that is, contorted applications of the “law” aimed at denying its applicability to the facts in Mumia’s case. These include systematic exclusion of eyewitness testimony proving his innocence, intimidation of witnesses, falsification of exonerating ballistics findings, fabrication of testimony that Mumia admitted to the killing of police officer Daniel Faulkner, and Mumia’s physical exclusion from a majority of his trial proceedings—to name a few of the legal atrocities attendant to his trial and subsequent proceedings.

Judge Tucker’s ruling opens the door for Mumia to appeal all of Castille’s decisions over a 17-years period and for renewed massive and united national and international campaigns in the streets to demand Mumia’s freedom now.

Tucker denied Part One of Mumia’s appeal, which pertained to whether or not Castille had been significantly or personally involved in Mumia’s prosecution, in order to qualify under the provisions of the Williams v. Pennsylvania ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016. Mumia’s attorneys may appeal this decision in order to fight on both legal fronts.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s “liberal” district attorney, Larry Krasner, whose actions to date have largely conformed to the reactionary positions of the Fraternal Order of Police, may well appeal Tucker’s amazing and unexpected decision. This would inevitably lead to years of further litigation.

Mumia’s supporters are campaigning to tell Krasner: Do not appeal Judge Tucker’s decision granting new rights of appeal to Mumia Abu-Jamal. A rally is planned to take place in front of the D.A.’s office on South Penn Square (across from City Hall) in Philadelphia, starting at noon on Saturday, Jan. 5.

Send protests to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner: Phone: (215) 686-8000; E-mail: DA_Central@phila.gov; Tweet: @philaDAO; Mail: Phila. DA Larry Krasner, Three South Penn Square, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Tell D.A. Krasner: Do Not Appeal Judge Tucker’s Decision Reinstating Appeal Rights for Mumia Abu-Jamal!

From Mumia: Answers to questions posed by Professor Jennifer Black

What’s your reaction to the news of that your appeals have been reinstated?

My reaction?  It reminded me of when Nixon went to China, and a US diplomat asked China’s #2, Chou En-Lai what he thought about the French Revolves. He mused about it and replied, “It’s too soon to tell”. I felt the same way. But it was a pleasant surprise.

Why now?

I think we can’t underestimate the impact of the recent rulings from the US Supreme Court. (Williams v. Pa.); judges and lawyers are sensitive to such things.

How are you?

I’m ok, all things considered; better than I was few years ago; but I often forget my age….

What new projects are you thinking about?

I’m awaiting the birth of vol. II of _Murder, Inc. America’—that’s pretty exciting!

Any hopes and dreams for 2019?

My big dreams have never changed: freedom, with my family. May it be so! Ashe! And, of course freedom for all the MOVE 9!

New Years resolutions for the Left?

For ’19, build the Freedom Movement, ‘cuz guess what? It’s gonna be needed!

Do you have a message for your supporters?

; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> I’m always—always—impressed with our supporters/people! I hope they feel my vibration of deep appreciation and love for Alla them! We’re Ona Move! NEXT! ;)>. alla best, mu♪.

2593. Mumia Abu-Jamal Wins the Fight to Receive Treatment for Hepatitis C

By Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, April 1, 2017

Mumia Abu-Jamal has been denied medical treatment in prison despite a diagnosis of hepatitis C

On March 31, 2017, Mumia Abu-Jamal received a cruel mix of bad and good news from a prison doctor. The doctor shared the results of his recent lab test, which showed clear signs of cirrhosis, an irreversible scarring of the liver caused by his untreated Hep C. The doctor also informed Mumia that he would be treated with the Hep C cure within a week.

The impending victory was bittersweet. Mumia shared his feelings with those he called that morning. His rare expression of emotion was also captured in an interview that evening in which he stated: “My first reaction was really shock, anger, disbelief. If I had been treated in 2015, if I had been treated in 2012 when they say they first diagnosed it, I wouldn’t be this far advanced.…For a lot of guys and a lot of gals inside the Pennsylvania prisons, I think it is a step forward and a great day, but I assure you I don’t feel that way right now.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ apparent concession to treat Mumia with the Hep C curewas achieved through an agonizing two-year battle waged in the streets and through two court suits. However, Mumia has not yet been treated and will not be without our vigilance and continued protests.

If he is treated immediately, Mumia can expect to return to good health; but patients who have developed cirrhosis are more susceptible to developing liver cancer in the future and have to be monitored for the rest of their lives.

In the face of Mumia’s battle for humane medical treatment, the PA DOC had adopted a retaliatory posture and accelerated its efforts to silence and kill Mumia by delaying treatment. Because of the failure to treat his Hep C, over the last two years, Mumia fell into a diabetic coma, experienced severe brain swelling, and suffered a painful skin condition that disfigured his body. In the last year, he and others in the prison have been forced to bathe in and drink water that is often visibly contaminated—“black and turbid,” as Mumia put it.

Many of Mumia’s supporters around the world believed that Mumia received treatment back in early January 2017 because a federal judge ordered the DOC to provide it. But a stubborn and stonewalling PA DOC refused to comply with the ruling. The judge ordered Mumia’s immediate treatment citing the unconstitutionality of the PA DOC’s Hep C treatment protocol. The judge denounced the DOC, whose protocol “deliberately delays” treatment with the standard Hep C cure until the prisoner experiences bleeding of the throat, among other deadly symptoms. The decision cited eight amendment rights violations prohibiting cruel and usual punishment.

The ongoing foot dragging by the PA DOC was confirmed this week. On the same day that the prison doctor delivered the news to Mumia, PA DOC attorneys filed a scandalous motion in court. They asked the judge to dismiss Mumia’s legal health suit on the basis that the DOC had decided to treat Mumia under the guidelines of pre-existing HEP C treatment protocol —the same protocol that the judge previously declared “unconstitutional.” 

These arguments demonstrate the DOC’s attempt to undermine the legal implications of Mumia’s legal suit and the DOC’s own misconduct. When Mumia is finally administered the cure, his treatment will establish precedent for the treatment of thousands of PA prisoners with Hep C, as well as people on the outside who can't afford the medication. Mumia’s battle has exposed the deadly crisis of medical care in the prisons and the barbarism of the U.S. for-profit health care system that charges 90K for the Hep C cure. 

As history shows, a judge’s ruling does not ensure its implementation, especially when it challenges ruling interests.  For this reason, we are asking you to take action and demand immediate Hep C treatment for Mumia, for the more than 700,000 prisoners with Hep C across the country and the millions suffering with the untreated, deadly disease outside the prison walls in our neighborhoods.

This moment has also created an opportunity to uphold Mumia’s innocence and fight for his freedom. On Monday, April 24, 2017, the day of Mumia’s birthday, his attorneys will challenge his conviction in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. We are calling on you to join us at the courthouse and in the streets.

On April 24, his conviction attorneys, Judith Ritter and Christina Swarns (NAACP Legal Defense Fund), will take advantage of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Williams v. Commonwealth to show how judicial and prosecutorial bias in all of Mumia’s state appeals have kept him behind bars. This important Supreme Court ruling determined that a judge cannot fairly adjudicate an appeal of a case for which he/she has previously had a personal role in a significant prosecutorial decision.

In Mumia’s case, Judge Ronald Castile, the same judge under scrutiny in Williams v. Commonwealth, also was the elected Philadelphia District Attorney responsible for the arguments made to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1988 to uphold Mumia’s trial conviction and death sentence. Castille had also been a high-level assistant DA during Mumia’s trial. After he was elected to the PA Supreme Court in 1994, he was involved in deliberating and denying all of Mumia’s state appeals against the decisions of “hanging judge” Albert Sabo and Pamela Dembe who upheld Mumia’s death sentence and denied him a new trial during multiple appeals between 1998-2007. These judges denied a new trial despite Mumia’s innocence, that evidence of his guilt was manufactured by the police and prosecution and that he had been denied virtually every due process right and protection owed under the U.S. constitution.

During the appellate filing, Mumia’s attorneys asked Judge Castille to recuse himself because of this bias,citing also the judge’s close relationship with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which lobbied for Mumia’s conviction. The FOP funded Castille’s bid for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and honored him as “Man of the Year.” In response to Mumia’s attorneys, Justice Castille responded stridently that he would not step aside, noting that he should not be singled out because five of the seven judges of that Pennsylvania Supreme Court were also supported by the FOP. It is no surprise that the court did not find one single error in the original court proceedings and thus upheld his death sentence and denied Mumia the right to a new trial.

We demand the immediate release of Mumia!

We are calling on you to do two things:

1.     Call the DOC to demand immediate treatment for Mumia and all PA prisoners with Hep C ---

PA DOC Secretary John Wetzel, (717) 728-2573

(Email) ra-crpadocsecretary@pa.gov --

(Twitter) @johnewetzel * @CorrectionsPA

2.     Join us in Philadelphia on Monday, April 24, 2017 at 8:30AM, at the the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas to assert Mumia’s innocence and call for his immediate release.

Center for Criminal Justice, Courtroom 1101, 1303 Filbert Street, Philadephia, PA

Signers in solidarity,

International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

MOVE

Campaign to Bring Mumia Home

Abolitionist Law Center

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)

Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mundo Obrero/Workers World

Philly REAL Justice

Sankofa Community Empowerment

Millions for Mumia/International Action Center

Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal/Northern California

Le Collectif Français "Libérons Mumia”

German Network Against the Death Penalty and to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

Amig@s de Mumia de México

Saint-Denis Free Mumia Committee