------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 26, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- WORKERS WORLD LEADERS VISIT MUMIA IN PRISON Special to Workers World Waynesburg, Pa. Larry Holmes and Monica Moorehead, national leaders of Workers World Party, met with award-winning journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal on April 14 at the isolated SCI Greene Unit in Waynesburg, Pa. Waynesburg is located an hour outside of Pittsburgh. Moorehead and Holmes, along with the late Key Martin, had also videotaped an interview with Abu-Jamal in March 1996 entitled "The Prison-Industrial Complex." Moorehead and Holmes found Abu-Jamal to be very upbeat and in good spirits--despite the fact that he has spent almost 19 years on death row, is confined to a prison cell 23 hour a day and is subjected to the inhumane policy of sensory deprivation. Abu-Jamal was tightly handcuffed during the non-contact visit. Holmes and Moorehead spent the better part of two hours with Abu-Jamal discussing the anti-globalization movement, the impact of the recent rebellion in Cincinnati's Black community ignited by the racist murder of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas, the ongoing campaign to broaden political support for Abu-Jamal and much more. Abu-Jamal gave Moorehead and Holmes an update on his legal situation. In early March, Abu-Jamal filed a petition in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania requesting that attorneys Leonard Weinglass and Dan Williams be dismissed as his legal counsel due to "violations of client/lawyer confidentiality." On April 6, Judge William Yohn issued a ruling stating that Abu-Jamal's motion for withdrawal of counsel was "ordered and decreed." The ruling added that the court "will not conduct oral argument, an evidentiary hearing, or issue an opinion concerning the pending petition for habeas corpus relief for a period of at least 30 days from the date of this order so that petitioner [Abu-Jamal] may have an opportunity for new counsel to enter an appearance." Abu-Jamal did not receive an official copy of this ruling until April 13. Neither the court nor either of his former attorneys informed him of the ruling. He read an article about the ruling in the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier in the week. The Inquirer wrongly reported that the judge had allowed Abu-Jamal 60 days instead of 30 days. Abu-Jamal told Moorehead and Holmes that it was no accident that the Inquirer printed this error as a conscious maneuver to attempt to disorient and confuse the political movement. Political supporters of Abu-Jamal have been waiting for over a year for Yohn to announce a date to hear oral arguments on whether the death-row prisoner will be granted the right to have an evidentiary hearing to allow all suppressed evidence from his original trial to finally be heard. In the meantime, Yohn dismissed two friend-of-the-court amicus briefs last year. The briefs outlined how Abu-Jamal was denied his constitutional right to the legal counsel of his choice. And it documented how his original court- appointed lawyer, Anthony Jackson, conspired with the prosecutor and judge to convict Abu-Jamal for the murder of Daniel Faulkner, a white police officer. These violations clearly indicate why Abu-Jamal should be freed. He has been denied the right to legally represent himself by the federal district court while he pursues a new legal team. CAMP 'FREE MUMIA!' The International Action Center has initiated an encampment calling for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal in front of Philadelphia City Hall the weekend of May 11-13. Activists are being encouraged to bring sleeping bags, tents, enough food and water for two nights and three days to help bring national attention to Abu-Jamal's case and its inextricable ties to the struggle against the death penalty, police brutality and other forms of racist repression. This encampment is part of an international day of solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. And it coincides with the 16th anniversary of the U.S. government's terrorist bombing of the MOVE headquarters--a revolutionary Black organization. That government firestorm slaughtered 11 women, children and men on May 13, 1985. The International Action Center will be organizing Free Mumia anti-globalization brigades at the upcoming anti-FTAA protests at Quebec City to help mobilize anti-capitalist youth activists to come to Philadelphia for the "Free Mumia" encampment. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
