Philadelphia, PA – After 30 years, political prisoner and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal is no longer on death row. On Dec. 7, 2011, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced that he would not seek a new sentencing hearing to try to re-sentence Abu-Jamal to the death penalty. He has now been moved to SCI Mahanoy after spending the last 30 years on Pennsylvania’s death row.

This is a stunning development in Abu-Jamal’s case. He has been on death row since 1982, after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for killing a police officer in 1981. A broad and powerful movement rallied in defense of Mumia for decades, decrying the racism and injustice in his case, going up against seemingly impossible odds to try to stop his execution and win his freedom.

District Attorney Williams’ decision not to pursue the death penalty for Abu-Jamal comes after an Oct. 11, 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision to not hear the Philadelphia district attorney’s appeal of a federal court ruling that that the sentencing portion of Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial had violated the constitution. The Supreme Court decision forced the district attorney to either conduct a new sentencing hearing or change Abu-Jamal’s sentence to a life term without parole. Williams chose not to conduct a new sentencing hearing, likely fearing a reopening of any portion of Abu-Jamal’s thoroughly flawed trial. As a result of this decision, Mumia Abu-Jamal no longer faces the death penalty.

While Abu-Jamal sat in a small cell on death row in virtual isolation for three decades and came close to scheduled execution dates several times, the courts stonewalled his attempts to win justice up and down the line. In that context, his supporters consider this a victory, though one that doesn’t bring true justice. It simply opens the door to the next phase of the struggle – to win freedom for Mumia. According to a statement by the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, “This is not an ending, it is a new beginning for the movement supporting Abu-Jamal's quest for release.”

Write to Mumia Abu-Jamal to express your solidarity. His new address is:

Mumia Abu-Jamal

#AM 8335

SCI Mahanoy

301 Morea Road

Frackville, PA 17932

#PhiladelphiaPA #MumiaAbuJamal #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #DeathPenalty #DeathRow #PoliticalPrisoners

On Aug. 5, Aaron Patterson was arrested by the Chicago Police Department and Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. Patterson was charged, along with Isaiah Kitchen and Mark Mannie, with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and firearms. Patterson is not charged with possession of drugs or guns, rather the prosecutors are alleging that he intended to become involved in illegal activities. According to the federal government, it is involved in this case because it is able to seek sentences that are much greater than those administered at a local level. Aaron Patterson, if convicted, could face life in prison and millions of dollars in fines.

The source of the government’s evidence against Patterson is derived from an informant who is known by the street name of Fox. Fox was arrested in November 2003 for possession of over $100,000 in drugs and was facing a possible 30-year prison sentence. Yet Fox never went to prison, because he told authorities he could deliver Aaron Patterson to them. In March, under guidance from the Justice Department, Fox initiated contact with Patterson and taped a series of conversations with him, for which Fox was paid $6000 by the government.

According to Patterson, he knew all along that he was being targeted and taped by the government through Fox. At the same time that Fox was taping Patterson, Patterson was taping Fox. He was trying to trap the government agents who were trying to entrap him. As he told the Chicago Tribune, “I got videotapes, I got license plate numbers of undercover cars. Serial numbers for all the money. Everything.” Whether Patterson’s evidence of his entrapment will be helpful to his defense is unclear, since federal agents removed loads of evidence from his mother’s home the day of his arrest.

From his jail cell, where he sits after his bail was denied, Patterson was asked what his goal was when trying to document the police corruption surrounding his arrest. “It was to expose. Let’s do something real and get it on tape. The stunt was not to get locked up. The stunt was that I wanted to do something that would put them on the spot.”

Aaron Patterson’s arrest took place just 24 hours after a federal judge in Chicago ordered former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge back to Chicago to testify. Jon Burge is alleged to have tortured or to have supervised the torture of 108 Black and Latino suspects while he was a detective in Chicago Police Area 2 and commander of Area 3. Burge and the detectives working under him are accused of using electric shock and suffocation with typewriter covers to extract confessions. One of those tortured suspects was Aaron Patterson, who has a pending civil suit against Burge.

Aaron Patterson has survived police torture and years spent on death row for a crime he didn’t commit and he came out swinging against a corrupt and racist criminal justice system. By targeting him, the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Justice Department are trying to tell victims of police and prosecutorial misconduct to suffer in silence. Anti-police corruption activists will not stay silent. Instead we will raise our voices to denounce this latest frame-up and to demand the immediate release of Aaron Patterson. Patterson’s next court date is Oct. 8. For more information, please email CEJchicago ( at ) worldnet.att.net.

#ChicagoIL #PoliceBrutality #AaronPatterson #ComiteExigimosJusticia #DeathRow