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| Hundreds Rally for Death Row Inmate in Philadelphia |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 08/21/2001 |
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Carrying signs and banners denouncing the 'racist' death penalty, hundreds of protesters thronged downtown Philadelphia recently to show support for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his attorneys tried to persuade a judge to grant him a new trial. But Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and international cause celebrity among death penalty opponents, was not allowed in court to witness the half-hour proceedings, because local officials said they could not find room for him in city jails. He remained 350 miles away in his death row cell in the western Pennsylvania town of Waynesburg. 'The right to be present in the courtroom has been denied through no fault of my own,' he said in a statement read out in court by his attorney Marlene Kamish. Abu-Jamal, a former radio journalist, was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of white Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Supporters, who include Hollywood actors and European parliamentarians, claim he was railroaded by a corrupt judicial system. 'There is reasonable doubt about his guilt,' said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who joined about 1,000 protesters for a rally outside the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center. The crowd later marched through the city's downtown. As protesters shouted 'free Mumia' outside the high-rise court complex, construction workers across the street hung a banner saying 'Fry Mumia' from scaffolding along the top floors of City Hall. Police ordered them to take the message down. Abu-Jamal exhausted his state appeals two years ago. His ability to stave off execution by lethal injection has since rested with the success on a federal appeal that is pending. But his current lawyers hope to persuade Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe to grant him another state appeal on grounds that a member of his initial appellate team has published an insider's account of the case. |
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