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Supporters keeping pressure on for Mumia Abu-Jamal

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: May 12, 2015 - 9:31:40 AM

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Pictures show the contrast of a healthier Mumia Abu-Jamal (left) and a more recent photo reflects his declining health.
A Pennsylvania Federal court struck down a law written to prevent incarcerated persons in the state from communicating with the outside public. The April 28 ruling is a victory for United States Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal says his supporters. Critics of the law say it specifically targeted Mr. Abu-Jamal.

“The ‘Silence Mumia Act,’ which the Pennsylvania General Assembly called, the ‘Re-victimization Relief Act’ is no more,” announced Bret Grote, Mr. Abu-Jamal’s lawyer.

The ruling by Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner of the Middle District of Pennsylvania Federal Court said the law “betrays several constitutional requirements; the enactment is unlawfully purposed, vaguely executed, and patently overbroad in scope.”

Judge Conner determined the Re-victimization Relief Act violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.  “However well-intentioned its legislative efforts, the General Assembly fell woefully short of the mark,” he added.

The victory means messages recorded by Mr. Abu-Jamal as a journalist and commentator can still be heard and distributed. The weekly audio commentaries are done through “The Prison Radio Project,” a San Francisco—based radio and activist initiative that produces commentaries of several political prisoners and facilitated by Noelle Hanrahan—its founder.

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Current photo of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
But the legal win comes amid other challenges the 61-year-old Abu-Jamal faces like his rapid decline in health. The persecution of Mr. Abu-Jamal has intensified says his family and supporters. On April 21, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections notified Attorney Grote that Mr. Abu-Jamal is denied requests allowing examinations by his own doctor. Authorization allowing his doctor to assist and coordinate Mr. Abu Jamal’s care with prison medical staff and have regular phone calls with him was also denied. 

In a telephone interview with Mr. Abu-Jamal’s wife, Wadiya Jamal, The Final Call learned his health has worsened since a health crisis in March when he was rushed from the State Correctional Institution—Mahanoy to an intensive care unit at Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Jamal blames the deterioration on deliberate neglect of care by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.  Its “institutional murder” charge supporters. “Clearly they’re killing him,” said Mrs. Jamal.

It is known Mr. Abu-Jamal suffers with late onset diabetes and an unknown condition causing extreme scaling of the skin and a rash covering most of his body. 

“I saw him on his birthday (April 24); I couldn’t believe (it),” Mrs. Jamal lamented. “To see this (once) strong healthy man come through these doors walking baby steps,” she said. “He looked like a burn victim … his demeanor was off,” she explained, describing skin discoloration and swollen limbs.

“It is imperative that Mumia obtain a diagnosis of the underlying condition, whatever it may be, that has been responsible for the severe skin rash that has lasted several months so that a treatment plan can be developed and implemented immediately,” said Attorney Grote in an April 30 update.

Public mobilization is in full gear with letters of support from around the world and a telephone campaign to lay pressure on the Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections for quality care and independent doctors having access to Mr. Abu-Jamal.  On April 29 supporters convened a press conference to deliver petition letters to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf concerning the matter. Organizers said the documents also demanded Mr. Abu Jamal’s immediate release because supporters believe adequate care cannot occur in the prison.  

An independent investigation into the Department of Corrections medical system and the corporations contracted to run prisons is also demanded. Prioritizing profit margins rather than quality care for inmates resulted in few hospital referrals for necessary care. The “horrific medical care” Mr. Abu-Jamal received at SCI Mahanoy is common, and indicative of inmate neglect in U.S. Prisons, assert organizers. 

 “The people behind the walls are expendable, living with illness,” Johanna Fernandez, the New York Campaign to Bring Mumia Home told the Final Call recently.  “There’s a high number of prisoners suffering from diabetes…being subjected to torture from day in and day out.”

Justice for Mr. Abu-Jamal is about the broader issue of mass incarceration and the various ways torture and injustice manifest themselves—the prison health crisis is one of the ways, she said.

“Justice is for you and for me; justice is for all of us … so we are demanding that Mumia be free from incarceration, more-or-less given the medical care that he needs so that he doesn’t die in one of your prisons,” said Gregory Muhammad, the Nation of Islam Student Prison Reform Minister for the Delaware Valley.

Mr. Muhammad gave remarks during the press conference representing the Nation of Islam and worked close with activists and organizers in the case of Mumia Abu Jamal. He also announced Minister Farrakhan offered to pay for independent doctors if the state does not.

“I want to say that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has given his love and support to Mumia and his family and he has offered to pay for any expenses that it will cost—for the specialist, for the doctors, the hospital or whatever is needed if Pennsylvania doesn’t want to pay.”

Some supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case includes  the Nation of Islam leader; Congressman Charles Rangel; Anti-Apartheid leader, Archbishop Desmond Tutu; scholar, Dr. Cornel West; actor and human rights activist Danny Glover; peace advocate and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clarke and former Green Party presidential candidate and Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney.

Mr. Abu-Jamal has been an activist and “voice for the people” since a teenager in the Black Panther Party and later as an activist journalist. He was given the death penalty after being convicted in the death of a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. He’s widely believed to be innocent. International outcry, sustained struggle and public pressure pushed the court to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment. But supporters say death threats on Mr. Abu-Jamal existed ever since the conviction. “The only crime that Mumia is guilty of is he is still alive,” said Mrs. Jamal.

Prison Radio’s FaceBook page posted, “When we come together, we exercise our power to save Mumia’s life and demand his freedom. We’ve done it before when the state tried to execute him, and we are doing it now when the state is denying him life-saving medical treatment.” 

Mr. Abu-Jamal is aware of the efforts and—although physically weak—sent out a recorded “Message to the Movement” on April 26.  “I did not know that many of you were there, because I was not conscious for some of that time. I did not see, I did not hear, but I felt you in my heart. I felt you in my bones. I feel you now, and I thank you,” he said in gratitude for the campaign since his health crises.