Looking out: A courageous voice

"A rare and courageous voice speaking from a place we fear to know: Mumia Abu-Jamal must be heard." — Alice Walker Live From Death Row. By Mumia Abu-Jamal. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 215pp. US$20. Unlike most men and women on America's death rows, Mumia Abu-Jamal is not quiet about his circumstances. He has written an interesting and thought provoking book. I have read more than a few books written by prisoners and while a certain sameness can be found in many, Live From Death Row is different. It is different because it speaks to, and of, times past and present with the author firmly situated in both places. The factual realities of Jamal's chequered past and present will take the novice (any reader who heretofore is uninformed about true prison experience/s) on, and into, prison excursions where s/he shares a limited degree of intimacy about prison and capital punishment. For example, it is not uncommon to pick up a book today and find a long and tedious discourse on how one prisoner brutalises another. For a refreshing change, in Life From Death Row you will find the author and a fellow prisoner discussing the circumstantial intricacies of their cases on appeal ... complete with footnotes and legal citations. There are also historical quotations and citations that go as far back as the Dred Scott case (the famed case of a slave who tried to obtain his freedom via the Courts in 1857). Jamal easily satisfies the well-informed reader (e.g. prisoners who have done hard time to the tune of a decade or more in America's prison system) by sharing some little-known facts. He reinforces our belief that the system is as bad as we always thought it to be. For example, as I write this line someone who cares a great deal about me has been calling my lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia from Sydney — more than 30 times over several days — in an effort to get some news of my case. Needless to say, the lawyer does not respect the caller's persistence or the outrageous costs involved. He thinks nothing of having one of his office workers feed the caller an endless stream of transparent "don't bother me" messages. My lawyer knows I cannot call him, yet he will not write, call or visit me. Jamal, at his initial so-called "trial" which was held in his absence (he was kept in a holding cell), must have felt as I do now. I had a court date on August 7, 1995 — an appeal of my death sentence. Nearly eight weeks later I have still not heard a word from the lawyer. Very little has changed since Jamal was sentenced to death: the person who will be doing the actual living or dying in a death penalty case in America is a matter of no importance to a lawyer or Court. Live From Death Row also affords the reader a few useful, if not entirely flattering peeks in to the Black Panther Party's past. He tells of the party's weaknesses and strengths. It occurs to me that some overseas readers of this column may not be able to purchase Live From Death Row locally. The following addresses will allow you to order this worthwhile read by mail: Equal Justice USA., A project of the Quixote Center, P.0 Box 5206, Hyattsville, Maryland 20782, phone 301-699-0042 or fax 301-846-2184; or the Western Pennsylvania Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, P0 Box 10174, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15232-0174 US.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He is happy to receive letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-51, GD&CC, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]