Stay of execution for Mumia Abu-Jamal
"I think it is absolutely clear that without the international support coming from all quarters — trade unionists, civil libertarians, authors, writers and students — it would not have been possible for the stay [of execution] to be granted", co-counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rachael Wolkenstein, said on August 7 in response to Judge Albert Sabo's indefinite stay of execution order.
However, campaigners for Abu-Jamal's release warned that he may still be denied a new trial and have called for the public campaign for his immediate release to continue.
Abu-Jamal, a former member of the Black Panthers, political journalist and member of the alternative lifestyle movement MOVE, was falsely convicted in 1982 of killing Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner. His appeals to the Pennsylvania and US Supreme Courts were rejected in 1989.
Abu-Jamal was scheduled to die by lethal injection on August 17. Sabo, known as "the king of death row" for sentencing more people to death than any other US judge, is still hearing Abu-Jamal's post-conviction appeal, and has not granted a new trial.
Sabo stated that he granted the stay in order to provide time for new appeals. Supporters of Abu-Jamal are concerned that if these appeals are resolved by August 19, the Pennsylvania governor is required, by a new state law, to sign a new death warrant within 45 days, with execution virtually immediate.
In more than 50 cities in the US, thousands of people have been campaigning for Abu-Jamal's release and an end to the racist death penalty. n