Author Archives: drumsintheglobalvillage

Mumia And His Lawyer Are Still Waiting

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

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Just got this today from Robert R. Bryan, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s lawyer.

Dear Friends:
 
We continue to await a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, concerning my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal.  This complex case was orally argued before a three-judge panel on May 17, 2007, following extensive litigation which included voluminous briefing and motions.  In my experience of successfully defending a large number of murder cases involving the death penalty, it was a great day.
 
It is impossible to know what the federal court ruling will be.  If the judges follow the law and fairly apply the U.S. Constitution, we will win.  As to when, long ago I projected a decision would be forthcoming this fall; it could come any day.  One thing is certain: whomever loses will seek a rehearing and petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
 
I have previously described the different rulings that the federal court could make.  Nevertheless some people have recently sent out e-mail containing false information.  Contrary to their claim, the federal court cannot impose a sentence of life in prison without parole.  Only a jury verdict could result in such an outcome, unless in the event of a penalty reversal the prosecution elected not to seek the death penalty.  Likewise the court unfortunately cannot order that Mumia be released, for that would require a new guilt-phase jury trial and a favorable verdict which is certainly our goal.  To once more clarify the legal situation, the scenarios of how the U.S. Court of Appeals might rule include:

  • Grant an entirely new jury trial of the guilt phase;
  • Order a new jury trial limited to the issue of life or death;
  • Remand the case back to the U.S. District Court for further proceedings; or
  • Deny all relief.

Racism, fraud, and politics are threads that have run through this case since Mumia’s 1981 arrest. The issues in this matter concern the right to a fair trial, the struggle against the death penalty, and the political repression of an outspoken journalist.
 
Mumia’s objective is a reversal of the murder conviction and death sentence, and the granting of an entirely new trial.  At the end of that jury trial I expect to win and see my client freed so that he can finally go home to his family.
 
Thank you for your interest in this campaign for human rights.
 
Yours very truly,
 
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117 Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal

P.S. Liked these comments Mumia made on writing.

New Website About Katrina

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

Got this from my friend and mentor Don Rojas as we observe the Katrina anniversary.

NEW WEBSITE CALLS FOR EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN THE GULF COAST

On the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of communities in the Gulf Coast region, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (LDRF) in collaboration with many partners has launched a new Web site ( www.equityandinclusion.org ) to focus regional and national attention on the continuing plight of grassroots organizations working on behalf of those displaced and impacted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas.

With Gulf Coast community news, blogs, podcasts, commentaries and calendars of events, the site aims to be a focal point on the Web for community organizations and coalitions to engage each other and collaborate in an ongoing campaign to adequately inform the nation and lift the public’s awareness.  

“Two years after Katrina, hundreds of thousands of poor and marginalized people are still shut out of the recovery and rebuilding of the region,” said Ashley Shelton, interim Chief Operating Officer at LDRF.

The site will also promote consistent advocacy at both the Federal and State levels and will demand of all the candidates who are seeking to be the next president of the United States to make an equitable, just and fair Gulf Coast recovery a top priority in their campaign planks.

As the Equity & Inclusion campaign site grows and expands, there are plans to publish Web content not only in English but in Spanish and Vietnamese as well, thus reflecting the three main languages spoken in the communities that were hardest hit by the storm.

The campaign’s Web site content will inform the general public about Gulf Coast realities with sound evidence, scientific data and credible research, all of which would come together to make the argument that the recovery, to date, has not been equitable, has not been balanced, has not been inclusive, has not been fair.

“The poor and the powerless have been left out of the recovery because racism and classism have been prevalent in the decision-making process”, said Don Rojas, creator of the E&I campaign’s site. “The job of this campaign is to expose these injustices and imbalances and to mobilize broad public pressure on the political leadership in Washington and also in the State capitols.”

Rojas added that close to a million people of good will from all across the United States and from as far away as Japan and Europe have traveled to Coastal communities over the last two years to volunteer selflessly their time, energy and money in the rebuilding process.

“We are all grateful and appreciative of their generosity. But when they return to their homes they go back to a reality of relative isolation, deprived of a steady flow of information about the ups and downs of Gulf Coast rebuilding. Their empathy for the plight of those in this region who are being shut out of the recovery process will wane and dissipate if we do not keep them engaged and informed, if we do not call on them to organize in their own communities and to pressure their Congressional representatives to deliver on their promises to make the Gulf Coast region whole again. This will be one of the main objectives of the campaign and the site.”

“And then, of course, there is the “Katrina Diaspora,” the tens of thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents who are living across the 48 contiguous states of the US, most of whom want to return to their homes and communities and to a bright and secure future,” added Shelton.

“Their right to return is a basic human right, a basic constitutional right that this campaign must advocate for consistently and vigorously.  Like the volunteers, people in the Katrina Diaspora are also starving for up-to-date information and analysis on the recovery. They have an invaluable role to play in mobilizing public support and this campaign should place a high priority on reaching out to them and keeping them engaged,” she said.

The new site ( www.equityandinclusion.org ) is powered by PromoSuite Interactive.

Contact: Don Rojas

Tel: 443-834-9693 Email: donrojas30@gmail.com

Kenneth Foster Update (as of 7 p.m. Wednesday)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Just got the following email from Hans Bennett.

Hello Everyone,

I just got off the phone (this Wed. evening) with Walidah Imarisha, a
Philadelphia journalist/activist who is there in Texas where Kenneth Foster Jr. is set to be executed tomorrow. She told me that the Board of Pardons and Parole has put off the decision regarding Kenneth until tomorrow.

It was set to respond to the appeal today, where 5 out of the 7 members have to recommend pardon, and then Governor Rick Perry has to approve it. If the
Board denies a pardon, Perry has the power to grant a 30-day stay.

Imarisha reports that supporters of Kenneth in Texas are not quite “optimistic,” but are hoping for the best because this delay of decision means that they have been extensively talking about it and are therefore taking a long time to decide.

Imarisha will call me tomorow as soon as there is anything new, and I will keep you posted.

Hoping for the best,

Hans Bennett
Abu-Jamal-News.com

Call or fax:

Those who cannot attend these are encouraged to continue faxing and calling:
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles:
Phone (512) 406-5852
Fax (512) 467-0945

Gov. Rick Perry:
Phone (512) 463-1782
Fax (512) 463-1849

Protests

Wednesday, August 29

1:00 pm to 4pm: Gather outside the Polunsky Unit in Livingston TX for a
demonstration against the deplorable, torturous conditions of the Polunsky Unit and against the double executions of John Amador, scheduled for August 29, and Kenneth Foster, set for August 30.
Polunsky Unit: 3825 FM 350 South, Livingston Texas 77351

4pm-7pm: Protest the execution of John Amador outside the Ellis Unit.
Huntsville Unit: 815 12th Street Huntsville Texas 77340

Austin, Wednesday, August 29, 5:00 PM, Governor’s Mansion (Lavaca at 11th) RALLY AND PRESS CONFERENCE FOR KENNETH FOSTER, RESPONDING TO BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES’ RECOMMENDATION TO GOVERNOR PERRY AND IN OPPOSITION TO
THE EXECUTION OF JOSEPH AMODOUR AT 6PM.

Austin, Thursday, August 30, 5:00 PM, Governor’s Mansion (Lavaca at 11th) EXECUTION PROTEST AND VIGIL Even in the eleventh hour things could turn for Kenneth. If you can’t make it to Huntsville, come out to stand with others against the execution.

Thursday, August 30:
3pm-7pm: Protest the execution of Kenneth Foster Jr outside the Ellis Unit in Huntsville Texas. Groups from all over the state will converge to stand against this injustice and demand until the very end that the State of Texas do the right thing and stop this execution.

THIS CAMPAIGN BADLY NEEDS DONATIONS: Send donations to:

Velocity Credit Union, P.O. Box 1089, Austin, Texas 78767

Account name: To Save Kenneth
Foster

Account number: 831766.1

A Writer's Purpose

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

The following hit all the marks. 

I’m certain you know about Dr. Pipher’s public stand.

AMY GOODMAN: Mary Pipher, clinical psychologist and acclaimed author. I asked her to talk about her latest book, Writing to Change the World.

MARY PIPHER: You know, how Pete Seeger always said about music: it isn’t whether or not it’s good, it’s what it’s good for. And I didn’t come at writing as an academic or as a poet or a creative writer. I came at writing as a social activist, and I want every one of my books to have a very powerful effect in changing the culture. And so, I have spent a lot of time figuring out how to do it. And the way to do it is have a deeply personal voice, my own authentic voice that comes from deep within myself, and my writing and speaking voice are virtually identical. And then, the other way to do it is through stories, because you can’t argue with a story. You know, people can argue with you if you stand up and say what you believe or don’t believe, but if you tell them a story and tell them a story that opens their heart, they will change. So that’s what the book is about, is writing in a way that we can effect change.

And I talk about this idea that the point of my kind of writing is to empower the powerless, to give voice to people who have no voice, but also to educate readers in what I call the moral imagination. And that is the ability to understand the world from other people’s points of view. And that’s an extremely big problem in America right now, is people don’t have much moral imagination, so that when they talk about, say, “illegal aliens,” they don’t have a story, they don’t have a face, they don’t have a picture of a real person. They have almost no empathy with the person they’re talking about.

I remember when Sensenbrenner was talking about gaming the asylum system and how we had to go after those terrorists gaming the asylum system. At that point I had just happened to have been back to Bellevue in New York City to visit their unit for victims of torture. The people on that unit that were seeking asylum were Buddhist monks from Tibet. And I just thought, “Man, Sensenbrenner hasn’t been here. You know, he hasn’t been to Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis.”

And so, the job of the change writer, from my point of view, is to say I respect you as a reader, and I know if I tell you the truth, as I see it, having spent some time listening to people and asking them — you know, Simone Weil had that question, “What is your experience?”– asking people, “What is your experience?” which I did when I wrote Middle of Everywhere, my book on refugees. I spent three years asking people that. And it greatly enhanced my own moral imagination to listen to all those stories. You also have a good job for enhancing your moral imagination. But that’s the job of the writer: to help other people’s moral imagination grow, basically.