MUMIA'S ATTORNEYS DEMAND
SUPREME COURT HEAR TESTIMONY
FROM THE MAN WHO SHOT DANIEL FAULKNER.

PHILADELPHIA.

Attorneys for death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal
filed their appeal brief in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday, August 27,2002

The appeal brief argues that Jamal is the innocent victim of a frame-up by corrupt police and organized crime and demands his immediate release. The attorneys are asking the court to invoke a little-used
procedure to itself hear testimony under oath from ex-mob hitman Arnold Beverly, who swears that he was hired to shoot and kill Police Officer Daniel Faulkner and Jamal had nothing to do with the
shooting. Beverly states in a videotape of his confession that he will testify in any court. Jamal's attorneys have declined to disclose Beverly's whereabouts, stating only that he is "underground" but has promised to come to court to testify whenever he is given the chance to do so.

Jamal's appeal is also based on the sworn statement of Court Stenographer Terri Maurer-Carter who states that, at the time of Jamal's trial in 1982, she heard the trial judge, Albert Sabo, say in reference to Jamal: "Yeah, and I'm going to help 'em fry the n****r!" According to Jamal's attorneys, Sabo, who died earlier this year, never denied under oath having made the racist statement attributed to him by Maurer-Carter. In their brief, Jamal's attorneys excoriate Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe for ruling that Sabo's racism was irrelevant and that Jamal had no right to an impartial judge, comparing her ruling to the pre-Civil War "Dred Scott decision" in which the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that Scott, a Black slave suing for his freedom, "had no rights the white man is bound to respect."

Prominent Los Angeles attorney Mike Yamamoto, who was named "Defense Attorney of the Year" by the Criminal Justice Section of the L.A. County Bar, and is a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, filed an "amicus" (friend of the court) brief in support of Jamal on behalf of unions from around the world, including International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 10 (San Francisco), International Longshore Association Local 1422 (Charleston), National
Association of Letter Carriers Golden Gate Chapter (San Francisco), National Union of Journalists (United Kingdom), and Independent Local Unions "Zahyst" and "Uspih" (Kiev, Ukraine). The Yamamoto brief argues that Mumia is innocent based upon an independent review of the evidence.

Denver attorneys Watson Gallegher and Rich Garcia, representing the Rocky Mountains Human Rights Law Group, filed an amicus brief in support of Jamal, arguing that international human rights law
requires the Pennsylvania courts to hear the evidence which proves that Jamal is innocent, including the confession of Arnold Beverly.

Philadelphia attorney Michael Coard is local counsel on the amicus briefs. Mumia Abu-Jamal is represented by British barrister Nick Brown, Chicago attorney Marlene Kamish, Los Angeles attorney Eliot
Lee Grossman, and Philadelphia attorney J. Michael Farrell.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Eliot Grossman (626) 943-1945, innjustice1066@yahoo.com
Mike Farrell (215) 925-1105; jmfarrell@earthlink.net