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"Mumia
Abu-Jamal is factually innocent,
& he’s still sitting on death row."
So
stated legendary boxer and former prisoner Rubin "Hurricane"
Carter spoke out in support of death-row activist Mumia Abu-Jamal.
He chose Philadelphia—Abu-Jamal’s hometown—to make a statement
supporting a new trial for the former Black Panther.
Carter
also sits on the board of the Southern Center for Human Rights,
a Georgia-based group that aids death-row prisoners in their appeals.
Carter,
who is African American, was framed for murder and sentenced to
three consecutive life terms in 1976. After years of mass protests
and committed support from anti-racist activists, including Muhammad
Ali, Carter won a new trial. He presented new evidence proving
his innocence, and was ultimately freed by using his right to
Federal Habeas Corpus.
Habeas
corpus, the right of a prisoner to have an independent federal
court review, was crucial in freeing many innocent people on appeal—including
Hurricane Carter.
But
the 1996 Effective Death Penalty Act signed by President Bill
Clinton virtually wiped away this right. Federal judges are now
instructed by law to take state court findings as good coin in
all but the most extraordinary circumstances.
"Jailhouse
stool pigeons, jury tampering, jury fixing, paid criminals for
perjured testimonies, the manufacturing of evidence by police
departments, the lies in the seat of government itself–that’s
what Mumia Abu-Jamal is in prison for. That’s what I was in prison
for."
Stacked
juries Carter explained how in both his and Abu-Jamal’s cases
most of the potential African American jurors were excluded. The
jury in Carter’s first trial included 10 whites and two African
Americans.
The
Hurricane called this "the ploy by which the government gets
away with the appearance of a mixed jury."
He
said he hopes to meet with Abu-Jamal.
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