Legal Harassment of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Aug 13, 2001

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable Organizations has sent an order to the main organization which has been raising money to defend Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row. The state agency ordered the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal to stop soliciting money until it clears up questions. The letter from the Bureau demanded from the defense organization the date the group first sought contributions and the amount collected.

In and of itself, this order coming now at this critical point, shows to what extent the authorities are ready to push through Mumia’s execution.

The only reason Mumia is alive today is that there has been a widespread campaign in this country and abroad to defend him. This campaign has depended on numerous contributions, which have paid for literature as well as his legal defense.

This attempt by the state of Pennsylvania to cut off the funding of the campaign is another step by the authorities to stop the development of this campaign of support, and to carry out th execution. Just recently Mumia’s lawyers tried to enter into the record a confession made by Arnold Beverly who said he killed officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. Mumia is on death row because the court found him guilty of this murder. Beverly says that the Philadelphia mob and corrupt police wanted Faulkner dead because he was disrupting their rackets. Beverly’s confession seems credible, since several Philadelphia police were convicted in later years in a federal court of corruption. A federal judge has ruled that this confession is not admissible in court–whether or not it is true–because it was turned in too late.

It’s all the more important to step up support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, both by attending protest demonstrations and by contributing to his defense fund.