Mumia Abu-Jamal sues Pennsylvania over gag law
see link for full story
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/11/10 ... r-gag-law/
American political prisoner Mumia Abu-JamalAmerican political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal
American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal
Mon Nov 10, 2014 5:0PM
American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has filed a lawsuit on the grounds that a new Pennsylvania law is aimed at silencing prisoners.
The Pennsylvania legislature rushed a bill last month that gives unlimited powers to district attorneys and crime victims to silence prisoner speech by claiming that such statements cause victims’ families “mental anguish.”
The "Revictimization Relief Act" was passed after Abu-Jamal delivered a pre-recorded speech to students at Vermont’s Goddard College, his alma mater, which calls him as "an award winning journalist who chronicles the human condition."
On Monday, 60-year-old Abu-Jamal and prisoner-rights groups filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the law, asking a judge to declare it unconstitutional.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican, signed the measure into law on October 16 saying it's designed to curb the "obscene celebrity" cultivated by convicts like Abu-Jamal, who has drawn international support for claims he's the victim of a racist justice system.
Civil rights experts will challenge the law in court. “If the First Amendment means anything, it’s that government officials can’t silence people they don’t like,” Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, told the Christian Science Monitor.
He added that the law would even apply to people who have served their sentence and been freed from prison.
“We think this law is pretty clearly unconstitutional and is just a result of election-year pandering,” Walczak noted.
Abu-Jamal was arrested and charged with murdering white police officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia in December 1981. One year later, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. But he was resentenced to life in prison in 2012.
Abu-Jamal, who was formerly a radio announcer and the president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, maintains that he is innocent and has submitted numerous appeal requests based on allegations of judicial bias, police brutality, and an inadequate defense during his arrest and trial 32 years ago.
After his controversial trial drew international attention, late South African leader Nelson Mandela, Amnesty International, the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, several members of Congress, and a number of celebrities expressed support for Abu-Jamal.
The African-American activist, who graduated from Goddard in 1996, said that his studies at the college provided him an opportunity to learn about important figures in far-off places.
Before his arrest, Abu-Jamal was known for his outspoken political views and commentary on racial injustice and police brutality.
Abu-Jamal joined the Black Panther Party at the age of 15 in May 1969 and helped form the Philadelphia branch of the party. He was a member of the Black Panther Party until October 1970 and was subject to FBI COINTELPRO surveillance from 1969 until about 1974.
The civil rights activist has written several books during his years in prison and continues to protest against his conviction on prisonradio.org
