Today on Sojourner Truth, we bring you voices from a virtual press conference on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the recent amicus brief in the Abu-Jamal Case filed by the UN Working Group on people of African descent. The International Body Observes that Racial Bias has tainted the judicial process up to now citing new evidence of innocence and misconduct by Judges and Prosecutors. 

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s lawyers say evidence in boxes discovered in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office by the new DA at the time, Larry Krasner in 2019 that show his trial was tainted by judicial bias and  police and prosecutorial misconduct, including: withholding of evidence, and bribing or coercing witnesses to lie. 

As of the airing of this show,  the plea for a new trial in the  case of Mumia Abu-Jamal  went before  Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Lucretia Clemons on Friday December 16th. Judge Clemons asked the commonwealth if they could confirm that there is no new evidence in the 32 boxes that relate to Brady and Bateson claims. The commonwealth did not confirm. So now Mumia’s lawyers will be making arrangements to see those boxes and Judge Clemens  said she would issue her ruling in 60-90 days.

The press conference held on December 13th included: 

Moderator Associate Professor Johanna Fernandez who has researched Mumia’s case at length and is executive producer of the film Justice on Trial: the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal,   Ms. Fernandez is presently Associate Professor of History at Baruch College, CUNY;  the Honorable Wendell Griffen, state court trial judge in the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Arkansas, Dr. Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, New Delhi, and São Paulo; Julia Wright, founder of the Mumia Abu-Jamal Health Committee and Board of the Richard Wright Civil Rights Center in Elaine, AR., Linn Washington, Jr.-- a Philadelphia-based investigative reporter who has covered the Mumia Abu-Jamal matter since Abu-Jamal’s arrest on the morning of Dec. 9, 1981, as well as Mumia’s grandson Jamal Jr.

Sojourner Truth: Thursday December 22, 2022

Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod is a news & public affairs program that airs Tuesday through Friday on KPFK Radio from 7 to 8 AM (PST), and nationwide on Pacifica Radio networks. 

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Sojourner Truth brings you news and views on local, national & international policies and stories that affect us all. We draw out how those of us most impacted -women, communities of color and other communities are responding. We also discuss the inter-relationship between art and politics.