Justice System

* CLICK HERE to sign the official petition to President Obama, speaking out against the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all the men, women and children facing execution around the world!

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Help Free The Innocent

Mumia Abu-Jamal: public intellectual, community leader and victim of an intense police plot to hide corruption, at a time when there was no one overseeing police activity in Philadelphia. Since 1995, Mumia has spent his time locked down on death row at Greene, a super-max prison in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Regardless of his wrongful incarceration, he gallantly continues his creative community work, successfully shedding light on topics that are often kept dim and out of the public’s eye.

Police corruption is very real and happens often enough to be caught on your local 6 o’clock news. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” and that is just what officers in Philadelphia had, absolute power. It wasn’t until 1986 that the Special Investigations Unit was created and began to oversee and investigate into corruption and misconduct. Unfortunately, this came five years too late for Mumia.

Now let’s jump to 1995, 9 years after the inception of the SIU, the 39th District Corruption Scandal was big news. Investigations led by SIU and the FBI told a long time story of police misconduct that led to dozens of arrests of average beat cops to the DA, and even FBI agents who were involved in the investigation. The corruption at 39 and other collaborating divisions was very deep and could be traced back for years. And this brings us back to Mumia Abu Jamal.

Mumia had been charged with the death of Officer Daniel Faulkner. Faulkner was a cop with aspirations of continuing his education with hopes of one day becoming a prosecutor. Officer Faulkner was aware of the rampant corruption that went on within the Philadelphia police force, and along with others opposed to it, he tried to stop it. However, the corruption was very deeply rooted within the police community and proved too difficult to overcome. Faulkner’s knowledge became too large a liability for those involved in the corruption, and on December 9, 1981 (5 years before the SIU came into existence, don’t forget), he was murdered.

At this time, Mumia spent his time working for the community and following his journalistic instinct. Being at the forefront of many civil liberty movements, and being in the position of a renowned journalist and interviewer, he was well aware of the corruption around him and often spoke out about it. Being a very active community speaker made Mumia an excellent target for the framed murder of Daniel Faulkner.

5 Reasons Why Mumia Abu-Jamal Should Be Free
1. Arresting officers were part of a large ring of police corruption
2. Mumia’s appointed council was unqualified to handle a case involving capital punishment
3. The prosecution’s witness was a call girl who was a regular police informant
4. Court stenographer stated in a 2001 affidavit that the presiding judge, Albert Sabo, had exclaimed, “Yeah, and I’m going to help them fry the nigger” when speaking on the sentencing of Mumia
5. Mumia Abu-Jamal has proven himself a valuable asset of the human race, continuing exceptional, inspiring journalism from behind bars

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The answer is not to throw away a child's life

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is coming through with an election-time promise to crack down on youth crime. Changes to Canada’s Youth Act are being proposed in order to further ensure that the system has an easier time charging, convicting and sentencing our youth in trouble. The proposed changes are being referred to as Sébastien’s Law, named after Sébastien Lacasse, who was killed in 2004. It was decided that Sébastien’s 17 year old killer was too dangerous to be tried as a youth and was tried and sentenced as an adult.

Some of the changes include:

1. Easier adult sentencing for violent youth offenders
2. A full disclosure of the alleged violent offender’s identity
3. Previous court sanctions can be taken into account for new sentencing
4. Irresponsible behavior becomes a chargeable youth offense

It has been officially determined by the Canadian senate, that juveniles are different from adults and therefore should be subjected to an alternative justice system. The rules set out in the original Youth Act are there to provide the benefit of an easy recovery for young offenders after being charged with a crime. Right now, identities can only be disclosed at the request of the crown, and only if the young offender poses a serious threat to the community. This allows for many young offenders to start fresh at 18, and not be plagued and judged by mistakes from their past.

Yet again, this is another blatant example of how the federal government tries its hardest to provide a false sense of security to its people. The new proposed amendments to the Youth Act will not decrease youth crime; on the contrary, we are making the juvenile rehabilitation process even harder. Should these proposed amendments become official, we are only tightening the gap between the differences in the adult and juvenile justice systems. The long term results of this will only lead to a larger number of hardened career criminals. Most operating with a sense that they have had no other path in life because of those harsh, determining judgments imposed on them in their youth.

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5 Reasons Why Mumia Abu-Jamal Should Be Free

Sébastien’s Law – Dealing With Canada’s Young Offenders

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