(Every so often, a spotlight will shine on people you should know, read up on, listen to, be inspired by, etc. Folks who impact the world in one way or another. Whether they’re a revolutionary, author, community leader, activist, legendary artist, or even a hidden gem in the music industry that you should know about… we will continue to get you up and keep you up on the real issues and the real people that influence and inspire)
So here we go…
This is a man you should know. For those who don’t, Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist who exposed police violence against minority communities. On death row since 1982, he was wrongfully sentenced for the shooting of a police officer. New evidence, including the recantation of a key eyewitness, new ballistic and forensic evidence and an alleged confession from Arnold Beverly (one of the two killers of Officer Faulkner) may further point to his innocence. Mumia had no prior criminal record.
For the last 25 years, Abu-Jamal has been locked up 23 hours a day, denied contact visits with his family, had his confidential legal mail illegally opened by prison authorities, and put into punitive detention for writing his first of three books while in prison, Live From Death Row.
While it is true that Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was lifted by a Federal Judge (Judge William Yohn Jr. of the 3rd Federal District Court in Philadelphia) on December 18, 2001, even that decision is not final and was immediately appealed by the state. Abu-Jamal is still on death row, a place he has not left since his death sentence was made formal on May 25, 1983 - and his death sentence could be reinstated on appeal.
Writing from his solitary confinement cell his essays have reached a worldwide audience. His books “Live From Death Row”, “Death Blossoms”, “All Things Censored”, “Faith of Our Fathers” and the recently released “We Want Freedom” have sold over 150,000 copies and been translated into nine languages.
You can hear Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Recorded Essays from Prison Radio here-
http://prisonradio.org/mumia.htm
You can listen to one in particular here-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSZHRe28Cdk
* and Here’s a 1995 KRS-One track with Channel Live, simply called “Free Mumia”-
http://clarence60.free.fr/RK/05-krs_one-free_mumi.mp3
Knowledge is Power.
Joy.