Lawyers and activists deliver 5,000 signatures urging immediate transfer of Mumia Abu Jamal
MEDIA ADVISORY JANUARY 25, 2012
Contact: King Downing, 215-241-7120
Johanna Fernandez, 917-930-0804
Suzanne Ross, 917-584-2135
Philadelphia Press Conference: Thursday, January 26, 10 a.m., American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry Street
Lawyers and activists will deliver 5,000 signatures Jan. 26 to Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary John Wetzel at his Camp Hill, PA office calling for the immediate transfer of Mumia Abu-Jamal from solitary confinement into general population at SCI Mahanoy. A second press conference will be held at the DOC at 2 p.m.
Seven weeks after Mumia Abu-Jamal was moved from death row, he remains in transitional administrative custody under harsh restrictions and in violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
Since Mr. Abu-Jamal’s transfer to administrative custody at SCI Mahanoy on Dec. 7, 2011 he has been held in conditions far more restrictive than death row at SCI Greene, where he spent the last 17 of his 30 years on death row. He is now shackled and handcuffed whenever outside his cell; his visitation is cut to one hour-long visit per week; the number of stamps and envelopes he can use is greatly limited; his phone call privileges are reduced; and his commissary privileges have been curtailed. He is also barred from having a television, typewriter or radio in his cell, and access to personal possessions such as books is severely limited.
“Once the District Attorney announced that its office would not seek a new sentencing trial, Mr. Abu-Jamal should have been transferred into general population,” the petition reads. “Such a transfer is not dependent on a judge’s formal resentencing to life imprisonment. Given that, and given his exemplary disciplinary record, we can only conclude that Mr. Abu-Jamal’s prolonged detainment in solitary confinement is in retaliation for his highly publicized and internationally-supported efforts to secure a new trial, and intended to placate those who have been demanding his execution.”
Speakers will call for Mr. Abu-Jamal’s immediate transfer into general population from “the hole,” where he is being kept in violation of his due process rights. Mr. Abu-Jamal should never have been convicted, but his conviction did never warrant a death sentence, nor should he now be in solitary when he is supposed to be in general population. Prolonged solitary confinement violates the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
There will also be a call to close the hundreds of Restricted Housing Units (RHU) that exist throughout the country’s prison system which subject prisoners to isolation that is recognized internationally as torture. Currently, tens of thousands of inmates are held in RHUs in this country.
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Sponsors: International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, National Lawyers Guild, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC), Educators for Mumia
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Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 