Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal, was recently denied phone calls and visitations with his family and the press by the Department of Corrections in Pennsylvania. Mumia, is a journalist famous for his involvement with the MOVE organization. MOVE is a Philidelphia based organization founded by John Africa. The group is best known for their encouragement of “back-to-nature” lifestyle and rejection of technology. Mumia is currently serving a life sentence for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

On June 29 2013, DOC suspended Mumia’s phone calls for two weeks. This was just days after Mumia’s appeal argument challenging the state’s “secret sentencing” which earned Mumia life in prison without parole was defeated.

The suspension of phone usage comes after Mumia was “written-up” for a radio phone interview he had with Philadelphia attorney, Michael Coard, that was featured on his program, WURD Radio Courtroom. After receiving this news Mumia called his wife to inform her that he did not know when he would be able to call her again.

Mumia’s interview on the WURD radio program was broadcasted in June. Mumia was scheduled to be interviewed the first Wednesday of July and August. However, this restriction of phone use may make his feature on the show impossible. During his just interview Mumia spoke about his love and relation to the music industry. He commented on the use of vulgar language, the power of rap music and some one his most interesting interview during his career as a radio journalist.

This act of punishment comes as a shock since this is the first time since 1995 that Mumia has been reprimanded for the interviews he has given or his journalism while in prison. In 1995 Mumia released a book titled, Live from Death Row, a compilation of his prison writings describing his time in prison and the brutal and humiliating experiences. In 1988 the third circuit court of appeals, found it a violation of Mumia’s first amendment right for the DOC to try to stop him, and punish him for his freedom of speech and writings.

Mumia has continued to write and express himself and his political affiliations his writing. His efforts have recently been recorded in the film, Long Distance Revolution.

This year, the DOC also refused to allow Mumia to have contact visitations with his family. In August 2012, Mumia was granted a four-hour contact visit with his son Jamal Hart. During this visit Hart and his father conducted themselves appropriately and the visit occurred with no incidents. This was the first contact visit between father and son in the past 30 years. Contact visit are a behavioral based allowance; and given the success of his first contact visit the reasons for denying them appear to be unclear to both Mumia and his family.