Re: [Marxism] More stunning "justice" system news: new appeals for Mumia Abu-Jamal

[srobin21@xxxxxxxxxxx (Steven L. Robinson)]

It is indeed a stunning victory. It is also a vindication of the work of 
Mumia's former attorney,  Leonard Weinglass,(See extract below) challenging the 
jury selection process. No mention of  "the confession" by Mr. Beverly that was 
trumpeted by the lawyers who succeeded Weinglass. SR


Abu-Jamal's claim of racial bias in jury selection is well documented. In his 
habeas appeal to the Federal District Court, his then attorneys, Leonard 
Weinglass and Daniel Williams, submitted four academic studies of jury 
selection practices by both the Philadelphia district attorney's office and of 
assistant DA McGill, himself. Both demonstrated clearly that the DA's office 
under then DA Ed Rendell, and McGill in the murder trials he prosecuted, 
rejected roughly three out of four potential black jurors who had already 
agreed that they could vote for capital punishment. This was a rate of 
peremptory rejection of qualified jurors three times higher than for potential 
white jurors, and is prima facie evidence of illegal racial bias.

-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>

> Dave Lindorff breaks the news of this major (and I believe largely
> unexpected) development at CounterPunch; at the moment not a word of this
> appears anywhere in the corporate press:
>
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