NAACP calls for new trial for Mumia

The NAACP national convention, meeting in Philadelphia last month, devoted a large part of its sessions to hoopla in support of the Democrats and presidential candidate John Kerry.

At the same time, however, the convention succeeded in passing an important resolution that reaffirmed the organization’s opposition to the death penalty and—for the first time in its history—called for a new trial for journalist and innocent death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The resolution was approved on July 15 with only one dissenting vote.

“I am humbled by and very grateful for the NAACP’s passage of this resolution,” Mumia said in a statement released by his attorney.

“The NAACP has taken stands through the years on behalf of so many people who have been victimized in society because of their race,” he continued.

“I hope this resolution will help many others in a similar situation to mine.”

It was appropriate that the resolution was issued in Philadelphia, which has the largest number and highest percentage of its Black citizens on death row of any major U.S. city.

Mumia began his career as a journalist and first made a name for himself as a political activist in this city. He was given the death penalty on frame-up charges stemming from the shooting of a Philadelphia police officer in 1981.

A resolution on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case was proposed at last year’s convention by Sundiata Sadiq, past president of the Ossining, N.Y., branch of the NAACP. The text called on the organization to work with Mumia’s legal defense team and to strongly recommend to local NAACP branches that they “participate in activities to secure [Mumia Abu-Jamal’s] release.”

However, a few NAACP leaders employed parliamentary maneuvers to keep the resolution from coming to the floor of the 2003 convention. On June 4 of this year, when it appeared that convention rules would be used to block the resolution again, Sadiq sent a letter to NAACP President Kweisi Mfume that urged the NAACP to “finally show what side it’s on in the city where the sick joke of justice has taken place.”

Many noted Black activists and scholars joined in prodding the NAACP to take a stand on Mumia’s case. University of Massachusetts Professor David Graham DuBois (son of NAACP founder W.E.B. DuBois) said in a July 7 letter to NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, “It is incumbent upon the organization to take this opportunity to mobilize Americans, and especially black Americans, to speak out against this pending injustice … the possibility of [Abu-Jamal’s] execution.”

Pam Africa, a leader of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, also waged an intense campaign before and during the convention to overcome the resistance of the national NAACP leadership to supporting a resolution on Mumia’s case.

Apparently, many of the NAACP leaders would have preferred to duck the issue to avoid embarrassing a keynote speaker at the convention, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Rendell was part of the original prosecution frame-up team that sent Mumia to death row 22 years ago.

In light of the critical efforts by Africa and others, Mfume and Bond decided to lend their support to the current resolution, which links Mumia’s case, and the call for him to be given a new trial, to material reaffirming the NAACP’s opposition to the death penalty.

NAACP EMERGENCY RESOLUTION REAFFIRMING OPPOSITION TO THE DEATH PENALTY

Below is the text of the NAACP resolution on Mumia Abu-Jamal and the death penalty adopted at the NAACP national convention in Philadelphia, July 15, 2004.

WHEREAS, the NAACP adopted a resolution in 2001 re-affirming our opposition to the death penalty due to its racially disparate application; and WHEREAS, the NAACP has re-affirmed its 1975 resolution opposing the death penalty on the grounds that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and WHEREAS, many people, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, are incarcerated on death row and face possible execution; and WHEREAS, more than 320 people on death row have been exonerated; and WHEREAS, though African Americans make up only 12.4% of the U.S. population, we make up 38% of all the Americans that were sentenced to death and later freed after being found innocent; and WHEREAS, African Americans make up 35% of those being found innocent after being executed; and WHEREAS, African Americans make up over 80% of those awaiting execution on federal death row; and WHEREAS, 145 people have been exonerated based upon DNA evidence; and WHEREAS, there is no possible way of restoring the life of an innocent person killed by the death penalty; and WHEREAS, the implementation of the death penalty raises concerns regarding bias identification, police and prosecutorial misconduct, judicial apathy in protecting the rights of the accused, faulty evidence, inadequate defense, representation, coerced confessions, and fabricated testimony; and THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People reiterates its strong opposition to the death penalty; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP calls on its units throughout the United States and the world to support the international call for Mumia Abu-Jamal to be released from death row; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP reiterate its support of the international movement for a new and fair trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal; and BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the NAACP renew its call for new nationwide studies on racial discrimination, the adequacy of counsel, access to modern research technology such as DNA analysis, the sentencing of children and women to the death penalty and that the NAACP reiterate its call for a national moratorium on all executions.

ss: Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO; Julian Bond, Chairman of the Board of Directors

The article above first appeared in the August 2004 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.