Greetings Mexican friends, and those around the world. This is Noel Hanrahan. I’m a lawyer. I visit Mumia Abu-Jamal. I work on his medical cases, and I see him three to four times a month in person at SCI Mahanoy. His criminal legal defense cases are at an impasse. He has exhausted his direct appeals before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for his criminal conviction.
There are many paths to freedom. Though this is a moment of somber reflection, and a moment when we all need to understand that he has been in prison now four decades and has never received a fair trial, it’s up to us, those around the world, those in the United States, those in Philadelphia, to create the context, to create the power, to build the grass roots momentum that will force our courts to address his long standing issues, including evidence of innocence, including evidence of police and prosecutorial misconduct. It is those actions that we take that will build the context.
Our judicial system in the United States is never impartial and fair, nor has it ever been. It is always up to the people to make sure that these people that are still inside, part of the mass incarceration, part of the diaspora of our people who are taken from our families, that they are given a fair hearing and that they are released and that our communities are returned to being whole.
In terms of a legal update, there are many, many paths to Mumia’s freedom that are open. They are all political and they have always been political. They have always been based on power. And so it’s our job to build that both legally within the courts, within the frameworks of parole, compassionate release, pardon, those avenues, legislation, as well as in the criminal courts of the Philadelphia Common Pleas court, and through actions to demand that the District Attorney reveal the corruption that happened in this case, and many other cases.
So thank you for listening. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your grace. And thank you for everyone around the world, including those in Mexico City, who are standing up for justice, standing up for Mumia, who seek abolition, and who join us.
Noel Hanrahan, Prison Radio, The Redwood Justice Fund For Mumia Abu-Jamal and all those who seek freedom.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio