Mumia's Legal Team Files for a Rehearing in PA Supreme Court
Revolutionary Worker #982, November 15, 1998
Attorneys for Mumia Abu-Jamal filed an application on November 4 with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for a rehearing of Mumia's appeal. This came just days after the same Supreme Court had rejected Mumia's appeal.
In calling for this new hearing, the attorneys pointed out that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had based their decision on Judge Albert Sabo's outrageous lower court judgments on what new facts to admit into this case. In other words, they had endorsed and upheld the incredible injustices that had been carried out in Sabo's court.
Judge Albert Sabo participated actively in the frame-up of Mumia during his original trial. Then, when Mumia's legal team filed an appeal for a new trial based on these injustices, that post-conviction hearing was heard by... the same "hanging judge" Sabo who had railroaded Mumia to death row! And then, when Mumia's lawyers appealed this injustice to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, this high court accepted Sabo's rulings as a basis for rejecting Mumia's appeal for a new trial.
In the words of this new application, "The false premise of the Court's entire opinion [denying Mumia's appeal] is that Jamal received a full and fair hearing on his post-conviction claims before Judge Sabo. Based on this false premise, the Court embraces Judge Sabo's biased `credibility' findings, his wholesale denial of discovery, his quashing of over 25 subpoenas, and preclusion of evidence on several constitutional claims." As we go to press, we do not have a clear understanding of the legal implications of this application for a rehearing at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. But one thing is clear: it is crucial for the people to go all out to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
http://rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497
(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.)