“Mumia Abu-Jamal is the most recognized death row inmate in the world today. In 1982, he was was tried and convicted for the murder of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Since then, the Abu-Jamal trial proceedings have come under scrutiny and today his case is one of the most contested legal cases in modern American history. A former Black Panther and now renowned author, his books and writings in venues as diverse as the Yale Law Review, Forbes, Nation and street-papers for the homeless, have led many to hail him “the voice of the voiceless.”

The Criminal Injustice Committee of Occupy DC is having a pre-event for the Occupy The U.S. Justice Department rally in order to inform the public as to why it is so important to support Mumia in light of the 29 deaths of unarmed men and women by police so far in 2012 alone. Along with a screening of Justice on Trial;The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the evening will also feature a live call-in from Mumia from SCI Mahonney where he is currently imprisoned, and performances by Kamiesha Jarae Hodge, Nate Greyski, and a panel discussion.

Justice on Trial;The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal navigates the tempest of the Abu-Jamal trial by reviewing the known facts of the case. It demonstrates that the major violations in the Abu-Jamal case — judicial bias, prosecutorial misconduct, racial discrimination in jury selection, police corruption and tampering with evidence to obtain a conviction– are not special to this case. Instead, they are commonly practiced within the criminal justice system and account for the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans and Latinos in the United States. The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is a microcosm of greater problems in the criminal justice system… The attention its many violations have received make the Abu-Jamal case one of the most important civil rights cases of our time.” -Big Noise Films

Panelists:

• Johanna Fernandez, Director of Justice on Trial, a consultant on Mumia Abu Jamals legal team and professor of 20th Century U.S. History, the history of social movements, political economy of American cities, and African-American history.
• Jared Ball, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Morgan State University with a concentration on the interaction between colonialism, mass media theory and history, and the development of underground journalism and cultural expression as tools for social and political change. He’s also producer and host of the “Super Funky Soul Power Hour” on Washington, DC’s WPFW 89.3 FM Pacifica Radio.
• Avis Jones- DeWeever, Executive Director of National Council of Negro Women, widely revered as an expert in the fields of Race, Gender, Politics, and Policy.
• Theresa Shoatz, Activist and daughter of political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz who has been locked up since 1972 for his activity as a member of the Black Liberation Army. Like many of those who stood up to protect and struggle for the freedom of Black people inside the U.S., Shoatz suffered the brutal assault the U.S. government waged against the Black Power Movement of the Sixties, assassinating and imprisoning leaders and destroying organizations struggling for liberation.