1,000 signatures reached
To: Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner
Don't Stand in the Way of Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal! Don't Appeal Judge Tucker's Decision!
Petition Text
We call on you to do the right thing. Do not stand in the way of justice. Do not appeal Judge Tucker’s decision.
As a progressive attorney you ran for Philadelphia District Attorney on a platform that included standing “for justice, not just for convictions.” You promoted reviewing past convictions and freeing the wrongfully convicted. In Philadelphia, Abu-Jamal’s frame-up stands out as the city’s most notorious wrongful conviction.
We call on you to cease defending former Philadelphia DA and later PA Supreme Court Judge Ron Castille’s now-discredited claim of impartiality. It was a people’s movement that paved the way for your election – not the financial backing of the Fraternal Order of Police or the establishment including judges like Castille.
Show your supporters that your campaign promises meant something. That your concern for justice extends to controversial cases your predecessors held untouchable. Allow Abu-Jamal to go forward with re-arguing his appeals, which Judge Tucker states “would best serve the appearance of justice.”
Why is this important?
Mumia Abu-Jamal has always maintained his innocence in the 1981 fatal shooting of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. His prosecution was politically-motivated because of his Black Panther Party membership, his support of the MOVE organization and as a radical journalist. His 1982 trial and subsequent 1995 PCRA appeals were racially biased: the prosecution excluded African Americans from the jury; and PCRA trial Judge Albert Sabo, the same judge in Abu-Jamal's initial trial, declared, “I’m gonna help them fry the n----r.”
On Dec. 27, Mumia Abu-Jamal won a significant case before Judge Leon Tucker in a decision granting him new rights of appeal.