Mumia Abu-Jamal has spent the last forty-two of his seventy years on Earth behind the bars of a Pennsylvania state prison, twenty-nine and a half of those on Death Row based on a dubious and extremely flawed and biased conviction for murder. Today, we explore his story and what it tells us about what Ralph calls our “criminal injustice system.” We speak to Noelle Hanranah, the founder and legal director of Prison Radio
Thanks for a very interesting program. While I am a monthly supporter of Solitary Watch and almost exclusively purchase Dave's Killer Bread products (a business that has traditionally hired ex-convicts), there seems little that the average citizen can do to affect this nightmare "corrections" system, especially when such "liberals" as the current Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, advised the State Senate, recently, not to pass the legislation that had just been approved by the State Assembly, as the proposed change would have a serious impact on State income should it become law. The proposal that Newsom successfully stopped? The outlawing of Slavery within the State. The 13th Amendment, of 1865, left prisoners as exceptions to the bar against human slavery. Such public slave institutions, along with the wild growth of private prisons, in the 21st century, reflects the wholesale surrender of the public to the primacy of Greed as an All American Virtue.
Noelle Hanrahan exposition of the 3/5 constitution where prisoners don’t have the vote but count toward the country’s population for representation should be heard everywhere. Almost 30 years in solitary is unconscionable for anyone, let alone a journalist and political prisoner like Mumia stuck in the largest torturous incarceration system in the world.
Noelle Hanranah and Joy James do a masterful job discussing the imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal, along with Ralph Nader’s comments about the criminal injustice system. What to say about the decades of imprionment that Mumia has endured and has continued producing work as a journalist and scholar? Mumia found himself at the intersection of the treatment of Black people in the so-called criminal justice system where the shooting of a police officer, a radical, and a Black man met. That Mumia was and is a Black radical and intellectual placed him at even greater danger of the entire system coming down on him, which it has. Imprionment has served since slavery as a way to maintain slavery by other means sanctioned by law. There is no such thing as restorative justice for someone found guilty of a crime, and especially for someone with Mumia’s history.
What is overlooked is how hugely profitable the criminal system is for all that are involved from the law enforcement officers to court employees and the prisons which are often privately operated. It costs more to house a person in a prison than it does to pay for someone's university costs.
The only justification is that it terrorizes the entire population regardless of race. Only those with the financial resources to defend themselves have a chance against the prosecutors and their hirelings and the big myth is that there is justice with our current system despite all evidence to the contrary.
I have been a long time fan of your show, and always find myself in awe of the penetrating insights into justice, or lack of it, in the many topics covered. Love it dearly. Your show and Democracy Now provide me with my weekly dose of news and understanding about the world. I very much enjoyed the penetrating clarity with which Mumia Abu-Jamal answered your questions. He could replace all the commercial news with just his voice, and the world would be a much more educated and better place. I’ve been following his plight for as long as Democracy Now has highlighted it. A modern day F. Douglas, may you walk free.
I’ve been working in isolation to develop a universal argument for justice that piggybacks on Kant’s argument for freedom. As I was listening to the podcast, it was said that you read all comments. I jumped up and penned this with the hope that this could extend to the linked essay on oversurvival. It is an argument for moral choice that is the universal ground for responsibility, morals, and justice. A genuine revolution of values of the Kind that Martin Luther King Jr. speaks about, for example, in his Beyond Vietnam speech.
The essay develops ideas presented in my book, For a Future,
We have changed our relation to the Sun, only to discover that we’ve been playing with fire. The social institutions of (1) law, politics and economics, (2) science and (3) religion — the pillars of any society— are rooted in how we act, think and feel. Can a better understanding of morals, wisdom and spirituality transform society?
back in the day, I knew people who knew people who said the prosecution expected Mumia to give up/testify against his brother, William "Billy" Cook but Mumia thought he could beat the rap. Listening to your show, I googled what happened to his brother. Too many paywalls for me, save this:
Very interest show about the American Injustice System. Wonder how you and your guests feel about the new Critical Acclaimed Movie - American Fiction. Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, American Fiction. I think America made significant changes since the George Floyd case.
I hope Ralph continues this series on criminal injustice by interviewing UC Irvine criminologist Elliott Currie, who's written many perceptive books and articles about on the topics of incarceration and racism. An interesting overview of his work can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2010.00606.x
I'd never heard of this particular case before but I'm very saddened to hear of yet another miscarriage of justice that shows no signs of that injustice being undone. Though, I should probably say that tragically I can't remember hearing about this case before. And because this case and other cases of gross injustices against people living in alleged democracies and alleged free societies is far from exceptional, why do people (Ralph very much included) still put such faith in the institutions? They're rotten to the core, to the core! This programme has a platform and needs to use that platform to call out the sham that our so-called 'democracy' is and to demand that people turn their backs on it, as it is irredeemable, and start building a new one. How about that?
Thank you so much for this informative and touching program. Mumia Abu-Jamal seems to have survived in better shape after his many years of incarceration than many of us out here. I felt an appealing sense of peace and clarity in his way of being himself.
I think this must be the exception, since it would probably kill me. I wondered how he was able to connect around the world regulaly with his jouralism colleagues and others when the prison system was so repressive and justice was on vacation.
I learned again about the unacceptable effects of racism and capitalism and what that entails within the prison-industrial system. It again leaves me feeling anguish, frustration, anger, outrage, and shock. Will our inhumane, profit-driven, capitalist system never cease to destroy all it touches?
"the late Desmond Tutu visited Israel and recognized apartheid when he saw it. I mean, you know, he had spent most of his life under apartheid. He knew it very well. He said if the Palestinians had a little more color, if they were black people instead of, you know, light brown people, it would be very, very clear to see what was happening. So South Africa, they know something about Apartheid. But they also know something about genocide."
Thanks for a very interesting program. While I am a monthly supporter of Solitary Watch and almost exclusively purchase Dave's Killer Bread products (a business that has traditionally hired ex-convicts), there seems little that the average citizen can do to affect this nightmare "corrections" system, especially when such "liberals" as the current Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, advised the State Senate, recently, not to pass the legislation that had just been approved by the State Assembly, as the proposed change would have a serious impact on State income should it become law. The proposal that Newsom successfully stopped? The outlawing of Slavery within the State. The 13th Amendment, of 1865, left prisoners as exceptions to the bar against human slavery. Such public slave institutions, along with the wild growth of private prisons, in the 21st century, reflects the wholesale surrender of the public to the primacy of Greed as an All American Virtue.
Noelle Hanrahan exposition of the 3/5 constitution where prisoners don’t have the vote but count toward the country’s population for representation should be heard everywhere. Almost 30 years in solitary is unconscionable for anyone, let alone a journalist and political prisoner like Mumia stuck in the largest torturous incarceration system in the world.
Noelle Hanranah and Joy James do a masterful job discussing the imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal, along with Ralph Nader’s comments about the criminal injustice system. What to say about the decades of imprionment that Mumia has endured and has continued producing work as a journalist and scholar? Mumia found himself at the intersection of the treatment of Black people in the so-called criminal justice system where the shooting of a police officer, a radical, and a Black man met. That Mumia was and is a Black radical and intellectual placed him at even greater danger of the entire system coming down on him, which it has. Imprionment has served since slavery as a way to maintain slavery by other means sanctioned by law. There is no such thing as restorative justice for someone found guilty of a crime, and especially for someone with Mumia’s history.
What is overlooked is how hugely profitable the criminal system is for all that are involved from the law enforcement officers to court employees and the prisons which are often privately operated. It costs more to house a person in a prison than it does to pay for someone's university costs.
The only justification is that it terrorizes the entire population regardless of race. Only those with the financial resources to defend themselves have a chance against the prosecutors and their hirelings and the big myth is that there is justice with our current system despite all evidence to the contrary.
Dear Ralph and company,
I have been a long time fan of your show, and always find myself in awe of the penetrating insights into justice, or lack of it, in the many topics covered. Love it dearly. Your show and Democracy Now provide me with my weekly dose of news and understanding about the world. I very much enjoyed the penetrating clarity with which Mumia Abu-Jamal answered your questions. He could replace all the commercial news with just his voice, and the world would be a much more educated and better place. I’ve been following his plight for as long as Democracy Now has highlighted it. A modern day F. Douglas, may you walk free.
I’ve been working in isolation to develop a universal argument for justice that piggybacks on Kant’s argument for freedom. As I was listening to the podcast, it was said that you read all comments. I jumped up and penned this with the hope that this could extend to the linked essay on oversurvival. It is an argument for moral choice that is the universal ground for responsibility, morals, and justice. A genuine revolution of values of the Kind that Martin Luther King Jr. speaks about, for example, in his Beyond Vietnam speech.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/flw45md07453m71d3t1xg/Oversurvival-Essay.pdf?rlkey=yimpqgzwzauvr19g8bsb89v9b&dl=0
The essay develops ideas presented in my book, For a Future,
We have changed our relation to the Sun, only to discover that we’ve been playing with fire. The social institutions of (1) law, politics and economics, (2) science and (3) religion — the pillars of any society— are rooted in how we act, think and feel. Can a better understanding of morals, wisdom and spirituality transform society?
It’s the only thing that can.
The time for us to evolve is now.
https://www.amazon.com/Future-onno-jong/dp/0996329692
Thank you very much,
Onno
please don't publish this.
back in the day, I knew people who knew people who said the prosecution expected Mumia to give up/testify against his brother, William "Billy" Cook but Mumia thought he could beat the rap. Listening to your show, I googled what happened to his brother. Too many paywalls for me, save this:
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/09/12/Abu-Jamals-brother-a-no-show/3587810878400/
Very interest show about the American Injustice System. Wonder how you and your guests feel about the new Critical Acclaimed Movie - American Fiction. Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, American Fiction. I think America made significant changes since the George Floyd case.
I hope Ralph continues this series on criminal injustice by interviewing UC Irvine criminologist Elliott Currie, who's written many perceptive books and articles about on the topics of incarceration and racism. An interesting overview of his work can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2010.00606.x
OK ! Thanks Ralph !
I'd never heard of this particular case before but I'm very saddened to hear of yet another miscarriage of justice that shows no signs of that injustice being undone. Though, I should probably say that tragically I can't remember hearing about this case before. And because this case and other cases of gross injustices against people living in alleged democracies and alleged free societies is far from exceptional, why do people (Ralph very much included) still put such faith in the institutions? They're rotten to the core, to the core! This programme has a platform and needs to use that platform to call out the sham that our so-called 'democracy' is and to demand that people turn their backs on it, as it is irredeemable, and start building a new one. How about that?
Thank you so much for this informative and touching program. Mumia Abu-Jamal seems to have survived in better shape after his many years of incarceration than many of us out here. I felt an appealing sense of peace and clarity in his way of being himself.
I think this must be the exception, since it would probably kill me. I wondered how he was able to connect around the world regulaly with his jouralism colleagues and others when the prison system was so repressive and justice was on vacation.
I learned again about the unacceptable effects of racism and capitalism and what that entails within the prison-industrial system. It again leaves me feeling anguish, frustration, anger, outrage, and shock. Will our inhumane, profit-driven, capitalist system never cease to destroy all it touches?
Mumia, 53:00 mins in:
"the late Desmond Tutu visited Israel and recognized apartheid when he saw it. I mean, you know, he had spent most of his life under apartheid. He knew it very well. He said if the Palestinians had a little more color, if they were black people instead of, you know, light brown people, it would be very, very clear to see what was happening. So South Africa, they know something about Apartheid. But they also know something about genocide."