Note: This is an outdated version of the PDC's model statement in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal. It is preserved here for reference purposes. The current version and a list of signatories is available here.

I/We demand the immediate freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an innocent man.

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal is now on the “fast track” in the federal appeals court and the state is determined to carry out his execution.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an innocent man. A former Black Panther Party spokesman, supporter of the MOVE organization and award-winning journalist known as the “voice of the voiceless,” Mumia was framed up in 1982 on false charges of killing a Philadelphia police officer. Sentenced to death based on his political history and beliefs, Mumia has spent 24 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. The frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal shows what the death penalty is all about. It is a legacy of chattel slavery and a barbaric outrage, it is the lynch rope made legal.

The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal exemplifies the race and class bias of the U.S. justice system against workers, black people, the poor and all the oppressed. The notorious trial judge, Albert Sabo was overheard at the time promising, “I’m going to help them fry the n----r.” Racist jury-rigging, false testimony coerced through police threats, and prosecutorial cover-up were the basis for Mumia’s conviction. Both the Pennsylvania state courts and the federal courts have refused to consider the reams of documented evidence that prove Mumia's innocence. Foremost is the sworn confession of Arnold Beverly that he, not Mumia, shot and killed the police officer, and that Mumia had nothing to do with the shooting.  

We stand with the millions around the world—workers, students, death penalty abolitionists, fighters for black rights and immigrant rights, socialists—who have taken up the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal now!

An injury to one is an injury to all! 

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal now! Abolish the racist death penalty!