source: Workers World
published: 25 April 2014
It seems almost too good to be true. On April 15, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced the creation of a new Conviction Review Unit to investigate disputed homicide convictions that have legitimate claims of new evidence and where defendants have declared their innocence.
“The very legitimacy of the criminal-justice system comes when the populace believes that those who … are truly innocent are set free,” said Williams. (phillynews.com, Apr. 17)
This certainly applies to the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
For more than three decades, internationally renowned political journalist Abu-Jamal has languished on death row and, more recently, in general population in Pennsylvania prisons because the criminal injustice system has systematically maneuvered to deny him a fair trial or any semblance of justice.