No death penalty for Mumia

kookbreaker

Evil Fokker
kookbreaker
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So almost 30 years after executing officer Daniel Faulkner, Mumia Abu Jamal's death sentence has been reduced to life in prison.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...aWZCQw?docId=e5fddd7e67b64309b8b1bc598bf6720d

Mumia's case has had idiotic celebrities, Paris naming a street after the man, and endless hordes of college students wearing "Free Mumia" T-shirts. Many claims have been made about fabricated evidence or unfair trials - none of which have stood up to even light scrutiny. Many people wearing "Free Mumia" T-shirts are not even aware that a cop was murdered or of the overwhelming amount of evidence showing that Mumia did the deed.

A lot of otherwise intelligent people and good organizations (Amnesty International) have made fools of themselves by supporting Mumia.

Anti-death-penalty advocates idioticly chose Mumia as their poster child while other folks on Death Row who might have been innocent languished in obscurity.

Sadly, we probably have not heard the end of Mumia, but with him off death row the impetus for idiots to scream 'Free Mumia' might be reduced.
 
kookbreaker said:
Sadly, we probably have not heard the end of Mumia, but with him off death row the impetus for idiots to scream 'Free Mumia' might be reduced.
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Indeed. Every notice how many of those who fight against the death penalty quietly walk away when the sentence is reduced to life? On to the next case....
 
Alt+F4 said:
Indeed. Every notice how many of those who fight against the death penalty quietly walk away when the sentence is reduced to life? On to the next case....
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Is there anything strange about that? Once a person isn't facing the death penalty anymore, why shouldn't those who fight against the death penalty move on to the next case?
 
Ryokan said:
Is there anything strange about that? Once a person isn't facing the death penalty anymore, why shouldn't those who fight against the death penalty move on to the next case?
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Well it depends. Some are fighting against the death penalty because they believe it's wrong, no matter what the circumstances. Other are fighting against the death penalty in a particular case because they believe the convicted person is innocent. In Mumia's case it mostly seemed to be, "innocent man sentenced to death!", haven't heard much about his "innocence" since he was no longer facing death.
 
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Alt+F4 said:
Indeed. Every notice how many of those who fight against the death penalty quietly walk away when the sentence is reduced to life? On to the next case....
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This seems like nothing more than the usual straw man put forth that people who oppose the death penalty are sympathizing with the criminal. Even if in this case the people who rallied for Mumia specifically seemed to be, you should have stated it more clearly.
 
Alt+F4 said:
Indeed. Every notice how many of those who fight against the death penalty quietly walk away when the sentence is reduced to life? On to the next case....
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Well, duh! Isn't that kind of the point?

Rolfe.
 
Alt+F4 said:
In Mumia's case it mostly seemed to be, "innocent man sentenced to death!", haven't heard much about his "innocence" since he was no longer facing death.
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The Workers World Party has been the main force behind the pro-Mumia campaign. They have never let up on it and I doubt they will. In fact they're holding another rally this week. He has the kind of "oppressed cred" that drives the WWP wild: African-American, ex-Black Panther, prison intellectual.

As for me, I'm satisfied with how it turned out (and never spent much time thinking about it anyway). Mumia murdered Faulkner and every argument that he didn't is based on lies. However I don't think it was proper for the DA to use news clippings of First Amendment protected speech to secure the death penalty.
 
Gazpacho said:
However I don't think it was proper for the DA to use news clippings of First Amendment protected speech to secure the death penalty.
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I don't see why its a problem. The 1st Amendment just says that the gov't can't restrict your speech - not that it cannot be used against you. As it stands, the DA would not have been able to use Mumia's own words against him during the sentencing had Mumia not taken the stand (against the advice of his attorney) to ramble about politics, and say what a swell guy he was. That opened the door.
 
"Anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law..."

1st Amendment doesn't protect you from torpedoing your own dumb ass.
 
Sword_Of_Truth said:
"Anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law..."

1st Amendment doesn't protect you from torpedoing your own dumb ass.
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Bingo.

That said, you actually can avoid having your own written words used against you in a trial or sentencing - its called not taking the stand in accordance with your attorney's suggestion. Mumia opened the door by taking the stand to read a rambling 'everyone else is to blame but me' and 'I'm a sweet guy' statement.
 
Rolfe said:
Well, duh! Isn't that kind of the point?

Rolfe.
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That would be the point if they had been shouting "Let Mumia Live", but "Free Mumia" suggests concern about more than just the death penalty. The first is a discussion of his sentence, the latter, his conviction.
 
But Horatius, Alt+F4 wasn't talking specifically about this case. The post I quoted was about anti-death-penalty activists as a group saying "job done" and moving on to the next case once a death sentence was commuted. Which I think is what they do, yes.

Rolfe.
 
kookbreaker said:
A lot of otherwise intelligent people and good organizations (Amnesty International) have made fools of themselves by supporting Mumia.

Anti-death-penalty advocates idioticly chose Mumia as their poster child while other folks on Death Row who might have been innocent languished in obscurity.
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I agree with this. While I have my problems with Mumia's death sentence (and the vast majority of them for that matter) it probably doesn't make my top ten list as to injustice w/r/t the death penalty. I can see protesting it; there are valid reasons for doing so, but "Free Mumia" has become a meme on par with jumping on a table and screaming "Attica!!" during a time of chaos. The perception of reality has trumped reality. Too many fools have jumped on the bandwagon because they think they should rather than after close study of the case.

Anyway, giving him life should take the wind out of the sails. He probably wasn't going to be executed any time soon so the change in life expectancy isn't much, and the lack of drama of a death sentence just lets him die in obscurity.
 
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kookbreaker said:
So almost 30 years after executing officer Daniel Faulkner, Mumia Abu Jamal's death sentence has been reduced to life in prison.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...aWZCQw?docId=e5fddd7e67b64309b8b1bc598bf6720d

Mumia's case has had idiotic celebrities, Paris naming a street after the man, and endless hordes of college students wearing "Free Mumia" T-shirts. Many claims have been made about fabricated evidence or unfair trials - none of which have stood up to even light scrutiny. Many people wearing "Free Mumia" T-shirts are not even aware that a cop was murdered or of the overwhelming amount of evidence showing that Mumia did the deed.

A lot of otherwise intelligent people and good organizations (Amnesty International) have made fools of themselves by supporting Mumia.

Anti-death-penalty advocates idioticly chose Mumia as their poster child while other folks on Death Row who might have been innocent languished in obscurity.

Sadly, we probably have not heard the end of Mumia, but with him off death row the impetus for idiots to scream 'Free Mumia' might be reduced.
Click to expand...

There's no doubt Mumia did it, at least for those of us who are skeptics.

It seems every high profile murder case has it's gang of useful idiots (OJ, AK, WM3, etc), and this one was no exception.
 
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