End The Racist, Anti-poor Death Penalty!!

[Im The Truth]

END THE RACIST, ANTI-POOR DEATH PENALTY!!
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Submitted by: Sis. Njeri Shakur

The case of Nanon Willliams is great cause to end the racist, anti-poor
death penalty. To have sentenced a seventeen year old to death is
outrageous and an affront to justice. Nanon has just celebrated his
thirtieth birthday on death row, despite the fact he is innocent of
murder. The ballistics expert of Houston Police Crime Lab, the
prosecutor, Vic Wisener who has just gotten another seventeen year old
sentenced to death, both knew this youth was innocent. His innocence
has now been proven several years ago. Judge Joan Campbell recommended
that he be retried or set free. The court of criminal courts here
summarily denied this to Nanon. We sat through that evidentiary hearing
and learned that the Houston Police Crime Lab expert, Robert Baldwin
lied about such a young, young kid, with out shame or regret he knotted
a noose for yet another young black youth. While there is documented
proof
that Brother Nanon is innocent this will not free him.

The greatest serial killer of all (the state of Texas) would rather
kill
another innocent Black man than to admit they are wrong...just as they
lynched Brother Shaka Sankofa. We must fight them. We must organize,
educate ourselves and every person of consciousness and decency must
not allow Texas to murder another innocent man. We ask the people to
join
Nanon in this mighty struggle for change and justice Make the demand
that
he be retried or released

I am yours in struggle,
Njeri
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sandrine Ageorges <sandrine.ageorges@free.fr>

Texas crime lab crimes
Archive Recent Editions 2004 Editions Aug 14, 2004

Author: Paul Hill

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 08/12/04 13:06

HOUSTON — Nanon Williams was arrested here in 1992 when he was 17 years
old for the crime of capital murder. He was sentenced to death in 1995.
He is on death row today because of the testimony of the Houston Police
Department (HPD) crime lab.

In 1998, the court allowed independent firearms testing, which
conclusively proved that the bullet that killed the victim was not
fired by Williams. In 2000 the trial court recommended relief for him
due to ineffective counsel, since his attorney failed to perform any
ballistics testing. In 2002 the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
rejected the recommendation. Williams’ case is now on appeal in federal
district court.

About 40 people held a “Free Nanon Williams� protest at the Houston
City Hall reflection pool Aug. 1 to observe Williams’ 30th birthday.
One speaker declared that “it is an atrocity to sentence minors to
death row.� She also pointed out that Williams was an indigent African
American teenager at the time of the conviction. She noted that the
“execution machine is constantly killing people� and “children are
beaten out of reason and starved� while in prison. She reported,
however, that while on death row, Williams’ “revolutionary spirit has
grown.�

Another speaker declared, “The [police department] crime lab is the
criminal in this case.�

Protesters read birthday greetings from Williams’ supporters around the
world, and ate birthday cake and ice cream. The participants, both
children and adults, “beat the justice� out of a Texas-shaped piñata
intended to represent the HPD crime lab.

Williams’ case has captured the attention of Amnesty International,
which has publicly opposed his execution. They point out his punishment
violates a fundamental principle of international law. The Convention
on the Rights of the Child is a treaty that bans the imposition of the
death penalty against child offenders. Only the U.S. and Somalia have
failed to ratify this treaty.

The HPD crime lab has come under increasing scrutiny and criticism
lately. Forensic experts have characterized the HPD’s findings in a
number of cases as “scientifically unsound.� An Aug. 8 editorial in the
Houston Chronicle posed the question, “How many cases of incompetent
analysis must come to light before an independent inquiry is made to
detect and correct miscarriages of justice?�

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/5616/1/227

[Im The Truth]

BEYOND PARTIES, BEYOND ELECTIONS....
==================================
[Col. Writ. 8/7/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal

It's election time again, and the passions of the
multitude sweep, inexorably, toward the polling places,
in the hope that once, just this once, things will change
for the better.

Jobs will return. The economy will rebound.
Schools will actually teach the children of the poor.

Hope is almost palpable.

Every election season, there are people on the
sidelines, usually leftists, Marxists, or socialists,
who argue against the worth of such exercises,
assuring us that both major parties are but fronts
for the capitalist rulers.

I won't make that argument.

I hope to point to another reality, one rarely
addressed in the corporate press, but a reality
that reflects the forces underlying virtually all
of the world's governments, and which are
sounding the death knell to the very idea of
democracy.

I speak of something that I bet neither
presidential candidate will address, nor
explain.

I speak of the WTO, short for the World
Trade Organization, and because of various
treaties and agreements, a body which has
emerged as one of the most powerful groups
in the world.

Why even deal with the WTO, especially
now, around election time?

The WTO sets the rules that governments
follow; and because they set the rules, they set
them in their favor, and against global democratic
forces that challenge their interests. Indeed,
*that is why the WTO was organized in the first
place*.

One WTO bigwig admitted as much in an
article for the *Financial Times* newspaper,
saying the WTO "is the place where governments
collude in private against their domestic pressure
groups." [Guy de Jongvieres, "Network
Guerrillas", *Financial Times*, (4/30/98), p. 12.]

By 'domestic pressure groups', he meant labor
unions, environmentalists, human rights activists,
public health advocates, and any community
or citizen's organization which tries to hold the
feet of corporations to the fire of public safety,
health, good wages, or the protection of the
environment.

Lori Wallach, an international commercial
agreements expert with Public Citizen, has
written, with her colleague, Michelle Sforza,
*The WTO: Five Years of Reasons to Resist
Corporate Globalization* (New York: Seven
Stories Press, 1999). They say:

Our purpose is to document an insidious
shift in decision-making away from
democratic, accountable fora--where
citizens have a chance to fight for the
public interest-- to distant, secretive
and unaccountable international bodies,
whose rules and operations are dominated
by corporate interests. Ironically, the
U.S., with some of the world's most
open, accountable policy-making
procedures, is a leader in using the WTO
to undercut democratic institutions and
mechanisms around the world. [p. 14]

Wallach and Sforza argue that the world
where corporate interests dominate everything,
*even life itself*, is here:

The WTO's manic tilt toward commercial
values is perhaps best highlighted by its
rules seeking to commodify everything --
to turn everything into a form of property--
so that it can be bought and sold. For
instance, the new system gives patents--
and thus exclusive marketing rights --
for life forms and indigenous knowledge.
Consider what has happened in India,
where the indigenous population has
used the neem tree for medicinal
purposes for generations. After a U.S.
importer discovered the tree's
pharmaceutical properties, multi-
national companies from the U.S.
and Japan sought and received
numerous patents on products made
from the tree, leaving the indigenous
populations unable to profit from
knowledge they have developed over
centuries. [p. 20]

One would think that the American right,
which has long been concerned about U.S.
national sovereignty,and the American left,
which has a tradition of caring about labor and
human rights, would find common cause in the
fight against the WTO and its regional cousin,
NAFTA (North American Free Trade
Agreements). Yet, in neither major,
corporate party, can one find an anti-WTO
position represented by the offered candidates.

Ultimately, for this reason alone, it matters
little which candidate ultimately grabs the brass
ring, for, as in casinos, the house always wins.
No matter which guy wins, capital takes the
prize, and democracy takes another blow.

Demand that each candidate state a position
on the WTO.

Then decide for yourself for whom to vote,
or whether to vote, at all.

Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal

[If you liked this column you might enjoy
Mr. Jamal's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
===============================

"When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is
just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you begin to die.
And I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about
justice." - Mumia Abu-Jamal

MUMIA'S COLUMNS NEED TO BE PUBLISHED AS BROADLY
AS POSSIBLE TO INSPIRE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT AND
HELP CALL ATTENTION TO HIS CASE.

The campaign to kill Mumia is in full swing and we need you to
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THANK YOU!!!

Keep updated by reading ACTION ALERTS!!
at www.mumia.org and its links.
========================================

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==============================================>

The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

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Waynesburg, PA 15370

WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!

Submitted by: Sis. Marpessa

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