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A day of action?

Get up! Stand up! Stand up for your rights! Indeed, the attendees at the march for Mumia Abu-Jamal from Cesar Chavez Park to police headquarters on Saturday were not giving up the fight. They had a cause, passion and direction on the national day of action for Mumia, a political prisoner in Philadelphia facing the death penalty. More frightening, few even know his name. Citizens are being imprisoned for their beliefs, and you could be next. The government must hear you.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a critically acclaimed black journalist in Philadelphia wrongly convicted of murdering a Philly Five-0 in 1982. In 1998, he was given a final sentence of the death penalty and his future looks bleak.

Sadly, the case brought against Mumia years ago was designed to silence the former Blank Panther and police critic. Since his conviction, the state's case has been disproved, but Pennsylvania refuses to retry him.

For his trial, Mumia was appointed a state defender who, upon running out of "sufficient" funds, walked out. Mumia was subsequently denied the right to self-defense. The state then gave him another attorney with no additional time for preparation.

Judge Albert Sabo, quaintly known as the Killer, has sentenced more people to death than any other judge in the country. Jurors even stated that there was no way to have a fair trial under him. For that matter, the jury was even designed to be biased as eleven African Americans were removed before the trial was begun. The state was on a mission to kill Mumia.

Pennsylvania's witnesses are the least credible component. William Singleton, a white business man in the area stated having seen the killer, and it wasn't Mumia. He was harassed by the police until he left town. Cynthia Jones was forced to testify for the state, or lose her children to foster homes. Robert Chobert indicated on the scene that the killer had run and he never saw him, but backed the police when offered a chance to clear his record, as did Cynthia White.

Most appalling was the state's statement that Mumia confessed in the hospital after being shot by the downed officer. However, Gary Wakshul, the officer guarding Mumia from the scene and at the hospital, said Mumia never said anything. When called to testify, the Philly police department claimed he was out of town, when in reality he was at home and told not to show.

Additionally, the prosecution used Mumia's former membership in the Black Panthers as grounds for execution, a line of reasoning recently deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The facts don't even come close to ending there, but short of a dissertation, these are the few points I have chosen to illustrate the severe nature Mumia's cause.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, how would you decide? Would you overlook these clear cut facts and continue Mumia Abu-Jamal down death row, or would you reconsider the case? I'm putting you in the shoes of the State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in the place of the decision makers.

There is an innocent life on the line here, the life of a great writer who spoke and wrote vehemently about important things to him. He made an effort to better our nation under the auspices of democracy. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all encompassed under the umbrella of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. How can you turn your back on that?

If Mumia is silently allowed to perish under the wrath of Big Brother, how can you guarantee that the next time you speak up, the Man isn't going to be gagging you with a cloth and bludgeoning you with his baton? You can't. The fact is, Mumia's case means more than the death penalty's moral worth, more than the life of a single man - it stands for the freedom that we all take for granted.

If we continue our apathy, the rights we think are going to be there when we wake up from our cozy beds, will be gone. Speak up and die? Express yourself and face jail? No. A slippery slope this is not. This is reality and the time for resistance is now.