> I happen to agree with the arguments put forth by an anarchist comrade
> in Philadelphia who is close to MOVE and the Mumia movement there. We
> should be arguing that: 1) Mumia was railroaded into prison by a racist
> system of injustic; and 2) the punishment (death row) does not fit the
> crime. In my opinion, Mumia most likely shot Officer Faulkner in a rage
> after coming upon the officer assaulting his brother. The circumstantial
> evidence shows that Mumia was involved--he was shot by Officer Faulkner.
> He was then railroaded into death row by a racist justice system that
> wanted to make an example of this articulate black radical.
Good argument, but I'd add another factor which contributed to Mumia's being railroaded: his involvement with MOVE.
MOVE might be regarded as a radical movement only by the most generous of standards. By and large, they were a fanatical "back to nature" sect led by an unstable figure known as John Africa. At the time, they'd managed to a) live under extremely squalid conditions in several group homes, b) threaten local residents with shotguns, and broadcast dogma through loudspeakers throughout the neighborhood, and c) kill a police officer during a shootout. I know people who lived in that area at the time: it wasn't much different than having a Christian Identity separatist camp on their block, except that the CI people'd probably be better about cleaning up after themselves.
MOVE's certainly calmed down, but having had most of your movement killed by the Philly cops tends to have that effect.