By
C. Clark Kissinger, from the 3 November 2014 Revolution;
The Pennsylvania
legislature has passed a new law that gives judges in Pennsylvania the power to
prohibit any activity by
any person convicted of a personal injury crime that "perpetuates the
continuing effect of the crime on the victim ... includ[ing] conduct that
causes a temporary or permanent state of mental anguish." In the name of
"victims' rights", this new law was passed in direct response to
Mumia Abu-Jamal delivering a well-received commencement address by phone at
Goddard College, a university he attended as a youth.
Mumia, one of this
country's most well-known political prisoners, was fraudulently convicted of
killing a police officer in 1982. He spent a quarter of a century in solitary
confinement on death row until courts reduced his death sentence to life in
prison. But Mumia's voice has never been silenced for a day as he continues
denouncing the crimes against humanity perpetrated by this system in both audio
and written commentaries.
This new law allows the
Fraternal Order of Police or the slain officer's wife to get a court order to
bar any future activities by Mumia that would give publicity to his fight for
justice. This sweeping new law would allow the prior censorship of speech and
it applies to all "offenders" in Pennsylvania, including those who
have finished their sentences and have been released.
To drive home the point
that the law was directed at Mumia, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett went to
Philadelphia to sign the so-called "Revictimization Relief Act" into
law at the street corner where Mumia was shot down by police and a police
officer was killed. His attempted press conference was drowned out by 50
chanting Mumia supporters.
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