---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 10:40:53 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Rap Brown press release
For Immediate Release
March 10, 2002
NATIONAL GROUP CHALLENGES "FAIRNESS" OF POSSIBLE DEATH SENTENCE IN JAMIL
AL-AMIN CASE
Washington, DC - As Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown,
enters the sentencing phase of his trial there is growing concern that
pre-trial
publicity that labeled
Al-Amin as guilty prior to his trail might result in the imposition of the
death sentence.
In a statement appearing in the Monday, March 11 edition of the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, a national group of over 200 clergy, civil rights and
labor activists, friends and former associates expressed their concern:
"There has been blind rush to judgment on the part of the Police Chief and
prosecuting attorney. Even before the trial, they publicly declared
Al-Amin to be the murderer and demanded the death penalty", the statement
read.
The statement was originally written out of concern for fairness during the
first phase of Al-Amin's trial. "This issue doesn't go away because the
first phase of his trial is over," said the Washington, DC group that
organized the ad. "If anything, it's more important."
Many well-known activists -- theologians, Bernice Powell Jackson, Douglas
Moore, Edwin R. Edmonds and C.T. Vivian; Attorneys Howard and Jane Moore,
and Victor Rabinowitz; Writers, Amiri Baraka, Sonya Sanchez, John Edgar
Wideman, and Howard Zinn; Performer, Pete Seeger are among the signers of
this current statement. Former SNCC activists Julian Bond, who is also a
former Georgia State Legislator and current chairman of the Board of the
national NAACP, and Robert Moses, current head of the National Algebra
Project are also signers.
It was also signed by former SNCC Chairpersons, Marion Barry, former Mayor
of Washington D.C., Charles F. McDew, a St. Paul Minnesota educator and
Phil Hutchings, an Oakland California community organizer. Jim Forman, who
served as SNCC's Executive Secretary for more than five years and who
continues to organize and author books in the DC area also signed.
"The allegations against Al-Amin are completely at odds with the character
of the man that we have known as a civil rights leader (and)...of the man
we know today as a religious leader in the Muslim community."
During the trial others also expressed concern that prejudice might affect
the case against Al-Amin. "For justice to be served, there must be no rush
to judgment," said Corretta Scott King, widow of the late civil rights
leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr two weeks ago. "All care must be taken to
ensure that justice prevails for the victims, the defendant and the
community."
Many of the signers worked with Al-Amin and his brother, Ed Brown, when
they were active in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, (SNCC).
They know Al-Amin as a dedicated civil rights worker who participated in
sit-ins, voter registration campaigns, and community organizing efforts in
the most dangerous areas of the South.
Contributions from friends and activist colleagues around the country were
used to pay the costs of the ad. A website has been established to keep
abreast of the Developments in the ongoing judicial prosecution of Jamil
Al-Amin. The address is:
www.FreeJamilAl-Amin.org.
For more information, contact:
Charlie Cobb
202) 832-9411
Ccobbjr@worldnet.att.net
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