From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 95 15:14:20 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Rosenberging Mumia
Message-ID: <199507312213.SAA23343@pipe4.nyc.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Responding to msg by jlasser@rwd.goucher.edu (Jon Lasser) on 
Mon, 31 Jul 12:43 PM

>On Mon, 31 Jul 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:
>
>> The Rosenbergs were certainly the Mumia Abu Jamals of 
>their day.
>
>The Mumia case (something friends of mine are more than 
>peripherally acquainted with) seems to be very much in 
>doubt.  Of course, they'll kill him anyway, probably.  
>But I suggest reading E.L. Doctrow's essay on the 
>subject from the NYT of several weeks (months? 
>possibly) back.

------------

In addition to Doctorow's OpEd piece, there have been three 
recent NYPaper articles on the case and a half-page ad.


Here's a judicious benchwarmer from the July 30 article:


   Judge Albert F. Sabo of Common Pleas Court, who conducted
   Mr. Abu-Jamal's first contentious trial, is presiding over
   his hearing for a new trial, and defense lawyers contend
   that not much has changed.

   Judge Sabo, a retired member of the Fraternal Order of
   Police, has sent more people to death row than any judge in
   the state. In the current hearing he has been openly
   contemptuous of the defense.

   "Objection is over-ruled, whatever it was," the judge told
   Mr. Abu-Jamal's lead lawyer, Leonard I. Weinglass, a
   veteran of some of the most politically charged trials of
   recent decades, including that of the Chicago Eight after
   the 1968 Democratic Convention.

   Judge Sabo has sustained virtually every prosecution
   objection while shooting down almost every defense
   objection. At one point, when Mr. Weinglass asked for a
   four-minute recess to locate a crucial witness, Judge Sabo,
   looking at his watch, said, "It's ten-twenty-eight-and-a-
   half. You have until 10:30."

   On Wednesday, the first day of the hearing, Judge Sabo
   turned his back and walked out of the courtroom as another
   defense lawyer, Rachel H. Wolkenstein, was addressing him
   about a legal issue. He came back a few minutes later,
   saying that he could not hear because of the noise coming
   from the street, where a large group of Mr. Abu-Jamal's
   supporters were chanting, "Free Mumia now."

   Richard B. Costello, the president of the Philadelphia
   Fraternal Order of Police, said he did not understand why
   Mr. Abu-Jamal's plight had drawn so much attention and big-
   league legal help.

   "He has more lawyers than Snow White had dwarfs," Mr.
   Costello said. "There's nothing special about this guy.
   He's a cop killer. We've had cop killers before, and,
   unfortunately, we'll have them again."

   Although Judge Sabo has frequently urged the defense to
   hurry, he interrupted the proceedings for several minutes
   to argue and reminisce with a baffled witness about the
   location of a swimming pool in his old neighborhood
   sometime around "1926 or '28."

   As he talked about the pool, a woman in the audience jumped
   to her feet and shouted, "Aren't we here to talk about a
   man's life?" She was escorted from the courtroom. Minutes
   later, the judge asked another question about the pool.
   Several of Mr. Abu-Jamal's supporters were removed for
   refusing to stand when Judge Sabo entered and another was
   taken outside for giving the judge a Nazi-style salute.


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