One Life To Give Essay example -- Legal Court Essays

One purport To Give On December 9, 1981, a gaberdine Philadelphia police officer was fatally shot. On July 3, 1982, Mumia Abu-Jamal, a black man, was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death. On May 22, 1996, he accepted a second trial and was again convicted of the same charge. He is sentenced to die on December 2. The hours grow short until this man, who has promoted through his writings and speeches an calculate of himself as falsely accused, is ushered into the record books as one much name dealt justice by the American people. But who constitutes the American people? Is it a suppose in a courtroom, or the thousands of people who assimilate protested Abu-Jamals death as the death of an innocent, an intellectual, and supra all, a black man in a white mans system?The validity of the conviction has been widely questioned in the press. Stuart Taylor Jr., who covered the case for Court TV, states that Abu-Jamal received an unfair trial, tainted by . . . flagrantly biased judging and, in all probability, police fabrication of evidence and intimidation of witnesses. However, more interesting and more important than the legal aspects of the trials is the emotional aspect, the outpouring of support for Abu-Jamal. menu Bickel, after having recently made an extensive survey of the opinions voiced about the case, found literally hundreds of websites protesting the death sentence and only one website supporting it-created by the police officers family. It has been pure gravy for Mumia, a wealth of public indignation for, as the physical composition Refuse & Resist dubs him, an unrepentant Black political prisoner who is the voice of the voiceless.This near canonization of the man goes beyond anything which can be attributed to charisma or ... ...it can potentially undermine the only means we have to attempt to core equal justice. The protest signs of angry crowds call for Justice for Mumia, and in effect justice for all black people. But how can we re ach this if the very means of justice are dismantled to save one man? whole kit and caboodle CitedBickel, Bill. Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Murder of Daniel Faulkner Using the Internet to Search for the Truth. 16 Nov. 1999 <<http//crime.about.com/ burnish/crime/library/weekly/aa070698.htmlDavis, Angela Y, June Jordan, and Alice Walker. The Life of a Black Man. The Nation. 15 Nov. 1999 <<http//www.thenation.com/Refuse and Resist. mob page. 16 Nov. 1999. <<http//mojo.calyx.net/refuse/mumia/index.htmlTaylor Jr., Stuart. Jamals Last Stand. Court TV Casefiles. 11 June 1996 <<www.courttv.com/casefiles/mumia/analysis.html One Life To Give Essay example -- Legal Court EssaysOne Life To Give On December 9, 1981, a white Philadelphia police officer was fatally shot. On July 3, 1982, Mumia Abu-Jamal, a black man, was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death. On May 22, 1996, he received a second trial and was again convicted of the same charge. He is sentence d to die on December 2. The hours grow short until this man, who has promoted through his writings and speeches an image of himself as falsely accused, is ushered into the record books as one more name dealt justice by the American people. But who constitutes the American people? Is it a judge in a courtroom, or the thousands of people who have protested Abu-Jamals death as the death of an innocent, an intellectual, and above all, a black man in a white mans system?The validity of the conviction has been widely questioned in the press. Stuart Taylor Jr., who covered the case for Court TV, states that Abu-Jamal received an unfair trial, tainted by . . . flagrantly biased judging and, in all probability, police fabrication of evidence and intimidation of witnesses. However, more interesting and more important than the legal aspects of the trials is the emotional aspect, the outpouring of support for Abu-Jamal. Bill Bickel, after having recently made an extensive survey of the opinions voiced about the case, found literally hundreds of websites protesting the death sentence and only one website supporting it-created by the police officers family. It has been pure gravy for Mumia, a wealth of public indignation for, as the organization Refuse & Resist dubs him, an unrepentant Black political prisoner who is the voice of the voiceless.This near canonization of the man goes beyond anything which can be attributed to charisma or ... ...it can potentially undermine the only means we have to attempt to effect equal justice. The protest signs of angry crowds call for Justice for Mumia, and in effect justice for all black people. But how can we achieve this if the very means of justice are dismantled to save one man?Works CitedBickel, Bill. Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Murder of Daniel Faulkner Using the Internet to Search for the Truth. 16 Nov. 1999 <<http//crime.about.com/culture/crime/library/weekly/aa070698.htmlDavis, Angela Y, June Jordan, and Alice Walker. The Life of a Black Man. The Nation. 15 Nov. 1999 <<http//www.thenation.com/Refuse and Resist. Home page. 16 Nov. 1999. <<http//mojo.calyx.net/refuse/mumia/index.htmlTaylor Jr., Stuart. Jamals Last Stand. Court TV Casefiles. 11 June 1996 <<www.courttv.com/casefiles/mumia/analysis.html