Tuesday, September 12, 2006

legal update in the case of mumia abu jamal

2 comments:

DA said...

I'm curious; do you think Mumia is innocent? I'm honestly not sure myself. I even tend to think, more lately, that he's guilty. What bothers me more tha anything though, is that it seems like nobody really cares what the truth is, it's become so political. It seems like if you're left, you just maintain his innocence and that he was shafted at trial. I've heard some leftists maintain that even if Mumia shot the cop, well, maybe he had a good reason. If you're on the right, you're required to scream for his blood. He's guilty and needs to be roasted. I may be old-fashioned, but I do think the truth matters here; did Mumia murder Daniel Faulkner? That's all that should really matter.

Abdul-Halim V. said...

I agree that it seems to have become very political. I saw a movie about the case a long time ago and thought there was an argument for reasonable doubt. To be honest, I haven't gone over the details of the case recently. I agree with you that the facts of the case should be more important than ideology. But at the same time, ideology (or to be more precise, certain larger narratives about how the world usually works) makes it easier to believe one version over another.

If I"m concerned about government scrutiny and knew about COIONTELPRO and how it was used against the Black Panthers and other political organizations, it becomes very easy to believe that Mumia is probably innocent.