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Mumia Abu-Jamal Responds to New Pennsylvania Law Restricting Prisoners’ Speech

HeadlineOct 24, 2014

In Pennsylvania, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has signed into law a bill critics say will trample the free speech rights of prisoners. Dubbed the “Mumia bill,” the measure was introduced after imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal gave a pretaped commencement address at Vermont’s Goddard College. His speech was opposed by Pennsylvania officials and the widow of Daniel Faulkner, the police officer whom Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing. The law authorizes the censoring of public addresses of prisoners or former offenders if judges agree that allowing them to speak would cause “mental anguish” to the victim. Speaking to Democracy Now! from prison this week, Mumia Abu Jamal said that by signing the law, Governor Corbett had violated the Constitution.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: “As a governor and as an attorney and a member of the bar, he had to take a sworn oath for both offices, and that oath was to protect and defend the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Constitution of the United States of America. By signing that bill into law, he has violated both of his oaths as governor and as an attorney.”

The full interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal you can is posted on our website here.

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