Hi there,

There has never been a more urgent time for courageous, daily, independent news. Democracy Now!’s independent reporting is more important than ever, when only a galvanized, engaged public, supported by resilient, pro-democracy grassroots movements, can prevent authoritarianism from triumphing. Our TRIPLE MATCH has been EXTENDED through MIDNIGHT EST tonight. That means your $15 gift TODAY will be worth $45. With your contribution, we can continue to go to where the silence is, to bring you the voices of the silenced majority – those calling for peace in a time of war, demanding action on the climate catastrophe and advocating for racial and economic justice. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much!

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

UPDATE: Mumia Abu-Jamal Taken from Hospital Back to Prison; Family Limited to One Visit A Week

Web ExclusiveApril 03, 2015

After an international outcry authorities have allowed family members of imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal to visit him for the first time since he blacked out from diabetic shock in prison and woke up in an outside hospital.

“When I saw him he ate lunch in front of me. I helped him cut the meat,” his brother Keith Cook told Democracy Now!.

Abu-Jamal was shackled to the bed during his visit with Cook on Tuesday.

“He had one arm with handcuffs on it, and needle in the other arm with a drip for insulin,” Cook said.

Abu-Jamal was also allowed to see his wife Wadiya. The next day his brother Bill Cook and his oldest son Jamal Hart were each allowed a 30-minute visit and said he had labored breathing, was in pain, thirsty, and shaking. 

After the visits authorities limited Abu-Jamal’s family members to one meeting a week. All other meetings have been denied, including with his lawyers and longtime supporter Pam Africa, who is listed on his medical records as his emergency medical contact.

Then on Wednesday night authorities transferred Abu-Jamal from the Intensive Care Unit of Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville back to the infirmary at SCI Mahanoy prison in Frackville, Pennsylvania. He was not allowed visitors Thursday.

On Friday his supporters plan to hold a rally outside the prison to demand he be allowed to receive medical care from doctors outside the facility. They say authorities withheld from Abu-Jamal details about three blood tests he had done in February that could have indicated he was suffering from diabetes.

“We believe they knew he was not well,” Keith Cook said, “and we are concerned this treatment he is receiving adds to his emergency.”

On Monday, Abu-Jamal’s longtime friend Johanna Fernández discovered he had been transferred from prison to the hospital only after she went she to visit him because he sounded sick when the two spoke by phone last week.

Click here to watch Fernández’s interview on Democracy Now!

See Mumia Abu-Jamal’s interviews on Democracy Now!

Abu-Jamal is one of the world’s most famous political prisoners. He was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, but has always maintained his innocence. Amnesty International has found he was deprived of a fair trial.

Related Story

StoryMar 31, 2021Aging Former Black Panthers Mumia Abu-Jamal & Sundiata Acoli Got COVID-19 & Could Die in Prison
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top