Presidential Pardons

Presidential pardons have become an informal ritual at the end of their term. I am sure that there will be a huge number of requests for a pardon to President Obama.

I also know that as a community, African Americans are expecting that he would take serious consideration in the African Americans who have been jailed for many years without due process or where the wheels of justice have been faulty.

I would like to make the argument that one man be given that consideration. Not because he is more worthy than any other, but that it would probably never happen again in this man’s lifetime. The man I speak of is Mumia Abu-Jamal (Mumia Abu-Jamal Freedom Website) 

I have no affiliation with him or anyone in his camp, but I have observed from a distance the shenanigans that have taken place with his case. As I said a moment ago, there is no way anyone else in this man’s lifetime will give him the chance of getting out of prison, even though he may be completely innocent.

The reason why Mumia Abu-Jamal will die in jail, by either lethal injection or naturally, is that he is considered a threat to order in the U.S. As a journalist in Philadelphia, he questioned the decisions of the local, state, and federal government.

I do not write this blog with the hopes of supporting any one person over another, but I raise it to say that as a community we must enlighten ourselves. I can remember when I didn’t know anything about the Move Organization and what happened to their members on that fateful day in 1985.

Do you? If not, it is important that you find out what happened.

Mumia Abu-Jamal did know, and covered the massacre. For this type of coverage and his connections with the Black Panther Party, he became enemy number one. Mumia has spent countless years locked away for a crime that has had serious questions about its accuracy since day one.

This brings me to why there was such a racial divide in the acquittal of O.J. Simpson. White people could not understand why there was a collective sigh of relief for the Black community, when he was found not guilty. It was not because a Black man got off. The outcry was really for the crimes committed by so many in law enforcement to get convictions under false pretenses. The LAPD planted evidence. IT WAS PROVEN IN THE O.J. CASE, when it could not be proven in so many others.

What about the Florida African American woman, Marissa Alexander (Marissa Alexander Sentancing) who was being terrorized by her ex-husband? She shot her gun in the air as a warning to him. She harmed no one. She wanted him to leave her alone. She was convicted and sentenced to 20 years, because the judge said he had no discretion with regards to sentencing. And yet a woman who didn’t care for her child, who either killed her or allowed her to die, is walking free? A child loss its’ life, but her mother did not spend 1 night in jail for her death or for failing to report her missing for a month.

We await the outcome of the George Zimmerman case, where he killed an innocent young man. We also wait to see what President Obama will do with his Presidential right to pardon. No matter who or what he decides the GOP will criticize it so he might as well do what is in his conscious anyway.