Paris awards honorary citizenship to activist (Mumia Abu-Jamal) on death row in US

Hindustan Times Agence France-Presse ^ | Paris, October 4 | Agence France-Presse

[dennisw]

Paris awards honorary citizenship to activist on death row in US Agence France-Presse Paris, October 4

The city of Paris on Saturday awarded honorary citizenship to a celebrated US black activist on the death row.

Mumia Abu-Jamal has been sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of a white Philadelphia policeman.

It is the first time Paris has bestowed the honour since Pablo Picasso was made honorary citizen in 1971, Socialist mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe told an audience of 200 people, taking the occasion to attack the "barbarity" of the death penalty.

Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther civil rights activist and journalist who has maintained his innocence, had his death sentence overturned in December of 2001 but that decision is currently on appeal.

In attacking the "barbarity called the death penalty", the mayor said, "as long as there is a place on this planet where one can be killed in the name of the community, we haven't finished our work."

Raising his fist in a sign of solidarity, Delanoe then shouted "Mumia is a Parisian!" as the crowd of mostly-leftist activists cheered and applauded.

Black activist Angela Davis, a former member of the Black Panthers and the Communist Party, hailed the "profound sense of humanity" of Abu-Jamal, attacking American "unilateralism" and racist attacks against immigrants.

The movement to free Abu-Jamal "takes on a new sense in face of American unilateralism, the aggression against the Iraqi people and the racist attacks against immigrants which can only further gnaw away at the vestiges of democracy in the United States," Davis, a professor at the University of California in Santa Cruz, said.

Abu-Jamal, sentenced to death 21 years ago for the murder of Daniel Faulkner, has always insisted he was innocent, and scores of movements and organizations have sprung up around the world in his defense.

His opponents view him as an unrepentant murderer.

His case has provoked particularly vivid debate in France, which abolished the death penalty in 1981. French school children are required to study the case as part of their education.

[neuron2]

WTF, France? I thought you wanted us to fall in love again.

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[Revolting cat!]

Just as long as he doesn't come over and try to order a cup of coffee at a Parisian bistro!

[Texas Eagle]

(sigh)What's next? Ted Kennedy is going to be awarded the Excellence in Public Service Award at the President George H.W. Bush presidential library?

[tet68]

At least when they fry him, he'll be "French Fried".

[tet68]

(sigh)What's next? Ted Kennedy is going to be awarded the Excellence in Public Service Award at the President George H.W. Bush presidential library?


He's already frenched every woman within reach.

[Texas Eagle]

LOL! Let's drop him out of an airplane over France. He can pick up his parachute when he hits French soil.

[Texas Eagle]

Including Barbara??? Ick!

[kenth]

Activist? I thought he was a murderer...

[xm177e2]

His case has provoked particularly vivid debate in France, which abolished the death penalty in 1981. French school children are required to study the case as part of their education.

And I'm sure the French state does a good job of teaching the kids about the Mumia case. They wouldn't, you know, leave some details out that were unflattering to him.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Gotta love the frogs... Nothing like honoring a cop-killer. Next thing ya know, they'll do the same for Leonard Peltier (another sad, sorry excuse for a human being)

[jpthomas]

There's already a thread on this topic here.

BTW, a federal judge threw out Mumia's death sentence in December 2001. I guess the imbecile socialist mayor of Paris doesn't keep up on this issue.

[Bogey78O]

Some lucky Pennsylvanian gets to snuff a frenchy. Damn, the luck.

[explodingspleen]

I for one am all for shipping him, and any other convicted felons the Frenchies esteem worthy of their honor, over to France.

[Slings and Arrows]

Raising his fist in a sign of solidarity, Delanoe then shouted "Mumia is a Parisian!"

You said it, pal, not me.

[gridlock]

Actually, I think we have bilateral agreements with the French that require us to refrain from executing a French citizen, even if he commits a crime in the US and is convicted. They wouldn't even agree to extradite the Unicorn Killer, Earth Day founder Ira Einhorn for twenty years, because they were afraid Pennsylvania was going to kill him. It is only when Pennsylvania agreed to take the death penalty off the table that Einhorn was extradited.

How much you want to bet some hot shot pro-bono lawyer is already ginning up an appeal for Mumia based on his new-found French citizenship.

[Rolland]

I don't know, but this is intresting, do you think there is such an agreement? As I study law I find it pretty intresting that there's an bilateral agreement between two states that certain forms of sentencing cannot by applied to the other country's citizens. The case that France would not hand over a person that could face the death penalty is for sure, I don't think any European state would do that, at least not without garanties.

[AF68]

Another reason to hate the filthy Frogs.

[cyborg]

Lord is he going to turn into another law dodging Roman Polanski?