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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

Posted on 10/04/2003 6:38:37 PM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: copkiller; france; mumia; napalminthemorning; paris; wot
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1 posted on 10/04/2003 6:38:38 PM PDT by dennisw
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To: dennisw
WTF, France? I thought you wanted us to fall in love again.
2 posted on 10/04/2003 6:40:18 PM PDT by neuron2
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3 posted on 10/04/2003 6:41:26 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: dennisw
Just as long as he doesn't come over and try to order a cup of coffee at a Parisian bistro!
4 posted on 10/04/2003 6:41:38 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Far out, man!)
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To: dennisw
(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?
5 posted on 10/04/2003 6:44:19 PM PDT by Texas Eagle
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To: dennisw
At least when they fry him, he'll be "French Fried".
6 posted on 10/04/2003 6:44:30 PM PDT by tet68 (multiculturalism is an ideological academic fantasy maintained in obvious bad faith. M. Thompson)
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To: 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?


He's already frenched every woman within reach.
7 posted on 10/04/2003 6:45:26 PM PDT by tet68 (multiculturalism is an ideological academic fantasy maintained in obvious bad faith. M. Thompson)
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To: Revolting cat!
LOL! Let's drop him out of an airplane over France. He can pick up his parachute when he hits French soil.
8 posted on 10/04/2003 6:45:38 PM PDT by Texas Eagle
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To: tet68
Including Barbara??? Ick!
9 posted on 10/04/2003 6:46:16 PM PDT by Texas Eagle
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To: neuron2
Activist? I thought he was a murderer...
10 posted on 10/04/2003 6:52:14 PM PDT by kenth (This is not your father's tagline.)
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To: dennisw
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.

11 posted on 10/04/2003 6:53:09 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: dennisw
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)

12 posted on 10/04/2003 6:54:19 PM PDT by Chad Fairbanks (My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.)
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To: dennisw
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.

13 posted on 10/04/2003 6:56:09 PM PDT by jpthomas
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To: tet68
Some lucky Pennsylvanian gets to snuff a frenchy. Damn, the luck.
14 posted on 10/04/2003 7:25:25 PM PDT by Bogey78O (No! Don't throw me in the briar patch!!!!!)
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To: dennisw
I for one am all for shipping him, and any other convicted felons the Frenchies esteem worthy of their honor, over to France.
15 posted on 10/04/2003 7:41:54 PM PDT by explodingspleen
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To: dennisw
Raising his fist in a sign of solidarity, Delanoe then shouted "Mumia is a Parisian!"

You said it, pal, not me.

16 posted on 10/04/2003 8:10:29 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Palestinia delenda est!)
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To: Bogey78O
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.
17 posted on 10/04/2003 8:15:04 PM PDT by gridlock
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To: gridlock
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.
18 posted on 10/04/2003 8:20:55 PM PDT by Rolland
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To: dennisw
Another reason to hate the filthy Frogs.
19 posted on 10/04/2003 8:29:34 PM PDT by AF68
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To: gridlock
Lord is he going to turn into another law dodging Roman Polanski?
20 posted on 10/04/2003 8:34:31 PM PDT by cyborg (X-tra strength industrial grade tinfoil hat for maximum zottage)
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