Death Row

Another tale from the Hindustan Times
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, 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 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.

Not a lot to say about the centre part of this story. The death penalty is a bad idea, as most civilised folks agree.

I posted this more because of the interesting combination of France, America, the death penalty, and a black incarcerant. If this one makes it to the right-wing US press, I suspect they’re going to define it as a mortal insult, and anti-American.

Comments are closed.