Mumia Update

by Lindy Davies

Longtime HGI members will recall seeing articles, from time to time, by the celebrated death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal in this magazine. The HGI’s website carried the words “Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal” from its inception in 1995 until last year. The link was removed after those in attendance at our membership meeting in Scranton voted to remove it. The general feeling was that the Henry George Institute, as an organization, should not promote individual causes (and particularly not ones as controversial as this).

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Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners vs. the U.S.A.

by Mumia Abu-Jamal, City Lights Books, 2009. Review by Lindy Davies

No doubt, some GJ readers will roll their eyes: “Oh, Mumia again…” To them, I can only say that Jailhouse Lawyers (like Abu-Jamal’s other books, particularly the recent We Want Freedom) is well worth reading regardless of the author’s notoriety. Ironically, though, it is because of its author’s name that I, along with many other readers, heard of it — and that is what makes Mumia Abu-Jamal one of the most important writers in America today. Continue reading