One year after Mumia Abu-Jamal was
hospitalized and reportedly near death, his supporters are reviving a
petition demanding that prison officials give him medicine that could
cure his hepatitis C infection.
"Urgent: Mumia is incredibly sick" reads the subject line of an email from Prison Radio, a group of Abu-Jamal supporters, urging readers to sign the petition that Abu-Jamal's brother Keith Cook began circulating last April.
This time, however, the emails don't seem linked to an imminent health crisis affecting the killer of Police Officer Daniel J. Faulkner, but to an awaited ruling by a federal judge in Scranton on Abu-Jamal's access to anti-hepatitis drugs.
Lawyers for Abu-Jamal and the state Department of Corrections filed briefs last week following a hearing last Dec. 18 before U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani.
Abu-Jamal's lawyers, Bret D. Grote of Pittsburgh and Robert J. Boyle of New York City, said Thursday that Abu-Jamal, who is housed with the general population at the state prison in Mahanoy, Schuylkill County, remains "seriously ill."
Grote said Abu-Jamal can walk but has recently experienced worsening of a skin rash and fatigue that last year preceded his hospitalization for diabetic shock.
"Right now, we're hoping for a positive decision for the hep-C medication," said Boyle.
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and sometime radio reporter, was found guilty and sentenced to death for the Dec. 9, 1981, slaying of Faulkner, 25.
Abu-Jamal spent 29 years on death row as a series of lawyers challenged his death sentence and he burnished his image as a revolutionary and political prisoner.
In 2001, a federal judge overturned the death sentence and told city prosecutors they had to give him a new death penalty hearing or let him serve the state-mandated penalty of life in prison without parole.
The ruling triggered a new round of appeals that lasted until 2011,
when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the federal judge's ruling. Later
that year, District Attorney Seth Williams, joined by Faulkner's widow,
Maureen, said they would accept the life term.
Since then, as Abu-Jamal's health problems have increased, his supporters have changed their focus from freedom to access to medical care. They have argued that prison officials were letting poor medical care accomplish what the executioner could not.
In court filings, Abu-Jamal's lawyers contend that his maladies are linked to the underlying hepatitis C infection, and that treatment with newer "direct-acting anti-viral medications" offers a 90 percent to 95 percent chance of a cure.
In a court filing, Laura J. Neal, assistant counsel for the Department of Corrections, wrote that Abu-Jamal has not yet met the criteria for treatment and that immediate access to the medication would be "line-jumping."
"There simply is not enough money to treat every individual with chronic HCV immediately," Neal wrote.
Neal added that the state holds about 7,000 inmates with hepatitis C.
"Treating all of these individuals at a cost of $84,000 to $90,000 per person would cost approximately $600 million. Such an expense would effectively cripple the department," Neal argued.
"Urgent: Mumia is incredibly sick" reads the subject line of an email from Prison Radio, a group of Abu-Jamal supporters, urging readers to sign the petition that Abu-Jamal's brother Keith Cook began circulating last April.
This time, however, the emails don't seem linked to an imminent health crisis affecting the killer of Police Officer Daniel J. Faulkner, but to an awaited ruling by a federal judge in Scranton on Abu-Jamal's access to anti-hepatitis drugs.
Lawyers for Abu-Jamal and the state Department of Corrections filed briefs last week following a hearing last Dec. 18 before U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani.
Abu-Jamal's lawyers, Bret D. Grote of Pittsburgh and Robert J. Boyle of New York City, said Thursday that Abu-Jamal, who is housed with the general population at the state prison in Mahanoy, Schuylkill County, remains "seriously ill."
Grote said Abu-Jamal can walk but has recently experienced worsening of a skin rash and fatigue that last year preceded his hospitalization for diabetic shock.
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and sometime radio reporter, was found guilty and sentenced to death for the Dec. 9, 1981, slaying of Faulkner, 25.
Abu-Jamal spent 29 years on death row as a series of lawyers challenged his death sentence and he burnished his image as a revolutionary and political prisoner.
In 2001, a federal judge overturned the death sentence and told city prosecutors they had to give him a new death penalty hearing or let him serve the state-mandated penalty of life in prison without parole.
Since then, as Abu-Jamal's health problems have increased, his supporters have changed their focus from freedom to access to medical care. They have argued that prison officials were letting poor medical care accomplish what the executioner could not.
In court filings, Abu-Jamal's lawyers contend that his maladies are linked to the underlying hepatitis C infection, and that treatment with newer "direct-acting anti-viral medications" offers a 90 percent to 95 percent chance of a cure.
In a court filing, Laura J. Neal, assistant counsel for the Department of Corrections, wrote that Abu-Jamal has not yet met the criteria for treatment and that immediate access to the medication would be "line-jumping."
"There simply is not enough money to treat every individual with chronic HCV immediately," Neal wrote.
Neal added that the state holds about 7,000 inmates with hepatitis C.
"Treating all of these individuals at a cost of $84,000 to $90,000 per person would cost approximately $600 million. Such an expense would effectively cripple the department," Neal argued.
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