Mumia’s Hepatitis-C infection, which came from a blood transfusion in the hospital after he was critically wounded from police shooting him on Dec. 9, 1981, is cured due to active support by thousands of supporters who tirelessly resisted the Pennsylvania prison system’s refusal to supply the needed medication. Mumia’s federal legal victory is now the precedent to provide Hep-C treatment to thousands of prisoners.
Now, Mumia has a new legal action pending in the Pennsylvania courts, and the movement of Mumia’s supporters worldwide has called for actions on July 8 to free Mumia. Mumia’s legal action relates to a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Williams v. Pennsylvania which applies to Mumia’s case.
In Williams, the Supreme Court ruled that a prosecutor who “had significant personal involvement” in a “critical decision” cannot later sit in judgment in appeals concerning the very same case. This was found to be a conflict of interest that violates the due process right to an impartial appeal.
In the Williams case, the former DA, then judge, was one Ronald Castille. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Williams now has the right to re-litigate all of his legal arguments that were previously rejected.
In Mumia’s case, the very same Ronald Castille was the Philadelphia district attorney who argued to uphold Mumia’s frame-up conviction and death sentence in 1989 and then, as a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, denied all Mumia’s post-conviction appeals from 1998-2008.
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Mumia’s struggle for freedom reaches crucial stage
