Mumia Abu Jamal: African American JournaIist In Danger of State Execution by Medical Neglect...."

Mumia Abu Jamal: African American Journalist “In Danger of State Execution by Medical Neglect,” Say Prison Critics

By Niko Chike
June 17, 2015

African American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, imprisoned since 1989 for a crime that many believe he did not commit, has been hospitalized over the last 7 months with symptoms that appear to be related to advanced stages of diabetes, according to attorney Rachel Wolkenstein in an inter- view with Michael Schiffman earlier this month. His body, according to witnesses, has shown a sharp deterioration in health, marked by open sores; swollen, calciified, and discolored skin; labored breathing; and dramatic weight loss.

Over the course of the last two months, lawyers and loved ones have had a difficult time visiting Jamal; and even, for a period of about a week in May, tracking him down after prison authorities moved him from a prison cell at the Security Correctional Institution at Mahonoy, in Pennsylvania--where he has been assigned for the past three years by Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to a medical facility.

During this period, Mumia had at one point a blood sugar level as high as 419 mg/dl--which is close to the 600 mg/dl level at which one is at risk for a diabetic coma, according to numbers from the Mayo Clinic. Grappling with such a high statistic and being inaccessible to loved ones, lawyers, and medical experts of his choosing, his situation has been de- scribed as a medical crisis and those critical of Mumia’s treatment by the Pennsylvania Department of Justice have lobbed the allegation that the State of Pennsylvania is attempting to execute Mumia by medical neglect.

After a campaign of phone calls and letter writing to government and prison officials, Mumia was granted limited access to lawyers, personal doctors of his choice, and family and friends. Suzanne Ross, of the Free Mumia Coalitio, based in New York City, reports that during her visit with Mumia at SCI Mahanoy on May 28th, although he was using a wheelchair because of the pain that walking on his swollen legs caused him and was several pounds thinner than his normal weight, she saw improvement. He ate a lot during the visit, his right hand and face were “completely clear” of skin discoloration--although it remains on other parts of his body--and his spirits were upbeat, she says.

While the Department of Justice has allowed Mumia consultation with doctors of his choosing, it is withholding the medical records of his treatment and tests while hospitalized recently at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania from Jamal and his support team of lawyers, personal doctors, family and friends, Ross states.

“It is absolutely outrageous, and in violation of the Department of Cor- rections’ own regulations to withhold medical records and reports from the client, his closest kin, and his lawyers. It is clearly dangerous to Mumia’s health for the DOC to be denying Mumia’s basic rights on this issue of medical record availability,” Ross writes in a recent email.

Jamal is a prolific author, having written books and essays from his prison cells in Pennsylvania over the last two and a half decades. He reported for radio and print publications in the years before his incarceration. In 1989, he was charged with the murder of Philadelphia police oficer Daniel Faulkner. After a trial that critics contend was riddled with unethical practices that stripped Mumia of his right to a fair trial, he was convicted of the murder of Faulkner. It has been alleged that because much of his reporting focused on police corruption and brutality, he was targeted by the Philadelphia Police Department and framed for the murder of Faulkner.