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Searching... Stillwater Public Library | 364.66 ABU | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Awaiting execution for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman, the author describes the brutality and humiliation of prison life and argues that the justice system is racist and ruled by political expediency.
Author Notes
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist & author of two books, "Live from Death Row" & "Death Blossoms", which address prison life from a critical & spiritual perspective. In 1981 he was elected president of the Association of Black Journalists (Philadelphia chapter). His 1982 murder trial & subsequent conviction has raised considerable controversy & criticism for alleged constitutional violations & other improprieties. In spite of his almost two-decade long imprisonment on death row, Abu-Jamal has fought for his freedom & for his profession. He holds a BA from Goddard College & an MA from California State University, Dominguez Hills. His books have sold more than 100,000 copies & have been translated into seven languages.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A former Philadelphia radio reporter, on death row since his 1982 conviction for the murder of a Philadelphia police officerin a flawed case he's trying to reopenAbu-Jamal gained attention last year when National Public Radio rescinded its plan to broadcast his commentaries. This collection of brief writings, including some intended for NPR, presents a bracing challenge to complacent views about crime, race and incarcerationand surely deserved airing. ``Encased within a psychic cocoon of negativity, the bad get worse and feed on evil's offal,'' he writes, noting the irony of the term ``corrections.'' In the postindustrial age, he comments, America is the world's prison leader, and crack's devastation of black America reminds him of the impact of alcohol on Native Americans. Abu-Jamal is a radical, and while his view of the government's attacks on the Branch Davidians and on the Philadelphia radical group MOVE is appropriately skeptical, his uncritical support for Black Panther Huey Newton and MOVE may dismay even those sympathetic to his general critique. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
After a bizarre shooting of a policeman and an equally bizarre trial, Abu-Jamal was convicted of murder and sentenced to Pennsylvania's death row. Twelve years later, he is still there, although new evidence has been found to support his innocence. This volume is a collection of his writings, which, for the most part, document the atrocities of prison life. The reader may sympathize with Abu-Jamal's plight and even question his guilt in the shooting but will probably find this book fragmented and sketchy. Instead of a continuous narrative, Abu-Jamal offers brief notes drawn together under one theme. Good prose is drowned by ravings and accusations. One can see why Abu-Jamal's commentaries on National Public Radio were abruptly canceled. The book will probably not be of value to public or academic libraries. It might be of use in correctional facility libraries where readers are interested in the case.Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. xi |
| Preface | p. xvii |
| Introduction | p. xxiii |
| Teetering on the Brink between Life and Death | p. 3 |
| Descent into Hell | p. 22 |
| The Visit | p. 25 |
| On Tilt by State Design | p. 28 |
| On Death Row: Fade to Black | p. 32 |
| From an Echo in Darkness, a Step into Light | p. 40 |
| Nightraiders Meet Rage | p. 44 |
| Actin' like Life's a Ball Game | p. 49 |
| Legal Outlaws: Bobby's Battle for Justice | p. 52 |
| Manny's Attempted Murder | p. 56 |
| A Toxic Shock | p. 60 |
| Spirit Death | p. 64 |
| A Return to Death | p. 67 |
| Days of Pain Night of Death | p. 71 |
| Relatives Decry ""Camp Hell"" | p. 75 |
| B-Block Days and Nightmares | p. 79 |
| Human Waste Camps | p. 89 |
| Black March to Death | p. 92 |
| Slavery Daze II | p. 95 |
| Skeleton Bay | p. 99 |
| No Law, No Rights | p. 103 |
| Two Bites of the Apple in Dixie | p. 106 |
| Blackmun Bows out of the Death Game | p. 112 |
| Jury of Peers? | p. 116 |
| Expert Witness from Hell | p. 119 |
| The Demand for Death | p. 122 |
| Already out of the Game | p. 125 |
| A Bill That Is a Crime | p. 128 |
| Musings on Malcolm | p. 133 |
| Deadly DéJà Vu | p. 137 |
| Rodney Wasn't the Only One | p. 140 |
| L.A. Outlaw | p. 143 |
| Absence of Power | p. 146 |
| Clinton Guillotines Guinier | p. 149 |
| Another Side of Glory | p. 152 |
| What, to a Prisoner, Is the Fourth of July? | p. 156 |
| A House Is Not a Home | p. 160 |
| The Lost Generation? | p. 163 |
| Blues for Huey | p. 166 |
| Philly Daze: an Impressionistic Memoir | p. 171 |
| The Trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal | p. 195 |
| About the Author | p. 213 |
