Silence of The Laws: A Gag on Mumia and All Prisoners' Constitutional Right to Speak...

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Produced by: 
KBOO
Program:: 
Air date: 
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 10:00am to 10:15am
Interviews with Noelle Hanrahan at the Prison Radio Project & DeSmogBlog's Steve Horn

The Pennsylvania Senate will vote this week on House bill HB2533 and Senate bill SB508. The bill was written in response to political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s commencement speech at Goddard College, and is a clear attempt to silence Mumia and other prisoners and formerly incarcerated people. We believe that this legislation is not actually an attempt to help victims, but a cynical move by legislators to stop people in prison from speaking out against an unjust system.
 
 
The Governor has pledged to sign it. This bill will make it illegal for prisoners to speak publicly AND allow the AG or DA to sue prisoners and the folks that assist them.   This legislation was fast tracked in direct response to the positive support Mumia received for his commencement speech. 
This legislation was created to silence political prisoners like Mumia Abu Jamal, Kerry Shakaboona Marshall, Bryant Arroyo and  Russell Shoatz whose can be heard around the world, in spite of their physical captivity. Consider how much their voices have contributed to our intellectual heritage and collective growth. Consider all that we have learned about prison conditions and prisoner rights violations from those imprisoned.
Please call your legislators and demand that they vote NO on HB2533 and SB508.
Last week, PA Representative Mike Vereb introduced a bill (HB2533) & SB508 called the “Revictimization Relief Act,” which would allow victims, District Attorneys, and the Attorney General to sue people who have been convicted of “personal injury” crimes for speaking out publicly if it causes the victim of the crime “mental anguish.”
This repressive legislation could set far-reaching precedents severely limiting freedom of speech and our collective ability to take on the state.
While to us this seems like a clear violation of the first amendment, unfortunately the PA General Assembly doesn’t appear to agree, and they have fast-tracked the bill for approval and amended another bill (SB508) to include the same language. The legislation could be voted on as early as today, Wednesday, October 15th.

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