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Habeas Corpus Appeal Denied for Jamal Hart Free Him Now! (Class-Struggle Defense Notes) On February 26, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania denied Jamal Hart’s habeas corpus petition, which could have freed him after more than ten years in prison. Hart, son of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, was sentenced in 1998 to 15 and a half years on bogus firearms possession charges. Hart was framed up for his prominent activism in the campaign to free his father. Hart was first charged under Pennsylvania state laws, which would have resulted in probation. However, the Justice Department under Democratic president Bill Clinton intervened to use federal laws to exponentially extend the sentencing range for Hart. The prosecution labeled Hart a “career criminal” because of three previous convictions. However, as Hart explained in a January 15 letter from the federal penitentiary at Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, to the Partisan Defense Committee, “After thorough research by prison officials here at FCI Schuylkill, it has been revealed that an assault conviction I was accused of in 1995 DOES NOT EXIST and should not have counted in the first place. Due to this blatant miscarriage of justice, I should have been sentenced to the original sentence range of 6 years 5 months to 8 years instead of the dreadful 15 years to life.” Hart’s appeal could have laid the basis for a reduction of his sentence and his release for time served. However, Judge Edwin M. Kosik would not even consider Hart’s appeal based on the specious argument that his court lacked jurisdiction. Like the frame-up of his father for a crime that the government knows he did not commit, Hart’s conviction and the denial of his recent petition illustrate the racist nature of the capitalist “justice” system. From the outset, the PDC condemned the prosecution of Jamal Hart as a racist political frame-up. He should never have spent one day in jail. Free Jamal Hart now!
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