Podcast appearances and mentions of Williams V Pennsylvania

Evidence presented as part of a wide-ranging investigation sponsored by the United Nations and released today shows that the military coalition waging a war in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and armed by and with backing from the United States and the United Kingdom, has likely “perpetrated, and continue[s] to perpetrate, violations and crimes under international law.” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman reportedly vowed recently to continue targeting women and children throughout Yemen in order to “leave a big impact on the consciousness of Yemenis [for] generations.” Judges rule North Carolina's gerrymandered map is unconstitutional and may have to be redrawn before midterms. A panel of three federal judges has held that North Carolina's congressional districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans over Democrats and said it may require the state to draw new districts before the November elections, possibly affecting control of the House of Representatives. The judges acknowledged that primary elections have already produced candidates for the 2018 elections but said they were reluctant to let voting take place in congressional districts that courts twice have found violate constitutional standards. What does this mean going forward?Mumia Abu-Jamal has been in prison in Pennsylvania since 1981 for killing Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981. He will appear in court this Thursday to pursue a new legal strategy that argues that Ronald Castille, the former district attorney whose office prosecuted Abu-Jamal's case, was improperly involved in his appeal after becoming a state supreme court justice.In a court case that could eventually lead to Mumia's freedom, Judge Leon Tucker ordered the Philadelphia District Attorney's office to present new testimony in reference to Castille on August 30, 2018. Castille is a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court judge who refused to disqualify himself when Mumia's case came before the court, despite having been the Philadelphia District Attorney during Mumia's prior appeals. The US Supreme Court ruled in the 2016 case Williams v. Pennsylvania that such dual role conduct is unconstitutional. Philadelphia prosecutors argued during the trial, and still claim, that Mumia, driving a taxi in downtown Philadelphia, came across his brother, who had been stopped by Officer Faulkner. Prosecutors claimed that, motivated by a longstanding hatred of the police from his days as a Black Panther and supporter of MOVE, Mumia ran to Faulkner and shot him in the back. They further alleged that, although wounded by a return shot from Faulkner, Mumia then stood over the fallen police officer and shot him several times in the face. There is no dispute that Mumia was wounded as he approached the scene. After Mumia was shot, however, the details are unclear. It is known that after police apprehended Mumia and while he was in transit to the hospital, he was beaten severely by the police. It is also clear from photographic and ballistic evidence, which has only recently come to light, that the state's version of what happened cannot possibly be true. GUESTS: Elisabeth Myers - editor-in-chief of Inside Arabia.Bob Phillips - Executive Director for Common Cause. Common Cause North Carolina is a Raleigh-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to encouraging citizen participation in democracy. Bob Phillips, welcome to The Critical Hour. Johanna Fernandez - Filmmaker with Big Noise Films, professor of history at Baruch College (CUNY) and one of the coordinators of The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. Netfa Freeman - Host of Voices With Vision on WPFW 89.3 FM. Pan-Africanist and internationalist organizer intimately involved with political prisoners' causes, from Mumia Abu Jamal to the Cuban 5, and an organizer with Family & Friends of Incarcerated People.

For this May Day episode William had the chance to speak with Nutty, who has been holding down a monopod blockade which is blocking the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in the renamed Hellbender Autonomous Zone. She has been without the ability to reup her food and water supplies for over 21 days due to cop and forest ranger interference. We get to speak about the monopod and her experiences participating in this struggle, as well as her views on resisting the MVP, some ideas on the future of this struggle, some actionable items, and direct asks for support. On the very first day of this blockade as some listeners will remember, Nutty's direct support was arrested while trying to explain the rigging of the blockade to the police. Monopods rely on a series of rigs to support a platform where resisters typically sit. The Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is a massive 303 mile proposal by the company Dominion Resources in partnership with Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas, is proposed to span land from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia and would disrupt and destroy countless habitats and complex interconnected water supplies, as well as the human communities it would likewise destroy. To hear an in depth podcast about this issue, I recommend End of the Line broadcasting out of Richmond, which you can find at http://pipelinepodcast.org/ and on https://soundcloud.com/pipelinepodcast/ Our guest will mention in the interview that the MVP's proposal just got amended to go through a 70 mile stretch of North Carolina. For those who are concerned by this, we'd recommend looking into the Atlantic Coast Pipeline which would span a 600 mile track of land over WV VA and NC. Opposition to this pipeline is already gaining steam, so keep an eye on your favorite news sources for updates on that. To donate to bit.ly/supportmvpresistance and to get in touch with them you can write to appalachiansagainstpipelines@protonmail.com . … . .. Next up is a conversation Bursts had with two community organizers in Sonoma County, California, named Sebastían and Mara. These two folks do organizing around immigrant communities and are helping to organize May Day festivities in Santa Rosa this year. Sebastían and Mara share about past years organizing around May Day, immigrant struggles against ICE and community efforts in the follow up to the devestating fires that raged through Northern California last year. Mara also shares about last year's workplace organizing initiatives of Sonoma County waste workers that won them a contract, agricultural workers who won a contract from Gallo Sonoma Vinyard, and current struggles of employees at the Hyatt Vinyard Creek Santa Rosa. Sebastían also talks about the student walkouts he helped to organize on March 5th and plans for similar walkouts on May Day alongside the “Day Without An Immigrant.” . … . .. Finally, we'll hear from Jack and Quinn, two local Wobblies helping to plan a May Day rally and march in Asheville meeting at 4pm at Pritchard Park in downtown. Later that evening Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross will be hosting a benefit concert at Fleetwoods on Haywood rd in West Asheville. The show starts at 8pm and will feature the music of Poor Excuse, WRHCKD, Earth Collider & Nomadic War Machine and the moneys will go to the local efforts to release black mothers from the Buncombe County Jail via the Black Mama Bail Fund effort on May 10th. More info on Black Mama Bail Out at https://nomoremoneybail.org/ For a longer version of the chat with the Asheville Wobblies, check out the podcast version. There you'll also find announcements about Herman Bell and Mumia Abu-Jamal. If you care to, you can send us a letter at our new address: The Final Straw P.O. Box 6004 Asheville, NC 28816 There is no Sean Swain segment this week due to scheduling errors on our part, but don't worry we promise to have him back on next week's episode. If you miss the sound of his voice, you can his website, SeanSwain.org and easily find his segments going back to 2014. Announcements: Herman Bell leaves prison!!!: We're happy to announce that former Black Panther, BLA soldier and elder Herman Bell walked free from prison this week. From his support crew: On Friday, April 27th, Herman Bell, a 70-year old respected elder, was released after serving nearly 45 years in prison. Herman was one of thousands of incarcerated older people who was repeatedly denied parole for over a decade after completing his minimum sentence. “His release is a result of important and urgent changes in the criminal legal system and parole regulations that are part of nationwide efforts to end mass incarceration. Let us hope that Herman's release brings inspiration for more change. “Herman is deeply humbled and grateful for the broad expressions of trust and support, but out of respect for the feelings of the victims' families, he will not be making any public statements. We welcome him home. And so do we at The Final Straw. Pack The Courtroom for Mumia: In other political prisoner news, Mumia Abu-Jamal has a court appearance tomorrow, April 30th in Philadelphia and his support crew is asking folks in the area to show up and pack the courthouse. Show up in courtroom attire to support Mumia at 8am at room 1108, Criminal Justice Center at 13th and Filbert St in Philadelphia. In this hearing the Judge will consider the argument that former PA Supreme Court Judge Castille should have recused himself from considering Mumia's appeal because Castille had been working with the Philly DA's office at the time of Mumia's prosecution and during later appeals. A similar situation was deemed unconstitutional in the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2016 Williams v. Pennsylvania. There is also a call for supporters of Mumia to call current Philly DA Larry Krasner and request that he release the files on Mumia from the Philadelphia District Attorney office and Philadelphia Police Department. You can call Larry Krasner at 215-686-8000. More ideas of how to help out Mumia can be found at mobilization4mumia.com. Correction from the scott crow interview from Bursts: On last week's episode of our show, in which I interviewed scott crow about his new book “Setting Sites”, I asked a question about toxic masculinity and gun culture by using the term “male socialized” to describe men. I misspoke. What I meant to communicate in the question was masculine expectation and performativity and not to lump people who've been coercively assigned male by society based on a doctor's childhood assessment. I should have said “men”. Sorry for the misspeak and thanks to the folks who gave us feedback. . … . .. Playlist here.

On June 9, 2016, the Supreme Court decided Williams v. Pennsylvania. Terrance Williams was convicted and sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of Amos Norwood. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed Williams’ conviction and sentence, and his initial attempts to obtain state postconviction relief failed. His subsequent petition for federal habeas relief also failed. He again sought post-conviction penalty-related relief in state court and prevailed in the Court of Common Pleas on a claim of unlawful evidence suppression. On appeal, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the grant of relief and lifted the stay of execution (though a temporary reprieve was later granted by the governor for other reasons). The Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Ronald Castille, who had joined the opinion reversing the grant of relief to Williams, had also been the District Attorney for Philadelphia during Williams’ trial, sentencing, and appeal. In that capacity, Castille had authorized his office to seek the death penalty for Williams. Williams had moved to have Chief Justice Castille recuse himself from hearing the appeal of post-conviction relief, but Castille declined to do so. -- The central question before the U.S. Supreme Court was whether Justice Castille’s denial of the recusal motion and his subsequent judicial participation violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. By a vote of 5-3, the Supreme Court vacated the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and remanded the case. Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court, which held that under the Due Process Clause, where a judge has had an earlier significant, personal involvement as a prosecutor in a critical decision in the defendant’s case, the risk of actual bias in the judicial proceeding rises to an unconstitutional level. Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan joined Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion. Chief Justice Roberts filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Alito joined. Justice Thomas also filed a dissenting opinion. -- To discuss the case, we have Cassandra Burke Robertson, who is Professor of Law, Laura B. Chisolm Distinguished Research Scholar, and Director, Center for Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

On February 29, 2016, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Williams v. Pennsylvania. Terrance Williams was convicted and sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of Amos Norwood. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed Williams’ conviction and sentence, and his initial attempts to obtain state postconviction relief failed. His subsequent petition for federal habeas relief also failed. He again sought post-conviction penalty-related relief in state court and prevailed in the Court of Common Pleas on a claim of unlawful evidence suppression. On appeal, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the grant of relief and lifted the stay of execution (though a temporary reprieve was later granted by the governor for other reasons). The Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Ronald Castille--who had joined the opinion reversing the grant of relief to Williams--had also been the District Attorney for Philadelphia during Williams’ trial, sentencing, and appeal. In that capacity, Castille had authorized his office to seek the death penalty for Williams. Williams had moved to have Chief Justice Castille recuse himself from hearing the appeal of post-conviction relief, but Castille declined to do so. -- The question now before the U.S. Supreme Court is twofold: (1) Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments are violated where a state supreme court justice declines to recuse himself in a capital case in which he had personally approved the decision to pursue capital punishment against the defendant in his prior capacity as an elected prosecutor and continued to head the prosecutor’s office that defended the death verdict on appeal, and where he had publicly expressed strong support for capital punishment during his judicial election campaign; and (2) whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments are violated by the participation of a potentially biased jurist on a multi-member tribunal deciding a capital case, regardless of whether his vote is ultimately decisive. -- To discuss the case, we have Cassandra Burke Robertson, who is Professor of Law, Laura B. Chisolm Distinguished Research Scholar, and Director, Center for Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

This week's episode is brought to you by the concept of bias, whether it be as a juror, a post-conviction judge, or a PA Supreme Court justice overturning a death penalty reprieve.  Brett and Nazim discuss Williams v. Pennsylvania, in which the Supreme Court has to determine whether or not a State Supreme Court judge should recuse himself from a death penalty appeal when that same judge was part of the original decision to sentence the defendant to death to begin with.

On this episode, we review the case of Williams v. Pennsylvania, heard in oral argument this week. In Williams the Court is asked to determine whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments violated where the presiding Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court declines to recuse himself in a capital case where he had personally approved the decision to pursue capital punishment against Petitioner in his prior capacity as elected District Attorney and continued to head the District Attorney's Office that defended the death verdict on appeal.

Williams v. Pennsylvania | 02/29/16 | Docket #: 15-5040