Just published from City Lights. Mumia tells how prisoners have learned law and freed other prisoners. Introduction by Angela Davis.
In Jailhouse Lawyers, award-winning journalist and death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal presents the stories and reflections of fellow prisoners-turned-advocates who have learned to use the court system to represent other prisoners—many uneducated or illiterate—and in some cases, to win their freedom.
In Mumia’s words, “This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multi-billion-dollar endowed universities [but] in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the hidden, dank dungeons of America ”¦ It is law learned in a stew of bitterness, under the constant threat of violence, in places where millions of people live, but millions of others wish to ignore or forget.
I’ve followed Mumia via Free Speach Radio News for years now. Glad to see he’s finally gottten to print.
Accused defendants are guaranteed counsel, but convicted inmates aren’t. That means the wealthy get attorneys for their appeals. The rest either do it themselves or hire a jailhouse lawyer. Not exactly the fairest system.
I wonder if the book discusses how payment terms work? It’s generally not a cash business.