New site shows minutes journalist has spent on death row: 15 million and counting

The French collective that supports Mumia Abu Jamal, the African-American journalist who was unjustly sentenced to death and stigmatized for his views, has just revamped its website and given it the new address of http://www.mumiabujamal.com (replacing mumiabujamal.net). The move comes as Mumia is about to complete his 30th year on death row. See the petition. The new site’s welcome page keeps a running total of the minutes Mumia has spent on death row, as if each minute is another opportunity to recall that the death penalty is incompatible with the rule of law and the fundamental principles of a country that regards itself as the world’s first democracy. “The idea of the minutes came to me when I saw In Prison My Whole Life, a film about Mumia that was screened in Tours last summer in the presence of the academic Claude Guillaumaud-Pujol, Mumia’s biographer,” said Jonathan Lere, the site’s designer. “That’s how the project started, with a desire to shed more light on this man’s life. That’s why I wanted a different photo of him in each section.” With added audio and video content and documents in both English and French, the new site not only provides more information but also makes it easier to find. “I wanted a new Content Management System (CMS) that was able both to offer better access to the data and allow new sections to be developed,” Lere said. “This arrangement should, in particular, make it easier to following judicial developments in Mumia’s case.” Lere hopes the word “FREE” will one day be posted across the site, meaning the time has come to close it down. Like Mumia’s supporters, we hope that day will come soon.