Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA »

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist and former Black Panther Party member, whose books include Live From Death Row, Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience, All Things Censored, We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party and Faith of Our Fathers. He has been living on death row in a Pennsylvania prison since 1982. Internationally renowned public speaker, author, activist, scholar and symbol of 1970s black power, Davis was the third woman to appear on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list and has authored eight books.

Stories of prisoners who learn law to represent and sometimes win freedom for fellow prisoners

The Federal Lawyer - Heidi Boghosian

From his unique vantage point (he has been incarcerated for more than a quarter of a century, most of that on death row), Abu-Jamal aptly humanizes the individuals toiling behind bars to bring cases against enormous institutional, societal, and legal obstacles. . . . [The book] testifies to the character of many jailhouse lawyers, who, when treated with disdain or worse, quietly persist in reading, analyzing, writing, and fighting to do what is right — doing justice.

Acknowledgments 9

Foreword Angela Y. Davis 13

Note from the U.K. Publisher 21

Preface 27

1 Learning the Law 35

2 What "the Law" Is 51

3 When Jailhouse Lawyers "Represent" 73

4 What about Street Lawyers? 117

5 The Jailhouse Lawyering of Mayberry 151

6 A Woman's Work in State Hell 167

7 The Ruiz Effect: How One Jailhouse Lawyer Made Change in Texas 185

8 From "Social Prisoner" to Jailhouse Lawyers to Revolutionary: Ed Mead's Journey 191

9 Jailhouse Lawyers on Jailhouse Lawyers 205

10 The Best of the Best 217

11 The Worst of the Worst 233

12 The Social Role of Jailhouse Lawyers 243

Afterword 249

Appendix A 255

Appendix B 260

Endnotes 265

Index 279

About the Authors 288