This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

INTERWIKI PROBLEM: In many foreign languages, there is no familiar common term including minuscule and majuscule, such as English letter case does. Therefore, interwiki links from this article lead to articles about the majuscules. Interwiki links to foreign articles about minuscules are listed at the disambiguation page Minuscule.

Williamsburg 18th-century press letters

In orthography and typography, letter case (or just case) is the distinction between the larger majuscule (capital, caps, upper case, upper-case, or uppercase) and smaller minuscule (lower-case, etc.) letters. The term originated with the shallow drawers called type cases still used to hold the movable type for letterpress printing.

In the Latin script, majuscules ( /məˈdʒʌskjuːlz/ or /ˈmædʒəskjuːlz/) are A, B, C, etc.; minuscules are a, b, c, etc.

Most occidental (Western) languages (certainly those based on the Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian alphabets, and Coptic alphabets) use multiple letter-cases in their written form as an aid to clarity. Scripts using two separate cases are also called "bicameral scripts". Many other writing systems (such as those used in the Georgian language, Glagolitic, Arabic, Hebrew, and Devanagari) make no distinction between capital and lowercase letters – a system called unicase. If an alphabet has case, all or nearly all letters have both forms. Both forms in each pair are considered to be the same letter: they have the same name, same pronunciation, and will be treated identically when sorting in alphabetical order. An example of a letter without both forms is the German ß (ess-tsett), which exists only in minuscule. When capitalized it normally becomes two letters ("SS"), but the ß letter may be used as a capital to prevent confusion in special cases, such as names. This is because ß was originally a ligature of the two letters "ſs" (a long s and an s), both of which become "S" when capitalized. It later evolved into a letter in its own right. (ß is also occasionally referred to as a ligature of "sz", which recalls the way this consonant was pronounced in some medieval German dialects. The original spelling sz is preserved in Hungarian and pronounced [s].)

Languages have capitalization rules to determine whether majuscules or minuscules are to be used in a given context. In English, capital letters are used as the first letter of a sentence, a proper noun, or a proper adjective, and for initials or abbreviations. The first-person pronoun "I" and the interjection "O" are also capitalized. Lower-case letters are normally used for all other purposes. There are however situations where further capitalization may be used to give added emphasis, for example in headings and titles or to pick out certain words (often using small capitals). There are also a few pairs of words of different meanings whose only difference is capitalization of the first letter. Other languages vary in their use of capitals. For example, in German the first letter of all nouns is capitalized, while in Romance languages the names of days of the week, months of the year, and adjectives of nationality, religion and so on generally begin with a lower-case letter.

Demonstrating the use of a composing stick in front of upper and lower type cases at the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA.

Case comparison[link]

Here is a comparison of the majuscule and minuscule versions of each letter used in the English language. The exact representation will vary according to the font used.

History[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Example of minuscule text Codex Ebnerianus (c. 1100)

Originally alphabets were written entirely in capital letters, spaced between well-defined upper and lower bounds. When written quickly with a pen, these tended to turn into rounder and much simpler forms, like uncials. It is from these that the first minuscule hands developed, the half-uncials and cursive minuscule, which no longer stay bound between a pair of lines.^[1] These in turn formed the foundations for the Carolingian minuscule script, developed by Alcuin for use in the court of Charlemagne, which quickly spread across Europe.

European languages, except for Ancient Greek and Latin, did not make the case distinction before about 1300. In Latin, papyri from Herculaneum dating before 79 have been found which include lower-case letters a, b, d, h, p, and r. According to papyrologist Knut Kleve, "The theory, then, that the lower-case letters have been developed from the fifth century uncials and the ninth century Carolingian miniscules seems to be wrong."^[2]

Both "majuscule" and "minuscule" letters existed, but the printing press had not yet been invented, and a given handwritten document could use either one size/style or the other. However, before about 1700 literacy was very low in Europe and the Americas, hence even handwriting was not used or understood by more than about 1% of people^{[citation needed]}. Therefore, there was not any motivation to use both upper case and lower case letters in the same document as all documents were used by only a small number of scholars.

The timeline of writing in Western Europe can be divided into four eras:

• Greek majuscule (9th–3rd century B.C.) in contrast to the Greek uncial script (3rd century BC – 12 century AD) and the later Greek minuscule
• Roman majuscule (7th century BC – 4th century AD) in contrast to the Roman uncial (4th–8th century BC), Roman Half Uncial, and minuscule
• Carolingian majuscule (4th–8th century AD) in contrast to the Carolingian minuscule (around 780 – 12th century)
• Gothic majuscule (13th and 14th century), in contrast to the early Gothic (end of 11th to 13th century), Gothic (14th century), and late Gothic (16th century) minuscules.

Traditionally, certain letters were rendered differently according to a set of rules. In particular, those letters that began sentences or nouns were made larger and often written in a distinct script. There was no fixed capitalization system until the early 18th century. The English language eventually dropped the rule for nouns, while the German language kept it.

Similar developments have taken place in other alphabets. The lower-case script for the Greek alphabet has its origins in the 7th century and acquired its quadrilinear form in the 8th century. Over time, uncial letter forms were increasingly mixed into the script. The earliest dated Greek lower-case text is the Uspenski Gospels (MS 461) in the year 835^{[citation needed]}. The modern practice of capitalizing the first letter of every sentence seems to be imported (and is rarely used when printing Ancient Greek materials even today).

The Samaritan alphabet also had lower-case letters, making it relatively unusual among abjads such as Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic, which tend to be written without case.

Simplified relationship between various scripts leading to the development of modern lower case of standard Latin alphabet and that of the modern variants, Fraktur (used in Germany until recently) and Gaelic (Ireland). Several scripts coexisted such as half-uncial and uncial, which derive from Roman cursive and Greek uncial, and Visigothic, Merovingian (Luxeuil variant here) and Beneventan. The Carolingian scrip was the basis for blackletter and humanist minuscule. What is commonly called "gothic writing" is technically called blackletter (here Textualis quadrata) and is completely unrelated to Visigothic script.
The letter j is i with a flourish, u and v are the same letter in early scripts and were used depending on their position in insular half-uncial and caroline minuscule and later scripts, w is a ligature of vv, in insular the rune wynn is used as a w (three other runes in use were the thorn (þ), ʻféʼ (ᚠ) as an abbreviation for cattle/goods and maðr (ᛘ) for man).
The letters y and z were very rarely used, in particular þ was written identically to y so y was dotted to avoid confusion, the dot was adopted for i only after late-caroline (protogothic), in beneventan script the macron abbreviation featured a dot above.
Lost variants such as r rotunda, ligatures and scribal abbreviation marks are omitted, long s is shown when no terminal s (surviving variant) is present.
Humanist script was the basis for Venetian types which changed little until today, such as Times New Roman (a serifed typeface))

Terminology[link]

This article appears to contradict itself. Please see the talk page for more information. (April 2011)

Movable type on a composing stick, lying on a lower case with larger boxes for more common letters.

The term lower case originated in the early days of the printing press used with movable type in letterpress printing. The individual type blocks used in hand typesetting are stored in shallow wooden or metal drawers, known as cases, with subdivisions into compartments known as boxes to store each individual letter. In many countries the majuscules and minuscules are stored separately, with a pair of boxes for each typeface at a specific size. For typesetting, the two cases are taken out of the storage rack and placed on a rack on the compositor's desk. By convention, the case containing the capitals (and small capitals) stands at a steeper angle at the back of the desk, with the case for the small letters, punctuation and spaces, at a shallower angle below it to the front of the desk, hence upper and lower case.^[3] The term "upper case" is a backformation and not used by printers to classify capital letters.^{[citation needed]} The upper case contained accented letters, numbers and capital ligatures in addition to capital letters and comes from the antique age of setting type for printing presses, when printers kept the type for these letters in the upper drawers of a desk or in the upper type case, while keeping the type for the more frequently-used smaller letters in the lower type case within easy reach.

Various patterns of cases are available, often with the compartments for lower-case letters varying in size according to the frequency of use of letters, so that the commonest letters are grouped together in larger boxes at the centre of the case.^[3] The compositor takes the letter blocks from the compartments and places them in a composing stick, working from left to right and placing the letters upside down with the nick to the top, then sets the assembled type in a galley.

The Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Advanced Proportional Principles (reprinted 1952) indicates that this usage of "case" (as the box or frame used by a compositor in the printing trade) was first used in 1588. Originally one large case was used for each typeface, then "divided cases", pairs of cases for upper and lower case, were introduced in the region of today's Belgium by 1563, England by 1588, and France before 1723. Though pairs of cases were used in English-speaking countries and many European countries, in Germany and Scandinavia the single case continued in use.^[3]

For paleographers, a majuscule script is any script in which the letters have very few or very short ascenders and descenders, or none at all (for example, the majuscule scripts used in the Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, or the Book of Kells).

The word minuscule is often spelled miniscule, by association with the unrelated word miniature and the prefix mini-. This has traditionally been regarded as a spelling mistake (since minuscule is derived from the word minus^[4]), but is now so common that some dictionaries tend to accept it as a nonstandard or variant spelling.^[5] However, miniscule is still less likely to be used for lower-case letters.

Other forms of case[link]

The distinction between hiragana and katakana in Japanese is similar to, but not the same as, case; it may also be considered analogous to upright and italics characters. While each sound has both a hiragana and katakana, any given word will use only one of the two scripts normally. If a word is written with hiragana, it is not normally considered correct to write it with katakana, and vice versa. However, katakana may be substituted for hiragana or kanji to add emphasis or make them stand out, similar to the use of capitalization or italics in English. Another specific usage of hiragana is as rubi (ルビ) or furigana (振り仮名). This is a small attachement to Kanji, often used with personal names with ambiguous reading, difficult to read characters, unusual usage or irregular readings of Kanji. These rubi are atached to the right side of Kanji in vertical typesetting (Tategaki 縦書き) and above the character in horizontal typesetting (Yokogaki 横書き) and rendered in half size to fit in with the Kanji.

Also similar to case is recent usage in Georgian, where some authors use isolated letters from the Asomtavruli alphabet within a text otherwise written in Mkhedruli in a fashion that is reminiscent of modern usage of letter case in the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets.

Usage[link]

In scripts with a case distinction, lower case is generally used for the majority of text; capitals are used for capitalization, acronyms, medial capitals, and emphasis (in some languages).

Capitalization is the writing of a word with its first letter in uppercase and the remaining letters in lowercase. Capitalization rules vary by language (e.g. capitalization in English) and are often quite complex, but in most modern languages that have capitalization, the first word of every sentence is capitalized, as are all proper nouns. Some languages, such as German, capitalize the first letter of all nouns; this was previously common in English as well. (See the article on capitalization for a detailed list of norms).

In English, a variety of case styles are used in various circumstances:

• Capitalization in English, in terms of the general orthographic rules independent of context (e.g., title vs heading vs text), is universally standardized for formal writing. For example, it is universal to begin a sentence with a cap, and to cap proper nouns, wherever formal orthography is in force. (Informal communication, such as texting, IM, or a handwritten sticky note, may not bother, of course; but that's because its users usually do not expect it to be formal.)
  • Sentence case: The most common in English prose. Generally equivalent to the baseline universal standard of formal English orthography mentioned above; that is, only the first word is capitalized, except for proper nouns and other words which are generally capitalized by a more specific rule.
  • Title Case: All words are capitalized except for certain subsets defined by rules that are not universally standardized. The standardization is only at the level of house styles and individual style manuals. (See further explanation below at Headings and publication titles.)
  • ALL CAPS: Only capital letters are used. Capital letters were sometimes used for typographical emphasis in text made on a typewriter. However, long spans of Latin-alphabet text in all upper-case are harder to read because of the absence of the ascenders and descenders found in lower-case letters, which can aid recognition. With the advent of the Internet, all-caps is more often used for emphasis; however, it is considered poor "netiquette" by some to type in all capitals, and said to be tantamount to shouting^{[citation needed]}.
  • small caps: Capital letters are used which are the size of the lower-case "x". Slightly larger small caps can be used in a Mixed Case fashion. Used for initialisms, names, mathematical entities, computer commands in printed text, business or personal printed stationery letterheads, and other situations where a given phrase needs to be distinguished from the main text.
  • lowercase only: Sometimes used for artistic effect, such as in poetry. Also commonly seen in computer commands and SMS language, to avoid pressing the shift key in order to type quickly.

In some traditional forms of poetry, capitalization has been conventionally used as a marker to indicate the beginning of a line of verse independent of any other grammatical feature.

Headings and publication titles[link]

In English-language publications, varying conventions are used for capitalizing words in publication titles and headlines, including chapter and section headings. The rules differ substantially between individual house styles. The main examples are (from most to least capitals used):

Among U.S. book publishers (but not newspaper publishers), it is a common typographic practice to capitalize "important" words in titles and headings. This is an old form of emphasis, similar to the more modern practice of using a larger or boldface font for titles. Most capitalize all words except for closed-class words, or articles, prepositions and conjunctions. Some capitalize longer prepositions such as "between", but not shorter ones. Some capitalize only nouns, others capitalize all words. This family of typographic conventions is usually called title case. Of these various styles, only the practice of capitalizing nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives but not articles, conjunctions or prepositions (though some styles except long prepositions) is considered correct in formal American English writing, according to most style guides, though others are found in less formal settings.

As for whether hyphenated words are capitalized not only at the beginning but also after the hyphen, there is no universal standard; variation occurs in the wild and among house styles (e.g., The Letter-Case Rule in My Book; Short-term Follow-up Care for Burns). Traditional copyediting makes a distinction between "temporary compounds" (such as many nonce [novel instance] compound modifiers), in which every word is capped (e.g., How This Particular Author Chose To Style His Autumn-Apple-Picking Heading), and "permanent compounds", which are terms that, although compound and hyphenated, are so well established that dictionaries enter them as headwords (e.g., Short-term Follow-up Care for Burns).

The convention followed by many British publishers (including scientific publishers, like Nature, magazines, like The Economist and New Scientist, and newspapers, like The Guardian and The Times) is to use sentence-style capitalization in titles and headlines, where capitalization follows the same rules that apply for sentences. This convention is sometimes called sentence case. It is also widely used in the United States, especially in newspaper publishing, bibliographic references and library catalogues. Examples of global publishers whose English-language house styles prescribe sentence-case titles and headings include the International Organization for Standardization.

In creative typography, such as music record covers and other artistic material, all styles are commonly encountered, including all-lowercase letters and mixed case (StudlyCaps).

Several information technology products are titled in CamelCase, deriving from a computer programming practice.

One British style guide mentions a form of title case: R.M. Ritter's "Oxford Manual of Style" (2002) suggests capitalizing "the first word and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, but generally not articles, conjunctions and short prepositions".^[6][7]

Computers[link]

Some sentence cases are not used in standard English, but are common in computer programming, as well as in product branding and in other specialised fields:

• CamelCase: First letter of each word is capitalized, spaces and punctuation removed. If the very first letter is capitalized, as in "CamelCase" (or "PowerPoint"), the term "upper camel case" may be used; this is also known as "Pascal case" or "Bumpy case". "Lower camel case" describes a variation, as in "camelCase" (or "iPod" or "eBay"), in which the very first letter is in lower case.
• Start case: First letter of each word capitalized, spaces separate words. All words including short articles and prepositions start with a capital letter. For example: "This Is A Start Case".
• Snake case: punctuation is removed and spaces are replaced by single underscores. Normally the letters share the same case (either UPPER_CASE_EMBEDDED_UNDERSCORE or lower_case_embedded_underscore) but the case can be mixed.
• Studly caps: Mixed case, as in "StUdLyCaPs", with no semantic or syntactic significance to the use of the capitals. Sometimes only vowels are upper-case, at other times upper and lower case are alternated, but often it is just random. The name comes from the sarcastic or ironic implication that it was used in an attempt by the writer to convey their own coolness. (It is also used to mock the violation of standard English case conventions by marketers in the naming of computer software packages, even when there is no technical requirement to do so—e.g., Sun Microsystems' naming of a windowing system NeWS.)

Case folding[link]

The conversion of letter case in a string is common practice in computer applications, for instance to make case-insensitive comparisons. Many high-level programming languages provide simple methods for case folding, at least for the ASCII character set.

Methods[link]

In word processing[link]

Most modern word processors provide automated case folding with a simple click or keystroke. For example, in Microsoft Office Word, there is a dialog box for toggling the selected text through UPPERCASE, then lowercase, then Title Case (actually start caps; exception words must be lowercased individually). The keystroke shift-F3 does the same thing.

In programming[link]

In some forms of BASIC there are two methods for case folding:

<source lang="qbasic">
UpperA$ = UCASE$("a")
LowerA$ = LCASE$("A")
</source>

C and C++, as well as any C-like language that conforms to its standard library, provide these functions in the file ctype.h:

<source lang="c">
char upperA = toupper('a');
char lowerA = tolower('A');
</source>

Case folding is different with different character sets. In ASCII or EBCDIC, case can be folded in the following way, in C:

#define toupper(c) (islower(c) ? (c) - 'a' + 'A' : (c))
#define tolower(c) (isupper(c) ? (c) - 'A' + 'a' : (c))

This only works because the letters of upper and lower cases are spaced out equally. In ASCII they are consecutive, whereas with EBCDIC they are not; nonetheless the upper case letters are arranged in the same pattern and with the same gaps as are the lower case letters, so the technique still works.

Some computer programming languages offer facilities for converting text to a form in which all words are first-letter capitalized. Visual Basic calls this "proper case"; Python calls it "title case". This differs from usual title casing conventions, such as the English convention in which minor words are not capitalized.

Unicode case folding and script identification[link]

Unicode defines case folding through the three case-mapping properties of each character: uppercase, lowercase and titlecase. These properties relate all characters in scripts with differing cases to the other case variants of the character.

As briefly discussed in Unicode Technical Note #26,^[8] "In terms of implementation issues, any attempt at a unification of Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic would wreak havoc [and] make casing operations an unholy mess, in effect making all casing operations context sensitive [...]". In other words, while the shapes of letters like A, B, E, H, K, M, O, P, T, X, Y and so on are shared between the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets (and small differences in their canonical forms may be considered to be of a merely typographical nature), it would still be problematic for a multilingual character set or a font to provide only a single codepoint for, say, uppercase letter B, as this would make it quite difficult for a wordprocessor to change that single uppercase letter to one of the three different choices for the lower case letter, b (Latin), β (Greek), or в (Cyrillic). Without letter case, a 'unified European alphabet'—such as ABБCГDΔΕZЄЗFΦGHIИJ...Z, with an appropriate subset for each language—is feasible; but considering letter case, it becomes very clear that these alphabets are rather distinct sets of symbols.

Special cases[link]

• The German letter ß exists only in lowercase (but see Capital ß), and is capitalized as "SS".
• The Greek letter Σ has two different lowercase forms: "ς" in word-final position and "σ" elsewhere.
• The Cyrillic letter Ӏ usually has only a capital form, which is also used in lowercase text.
• Unlike most Latin-script languages that use uppercase "I" and lowercase "i", Turkish has dotted and dotless I independent of case.

Related phenomena[link]

Similar orthographic conventions are used for emphasis or following language-specific rules, including:

• Font effects such as italic type or oblique type, boldface, and choice of serif vs. sans-serif
• Typographical conventions in mathematical formulae include the use of Greek letters and the use of Latin letters with formatting such as blackboard bold and blackletter
• Choice of character set, for example switching between kanji, hiragana, katakana, and rōmaji in the Japanese writing system.

See also[link]

• All caps
• CamelCase
• Capitalization
• Case folding
• Roman cursive
• Roman square capitals
• Sentence case
• Shift key
• Small caps
• StudlyCaps
• Text figures for upper/lowercase numerals
• Unicase

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up capital letter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up minuscule or lowercase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• SongCase.com, Online tool for capitalizing song titles
• Change Text Case Upper to Lower and Lower to Upper case
• Convert text to title case
• Printing capitals worksheet
• Codex Vaticanus B/03 Detailed description of Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 with many images.
• All-caps is harder to read
• Capitals, a Primer of Information About Capitalization With Some Practical Typographic Hints as to The Use Of Capitals by Frederick W. Hamilton, 1918, from Project Gutenberg
• Lower Case Definition by The Linux Information Project; also includes information on lower case as it relates to computers.
• Case Converter, Online tool

Media related to Capital letters at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Typography terminology Page Column Canons of page construction Margin Page numbering Pagination Pull quote Recto and verso Paragraph Alignment Justification Leading River Sentence spacing Widows and orphans Character Typeface anatomy Counter Diacritics Dingbat Glyph Initial Kerning Letter-spacing Ligature Subscript and superscript Swash Text figures Capitalization Letter case Small caps CamelCase Petite caps All caps Vertical aspects Ascender Descender Baseline Cap height Median Overshoot x-height Classifications Roman type Antiqua (Old Style) Transitional Didone (Modern) Serif Slab serif Sans-serif Script Blackletter type Textualis Rotunda Schwabacher Fraktur Gaelic type Angular Uncial Punctuation Dashes Hanging punctuation Hyphenation Quotation mark Prime mark Typesetting Calligraphy ETAOIN SHRDLU Font Computer font Font catalog Letterpress Lorem ipsum Movable type Pangram Phototypesetting Punchcutting Type design Typeface Type foundry Microtypography Typographic units Point Pica Cicero Em En Figure space Thin space Paren space Agate Measure Digital typography Font formats Typesetting software Character encoding Rasterization Hinting

Buju Banton
Buju Banton performing at Ilosaarirock, 2006
Background information
Birth name	Mark Anthony Myrie
Also known as	Gargamel
Born	(1973-07-15) 15 July 1973 (age 38)
Origin	Kingston, Jamaica
Genres	Reggae, dancehall, reggae fusion, roots reggae
Occupations	Deejay, Singer
Years active	1987-2011
Labels	Gargamel Music
Website	www.gargamelmusic.com

Buju Banton (born Mark Anthony Myrie 15 July 1973)^[1] is a Jamaican dancehall, ragga, and reggae musician. Banton has recorded pop and dance songs, as well as songs dealing with sociopolitical topics.

He released early dancehall singles in 1991, but came to prominence in 1992 with two albums, including Mr. Mention, which became the best-selling album in Jamaican history upon its release. Banton signed with major label Mercury Records and released Voice of Jamaica the following year. By the mid-1990s, Banton had converted to the Rastafari faith, and his music undertook a more spiritual tone. His 2010 album Before the Dawn was the winner for Best Reggae Album at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards.

Banton gained international notoriety early on in his career for the anti-gay track "Boom Bye Bye", as well as for his 2009 arrest and conviction on drug conspiracy and firearms charges, for which he is currently serving a ten-year federal prison sentence in Federal Transfer Center with a scheduled release date of January 2019.

Biography[link]

Background[link]

Buju Banton was born in Kingston, Jamaica in a poor neighborhood called Salt Lane. Buju is a nickname given to chubby children that means breadfruit and was given to him by his mother as a child. Banton is a Jamaican word that refers to someone who is a respected storyteller, and it was adopted by Myrie in tribute to the deejay Burro Banton, whom Buju admired as a child.^[2] It was Burro's rough gravelly vocals that Buju emulated and ultimately made his own. Buju's mother was a higgler, or street vendor, while his father worked as a labourer at a tile factory. He was the youngest of fifteen children born into a family that was directly descended from the Maroons of Jamaica.

Early career[link]

As a youngster, Buju would often watch his favorite artists perform at outdoor shows and local dancehalls in Denham Town. At the age of 12, he picked up the [microphone] for himself and began toasting under the moniker of Gargamel, working with the Sweet Love and Rambo Mango sound systems.^[2] In 1986, he was introduced to producer Robert Ffrench by fellow deejay Clement Irie, and his first single, "The Ruler" was released not long afterwards in 1987.^[2] This led to recording sessions with producers such as Patrick Roberts, Bunny Lee, Winston Riley, and Digital B, and in 1988, aged 15, he first recorded the song "Boom Bye Bye".^[2] The song was written in response to a widely reported man/boy rape case in Jamaica.

1990s[link]

In 1991, Buju joined Donovan Germain's Penthouse Records label and began a fruitful partnership with producer Dave Kelly who later launched his own Madhouse Records label.^[2] Buju is one of the most popular musicians in Jamaican history, having major chart success in 1992, with "Bogle" and "Love me Browning", both massive hits in Jamaica. Controversy erupted over "Love Me Browning" which spoke of Banton's penchant for light-skinned women: "I love my car I love my house I love my money and ting, but most of all I love my browning." Some accused Banton of promoting a colonialist mindset and denigrating the beauty of dark skinned black women. In response, he released "Love Black Woman" which spoke of his love for dark-skinned beauties: "Mi nuh Stop cry, fi all black women, respect all the girls dem with dark complexion".^[3] 1992 was an explosive year for Buju as he broke Bob Marley's record for the greatest number of number one singles in a year. Beginning with "Woman fi Sex", Buju's gruff voice dominated the Jamaican airwaves for the duration of the year. Banton's debut album, Mr. Mention, includes his greatest hits from that year. 1992 saw the unsanctioned re-release of "Boom Bye Bye", which almost destroyed his career.^[2] The song was the subject of outrage in the United States and Europe, leading to Banton being dropped from the line-up of the WOMAD festival that year.^[2] Banton subsequently issued a public apology.^[2]

Now on the major Mercury/PolyGram Records label, Banton released the hard-hitting Voice of Jamaica in 1993. The album included a number of conscious tracks. These tracks included "Deportees", a song which criticized those Jamaicans who went abroad but never sent money home; a remix of Little Roy's "Tribal War", a sharp condemnation of political violence; and "Willy, Don't Be Silly", which promoted safe sex and the use of contraceptives, particularly the condom, profits from which were donated to a charity supporting children with AIDS.^[2] He was invited to meet Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, and won several awards that year at the Caribbean Music Awards, the Canadian Music Awards, and the Topeka ceremony.^[2]

Banton's lyrics often dealt with violence, which he explained as reflecting the images that young Jamaicans were presented with by the news media, but the reality of Kingston's violence was brought home in 1993 by the murders in separate incidents of two of his friends and fellow recording artists, the deejays Pan Head and Dirtsman.^[2] His response was the single "Murderer", which condemned gun violence, going against the flow of the prevailing lyrical content in dancehall. The song inspired several clubs to stop playing songs with excessively violent subject matter. Late in 1994, Buju was also affected by the death of his friend Garnett Silk. Buju's transformation continued, embracing the Rastafari movement and growing dreadlocks. He joined "conscious" deejay Tony Rebel, Papa San, and General Degree in the Yardcore Collective. His performances and musical releases took on a more spiritual tone. Banton toured Europe and Japan, playing sold out shows.

'Til Shiloh (1995) was a very influential album, using a studio band instead of synthesized music, and marking a slight shift away from dancehall towards roots reggae for Banton. Buju claimed to have sighted Rastafari and his new album reflected these beliefs. Til Shiloh successfully blended conscious lyrics with a hard-hitting dancehall vibe. The album included earlier singles such as "Murderer", and "Untold Stories". "Untold Stories" revealed an entirely different Buju Banton from the one that had stormed to dancehall stardom. It is regarded by many as some of his best work, and is a staple in the Banton performance repertoire. Reminiscent in mood and delivery to "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley, "Untold Stories" won Buju Banton many favorable comparisons to the late singer. This album had a large impact on dancehall music and proved that dancehall audiences had not forgotten the message that Roots Reggae expounded with the use of "conscious lyrics". Dancehall music did not move away from slack and violent lyrics, but the album did pave the way for a greater spirituality within the music. In the wake of Buju's transformation to Rastafari, many artists, such as Capleton, converted to the faith and began to denounce violence.

In 1996, Buju contributed "Wanna Be Loved (Desea ser Amado)" along with Los Pericos to the Red Hot Organization's album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin for the Red Hot Benefit Series. This series raises money to increase AIDS awareness.

Inna Heights (1997) substantially increased Banton's international audience as Buju explored his singing ability and recorded a number of roots-tinged tracks, including the hugely popular "Destiny" and "Hills and Valleys". The album also included collaborations with artists such as Beres Hammond and the legendary Toots Hibbert. The album was well-received but had distribution problems. Also, some fans were disappointed, having hoped for another ground-breaking album like Til Shiloh. Still, Buju's experimentation and soaring vocals impressed many fans and this album remains a highly regarded work.

In 1998, Buju met the punk band Rancid and recorded three tracks with them: "Misty Days", "Hooligans" and "Life Won't Wait". The latter became the title track of Rancid's 1998 album, Life Won't Wait.

2000s[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2009)

Buju Banton performing in 2007.

Buju signed with Anti- Records, a subsidiary of Brett Gurewitz's Epitaph records, and released Unchained Spirit in 2000.^[4] The album showcased diverse musical styles, and featured guest appearances by Luciano, Morgan Heritage, Stephen Marley, and Rancid. It carried little of the roots feel heard on Til Shiloh and virtually none of the hardcore dancehall sound which had brought him to public acclaim early in his career. It was a departure which left many fans uncomfortable. 

Several singles followed in the start of the new decade, which were perceived as more mellow and introspective, as opposed to the dancehall approach of his early career. In March 2003, Banton released Friends for Life, which featured more sharply political songs, including "Mr. Nine", an anti-gun hit.^[5] The album focused on political messages regarding the African diaspora, featuring excerpts from a speech made by Marcus Garvey. "Paid Not Played", also featured on the album, displayed a gradual return to the themes more popular in dancehall. The album also featured some hip hop influence with the inclusion of rapper Fat Joe.

2006 saw the release of the Too Bad, an album more dancehall-orientated in style. One of the slower tracks from the album, "Driver A", went on to become a major hit, while at the same time reviving Sly & Robbie's "Taxi" riddim.

He performed at the Cricket World Cup 2007 Opening Ceremony with Third World and Beres Hammond.

The album Rasta Got Soul was released on 21 April 2009, a date which marked the 43rd anniversary of Emperor Haile Selassie's visit to Jamaica in 1966. Produced by Banton, with contributions from longtime collaborators Donovan Germain, Stephen Marsden and Wyclef Jean, Rasta Got Soul was recorded over a seven year period before its release. It went on to become his fourth Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album in 2010.

On 13 February 2011, one day before the scheduled start of his second court trial in Tampa, Florida, Buju Banton's Before the Dawn album was announced as the winner of Best Reggae Album at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards.^[6]

Controversies[link]

Homophobic stance[link]

Banton has attracted criticism over his homophobic lyrics in his hit "Boom Bye Bye", written when he was 15 years old and released in 1988, contains lyrics allegedly supporting the murder of gay men. In 2009 gay rights group appealed to venues around the United States not to host Buju Banton.^[7]

Banton was charged in connection with a 2004 incident in which he, as part of a group of about a dozen people, allegedly beat six men believed to be homosexuals after forcing entry into a house in Kingston near Banton's recording studio. One of the victims lost use of an eye in the fight. Charges against Banton were dismissed by the judge in the case in January 2006, for lack of evidence.^[8][9]

In 2007 Banton was allegedly among a number of reggae artists who signed a pledge, the Reggae Compassionate Act, created by the Stop Murder Music campaign, to refrain from performing homophobic songs or making homophobic statements,^[10] but he later denied that he had made any such commitment.^[11]

Federal drug charges[link]

Mug shot of Banton taken after his arrest.

In December 2009 Drug Enforcement Administration agents remanded Banton to custody in Miami, where the U.S. Attorney charged him with conspiracy to distribute and possession of more than five kilograms of cocaine.^[12] Banton was then moved to the Pinellas County Jail where he remained until trial. A six-day trial in Tampa, Florida was declared a mistrial on 27 September 2010, after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision.^[13] During the trial, audio recordings were presented of Banton and a drug-dealer-turned-government-informant discussing drugs, drug prices and smuggling. Banton was also seen on a video recording meeting the informant in a police-controlled warehouse tasting cocaine from a kilogram bag.^[13] The informant was reportedly paid $50,000 for his work on the case.^[13] The singer was released that November on bond,^[14] and a new trial was scheduled for February 2011 after prosecutors won reindictment.

He was allowed to perform one concert between trials, which was held on 16 January 2011 to a sold-out crowd in Miami.^[15]

On 22 February 2011, Banton was found guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking offense and using communication wires to facilitate a drug-trafficking offense. He was found not guilty on the charge of attempted possession of five kilograms or more of cocaine.^[16] Four months later, he was sentenced to ten years and one month in a federal prison for the cocaine trafficking conviction.^[17] He is scheduled to be released in January 2019.^[18]

Discography[link]

• 1992: Stamina Daddy (later repackaged as Quick)
• 1992: Mr. Mention
• 1993: Voice of Jamaica
• 1995: 'Til Shiloh
• 1997: Inna Heights
• 2000: Unchained Spirit
• 2003: Friends for Life
• 2006: Too Bad
• 2009: Rasta Got Soul
• 2010: Before the Dawn

References[link]

External links[link]

• Buju Banton @ Reggaeville
• Buju Banton Wins 2011 Grammy Award For Best Reggae Album
• Buju Banton Federal Drug Charge
• Official website
• discogs.com entry

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)

10 Years is an American alternative metal band, formed in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1999.

History[link]

[edit] Early Years, Into the Half Moon (1999–2001)

10 Years was initially formed in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1999 with singer Mike Underdown, drummer Brian Vodinh, bassist Lewis Cosby, and guitarists Ryan "Tater" Johnson (also of The American Plague) and Matt Wantland. In 2001, Cosby left and the band recruited Andy Parks on bass. They independently recorded Into the Half Moon the same year.

[edit] Killing All That Holds You, The Autumn Effect (2002–2006)

Lead vocalist Mike Underdown left the band to pursue a career in acting and start up a new band 'Courage, You Bastards' in Los Angeles, Ca. 10 Years soon recruited current vocalist Jesse Hasek from another local band. In 2002, Parks decided to leave the band and Cosby returned. The band then released their independent album Killing All That Holds You in 2004.

10 Years was then signed to Universal Records in 2005 and released their major label debut, The Autumn Effect on August 16, 2005 with the songs "Wasteland" and "Through the Iris" picking up regional radio play. Their first single, "Wasteland" spent over 12 months on the rock charts, finally reaching #1 at active rock radio in December 2005.

That same summer, the band toured with Disturbed and Ill Niño. In the fall of 2005, they toured with Breaking Benjamin and Smile Empty Soul, then followed up with the Masters of Horror tour with Mudvayne and Sevendust. They opened for Korn and Mudvayne on Korn's See You on the Other Side tour. They also toured with Korn and Deftones on the Family Values Tour, which started in late July 2006.

In mid February 2006, "Wasteland" reached #1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. "Wasteland" has been certified Gold by the RIAA.

In mid-2006, the band toured Australia in a lineup which included Hatebreed, Disturbed and Korn.

Their first music video, "Wasteland", addresses the social problem of human rights as well as addiction around the world. The video received a nomination for Best Direction and Best Art Direction at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, but did not win either.

On March 27, 2006, an EP was released on iTunes containing acoustic versions of "Wasteland" and other tracks from The Autumn Effect.

[edit] Division (2006–2008)

On November 19, 2006, 10 Years unveiled and confirmed the title Division for their second album.^[1] The band would begin recording Division in late June 2007 after spending the better part of a year writing.

Lewis told in an interview that the album is "so different from the first one [The Autumn Effect], but it's still 10 Years," and, "It just sounds like [the songs] would be from a totally different album, which was, you know, the goal."^[2] It was also revealed that the track titled "Focus" was co-written with Stone Temple Pilots and former Army of Anyone guitarist Dean DeLeo.^[1]

On May 21, 2007 a demo song titled "All Your Lies" from Division was released onto their MySpace along with a post stating the band had chosen producer Rick Parasher to produce the new album.^[3] On September 7, the band announced on their MySpace that the album was finished and would be released in 2008, following a tour with Dir En Grey, Sevendust, Operator, Thousand Foot Krutch and Chevelle.

On January 29, 2008, "Beautiful," the new single from Division, was released to iTunes and a snippet was also posted on the band's MySpace page. Division was released on May 13, 2008 after being pushed back due to finalization of the album's artwork.^[4]

10 Years was featured on the Revolution Stage of Linkin Park's Summer Projekt Revolution 2008 tour with Atreyu, Hawthorne Heights and Armor For Sleep.

They went on tour with Mudvayne until mid December 2008.

[edit] Feeding the Wolves (2009–2011)

10 Years announced that their upcoming third major label album would be entitled Feeding the Wolves. The album was produced by Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson and mixed by Chris "Lord" Alge. The band has mentioned the album is of their heaviest material to date and "very similar to some of their early songs."

Throughout the first half of 2010, the band went back and forth between putting on live shows and working in the studio. Before the album was released, the band debuted new songs at live performances such as "Dead in the Water", "Now is the Time", and the new album's first single ""Shoot It Out" ". ^[5][6]

On June 12, 2010, ""Shoot It Out" " was featured on Sirius/XM Radio. The track was released to radio later that month,^[7] and was made available for download on iTunes July 6.^[8] Feeding the Wolves was released on August 31, 2010.

To promote the album's release, the band opened Shinedown's 2010 Carnival of Madness summer tour alongside Chevelle, Puddle of Mudd, and Sevendust.^[9] In the fall they joined Sevendust again on the Hard Drive Live tour with support from Since October and Anew Revolution.

In December, the band went on a mini-headline tour,^[10] where they played some older songs that they had not played in some time. February 2011, their new single "Fix Me" releases to radio while they headline a spring tour with Hollywood Undead.

On June 17 and 18 the band shot a music video for "Fix Me" in Columbus, Ohio with production company Thunder Down Country.^[11] The video was released via YouTube on August 9, 2011.^[12]

[edit] Minus The Machine Palehorse Records (2012-present)

On twitter the band has shown pictures of Brian Vodinh's home basement turned studio for future workings on their next album.

On April 2nd, 2012, the band announced on Facebook that their upcoming record, Minus The Machine, is to be released on July 30th on their own independent label, Palehorse Records, which the band stated is a part of Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group. They also announced a 4-week headlining tour to support the record, which begins on June 27th in New Orleans.

On May 11th, the band unveiled the cover art of the album and it was announced that the album's release has been pushed back to July 31st.^{[citation needed]} 10 Years will release their first single "Backlash" on radio and iTunes on June 21st.

Band members[link]

Current

• Jesse Hasek – Vocals (2002–present)
• Ryan "Tater" Johnson – Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals (1999–present)
• Lewis "Big Lew" Cosby – Bass (1999–2001, 2002-present)
• Brian Vodinh – Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals (2009–present) Drums (1999–present)

Live

• Matt Brown – Drums (2010-present)
• Sam Anderson – Drums (2010)
• Kyle Mayer – Drums (2010)
• Brandon Estelle - Drums (2010-2011) and select dates.

Former

• Mike Underdown – Vocals (1999–2001)
• Andy Parks - Bass (2001–2002)
• Matt Wantland – Guitar (1999–2009)

Timeline[link]

id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals
id:Bass value:orange legend:Bass
id:Rhythm_Guitar value:blue legend:Rhythm_Guitar
id:Lead_guitar value:green legend:Lead_Guitar
id:drums value:yellow legend:Drums
id:lines value:black legend:Studio Albums

at:01/01/2001 color:black layer:back
at:27/08/2004 color:black layer:back
at:16/08/2005 color:black layer:back
at:01/05/2008 color:black layer:back
at:31/08/2010 color:black layer:back

bar:mike text:"Mike Underdown"
bar:jesse text:"Jesse Hasek"
bar:tater text:"Ryan Tater Johnson"
bar:wantland text:"Matt Wantland"
bar:andy text:"Andy Parks"
bar:lewis text:"Lewis Cosby"
bar:brian text:"Brian Vodinh"
bar:kyle text:"Kyle Mayer"
bar:sam text:"Sam Anderson"
bar:matt text:"Matt Brown"

width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
bar:mike from:start till:01/01/2001 color:Vocals
bar:jesse from:02/01/2001 till:end color:Vocals
bar:tater from:start till:end color:Lead_Guitar
bar:wantland from:start till:03/05/2009 color:Rhythm_Guitar
bar:brian from:start till:31/08/2010 color:Drums
bar:brian from:05/05/2009 till:end color:Rhythm_Guitar
bar:lewis from:start till:01/01/2001 color:Bass
bar:lewis from:02/01/2002 till:end color:Bass
bar:andy from:02/01/2001 till:01/01/2002 color:Bass
bar:kyle from:06/06/2010 till:05/07/2010 color:Drums
bar:sam from:06/07/2010 till:31/07/2010 color:Drums
bar:matt from:01/08/2010 till:end color:Drums

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Extended plays[link]

• 2006: Acoustic EP

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site
• 10 Years on Myspace

For the substance used for medieval medicine or preserving corpses, see Mummia

Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook^[1] on April 24, 1954) is an American convict, serving a life sentence for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.^[2] He was sentenced to death at his first trial in July 1982, and his case became an international cause célèbre.^[3] Before his arrest, he was an activist and radio journalist who became President of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. He was a member of the Black Panther Party until October 1970.

Supporters and opponents disagreed on the appropriateness of the death penalty, his guilt, and whether he received a fair trial.^[4][5][6] He was described as "perhaps the world's best known death-row inmate".^[7] During his imprisonment he has published several books and other commentaries, notably Live from Death Row (1995).

In 2008, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the murder conviction but ordered a new capital sentencing hearing because the jury was improperly instructed.^[8] Subsequently, the United States Supreme Court also allowed his conviction to stand^[8] but ordered the appeals court to reconsider its decision as to the sentence.^[9] In 2011, the Third Circuit again affirmed the conviction as well as its decision to vacate the death sentence,^[10] and the District Attorney of Philadelphia announced that prosecutors would no longer seek the death penalty.^[11] He was removed from death row in January 2012.

Early life and activism[link]

Abu-Jamal was given the name Mumia in 1968 by his high school teacher, a Kenyan instructing a class on African cultures in which students took African classroom names.^[12] According to Abu-Jamal, 'Mumia' means "Prince" and was the name of anti-colonial African nationalists conducting warfare against the British in Kenya at the time of its independence movement.^[13] He adopted the surname Abu-Jamal ("father of Jamal" in Arabic) after the birth of his son Jamal on July 18, 1971.^[12][14] His first marriage at age 19, to Jamal's mother, Biba, was short-lived.^[15] Their daughter, Lateefa, was born shortly after the wedding.^[16] Abu-Jamal married his second wife, Marilyn (known as "Peachie"),^[14] in 1977.^[17] Their son, Mazi, was born in early 1978.^[18] By 1981, Abu-Jamal was living with his third and current wife, Wadiya.^[17]

Involvement with the Black Panthers[link]

In his own writings, Abu-Jamal describes his adolescent experience of being "kicked ... into the Black Panther Party" after suffering a beating from "white racists" and a policeman for his efforts to disrupt a George Wallace for President rally in 1968.^[19] The following year, at the age of 15, he helped form the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party,^[20] taking appointment, in his own words, as the chapter's "Lieutenant of Information", exercising a responsibility for writing information and news communications. In one of the interviews he gave at the time he quoted Mao Zedong, saying that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".^[21] That same year, he dropped out of Benjamin Franklin High School and took up residence in the branch's headquarters.^[20] He spent late 1969 in New York City and early 1970 in Oakland, living and working with BPP colleagues in those cities.^[22] He was a party member from May 1969 until October 1970 and was subject to Federal Bureau of Investigation COINTELPRO surveillance from then until about 1974.^[23]

Education and journalism career[link]

After leaving the Panthers he returned to his old high school, but was suspended for distributing literature calling for "black revolutionary student power".^[24] He also led unsuccessful protests to change the school name to Malcolm X High.^[24] After attaining his GED, he studied briefly at Goddard College in rural Vermont.^[25]

By 1975 he was pursuing a vocation in radio newscasting, first at Temple University's WRTI and then at commercial enterprises.^[24] In 1975, he was employed at radio station WHAT and he became host of a weekly feature program of WCAU-FM in 1978.^[26] He was also employed for brief periods at radio station WPEN, and became active in the local chapter of the Marijuana Users Association of America.^[26] From 1979 he worked at National Public Radio-affiliate WUHY until 1981 when he was asked to submit his resignation after a dispute about the requirements of objective focus in his presentation of news.^[26] As a radio journalist he earned the moniker "the voice of the voiceless" and was renowned for identifying with and giving exposure to the MOVE anarcho-primitivist commune in Philadelphia's Powelton Village neighborhood, including reportage of the 1979–80 trial of certain of its members (the "MOVE Nine") charged with the murder of police officer James Ramp.^[26] During his broadcasting career, his high-profile interviews included Julius Erving, Bob Marley, and Alex Haley, and he was elected president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists.^[27]

At the time of Daniel Faulkner's murder, Abu-Jamal was working as a taxicab driver in Philadelphia two nights a week to supplement his income.^[27] He had been working part-time as a reporter for WDAS,^[26] then an African-American-oriented and minority-owned radio station.^[28]

Arrest for murder and trial[link]

On December 9, 1981, in Philadelphia, close to the intersection at 13th and Locust Streets, Philadelphia Police Department officer Daniel Faulkner conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle belonging to William Cook, Abu-Jamal's younger brother. During the traffic stop, Abu-Jamal's taxi was parked across the street, and Abu-Jamal ran across the street towards the traffic stop. At the traffic stop, there was an exchange of fire. Both Officer Faulkner and Abu-Jamal were wounded, and Faulkner died. Police arrived on the scene and arrested Abu-Jamal, who was found wearing a shoulder holster. A revolver, which had five spent cartridges, was beside him. He was taken directly from the scene of the shooting to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital where he received treatment for his wound, the result of a shot from Faulkner.^[29]

Abu-Jamal was charged with the first-degree murder of Daniel Faulkner. The case went to trial in June 1982 in Philadelphia. Judge Albert F. Sabo initially agreed to Abu-Jamal's request to represent himself, with criminal defense attorney Anthony Jackson acting as his legal advisor. During the first day of the trial, Judge Sabo warned Abu-Jamal that he would forfeit his legal right to self-representation if he kept being intentionally disruptive in a fashion that was unbecoming under the law. Due to Abu-Jamal's continued disruptive behavior, Judge Sabo ruled that Abu-Jamal forfeited his right to self-representation.^[30]

Prosecution case at trial[link]

The prosecution presented four witnesses to the court. Robert Chobert, a cab driver who testified he was parked behind Faulkner, identified Abu-Jamal as the shooter.^[31] Cynthia White, a prostitute, testified that Abu-Jamal emerged from a nearby parking lot and shot Faulkner.^[32] Michael Scanlan, a motorist, testified that from two car lengths away, he saw a man, matching Abu-Jamal's description, run across the street from a parking lot and shoot Faulkner.^[33] Albert Magilton, a pedestrian who did not see the actual murder, testified to witnessing Faulkner pull over Cook's car. At the point of seeing Abu-Jamal start to cross the street toward them from the parking lot, Magilton turned away and lost sight of what happened next.^[34]

The prosecution also presented two witnesses who were at the hospital after the altercation. Hospital security guard Priscilla Durham and Police Officer Garry Bell testified that Abu-Jamal confessed in the hospital by saying, "I shot the motherfucker, and I hope the motherfucker dies."^[35]

A .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver, belonging to Abu-Jamal, with five spent cartridges was retrieved beside him at the scene. He was wearing a shoulder holster, and Anthony Paul, the Supervisor of the Philadelphia Police Department's firearms identification unit, testified at trial that the shell casings and rifling characteristics of the weapon were consistent with bullet fragments taken from Faulkner's body.^[36] Tests to confirm that Abu-Jamal had handled and fired the weapon were not performed, as contact with arresting police and other surfaces at the scene could have compromised the forensic value of such tests.^[37][38]

Defense case at trial[link]

The defense maintained that Abu-Jamal was innocent of the charges and that the testimony of the prosecution's witnesses was unreliable. The defense presented nine character witnesses, including poet Sonia Sanchez, who testified that Abu-Jamal was "viewed by the black community as a creative, articulate, peaceful, genial man".^[39] Another defense witness, Dessie Hightower, testified that he saw a man running along the street shortly after the shooting although he did not see the actual shooting itself.^[40] His testimony contributed to the development of a "running man theory", based on the possibility that a "running man" may have been the actual shooter. Veronica Jones also testified for the defense, but she did not see anyone running.^[41] Other potential defense witnesses refused to appear in court.^[42] Abu-Jamal did not testify in his own defense. Nor did his brother, who said at the crime scene, "I ain't got nothing to do with this."^[43]

Verdict and sentence[link]

The jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict after three hours of deliberations.

In the sentencing phase of the trial, Abu-Jamal read to the jury from a prepared statement. He was then cross-examined about issues relevant to the assessment of his character by Joseph McGill, the prosecuting attorney.^[44]

In his statement Abu-Jamal criticized his attorney as a "legal trained lawyer" who was imposed on him against his will and who "knew he was inadequate to the task and chose to follow the directions of this black-robed conspirator, [Judge] Albert Sabo, even if it meant ignoring my directions". He claimed that his rights had been "deceitfully stolen" from him by Sabo, particularly focusing on the denial of his request to receive defense assistance from non-attorney John Africa and being prevented from proceeding pro se. He quoted remarks of John Africa, and said:

"Does it matter whether a white man is charged with killing a black man or a black man is charged with killing a white man? As for justice when the prosecutor represents the Commonwealth the Judge represents the Commonwealth and the court-appointed lawyer is paid and supported by the Commonwealth, who follows the wishes of the defendant, the man charged with the crime? If the court-appointed lawyer ignores, or goes against the wishes of the man he is charged with representing, whose wishes does he follow? Who does he truly represent or work for? ... I am innocent of these charges that I have been charged of and convicted of and despite the connivance of Sabo, McGill and Jackson to deny me my so-called rights to represent myself, to assistance of my choice, to personally select a jury who is totally of my peers, to cross-examine witnesses, and to make both opening and closing arguments, I am still innocent of these charges."^[45]

Abu-Jamal was subsequently sentenced to death by the unanimous decision of the jury.^[46]

Appeals and review[link]

Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge signed the death warrant in 1995.

State appeals[link]

Direct appeal of his conviction was considered and denied by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on March 6, 1989,^[47] subsequently denying rehearing.^[48] The Supreme Court of the United States denied his petition for writ of certiorari on October 1, 1990,^[49] and denied his petition for rehearing twice up to June 10, 1991.^[50][51]

On June 1, 1995 his death warrant was signed by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.^[51] Its execution was suspended while Abu-Jamal pursued state post-conviction review. At the post-conviction review hearings, new witnesses were called. William "Dales" Singletary testified that he saw the shooting and that the gunman was the passenger in Cook's car.^[52] Singletary's account contained discrepancies which rendered it "not credible" in the opinion of the court.^[51][53] William Harmon, a convicted fraudster, testified that Faulkner's murderer fled in a car which pulled up at the crime scene, and could not have been Abu-Jamal.^[54] However, Robert Harkins testified that he had witnessed a man stand over Faulkner as the latter lay wounded on the ground, who shot him point-blank in the face and then "walked and sat down on the curb".^[55][56]

The six judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled unanimously that all issues raised by Abu-Jamal, including the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, were without merit.^[57] The Supreme Court of the United States denied a petition for certiorari against that decision on October 4, 1999, enabling Ridge to sign a second death warrant on October 13, 1999. Its execution in turn was stayed as Abu-Jamal commenced his pursuit of federal habeas corpus review.^[51]

In 1999, Arnold Beverly claimed that he and an unnamed assailant, not Mumia Abu-Jamal, shot Daniel Faulkner as part of a contract killing because Faulkner was interfering with graft and payoff to corrupt police.^[58] The Beverly affidavit became an item of division for Mumia's defense team, as some thought it usable and others rejected Beverly's story as "not credible".^[59]

Private investigator George Newman claimed in 2001 that Chobert had recanted his testimony.^[60] Commentators also noted that police and news photographs of the crime scene did not show Chobert's taxi, and that Cynthia White, the only witness at the trial to testify to seeing the taxi, had previously provided crime scene descriptions that omitted it.^[61] Cynthia White was declared to be dead by the state of New Jersey in 1992 although Pamela Jenkins claimed that she saw White alive as late as 1997.^[62] Mumia supporters often claim that White was a police informant and that she falsified her testimony against Abu-Jamal.^[63] Priscilla Durham's step-brother, Kenneth Pate, who was imprisoned with Abu-Jamal on other charges, has since claimed that Durham admitted to not hearing the hospital confession.^[64] The hospital doctors have stated that Abu-Jamal was not capable of making such a dramatic bedside confession at that time.^[1] In 2008, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania rejected a further request from Abu-Jamal for a hearing into claims that the trial witnesses perjured themselves on the grounds that he had waited too long before filing the appeal.^[65]

Federal ruling directing resentencing[link]

Abu-Jamal did not make any public statements about Faulkner's murder until May 2001. In his version of events, he claimed that he was sitting in his cab across the street when he heard shouting, then saw a police vehicle, then heard the sound of gunshots. Upon seeing his brother appearing disoriented across the street, Abu-Jamal ran to him from the parking lot and was shot by a police officer.^[66] The driver originally stopped by police officer Faulkner, Abu-Jamal's brother William Cook, did not testify or make any statement until April 29, 2001, when he claimed that he had not seen who had shot Faulkner.^[67]

Judge William H. Yohn Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania upheld the conviction but vacated the sentence of death on December 18, 2001, citing irregularities in the original process of sentencing.^[51] Particularly,

...the jury instructions and verdict sheet in this case involved an unreasonable application of federal law. The charge and verdict form created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from considering any mitigating circumstance that had not been found unanimously to exist.^[51]

He ordered the State of Pennsylvania to commence new sentencing proceedings within 180 days^[68] and ruled that it was unconstitutional to require that a jury's finding of circumstances mitigating against determining a sentence of death be unanimous.^[69] Eliot Grossman and Marlene Kamish, attorneys for Abu-Jamal, criticized the ruling on the grounds that it denied the possibility of a trial de novo at which they could introduce evidence that their client had been framed.^[70] Prosecutors also criticized the ruling; Officer Faulkner's widow Maureen described Abu-Jamal as a "remorseless, hate-filled killer" who would "be permitted to enjoy the pleasures that come from simply being alive" on the basis of the judgment.^[71] Both parties appealed.

Federal appeal[link]

On December 6, 2005, the Third Circuit Court admitted four issues for appeal of the ruling of the District Court:^[72] (1) in relation to sentencing, whether the jury verdict form had been flawed and the judge's instructions to the jury had been confusing; (2) in relation to conviction and sentencing, whether racial bias in jury selection existed to an extent tending to produce an inherently biased jury and therefore an unfair trial (the Batson claim); (3) in relation to conviction, whether the prosecutor improperly attempted to reduce jurors' sense of responsibility by telling them that a guilty verdict would be subsequently vetted and subject to appeal; (4) in relation to post-conviction review hearings in 1995–6, whether the presiding judge, who had also presided at the trial, demonstrated unacceptable bias in his conduct.

The Third Circuit Court heard oral arguments in the appeals on May 17, 2007, at the United States Courthouse in Philadelphia. The appeal panel consisted of Chief Judge Anthony Joseph Scirica, Judge Thomas Ambro, and Judge Robert Cowen. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sought to reinstate the sentence of death, on the basis that Yohn's ruling was flawed, as he should have deferred to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which had already ruled on the issue of sentencing, and the Batson claim was invalid because Abu-Jamal made no complaints during the original jury selection. Abu-Jamal's counsel told the Third Circuit Court that Abu-Jamal did not get a fair trial because the jury was both racially-biased and misinformed, and the judge was a racist.^[73] The last of those claims was made based on the statement by a Philadelphia court stenographer named Terri Maurer-Carter who, in a 2001 affidavit, stated that Judge Sabo had said "Yeah, and I'm going to help them fry the nigger." in the course of a conversation regarding Abu-Jamal's case.^[74] Sabo denied having made any such comment.^[75]

On March 27, 2008, the three-judge panel issued a majority 2–1 opinion upholding Yohn's 2001 opinion but rejecting the bias and Batson claims, with Judge Ambro dissenting on the Batson issue. On July 22, 2008, Abu-Jamal's formal petition seeking reconsideration of the decision by the full Third Circuit panel of 12 judges was denied.^[76] On April 6, 2009, the United States Supreme Court also refused to hear Abu-Jamal's appeal.^[8] On January 19, 2010, the Supreme Court ordered the appeals court to reconsider its decision to rescind the death penalty,^[9][77] with the same three-judge panel convening in Philadelphia on November 9, 2010, to hear oral argument.^[78][79] On April 26, 2011, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its prior decision to vacate the death sentence on the grounds that the jury instructions and verdict form were ambiguous and confusing.

Death penalty dropped[link]

On December 7, 2011, Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams announced that prosecutors would no longer seek the death penalty for Abu-Jamal.^[11] Williams said that Abu-Jamal will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.^[80]

Life as a prisoner[link]

In 1991 Abu-Jamal published an essay in the Yale Law Journal, on the death penalty and his Death Row experience.^[81] In May 1994, Abu-Jamal was engaged by National Public Radio's All Things Considered program to deliver a series of monthly three-minute commentaries on crime and punishment.^[82] The broadcast plans and commercial arrangement were canceled following condemnations from, among others, the Fraternal Order of Police^[83] and US Senator Bob Dole (R-Kans.).^[84] Abu-Jamal sued NPR for not airing his work, but a federal judge dismissed the suit.^[85] The commentaries later appeared in print in May 1995 as part of Live from Death Row.^[86]

In 1999, he was invited to record a keynote address for the graduating class at The Evergreen State College. The event was protested heavily.^[87] In 2000, he recorded a commencement address for Antioch College.^[88] The now defunct New College of California School of Law presented him with an honorary degree "for his struggle to resist the death penalty".^[89]

With occasional interruptions due to prison disciplinary actions, Abu-Jamal has for many years been a regular commentator on an online broadcast, sponsored by Prison Radio,^[90] as well as a regular columnist for Junge Welt, a Marxist newspaper in Germany. In 1995, he was punished with solitary confinement for engaging in entrepreneurship contrary to prison regulations. Subsequent to the airing of the 1996 HBO documentary Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case For Reasonable Doubt?, which included footage from visitation interviews conducted with him, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections acted to ban outsiders from using any recording equipment in state prisons.^[25] In litigation before the US Court of Appeals in 1998 he successfully established his right to write for financial gain in prison. The same litigation also established that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections had illegally opened his mail in an attempt to establish whether he was writing for financial gain.^[91] When, for a brief time in August 1999, he began delivering his radio commentaries live on the Pacifica Network's Democracy Now! weekday radio newsmagazine, prison staff severed the connecting wires of his telephone from their mounting in mid-performance.^[25]

His publications include Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience, in which he explores religious themes, All Things Censored, a political critique examining issues of crime and punishment, Live From Death Row, a diary of life on Pennsylvania's death row, and We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party, which is a history of the Black Panthers drawing on autobiographical material.

At the end of January 2012 he was released into general population at State Correctional Institution – Mahanoy.^[92]

Popular support and opposition[link]

Concert at a Free Mumia demonstration in Germany, 2007

Labor unions,^[93][94][95] US and foreign city governments,^[96] politicians,^[6][97] advocates,^[98] educators,^[99] the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund,^[24] and human rights advocacy organizations such as Human Rights Watch^[100] and Amnesty International have expressed concern about Abu-Jamal's case.^[4] They are opposed by the family of Daniel Faulkner, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Fraternal Order of Police.^[101] In August 1999, the Fraternal Order of Police called for an economic boycott against all individuals and organizations that support Abu-Jamal.^[102]

Abu-Jamal has been made an honorary citizen of about 25 cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Montreal, Palermo and Paris.^[103][104] In 2001, he received the sixth biennial Erich Mühsam Prize, which recognizes outstanding activism on behalf of a liberatory vision of human society in keeping with that of its anarchist namesake;^[105] in particular, most of its awardees have been activists in the cause of social justice for persecuted minorities.^[106] In October 2002, he was awarded honorary membership of the Berlin-based Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists and Antifascist Groups (VVN-BdA).^[107]

On April 29, 2006, a newly-paved road in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis was named Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal in his honor.^[108] In protest of the street-naming, US Congressman Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) introduced resolutions in both Houses of Congress condemning the decision.^[109][110] The House of Representatives voted 368–31 in favor of the resolution.^[111] In December 2006, the 25th anniversary of the murder, the executive committee of the Republican Party for the 59th Ward of the City of Philadelphia—covering approximately Germantown, Philadelphia—filed two criminal complaints in the French legal system against the city of Paris and the city of Saint-Denis, accusing the municipalities of "glorifying" Abu-Jamal and alleging the offense "apology or denial of crime" in respect of their actions.^[103][112]

In 2007, the widow of Officer Faulkner coauthored a book with Philadelphia radio journalist Michael Smerconish entitled Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Pain, Loss, and Injustice.^[114] The book was part memoir of Faulkner's widow, part discussion in which they chronicled Abu-Jamal's trial and discussed evidence for his conviction, and part discussion on supporting the death penalty.^[115] J. Patrick O'Connor, editor and publisher of crimemagazine.com, argues in his book The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal that the preponderance of evidence establishes that it was not Abu-Jamal but a passenger in Abu-Jamal's brother's car, Kenneth Freeman, who killed Faulkner, and that the Philadelphia Police Department and District Attorney's Office framed Abu-Jamal.^[116]

In 2010, investigative journalists Dave Lindorff and Linn Washington reproduced the shooting in tests that produced results that they claimed were inconsistent with the case against Abu-Jamal. According to them, shots that missed Faulkner should have produced marks visible on the pavement. An expert photo analyst found no such marks visible in the highest-available-quality photo of the part of the crime scene where the body was found.^[61] A ballistics expert medical examiner said that the idea that police could have failed to recognise such marks at the crime scene was "absolute nonsense".^[61] Abu-Jamal's lawyer said that the results constituted "extraordinarily important new evidence that establishes clearly that the prosecutor and the Philadelphia Police Department were engaged in presenting knowingly false testimony".^[61]

See also[link]

	Philadelphia portal
	Pennsylvania portal
	Criminal justice portal

• Alfonzo Giordano
• In Prison My Whole Life - 2008 documentary film

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mumia Abu-Jamal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mumia Abu-Jamal

Listen to this article (3 parts) · (info)

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

This audio file was created from a revision of the "Mumia Abu-Jamal" article dated 2007-10-26, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

Video[link]

• 1996 video of death row visitation interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Competing Films Offer Differing Views - video report by Democracy Now!

Supporter groups[link]

• Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (New York City)
• Partisan Defense Committee
• Journalists for Mumia
• Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Opponent groups[link]

• Summary of the prosecution 's case
• Fraternal Order of Police news, press releases, and communications relating to Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Justice For Daniel Faulkner