he's one of the best known death row inmates around the globe. and while a court ruling today brings hope to me and we ask what his case means for justice in america. and the twenty twelve race to the white house is on and ron paul is the latest republican candidate to enter the fray who had many of the g.o.p. now echoing his concerns about debt spending and the size of government could ron paul's third presidential bid see success. and today marks the twenty fifth anniversary of chernobyl the world's worst nuclear disaster that is until japan's fukushima crisis came along so quarter of a century later what is there to be learned.

thanks. good evening it's tuesday april twenty sixth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy catherine of any watching r.t. . and he's one of the best known death row inmates around the world and mall has spent nearly three decades behind bars sentenced to execution following his controversial conviction for the quarter of a white police officer but today there's new hope for me as a court unanimously declared his death sentence unconstitutional finding for the second time that the death penalty instructions given to the jury at me as one nine hundred eighty two trial were potentially misleading archies honest to see a church has won this case. oh. beacon of justice or system flourishing with fraud and flaws. illegitimate this is prisoner mia jamal.

seen as a political prisoner all over the world an honorary citizen you know we're twenty cities with a street named after him in france on death row in the us for almost thirty years the event that changed the life of me forever took place at this intersection in philadelphia almost three decades ago back in one thousand nine hundred one when a police officer was shot and killed himself was wounded and had to spend the night at a hospital a prostitute and a cab driver testified against him hundreds of thousands of supporters including mumia himself maintain his innocence to this day. was charged with first degree murder in a case many say was barbara treated and fraught with racism the prostitute. there had been with a cab driver when you look at the police crime scene photos his cabin where they removed tampering and dragging on for years will be

a struggle for freedom has been shedding light on floors of the u.s. justice system fifteen of the police officers involved in collecting evidence in trial were later charged with corruption and tampering with evidence to obtain a conviction fifteen of the thirty three a former journalist and black panther organizer as work is translated into several languages and distributed all over the world his analysis is a revolutionary announce that this ystem is rotten to its core it's racist class is sexist evil and that is the head the leader of an imperialist. nation of the world do they want people to hear that. he while the us government denies holding political. countless human rights activists from all over the planet have dubbed mia the boy away from the beginning that we believe him from death row he's an innocent man and the trial was. it was a joke was like

a thorough job and i need a new trial who has worked monitored by the f.b.i. and stick with quarantine years old for something he has become one of many foreign victims to a police state it's not a question of whether or not he's going to definitely he's not even a question of guilt innocence it's a question of. the united states you know who is apparatus is that f.b.i. and other state but all local agencies targeting surveilling attacking a political activist. movement people in the target in the broader political work in washington as a journalist closely watching the case as when these trials kicked off in the eighty's in his case in body so much of what's wrong with the course and that's why people have gravitated to this case and made it a symbol for their outrage about. that economy between what america standard is as a country founded on justice and one that perpetuates and justice in this case

extraordinarily over almost a thirty year period already having gone through countless appeals the case is still expected to drag on for years but the right thing is so tragic that here after almost thirty years we're not talking about a new trial and actually about all the evidence that has come forth the racism the racism of judge sable the original judge all of the many things that should have read me a long long time ago the u.s. has a record who's in country of jails overflowing with prisoners including thousands on death row who are overwhelmingly african-americans today there are over two million prisoners in the united states that's the size of san francisco you know you represent cologne. the power. of the word and while those in power continue to keep their eyes shut to the clause the system is down to remain to see the rest of the world watching once they can trick an artsy

a little. so what does the case of new media say about justice in america or for the answer i'm joined by david lindorff he's an investigative reporter and the author of the book time an investigation into the death penalty case i threw me a i believe from our he joins us now from philadelphia thank you so much for being here i really do appreciate you taking the time to join us very simply let's begin with your reaction to the latest developments in the case with the courts well the interesting thing about this is that the third circuit and all good which members were appointed by ronald reagan and george bush actually stood up to the court consider majority and stood by their decision it had their first on this night and this and it told this you know we were that's pretty impressive of course because they can wait until it's been pressed and i think guilt or innocence

issue right right so it's i guess a victory of sorts for me but he still has a long fight ahead of him but if you look at me as case internationally i mean he's gotten an incredible amount of attention across the world from nelson mandela and azmin tutu and countless others taking up his cause he's got an honorary citizenship and something like more than twenty cities across the world and there's even a street named after me in france why has his case specifically captured the world's attention so much what makes me ask a standout. well the first thing is that he is an articulate. challenged writer and journalist and if you look at the thousands of people on america's death rows they're not the typical person you find on death row it's normally somebody with no money you know if you creation you know everything but wrong for them and end up in this situation often not even guilty but if they can get a good lawyer means krige have a guy who has made it quite brilliant and

a very talent. speaker so he's able to check his story and that's why we don't get that story so. most people and what do you think again on the international level we as case says about this country that the united states well it shows has. article before it stuart but in washington on a colleague of mine he's absolutely right it shows that hypocrisy of american president has been mollusk it's or there's a polluted interest in keeping him or only. he courts have reached seem instead of a heel that otoh have it in other cases states as one example we're in the outs in courts they've thrown out get through cannily or and speak they're stretched stitch theories and models in both is not good. and there are

in kits is a square where it's. not you in this scene it's a precedence that if it to other prisoners if and what's behind that i mean is it a race issue is it because he's more famous than others let us talk of factors that really contributed to the intense kulish it's it's race it's oh it's a black man who killed a is it a billing but it caught and then the second thing is the limit because this is a guy who very. caring only states because a student is a wrists nation and it just says is racist and it's an experience nation and he he unapologetically. he comes from a background led into property and was sight that. your future you know quoting him having voted early and now our hero the political state sort of him at media is

if you will help do that you need to say this is a dangerous knee and you need one do you think that the country still suffers from the same sorts of problems that at least according to you know me and his supporters that led to this this this case i mean we talked and our previous arrest today about the case of troy davis a man in georgia who was actually also a sight to be executed who has had an overwhelming amount of evidence showing that he was not guilty in fact there was even a person who confessed to doing a crime and a menace still set to be executed so is it that these cases which did take place several years ago are reflection of an older system of injustice or is the country still struggling with the same sort of racial issues that it that it did that with . the country still suffering from the same racist issues but i think what has he just eternally in a snit and will this stick in philadelphia the situation has changed considerably philadelphia used you to stream be racist groups and. now it's much less now if you

will why are majority black berry but blacks are the largest percentage of the city of philadelphia now and i think the jury hears the disk so great get it speech but if pressed try to reach by the senate bills mind could get it it did then and the real interesting is when they if it helped here they would have missed coming in but there have been in the incident which may lead to hell and i think they are afraid and very probably before the briefly before we go let's talk about broader problems with the death penalty i mean how does a country that prides itself on justice and democracy and liberty justify its use for the death penalty when a majority of countries across the globe have banned capital punishment america is a very violent and bloodthirsty nation and there are a lot of people who leave it till somebody you try and know i'm in a bit of me you know

a quarter to half the people who are on death row shouldn't be there and vince cuple. did the he shouldn't be it definitely in while unfortunately i personally we're out of time david but please i hope you will join us later again to keep us updated on the mia situation and of course the broader issue with the death penalty a lot of talk about that was a letter thanking the author of killing time and investigation into the death penalty case of minea of original. well he's added again republican congressman ron paul is setting his sights on the white house for the third time announcing today his bid for the twenty twelve republican presidential nomination and ron paul's outspoken anti fed antiwar views have made him something of a libertarian icon and well money bombs and a bombastic following have earned him much attention in two thousand and eight and fortunately that support never translated into votes for the lawmaker now it is unclear just how much of a shot congressman paul has this time around but with war fatigue in a faltering economy wearing out u.s.

voters we asked whether ron paul's third time could be the charm but the answer i'm joined by an unlikely gentleman from miami florida to discuss more he's a. hall the supporter behind the scenes from two thousand and eight and you're with us now from miami florida thank you. let's let's start by talking about sort of your personal experience with ron paul you've never voted you've never contributed to political candidates before a certain political events namely the war in iraq led you to ron paul and eventually you went on to collect millions for his campaign through the internet but what is it about ron paul who by the way is a seventy five year old congressman twelve term congressman that resonates with folks like yourself and other younger voters. well i think it's a stance on the principles of what makes america great you basically stands for the constitution and you know with those principles you have a rule book that rule book was written by the founders of this nation off of you

know the experience of tyranny in other nations and really i see it as a kind of anti tyranny handbook and we're seeing the government get larger and larger become more and more impressive oprah has become more and more of an empire and and it's alarming you know we need to do something about it in the constitution is the answer and ron paul has been in office for about thirty years and always voted in line with the constitution so unlike other candidates who say one thing and do another as we've seen time and time again i promise no exception ron paul does. what he says he'll do and i think that's extremely important one of the main things that attracted me to further in terms that are coming out of their mouth right there talk about small government you talk a lot less spending talking up the constitution i mean these are all expressions in terms that we're hearing from the tea party which is really really the props for years what makes one paul different from the kind of rhetoric that we're hearing from these liberal pundits right now with by the way a very very similar to his ideas. well he puts it all the way through he continued

to not only in domestic policy but in foreign policy and i think that's really been the you know the definer between him and other candidates on the republican side today say they believe in small government but they'll go ahead and expand government so that we can cover the world with our military on the other hand and that's not you know that's big government and big spending and then also they also get weak on things like education they've expanded the department of education you know so they've expanded the government there they've expanded pharmaceuticals so you know again ron paul is very consistent he does what he says he has a guidebook and he never he never goes against it so you always know what you're going to get so if you believe in the constitution. you know he's there right during. runtime regardless of the support that ron paul has among his and his activists and it is very very strong support by the mainstream media by the mainstream political analysts he's never really seen as a viable candidate always sort of a fringe guy now that we've seen the political rhetoric in america or at least

among the republican party sort of shift to to be more in line really with with some of the ideas that ron paul has been pushing do you think this country could be ready or that better on top of seeing more of a realistic success in the mainstream this time around absolutely sutras two thousand campaign he's going to have the opportunity to be on talk short or talk show after talk sure i would say a hundred times possibly. and i think in that time coupled with the fact of the economy is doing worse. the wars are not ending in their own experimenting and they're not succeeding you know there's no we really we don't even know what the goals are. coupled with all these issues and problems and the fact that he has the solutions i think he's got a great chance this time around but it let's be real here i mean realistically if you're watching him us in d.c. if you're watching fox news if you're watching c.n.n. you know listening to the radio i mean these mainstream media corporations these

mainstream political analysts are not really taking him seriously and i sort of want to ask you why you think that is why is it that the guy who seems to have sort of the the least amount of corruption associated with the name i mean he doesn't have any major scandals that we can think of he doesn't have any overt ties to sort of the elites establishments that that have been pointed out by anyone why do you think that he's been pigeonholed into this fringe category. well i mean you know i mean i know exactly but i think that those people are more a part of the system that has brought us to where we are now and change is difficult real change and we can all pay lip service if we like but to really make real change it takes some guts you have to be honest with yourself you have to recognise your mistakes and i think that's what ron paul lockyer is going to lot of people have a hard time going that way you know. the government big money for all kinds of special interests and so on that's been the path so far and this is something different and it's kind of like going on

a diet you know you've got to be really honest with yourself and tough on yourself in order to achieve the goals that you want and if we want to get america back to prosperity we're going to have to do those things so it's just a matter of you know do people want to take that self road do the right things that they're going to be necessary to have better results or do we want the same old same old certainly again i think people who are arguing for what they're arguing and don't come around his ideas are the ones that got us here so very little people are in charge of the press battle but those people are also very very well funded and whether you like it or not whatever opinion you may have about it and us politics it's make a lot of money to run and win office obama is going to have a war chest of something with a billion dollars this coming election what are you going to do or how do you think that ron paul got able to get up that. well i guess we're just going to try our best you know we have we're going to continue to build on what we did in the last election cycle and hope that more people are willing to. take the mashie you know

the good of taking medicine so that we can fix our problems if you no matter how much money the other side is again it's the same. old same old that brought us to where we are now and i think everybody in our country knows we have a lot of problems so we need to be very honest with our god here and you know i think ron paul is consistency his match which effectively really brings people together these things are what we have going for us and what can be just a victory and i will see if that message resonates with the mainstream establishment this time around thank you so much for your time that was an activist and ron paul supporter travel. is exactly twenty five years since the world was shocked and shaken by the worst civil nuclear catastrophe in history the explosion at the trouble power plant spewed a radioactive cloud across several continents promising long lasting human and environmental consequences the disaster continues to haunt the now abandoned town

of creepy act which was built to house those working at chernobyl power plants or diesel of say ourselves visited the ghost town reports legacy. twenty five years ago the town of legality was a place any soviet person could dream off high salaries great standards of living and impressive infrastructure and restricted town for the employees of the children of god nuclear power plant deep it was regarded as the pride as the pearl of the soviet union but was not only constructed to look like a perfect socialist city but the people who live here were also the best of the best the best musicians sports man the best professionals the nuclear energy all of them lived here all of that changed and april the twenty six nineteen eighty six when the chernobyl reactor exploded the result of an experiment carried out in the wrong hands. of the reactor was almost completely out of control in april twenty fifth but it could still have been saved the management pushed for a completion of an experiment personal has to take in more reluctant to eventually

couldn't go against the authorities we'll know the result over the radio meanwhile the town's population had no idea about the disaster people were enjoying an unusually sunny saturday outdoors i mean my friend we were away from school the polluted beach we returned to normal cauldron and mud and my mother asked me where i had been i lied that we were cleaning the school yard and she was shocked as she'd already heard rumors of some action in the nuclear station. that shock was easy to understand ambulances with sirens had a large population of this small town in the middle of the night they delivered the severely injured plant workers and firefighters to the hospital but it really didn't different fractions goods in the radiation most of them had food or fourth degree radiation burns one of them died instantly the others had to wait twenty four hours to be evacuated to a hospital in moscow ironically those were the lucky ones others stayed in the town

exposing themselves to deadly goes is of radiation and many died or suffered radiation sickness afterwords nowadays prepared is described as a dead. nobody lives here and there will again the fallout the read of maybe nuclear cells which is twenty thousand years this has not been a steer for market on the colony of new straight out of the u.s.s.r. collapsed we begin in floods and the pension to found it impossible to survive and queue here haven't got to grow every clean creation yes there is a little here finds a place without us anywhere. in the wake of the fukushima disaster the words are noble echoed again world wide just about when everyone thought all mistakes have been learned another crisis with the nuclear energy issue through series. but the former german liquidators say they are ready to fly halfway across the planet to hold your person just like they did in their own backyard twenty five years ago all

the want is to make sure nightmares like your novel and fukushima are never happen again lets you research the artsy reporting from chernobyl and three years in ukraine. now u.n. secretary general ban ki moon has urged the world to prepare for even more nuclear accidents on the scale of chernobyl and because shima he called for greater international cooperation in more clear safety measures and today russian president dmitri needed a dove actually offered a proposal to do just that now the plan would expand seething conditions mandated by the international atomic energy agency russia has submitted the support of proposals to be a the g eight as well as brics and the c.i.s. countries but that's the united states what is the purpose country should learn from the chernobyl in the fukushima disasters should nuclear power be abandoned simply because of the potential dangers and is it really the energy source is the problem or perhaps the companies on the regulators who are tasked with keeping it safe well here with me to help me answer this question from new york is investigative journalist and author greg palast thank you so much for being fair

we'd love to have you on the program as always now what do you think i mean is it is it these these energy sources nuclear power. well you've investigated so many all the top of the piece of the power when it comes to that oil industry or is it the companies with uncle for producing that and the regulators who are there to keep the if and talk. well i would say that it's the companies that we should be very very concerned with before i was an investigative reporter i was an investigator and directed the racketeering investigation against the builders of the short nuclear plant here in new york remember towards from and in our investigation we found that the that the diesel generators which are supposed to save the plant in case of emergency that the diesel generator tests were state that the earthquake proofing of the plant was faked it wasn't just one plant our we were uncovering was an endemic problem of fraud throughout the industry and i should say

that why is this you know this is part of a track evil people intent on burning all their neighbors up no instead it caused billions and billions of dollars to build a plant and any time you find a mistake like in the case to shore the sound of the earthquake proofing tested and faked. it would be billions of dollars to make even a simple fix in a nuclear plant and now we have in the u.s. obama's push plans for several more nuclear plants most of them will be built by a company shot construction whose nuclear building unit stone lester was the company that was found liable for racketeering and fraud and and fake those tests so the same guys you know get a drunk driver tell a convicted of drunk driving you wouldn't give them a license to operate a bus but we would give a license to build a nuclear plant to company convicted of lying about safety this is one of the

problems we have is that there are no reliable builders in operators that we can absolutely trust that this mean that the problem is it you don't need. drunk drivers and frankly there's plenty of people in this country who can drink and drive and probably get in trouble you do need technology you need energy power and energy power is expensive it's difficult to develop it takes for it and specialties and expertise so how do you a get around that this is the point that you are making as i mentioned correctly is that there's so much money invested in cities power sources that it's just too expensive for them to correct any sort of wrongdoing that that profit becomes the goal how do you get around that with without i don't know turning into china and mandating some sort of power sources that the private industry doesn't take on a. little while we do we do that i mean this same company that's building the south texas nuclear plant at the moment the proposal to build two nuclear plants out of texas if you don't using this question will company shock construction with a bad record and guiding the construction will be tokyo electric power given just

after fukushima they hardly seem like the experts we should be calling on the same company our is already selling wind power in texas at six cents per kilowatt hour nuclear power is going to cost at least twice that so it's actually cheaper to use safer forms of electricity now i suppose you'd be harmed isn't wind if when towers fell on you but i've never heard of you know you don't have actually thirty or forty miles around fifty but i mean are you making a switch for that i mean it's not really just maybe cheaper two to one once both power sources are savage but it's very expensive to build it's very expensive to fly over so what's preventing the sort of change well nuclear power is way too expensive for anyone to build such a planet so what we are doing is subsidizing it it would absolutely be no nuclear power plant proposal today anywhere in the world without massive subsidies in the

case of the south texas nuclear project the obama administration is offering four billion dollars in government guarantees to the project now if you offered for good . in dollars for when our you get even you get more and cheaper you offered four billion dollars for solar power or simply four billion dollars for conservation or even gas plants i mean after all we are we have gas coming out our ears right now in the united states and russia it doesn't make a lot of sense to be fooling around with something that's only dangers but incredibly incredibly expensive it would not nuclear power wouldn't come out of the crypt if it were drawn out by subsidies so you don't think that crises like for noble like took a human life sort of help us win win the country off of more dangerous sources of power like where well you know obviously chernobyl didn't stop us from building the fukushima plants which are supposed to be a great improvement here we are now we're told there's going to be more

improvements in the next generation of plant so when they go up will be told once again well we fix that problem i think that we have to make a decision that there is no reason to subsidize this incredibly costly credibly risky form of power and fact one way to end the subsidy and see if it's if these guys really believe it states is to remove the liability cap right now if you have a nuclear accident united states company only answered a seventy five billion dollars that's probably one percent of the expected cost of damage if these guys think it's safe let's remove seventy five million dollars cap and say something goes wrong guys you pay for it you will see immediately that every single nuclear project will be pulled off the table it won't exist well call me a psychic but something tells me that they're not exactly going to go for that thank you so much for your sign is greg palast that investigative journalists writing us from the ark.