Rep. Eric Swalwell urged the release of former Black Panther and convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal in a 1999 op-ed for his college newspaper, according to a report.
Swalwell, the California Democrat who is among several candidates looking to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, wrote the column under the byline “The Radically Poetic,” according to the Daily Mail.
“America, it’s time to wake up,” Swalwell wrote while a student at Campbell University in Harnett County, NC.
“I encourage everyone to research for themselves the stories of these prisoners and others who, at the very least, deserve a fair trial.”
Swalwell referred to Abu-Jamal and another convicted cop killer, Leonard Peltier, as “political prisoners” who were being victimized by America’s “systematically corrupt justice system.”
In the column cited by the Daily Mail, Swalwell encouraged readers to visit the website of rock band Rage Against the Machine for more information about the two cases.
Swalwell has frequently highlighted that he is the son of a police chief, often invoking his father’s law enforcement career to underscore his support for public safety and first responders.
On the campaign trail and in public statements, he has cited being “the son of a cop” as shaping his views on criminal justice and community safety.
Swalwell’s father, Eric Nelson Swalwell Sr., served as police chief of Algona, Iowa, in the mid-1980s after working with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department in California during the politically turbulent Berkeley unrest and the Angela Davis trial.
His tenure in Algona ended in 1985 after he refused to void parking tickets issued at a county fair despite alleged pressure from local officials, a standoff that led to a six-month legal battle and his eventual firing.
The Post has sought comment from Swalwell, Rage Against the Machine and attorneys for Abu-Jamal and Peltier.
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and radio journalist, was convicted in 1982 for the December 9, 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
Prosecutors argued he shot Faulkner during a traffic stop involving his brother and then fatally shot the wounded officer at close range. He was sentenced to death, but in 2001 a federal judge overturned the death sentence over improper jury instructions.
In 2011, Abu Jamal’s sentence was formally commuted to life in prison without parole.
Supporters argue he was denied a fair trial, citing alleged judicial bias and a racially skewed jury selection.
Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), was convicted in 1977 for the June 26, 1975 killings of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in federal prison.
Then-President Joe Biden commuted his sentence to indefinite house arrest in January of last year and he was released from prison a month later.
Rage Against the Machine publicly supported both Abu-Jamal and Peltier and organized high-profile benefit concerts, including a January 28, 1999 arena show in New Jersey that drew about 16,000 attendees in support of Abu-Jamal.
