To response to graduation speeches by controversial convict Mumia Abu-Jamal, now serving a life sentence in Pennsylvania for murdering a Philadelphia policeman, the state legislature passed a law allowing victims of a crime to sue a convict for conduct causing “mental anguish.” The law attempts to evade the First Amendment by targeting conduct rather than speech but similar laws have been found to violate the First Amendment. (techdirt, October 20, 2014, by Mike Masnick)
The law exceeds the restrictions placed on convicts to profit from their stories by New York’s ” Son of Sam” law ruled unconstitional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. The law forbids any actions that may cause mental anguish, a vague standard requiring a convict to resort to guesswork. (ThinkProgress, October 22, 2014, by Ian Millhiser)
Writing in Vice, October 23, 2014, Seth Ferranti was critical of the law writing that prison authorities have long tried to censor prisoners, “…our nation’s correctional facilities continue to shut down prisons to journalists and to punish prison writers. I was thrown in solitary confinement many times for my writing. The rules state that prisoners are allowed to write, but once a prison writer achieves success and actually earns an audience, that’s when the trouble starts.” Ferranti wrote that Mumia and other prison writers inspired him to make productive use of his time in prison and fight for his right to be heard.