Attack on First Amendement Rights: 'Mumia Bill' in Pennsylvania lets prisoners be sued over speech

Prisoners serving time in the state of Pennsylvania can now be sued for speaking up from behind bars after Governor Tom Corbett signed into law this week the Revictimization Relief Act that legislatures rushed to approve only days earlier.

The bill, signed on Tuesday by Corbett, a Republican, allows victims of "" to sue the perpetrator if that offender "."

State Rep. Mike Vereb, a Republican and a co-author of the act, announced earlier this month that he'd be rallying lawmakers to support the bill after former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal was allowed to record a commencement speech that was played for graduates of Goddard College during an October 5 ceremony.

Abu-Jamal, 60, is currently serving a life sentence at a prison facility in Frackville, PA for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia cop, Officer Daniel Fulkner, but he has maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration, including three decades spent awaiting execution before prosecutors agreed in 2011 to drop the death penalty. Prior to the start of his prison sentence, Abu-Jamal was considered a renowned activist and journalist, and has since published several books and thousands of essays from behind bars.

group of 21 graduating students from Goddard, Abu-Jamal's alma matter, were told in the tape-recorded commencement speech.

Vereb sent a letter to his colleagues in the Pennsylvania House three days before that address was given, writing in it that he was "

The Pennsylvania legislature unanimously approved Vereb's bill days after the address was given, and Gov. Corbett signed the act on Tuesday, 11 days after the Goddard speech, from a makeshift stage erected in Philadelphia only a few feet from the location where Faulkner was gunned down during a traffic stop 33 years ago. Nevertheless, the reported that Corbett said in a statement that the law "," but rather "."

Corbett said at the signing, according to a CBS News affiliate.

the quoted Corbett as saying as protesters jeered nearby.

Free speech advocates see no issue with Abu-Jamal's communique from confinement, though, and say that the law signed this week is a serious blow to First Amendment protections.

Reggie Shuford, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Pennsylvania office, said in a statement offered to Reuters. "

Samantha Kolber, a spokesperson for Goddard, told the Patriot-News that the school was "" by Corbett's signing and said Vereb's bill"."

Speaking to the , protester Johanna Fernandez said during Corbett's public signing this week that the governor's decision to speedily make Vereb's bill a law was a "" from his administration only a month before Election Day since polls suggest that Corbett may lose the governor's seat. "," Fernandez said. "."

On Monday, Abu-Jamal himself weighed in on the debate and the politics surrounding Corbett's decision to speedily sign the bill during an interview with Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio Project.

"," Abu-Jamal said this week. "."

According to the activist-turned-inmate, he gave his address to Goddard after students there wrote and requested he speak. Marc Lamont Hill, a professor at Morehouse College, tweeted Wednesday that "."