Down To the Wire:
Last Chance for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Last year the radio commentaries of Mumia Abu-Jamal, which were being broadcast by National Public Radio under the title "Live from Death Row," caused quite a stir in our nation's capitol. Sen. Robert Dole took to the floor of the Senate to denounce NPR for allowing a convicted cop-killer to use public broadcasting time to express his point of view. NPR caved in without much of a fight and Jamal was dropped from the program All Things Considered like a very hot potato.

On a cold December night in 1981, Jamal was driving his cab through his neighborhood when he passed a streetside scene all too familiar in Philadelphia's African-American community. A policeman was using his club to subdue some unfortunate soul and, as Abu-Jamal slowed to get a better look, he was horrified to see that it was his own brother being beaten. Jamal hopped out of his cab to see what was happening and, in the ensuing fracas, Abu-Jamal and Officer Daniel Faulkner were both shot. Faulkner died at the scene from a head wound and Jamal was laying on the pavement with a critical wound to the abdomen, when additional Philadelphia police officers arrived on the scene and arrested him.

Abu-Jamal recovered from his wounds enough to stand trial, be convicted, and sentenced to death for the murder of Officer Faulkner. Jamal was not allowed to represent himself and was forced to accept a court-appointed attorney - who openly told the court he had neither the time nor training to handle the case. He has since been disbarred. The judge who tried the case and sentenced Jamal has sent more people nationwide (31 total) to death row than any other judge in the country. On June 2 of this year, the recently elected Republican governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge, signed a death warrant for Abu-Jamal and scheduled his execution for this August 17 at 10 PM.

Mumia's background made it unlikely that he would receive fair treatment by the police or the courts. Mumia Abu-Jamal was 14 years old when he first came into contact with the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s. His obvious talent for writing was put to use in the Panthers' Ministry of Information, where he developed his skills as a writer and advocate for the poor and voiceless of our society.

After the demise of the Panthers, Jamal continued his work in both broadcast and print journalism, earning the admiration of many for his hard-hitting radio commentaries carried on several local Philadelphia radio stations and on NPR. He became known in the local African-American community as "the voice of the voiceless," which did nothing to improve his relationship to policeman-turned-mayor Frank Rizzo and other civic leaders of Philadelphia. At the time of his arrest, Mumia was the current president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Association of Black Journalists.

Since being imprisoned on death row in 1982, Jamal has continued to write and speak out on issues of the day. He has recently released a compilation of his essays written since 1982 entitled Live from Death Row, published by Addison-Wesley. Many of the topics in his book deal with Abu-Jamal's experiences with the criminal justice system. The book is lively, entertaining and courageous. Mumia has suffered punishment, on top of confinement in a concrete cell, for publishing the book, the writing of which was termed "operating a business from prison."

A petition for post-conviction relief has been filed on behalf of Abu-Jamal by his new attorney, Leonard Weinglass. The Free Press has obtained, via the internet, a copy of this document. It contains more than 40 individual points, any one of which should be cause for a new trial, but taken together, literally shout that the man was wrongly convicted.

A few points about the possible murder weapon from this petition can serve as an example. At the time of the incident Mumia was in possession of a .38 caliber pistol, which he carried in his cab for self-protection like many other Philadelphia cabbies. Jamal had bought the gun legally. The prosecution contends that Mumia shot officer Faulkner with this .38, even though ballistic evidence indicated that the bullet that killed Faulkner was a .44 caliber.

The prosecution claimed during the trial that the police had failed to determine if Abu-Jamal's gun had been fired on the night of the incident. According to a ballistics expert recently hired by the defense, anyone who has so much as watched a cowboy movie knows that it is simple to determine if a weapon has been fired recently: You just smell the barrel.

More holes in the prosecutor's case are found by looking at the witnesses' testimony. Of the two prosecution witnesses who identified Jamal as the gunman, one had charges of prostitution pending against her, and the other was a cab driver on probation for a felony arson conviction. No other witnesses saw the prostitute at the scene until after the shooting. The night of the incident the cab driver told the police that the shooter ran away. On the stand he changed his account to implicate Jamal.

According to an interview with attorney Leonard Weinglass that was published on the internet, Mumia Abu-Jamal is "the only person on death row in the US who has a well-funded, well-orchestrated campaign to see to it that he is executed." When Mumia's book was published, the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police chartered a plane and flew over the building where the Addison-Wesley publishing house is located with a sign that read "This publisher pays cop killers."

There also is a large and growing campaign to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Public demonstrations have occurred in numerous cities around the country, including Seattle. The New Democratic Party of Canada, the city of Madison Wisconsin, the National Black Police Association, Amnesty International, the government of Holland, and actors Ed Asner, Ossie Davis, and Whoopie Goldberg all are on record in support of Abu-Jamal.

Readers of the Free Press can contribute to the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal by contacting the Seattle Mumia Defense Committee. The local support group is planning a (hopefully) major demonstration for Saturday, August 12, in Seattle. Gather at Garfield High School at 12 noon. March to the park at Pike Place Market, rally 2 p.m.