Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook April 24, 1954) is a journalist and political activist, most famous for his 1982 conviction and death sentence for the murder of Daniel Faulkner, a police officer, and for the subsequent mass campaigns for and against him. Technically, he had been awaiting execution in Pennsylvania from 1982 until December 2001 when Federal District Court judge William Yohn overturned Jamal's death sentence. However, Yohn reaffirmed Jamal's conviction, ruling that he will remain in custody indefinitely.

Disagreements about the trial process

Even among many of those convinced of Abu-Jamal's guilt, there is a strong belief that he did not receive a fair trial in the courtroom proceeding that produced his first-degree murder conviction.

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Concerning the judge

Albert F. Sabo was the presiding judge for the trial.

Related Topics:
Albert F. Sabo - Judge

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Jamal's supporters claim that :

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• Sabo had a reputation in favor of the police and against defendents in criminal cases.
• Sabo had a reputation as a judge with a bias toward convictions. Amnesty International claims he has sentenced more men to die (31 total, only 2 of them white) than any other sitting judge in Pennsylvania. A review of the court records by The Philadelphia Inquirer showed "that most of the homicide judges in Philadelphia hear more murder cases than Judge Sabo with fewer death sentences."
• During the trial, Sabo made no attempt to be impartial. Every ruling he made was against Jamal. Every objection by the prosecutors was sustained, every objection by the defense was overruled.
• A white court stenographer Terri Mauer-Carter alleged she and her boss Richard Klein, a Philadelphia judge, overheard Sabo saying he was going to "help them fry the nigger" shortly before the start of Abu-Jamal's trial. There is however no proof as of yet.
• Sabo was a Philadelphia judge whose assigned cases included crimes in all of Philadelphia, not just a 'heavily non-white district.' However, Jamal supporters note that this high conviction, high death sentencing judge was assigned a disproportionate share of minority defendents.

Jamal's detractors answer that :

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• The claim that Sabo has given more death sentences than anyone else is fabricated: no such statistics are collected, and so there is no way Abu-Jamal's supporters could know this.
• At any rate, it is the jury, not the judge, which convicts and gives death sentences. (However, see below regarding an error in the judge's sentencing instructions.)
• Sabo presided over a heavily non-white district, which accounts for the racial make-up of his defendants (whom he did not choose).

Concerning Mumia's defense

Lawyer Anthony Jackson was chosen by Abu-Jamal as legal counsel, after recommendation by his friends at the Black Journalists Association (Jackson knew Jamal before the murder). He then petitioned the Court to have the case assigned to him at public expense, to which the Court agreed.

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Aftwerwards, Jamal asked to represent himself, to which Judge Sabo agreed. However, after what the Court considered as disruptive actions (according to court records, Jamal was removed 13 times from the courtroom for his disruptive behaviour), Jamal was warned that he would lose that right if he didn't stop. When Jamal's behaviour continued, Jackson was reinstated as the defense lawyer.

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Jamal supporters contend that the reason Sabo changed his mind was that Jamal was actually doing a decent job in defending himself, which was typical of Sabo's bias against Jamal.

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Jamal repeatedly asked to be represented by, or at least assisted by, John Africa (who had also been noted for his disruptive courtroom behaviour). John Africa having no legal training, the court refused. Jamal objected to Jackson, and refused to cooperate with him, saying he was "functioning for the court system, not for ", and that John Africa, not Jackson, was his real counsel. Jackson later alleged that Jamal didn't return to him some of the documents (such as witness statements) he had handed him when Jamal took over the defense.

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Mumia's defenders often describe this as a case where a public defender is thrust upon an indigent defendant (as happens in many cases), and say that he was picked by Sabo without Jamal's consent, specifically because he wasn't a very good lawyer. Jamal supporters claim that Jackson would later be disbarred for incompetence.

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Although Jackson is sometimes described by Mumia's defenders as having never defended a client in a murder case, he had served in twenty murder cases, with only six convictions and no executions prior to the Abu-Jamal case.

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It is sometimes claimed he was allowed only $1500 to analyze evidence and to hire expert witnesses, though receipts indicate the defense spent $13,000.

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Concerning the jury

The racial composition of the jury was not recorded, but it is known at least two jurors were black (13% of the jury), as was a third accepted by the prosecution who was later dismissed for violating sequestration. The racial composition of Philadelphia at the time was 40% black.

Related Topics:
Jury - Sequestration

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It is sometimes claimed that the prosecution requested the removal of many black potential jurors specifically because they were black. Both prosecution and defense were allowed up to twenty peremptory challenges, and the prosecution used fifteen of these, giving reasons for each.

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which reviewed the case twice, did not conclude that racial bias was a factor in jury selection, which would have been grounds to order a new trial.

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Other points

• Abu-Jamal's supporters claim that when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court first upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction in 1989, that ruling found no impropriety in the prosecutor using Abu-Jamal's teenage membership in the Black Panther Party to claim he harbored a desire to kill a police officer for over a decade, despite Abu-Jamal having no criminal record. Later, Federal District Court judge Yohn threw out the death sentence because of Sabo's incorrect instructions to the jury on just this point.