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.

General Disagreements

Objections

Jamal's supporters say that since Jamal had taken a high profile position with the Black Panther Party as a teenager, he could have been a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO program, whose purpose was to harass, disrupt and destroy unpopular political groups such as the BPP. Several other Black Panthers who were convicted of various crimes, including murder, have been released when it was learned that the FBI withheld evidence which would have acquitted them, such as Geronimo Pratt. Some of these unlucky, wrongly imprisoned people served up to thirty years before being exonerated and freed. Others, such as Fred Hampton, were killed under suspicious circumstances.

Related Topics:
Black Panther Party - COINTELPRO - Geronimo Pratt - Fred Hampton

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Support

Jamal's detractors say that the critics of the trial amass numerous small errors to build their case for a larger conspiracy, and that the supporters of Jamal are unable to make a convincing case about the overall crime and Jamal's involvement with the murder of a police officer.

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