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.

Witness Accounts

Eyewitnesses :

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• William Cook, Mumia's brother, driving the Volkswagen pulled over by Faulkner.
• Robert Chobert, cab driver : "I saw Jamal standing over and firing some more shots into him"
• Cynthia White " came running out of the parking lot on Locust Street. He had a handgun in his hand. He fired the gun at the police officer about four or five times. The police officer fell to the ground. I started screaming." Jamal supporters claim that White was a prostitute who had been indicted and was threatened with prison if she testified in favor of Jamal, while if she testified against Jamal she would be able to continue her prostitution without police interference.
• Robert Harkins
• Alber Magilton
• Michael Scanlon

Other witesses :

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• Deborah Kordansky
• Veronica Jones
• Desie Hightower

Jamal opponents have produced a map with the witness locations here.

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Robert Chobert's testimony

• According to Robert Chobert's testimony and statements, he was writing in his logbook when he heard the first shot and looked up. He had to look over or past Faulkner's car, with its flashing red dome light, to see the incident and saw the shooter only in profile. Chobert testified at trial that when he looked up, he saw Faulkner fall and then saw Abu-Jamal "standing over him and firing some more shots into him. "Under cross-examination by Jackson, he stated: "I know who shot the cop, and I ain't going to forget it."
• Jamal supporters note Chobert's first recorded statement to police -- about which the jury was not told -- was that the shooter "apparently ran away", according to a report written on 10 December 1981 by Inspector Giordano. Giordano encountered Chobert upon reaching the scene about five minutes after the shooting. Giordano wrote: " white male from the crowd stated that he saw the shooting and that a black MOVE member had done it and apparently ran away. When asked what he meant by a MOVE member, the white male stated, 'His hair, his hair,' apparently referring to dreadlocks."
• There are also discrepancies between Chobert's description of the shooter's clothes and weight and that of Abu-Jamal.
• Jamal supporters claim Chobert was under indictment for arson at the time, and his change of testimony may have been influenced by the charges pending against him.

Confession at the hospital

When Jamal was brought to Jefferson Hospital on the night of the killing, he struggled a moment with the police outside the Emergency Room entrance. At that time, several witnesses claim to have heard him shout "I shot the mother fucker and I hope the mother fucker dies". He then refused medical treatment and wasn't treated until a judge had issued a court order several hours later, at which time he was almost comatose.

Related Topics:
Court order - Coma

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While the two police officers present (Gary Bell and Gary Wakshul) did not write anything concerning the alleged confession in their police report, a hospital security guard, Priscilla Durham, made a report to the hospital authorities the following day including that statement. While she was an acquaintance of officer Faulkner, she claims not to have known at that time who the man being brought in was.

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Officer Bell and Ms. Durham testified during the trial; Wakshul however was not heard until the 1995 hearings, but had made a written statement concerning the confession.

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Jamal's defense had originally not put Wakshul on their witness list. However, on the last day of the trial, the defense asked to hear Wakshul. By that time Wakshul, who had stayed around during the first week of the trial, was on vacation. Judge Sabo refused to extend the trial, and told the defense lawyer, Jackson, that he "goofed". The defense lawyer claimed Wakshul's testimony was crucial to the case (A "Brady witness"]

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In the 1995 hearings, Wakshul testified that he had indeed heard Jamal confess to the murder, and claimed that if he had written in his report "the Negro male made no comments" and made no mention of the statement until about two months afterwards, it was because of the great stress of seeing his partner die. Officer Bell had given a similar explanation during the trial.

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Jamal's supporters have argued that his background as a journalist made it unlikely that he'd make such an incriminating comment.

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Objections

Jamal supporters claim:

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• Several of the witnesses, such as Pamela Jenkins, report being forced to tear up their witness statements and instead sign statements incriminating Abu-Jamal at the scene. Jenkins was the lover and informant of Philadelphia police officer Tom Ryan. In her statement, Jenkins claimed that Ryan "wanted me to perjure myself and say that I had seen Jamal shoot the police officer." In 1996, Tom Ryan and five other officers from the same district went to prison after being convicted of charges of planting evidence, stealing money from suspects and making false reports. Their convictions resulted in the release of numerous prisoners implicated by the officers. Veronica Jones witnessed the killing and testified for the defense. She claimed she had been offered inducements by the police to testify that she saw Abu-Jamal kill Faulkner, stating that "they were trying to get me to say something the other girl said. I couldn't do that." Jones went on to testify that "they told us we could work the area if we tell them ." However, Judge Sabo had the jury removed for this testimony and then ruled that Jones' statements were inadmissible evidence.
• Conflicting testimony and missing witnesses: Abu-Jamal's lawyers contend that a number of witnesses changed their original statements regarding what they saw on the night of the crime after being coerced, threatened or offered inducements by the police.

William Cook

• William Cook, Abu-Jamal's brother and an obvious eyewitness to the killing, did not testify for either side at trial. He was convicted in separate proceedings of assaulting Faulkner. Cook made a statement to the police on the night of the shooting, and another to Abu-Jamal's legal team in 1995. However, neither of these statements have been seen by Amnesty International.
• Abu-Jamal's supporters have alleged that in 1982, Cook was being intimidated by the police and feared being charged in connection with the killing and was therefore too frightened to testify. Cook was scheduled to testify during the 1995 hearing but failed to appear. Again it was alleged that this was due to fear of the police and of being arrested on unrelated charges in court. In his written denial of the 1995 appeal, Judge Sabo made negative assumptions regarding Cook's unwillingness to testify. Since 1995, the defense team has been unable to locate Cook despite numerous attempts.

Arnold Beverley

Another man, Arnold Beverley, confessed to the murder of Daniel Faulkner in 1999. However, neither Jamal, nor a single prosecution or defense witness could place Beverly at the scene of the crime, and his account of the killing is at odds with the known facts on numerous points. The Jamal legal team also waited nearly two years before attempting to enter Beverly's story as evidence into a possible retrial.

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• Jamal's detractors also point out that it is common in high-profile murder cases for false confessions to be made to police.

Other points

• To date, neither Jamal nor Jamal's supporters have given a convincing alibi for his presence at the scene of the crime, unconscious, with what may have been the murder weapon.