Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Is a Male who was born in Philadelphia, PA on April 23, 1954. His religion was Muslim his Ethnicity was Black and he converted to Islam. His former career's were an author, journalist, and a cab driver.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an extraordinary man, with a powerful intellect, a rare talent for radio journalism, a burning empathy for poor people, a lot of admiring friends in journalism and politics, and no prior record of crime or violence, despite personal experience of police brutality and years as a teenage Black Panther under the microscope of FBI and police surveillance.

The day after the 27-year-old Jamal's arrest, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Jamal's "searing and skillful interviews" had made him "a well-known figure in local broadcast journalism." Jamal had been on National Public Radio, the National Black Network, and local Philadelphia stations including WUHY-FM (now WHYY). He had been elected chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association of Black Journalists and had won mention in Philadelphia magazine as one of "81 people to watch in 1981."

You won't find many people on death row with credentials like that.

On Dec. 9, 1981, Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of police officer, Daniel Faulkner.

As I briefly described before Mumia Abu-Jamal was a journalist and political activist, as well as a cab driver in Philadelphia, Pa. On December 9, 1981, while driving his cab, he spotted his brother, William (Wesley) Cook in an altercation with police officer, Daniel Faulkner.

Faulkner had pulled Cook over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street and for not having his headlights turned on.

Abu-Jamal claims that he saw Faulkner beating his brother with a 17" flashlight and he stepped in to assist his brother William . During the struggle, Abu-Jamal and the policeman both were shot. Faulkner died at the scene. Abu-Jamal received non-fatal gunshot wounds to his chest.

A gun registered to Jamal was found by his side when more police came to the scene. Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of Daniel Faulkner, and on July 3, 1982, a jury found him guilty and he was given the death sentence.

Abu-Jamal has always claimed that another man shot the officer then fled the scene. Abu-Jamal's conviction has been very controversial and in December 2001, Federal District Court Judge, William Yohn, reaffirmed Jamal's conviction but overturned his death sentence.

Abu-Jamal's case became a platform for groups such as the anti-globalization movement, anti-death penalty groups, and the Black Nationalist movements who proclaim he is innocent and received an unfair trial. There are others who believe he may be guilty, but did not receive a fair trial.

Daniel Faulkner's family and the Fraternal Order of Police participated in an economic boycott against businesses or individual calling for Abu-Jamal's freedom. Similar to how Bugging out wanted to boycott against Sal's pizzeria, for not putting any pictures of African Americans on the wall of fame.

After a detailed review of the trial transcripts, witness statements to police, and other evidence brought out it appears that Jamal's trial was grotesquely unfair and his sentencing hearing clearly unconstitutional.

Jamal was prejudiced by police misconduct and probably rampant police perjury; ineffective and underfunded defense lawyering; inappropriate prosecution arguments to the jury; egregiously bad judging by the notoriously biased, pro-prosecution Albert Sabo of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas; and questionable voir dire stratagems that forced Jamal to face an 83 percent white jury (ten whites, two blacks) in a 40 percent black city.

But this was no ordinary journalist, either. Jamal's radical activism went back to his mid-teens, when, he has said, he was beaten, threatened with a gun, kicked in the face, and called "nigger" by police in connection with