MUMIA ABU-JAMAL TEACH-IN
Last Revised: 4/30/99
Excerpt from the Justice for Daniel Faulkner website:
Case History: Mumia Abu-Jamal
On December 9, 1981 a Philadelphia Police Officer was shot and killed. The officer, twenty five year old Daniel Faulkner, was a decorated five year veteran of the police force, recently married, a U.S. military veteran, a son and a brother.
When police arrived, the shooter was still at the scene. His name was Mumia Abu Jamal, AKA Wesley Cook. Mr. Jamal had grown up in Philadelphia. He has stated that he spent his youth as an "apprentice of Revolutionary Journalism" for the Black Panther Party. Upon completion of his "training" by the Panthers, he eventually rose to the level of Lieutenant Minister of Information for the Panther’s Philadelphia chapter. According to Mr. Jamal, he used his position to call for a "Black Revolution in America."
Prior to the shooting of Officer Faulkner, Mr. Jamal had been a reporter for local news outlets, as well as a late night radio talk show host at radio station WWDB. He had long been an outspoken critic of the Philadelphia Police Department. He was also a vocal supporter of a local militant group known as MOVE. In 1978, three years prior to the Faulkner murder, several of MOVE's members were involved in the murder of another Philadelphia Police Officer, James Ramp. They were tried, convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Mr. Jamal used his radio program as a public platform to rail against this situation and support MOVE and it's founder John Africa. Prior to the murder of Officer Faulkner, Mr. Jamal had been fired from his position as a broadcaster because of his extremist rhetoric. On the morning he murdered Officer Faulkner, Mr. Jamal was employed as a cab driver.
In June of 1982 a trial was convened to hear the case against Mumia Abu Jamal for the murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner. Mr. Jamal’s notoriety in Philadelphia’s inner city, coupled with the violent and premeditated nature of the shooting, caused the trial to be highly emotional and of great public interest. The case was heard in a crowded courtroom in Philadelphia’s nearly 100 year old City Hall. Representatives from the Police Department, the Faulkner family, Mr. Jamal’s family and various groups supporting Mr. Jamal, filled the gallery each day of the six week trial. Judge Albert Sabo presided over what became, for various reasons, a circus like proceeding.
Acts of civil disobedience, shouting, chanting, violent outbursts, disruptions, forced removals, threats and even physical altercations were daily occurrences in the courtroom throughout the trial. Mr. Jamal regularly disrupted the proceedings and was removed from the courtroom over 13 times. A running verbal battle was waged between Jamal and his attorney, the prosecutor and the judge.
On July 3rd, 1982, having heard the evidence against him, a racially mixed jury of 12 individuals unanimously convicted Mumia Abu Jamal of the premeditated murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner. The sentencing phase of the trial, which proved to be plagued by the same disruptions as the guilt phase, saw the same jury unanimously sentence Mr. Jamal to death in the electric chair.
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