Mumiacs Willfully Ignorant of Evidence

by Daniel J. Flynn

     This Independence Day followers of Pennsylvania death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal blocked access to the Liberty Bell, preventing several thousand tourists from getting an up close view of the historic site and trapping a few people inside for a short period of time.

     “Block the doors, do not let the tourists go in,” instructed Steve Yip of Asians for Mumia. Scores of activists had already heeded his advice before hearing it on the public address system. For more than three hours, police officers carried off protestors unwilling to remove themselves from doorways. They used heavy-duty steel-cutters to slice through a chain that a demonstrator had used to lock himself to an entrance. A forklift was needed to retrieve protestors who refused to yield a roof ledge they had seized. Outgoing police wagons had to avoid a gauntlet of demonstrators who attempted to turn themselves into human speed bumps. A total of 95 arrests were made.

     “No Justice, No Peace/Free Mumia, Fuck Police,” screamed hundreds of demonstrators. A group calling themselves Queers for Mumia chanted, “We’re here! We’re queer! We want to free Mumia!”

     Tourists were visibly angry. A voice over the public address system, however, urged them to understand. “We’re not blocking the entrances against you,” explained Mumia supporter Suzanne Ross. “We’re blocking the entrances of injustice.”

     For supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the significance of  the Fourth of July weekend is not independence for America. This July 3rd was the seventeenth anniversary of the day the death sentence was handed down to a man they believe is a political prisoner. Among denizens of the campuses, Jamal has attained cult-like status that in the past has been reserved for such figures as Angela Davis or the Rosenbergs. Although hardcore “Mumiacs” still cite various conspiracy theories surrounding the case’s witnesses and evidence, most of those I spoke with at the Liberty Bell curiously pointed to his political views—the same ones they say landed him in jail in the first place—as justification for his release.

     Catrine Porter, a freshman at the College of Wooster in Ohio, made the trek to Philadelphia as a result of her belief that Abu-Jamal was framed “because he was a politically active man who spoke out against police brutality.” “He speaks for our generation,” explained Liv Leader, a freshman at Earlham College. Justice was denied “because Mumia spoke out against police brutality when he was a journalist in this city. He spoke out against many of the ills of this city, and that’s a threat to the establishment.” She also likes his stand on the war in Kosovo, but candidly admits, “I have no way of knowing if he’s innocent or guilty.”

     Yet there is one way to discover the truth and that is by looking at the evidence.

     In the early morning hours of December 9, 1981, Daniel Faulkner, a 25-year old police officer with nearly six years on the force, pulled over a 1963 blue Volkswagen that was traveling the wrong way down a one way street. William Cook, brother of Mumia Abu-Jamal, was the car’s driver. A scuffle ensued between Cook and Faulkner and soon a man darted across the street and shot the officer in the back. The officer was able to expend one round before he was struck between the eyes with a fatal bullet.

     The reinforcements that Faulkner had requested before the scuffle took place arrived shortly after he was shot. At the scene they discovered a cop whose face nearly had been blown off and Mumia Abu-Jamal sitting on a curb not far from their fallen comrade’s body. When Officer Robert Shoemaker approached Abu-Jamal, the on duty taxi-driver reached for a gun lying nearby but was prevented from grabbing it when he received a boot to the face.

     Abu-Jamal struggled with police as they apprehended him. It became apparent to officers when he was placed in the police wagon that he had been shot as well. Within minutes Abu-Jamal was off to the hospital. Although his supporters claim that police took Abu-Jamal for a lengthy torture-ride to hasten his death, the doctor that treated him testified that he arrived at the hospital between 4:10 and 4:20 a.m., shortly after Officer Faulkner’s body got there and only ten to twenty minutes after he was initially detained.

     Several witnesses contend that Abu-Jamal had made various self-incriminating statements. Inspector Alphonso Giordano testified that when he asked Jamal what he did with his gun, the taxi-driver told him that he dropped it after shooting the officer. Later at the hospital, witnesses heard Jamal defiantly yell out, “I’m glad. If you let me go, I will kill all you cops.” Two policemen and a hospital security guard also maintain that he shouted, “I shot the mother-fucker and I hope the mother-fucker dies.”

     A gun legally registered to Abu-Jamal, a .38 caliber revolver manufactured by Charter Arms, was found at the scene. It contained a spent shell casing in each of its five chambers. Five shots were fired at Officer Faulkner. Despite the oft-repeated claims by conspiracy theorists that the bullets that killed the police officer were .44 caliber, ballistics analysis matched the unique high velocity shells found in Abu-Jamal’s gun to the rounds retrieved from the scene and Faulkner’s body.

     Five witnesses from different vantage-points state that they saw Mumia Abu-Jamal kill Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal and his brother, William Cook, both witnessed the events, yet they refuse to give their version of what happened.

     More than a decade after Abu-Jamal’s conviction a new defense team headed by ‘60s radical Leonard Weinglass finally breathed new life into the public’s interest in the case. Unfortunately for Weinglass and company, the successful media campaign has not been matched by success in the courtroom.

     In 1995 the defense called Robert Chobert, a witness during the 1982 trial, who again testified that he saw Mumia Abu-Jamal kill Daniel Faulkner. That same year supporters of the convicted cop-killer announced to an incredulous press that William Cook was finally going to vindicate his brother on the witness stand—he never did. In 1996 they served up Veronica Jones, a witness who, as things turned out, never actually witnessed the murder itself. In 1997 they offered Pamela Jenkins who claimed that key prosecution witness Cynthia White had privately recanted her testimony to her in recent months—despite the fact that White had been dead since 1992. Another defense witness who claims to have seen the dead act in mysterious ways is William Singletary, the only person who attests to seeing someone other than Abu-Jamal kill Faulkner. He holds that a mystery man shot Faulkner and fled, with a soon to be pronounced dead Faulkner then shooting Abu-Jamal—a medical impossibility.

     Despite the massive amount of evidence, scores of rock stars, actors, and even world leaders profess Abu-Jamal’s innocence. At least O.J. Simpson’s supporters can lamely point to his pursuit of “the real killers.” Mumia’s followers can’t even say that their hero denies his own guilt.

     Those that attended the Liberty Bell protests still believe that the police got the wrong man. “I respect what Mumia stands for,” offered Baruch Peller, a student from Silver Springs, Maryland. Why does she believe that he should be freed? “I respect what Mumia has to say about police brutality and racism. I feel that he really spoke the truth.”

     Activists calling for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal because of his progressive beliefs face an uphill battle. This strategy, however, may be far more effective than any discussion of the evidence.

Daniel J. Flynn is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia and editor of Campus Report.
 

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