Radio show sparks

Mumia-backers' ire

John M. Baer, Daily News Staff Writer

Philadelphia lawyer and radio talk-show host Michael A. Smerconish is back in the thick of the Mumia Abu-Jamal story, this time as part of the story himself.

Smerconish yesterday was the target of a demonstration by Abu-Jamal supporters outside his Center City law office, the day after he hosted former prison volunteer Philip Bloch on his evening radio show.

Bloch, a substitute high-school teacher in York who knew Abu-Jamal in the early 1990s, told Vanity Fair magazine that Abu-Jamal confessed to him seven years ago that he had killed Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Abu-Jamal is on Death Row for killing Faulkner in 1981. He has never publicly admitted guilt, claims to be a "political prisoner" and is seeking a new trial or freedom.

Smerconish, 37, works at the downtown law firm of Beasley, Casey & Erbstein and hosts a talk show on WPHT radio (1210-AM) from 5 to 7 p.m.

He was not in his office during the demonstration yesterday. He said he was taking a legal deposition at a suburban hospital all day.

The "emergency demonstration" was promoted on a pro-Abu-Jamal Web site, "Mumia Abu-Jamal's Freedom Journal," in which Smerconish is described as "a leading voice in the vicious smear campaign against Mumia."

The site said that Smerconish "uses his talk show to incite people to join the lynch mob to murder Mumia."

Ramona Africa, active in the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, attended the demonstration. She said it was held because Smerconish has "made it his personal business to make sure Mumia is murdered by this government. . .he misuses his microphone."

Smerconish said, "I have just as much a right to speak my mind on the issue as she does. . .who does she think she is?

"For as long as I have a microphone with 50,000 watts that reaches three states, I'm gonna call them as I see them," he added.

Smerconish, political director for the 1987 mayoral campaign of the late Frank Rizzo and a former regional federal housing official during the Bush administration, is active in helping Faulkner's widow, Maureen Faulkner, counter pro-Abu-Jamal messages.

He said his interest in the case grew out of "being an interested Philadelphian and the talk show." It intensified during Abu-Jamal's 1995 post-conviction hearings in Philadelphia at which Smerconish met and became friends with Maureen Faulkner.

He organized a fund-raising dinner at the Union League last April on the eve of the "Millions for Mumia" march in Philadelphia and helped set up a pro-Faulkner Web site "to balance information and put out facts on the case."

"I grew sick and tired of sitting in my easy chair and watching rabble-rousers. . .what they have to say is a crock," he said. "He murdered Danny Faulkner."

Africa said Smerconish "feels threatened by what the case represents. . .people like Smerconish believe in this country and they don't want the U.S. government, this system, exposed for what it is. It's racist and contemptible."

Smerconish said, "If you kill a cop in cold blood, then enlist a whole crew of Hollywood lefties who couldn't find the Liberty Bell in this city, who've never read the transcripts of the trial, and then proclaim your innocence, what kind of precedent is that going to represent?"