Mumia Abu-Jamal is the most famous death-row prisoner in the world. In recent years his case who has been on Pennsylvania's death row since 1982 has received national and international attention and has generated discussion about the death penalty and the judicial system as a whole in the United States. Countless politicians, bodies of government, religious leaders, and cultural figures have expressed their concern about the constitutional violations in Abu-Jamal's case and have called for a new trial. The national movement that has grown up around this case has raised questions about the death penalty in the mind of millions.
1999 is a critical year in Abu-Jamal's case. Under the provisions of the Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, federal appeals have been drastically limited in capital cases. This constitutionally questionable law requires federal judges to presume that state court findings of fact are correct. Abu-Jamal has to file his application for a federal writ of habeas corpus by the end of this year. This federal appeal - considered an essential constitutional safeguard against the arbitrariness of local and state courts - might be denied all together.
Mumia Abu-Jamal was known as "the voice of the voiceless" during his career as an award-winning radio journalist in Philadelphia. He reported truthtully on issues concerning the African American and other minority communities. In 1981 he was named one of Philadelphia's "people to watch" in the Philadelphia Magazine. At the time of his arrest, he was the outgoing president of the Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia.
Abu-Jamal currently confined to his cell for 23 hours a day. He is allowed one two-hour non-contact visit a week. His contact with the press has been almost completely prohibited by prison authorities. Media representatives are not allowed to record or photograph him nor are they allowed to take notes during visits.
Trial, Conviction and Death Sentence
On the night of December 9, 1981, Abu-Jamal, who was supplementing his journalistic income as a cab driver, passed the scene of a traffic stop by police. Officer Daniel Faulkner had stopped Abu-Jamal's brother, Billy Cook, for a traffic violation. Abu-Jamal, seeing the officer beating his brother, parked his cab across the street. Soon after, gunfire broke out, leaving Officer Faulkner and Abu-Jamal critically wounded. The officer died shortly after he arrived in a hospital. Abu-Jamal was arrested and transported to a near-by hospital where he underwent surgery for a gunshot wound in the chest. Six months later, Abu-Jamal was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Officer Faulkner and was subsequently sentenced to death on July 3, 1982, after a trial that was termed a travesty of justice by impartial observers.
The prosecution still maintains that Abu-Jamal was convicted on overwhelming evidence based on witness testimonies, forensic evidence, and an alleged confession by Abu-Jamal in the hospital. The prosecution based its theory of the events of December 9, 1981 largely on the testimony of Cynthia White, who stated that she had seen Abu-Jamal shoot the officer. The prosecution also claims that a bullet from Abu-Jamal's gun killed the officer. Gary Bell, Faulkner's partner, testified that he heard Abu-Jamal confess in the hospital.
Abu-Jamal's defense team has challenged all aspects of the prosecution's theory and evidence. Five eyewitnesses have stated that they saw somebody running from the scene after the shooting. Two of them testified that Cynthia White was not at scene at the time of the shooting but came up later and asked what had happened. The defense also maintains that the prosecution is unable to link Abu-Jamal's gun to the shooting. No tests were conducted on the gun to see if it had recently been fired. There were no fingerprints found on the gun or the bullet casings. The police further did not undertake a neutron activation test - a routine test on suspected shooters - on Abu-Jamal's hands, which would have determined if he had fired a gun. Further, the medical examiner, a certified ballistic expert, concluded in his official report that the bullet that he removed from Faulkner's body was a .44 caliber; Abu-Jamal's gun was a .38 revolver.
According to the defense, the alleged confession might have been the most damaging evidence against Abu-Jamal in the original trial in 1982. Yet Gary Bell, who testified about the confession, did not report that for more than two months. A security guard who claims to have heard the confession also failed to report it until two months later. Police officer Gary Wakshul, assigned to guard Abu-Jamal from the time of his arrest until the emergency operation in the hospital, made no note of Abu-Jamal's alleged confession. Instead, he in his official report stated that the "negro male made no statement."
The defense challenged the prosecution's main theory and evidence, and argued that police misconduct and coercion contributed largely to the conviction of Abu-Jamal. William Singletary testified in the Post-Conviction Relief Hearing in 1995 that he was intimidated and threatened by police to write a false statement about what he had seen. Veronica Jones who testified in 1982 recanted that testimony during a hearing in 1996. She stated that two officers had offered her a deal, providing leniency on other charges in exchange for testimony against Abu-Jamal. She also testified that a similar deal was offered to Cynthia White, the main prosecution witness. The intimidation and the harassment of witnesses continued in 1996 when Jones was arrested on the witness stand before she had finished her testimony. To this day, the police have not disclosed all the gathered evidence and the files of Officer Faulkner and Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The defense further argues that Abu-Jamal's defense was hindered by system-internal biases against minority defendants: the overtly racist and pro-prosecution Judge Albert Sabo, a lack of funds to conduct a thorough investigation of the evidence and to hire expert witnesses, and an inadequate defense attorney. Sabo granted too little money for expert witnesses. Abu-Jamal's attorney, Anthony Jackson, did not interview a single witness in preparation for the 1982 trial and admitted in 1995 that his performance was inadequate and incompetent. Abu-Jamal had wanted to defend himself but he was removed by Judge Sabo during the jury selection and was therefore denied his constitutional right to defend himself. Jackson appealed repeatedly to be removed from the case because of constant disagreements with his client. Judge Sabo denied all those appeals.
According to Pennsylvania law all appeals on the state level are presided over by the same judge who presided over the original trial. In Abu-Jamal's case, this was Judge Albert Sabo, who has sentenced to death more people than any other sitting judge in the United States, the vast majority of them African Americans. He is known as the "prosecutor in robes" in Philadelphia.
In 1995 Governor Ridge signed a death warrant just days before the defense filed another appeal. A stay of execution was granted a few days before the scheduled execution. Before the Post-Conviction Relief Hearing in August 1995 prison authorities intercepted Abu-Jamal's confidential correspondence with his lawyers, copied it and sent it to the Governor's office. A federal judge ruled that the actions by prison authorities interfered with the preparation of an effective defense for hearings in August.
In October 1998 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Abu-Jamal's appeal for a new trial and upheld all rulings by Judge Sabo in the lower court. Abu-Jamal has now until November 1999 to petition the federal district court for a writ of habeas corpus.
In the meantime, Abu-Jamal's attorneys filed an appeal with the United States Supreme Court about the violation of Abu-Jamal's Sixth Amendment rights (denial of self- representation, denial of attorney of choice, and removal from the courtroom without any provisions for Abu-Jamal to follow the proceedings). It is expected that the Supreme Court will deny this appeal.
Abu-Jamal's Political Past
The trial and the conviction of Abu-Jamal was overshadowed by his political past which became the prosecution's main argument in demanding the death penalty for Abu-Jamal. Prosecutor Joseph McGill argued that Abu-Jamal was a potential murderer because of his past membership in the Black Panther Party and that society demanded his death to be protected of a man prone to violence and crime. Abu-Jamal had never been involved in any crime.
Abu-Jamal was well known in Philadelphia as a political activist, always outspoken on issues such as police brutality and misconduct, poverty, and racism. At the age of 15,he was beaten and arrested during a demonstration against presidential candidate George Wallace. In 1969 he became a co-founder and Minister of Information of the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party. The same year the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a file on Abu-Jamal, adding his name to the National Security Index and compiling an 800-page file on him. During his time in the Black Panther Party Abu-Jamal was trained in journalism, writing for The Black Panther.
As a radio journalist for several stations in Philadelphia, Abu-Jamal became an active and open critic of the Philadelphia Police Department, which was notorious for extensive misconduct and brutality, especially under the reign of Frank Rizzo in the 1970s. He was particularly critical of the police after they attacked the house of the radical group MOVE. Scenes of police brutality were caught on national TV. Nine MOVE members were sentenced to 30-100 years in prison for the death of a police officer in the shooting. However, ballistic evidence and witness testimony point to friendly fire as the cause of the officer's death. Abu-Jamal continued to ask critical questions about police conduct and the evidence the police presented. During a press conference on August 8, the day of the shooting, Mayor Rizzo responded to one of Abu-Jamal's questions by saying: "They believe what you write, what you say. And it's got to stop. And one day, and I hope it's in my career, that you're going to have to be held responsible and accountable for what you do."
In 1985 eleven MOVE members, including five children, died in a fire when the Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on one of the MOVE houses. Sixty row houses were also destroyed in the inferno.
They Don't Just Want My Death, They Want My Silence
In 1994 National Public Radio hired Abu-Jamal to do a series of commentaries on prison life. A campaign against NPR led by the Fraternal Order of Police and supported by politicians such as Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole pressured NPR into canceling the commentaries. The commentaries were published as Abu-Jamal's first book, Live from Death Row.
The publication of Live from Death Row triggered another campaign by the Fraternal Order of Police and some members of the state legislature to hinder the publication of the book. Abu-Jamal was put into solitary confinement and was denied visitors and phone calls as a punishment for his writings.
The federal district court in Pittsburgh ruled that prison authorities had illegally singled out Abu-Jamal when they barred the press from interviewing him in retaliation for writing his book. A few days after the ruling, the prison authorities instituted a new rule banning the media from recording or photographing any prisoner in the state system.
In 1997 Pacifica Radio's program "Democracy Now" broadcast a series of Abu-Jamal's commentaries. They were supposed to alr on WRTI, the radio station of Temple University. After protests and threats by the Fraternal Order of Police, Temple University canceled the program "Democracy Now."
Mumia Abu-Jamal - Exception and Rule
Mumia Abu-Jamal's case is both an exception and the rule. His case is an exception in regard to the political context and its influence on the trial, the death sentence and the appeals history. Abu-Jamal is the only political prisoner in the United States on death row. Not only were his political beliefs used in 1982 to impose the death sentence but since then prison authorities, the government, and the Fraternal Order of Police have attempted to silence him completely. Despite those efforts, Abu-Jamal's case has created a national and international movement, calling for a new trial. Abu-Jamal is, however, no exception when it comes to young African Americans and the judicial system.
The United States' judicial system is well-known for its racism and discrimination against defendants of color and poor people. Funds for expert witnesses and investigations are routinely denied by courts. Juries often do not fulfill the constitutional guidelines for a jury of peers. In capital cases potential jurors have to go through the process of "death qualification." Jurors are questioned about their beliefs on capital punishment. If they are against the death penalty or express doubts whether they could impose a death sentence, they can be removed without cause. A "death prone" jury is generally more conservative and more likely to convict than a jury in non-capital cases. Further, defendants who have to rely on public defenders rarely receive an adequate defense, as the lawyers are mostly young, inexperienced, underpaid, and inadequately trained.
Philadelphia is especially notorious for its racism and discrimination. The majority of death row inmates in Pennsylvania were convicted in Philadelphia (over 50%). Philadelphia courts have sent 15 times more defendants to death row than Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) despite populations of similar size in the two counties. The city also has no Public Defenders Office, which would support and train lawyers in capital cases. Expert witnesses in Philadelphia routinely refuse to testify or investigate in capital cases because of the lack of funds.
African Americans make up less than 10% of Pennsylvania's general population but as much as 60% of the death row population. 92% of Pennsylvania's death row inmates were unable to afford their own defense attorney.