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Thread: Mumia Abu-Jamal aka Wesley Cook - Pennsylvania

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    Mumia Abu-Jamal aka Wesley Cook - Pennsylvania




    Facts of the Crime:

    Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

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    February 19, 2008

    HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected a request from Mumia Abu-Jamal.

    He says witnesses in his trial for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer lied on the stand. The court says he waited too long to request a hearing for that claim.

    Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. In 2001, a federal judge overturned Abu-Jamal's death sentence but upheld his conviction. Both sides are appealing that ruling. Prosecutors are seeking to have the death penalty reinstated and Abu-Jamal's lawyers are trying to overturn the conviction.

    His case has attracted international notoriety.

    (Source: AP)

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    March 27, 2008

    PHILADELPHIA - A federal appeals court has ordered a new penalty hearing for celebrity death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal (moo-MEE'-ah AH'-boo jah-MAHL').

    The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says Abu-Jamal's conviction for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer should stand. But it says he should get a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions.

    If prosecutors don't want to give him a new death penalty hearing, Abu-Jamal would be sentenced automatically to life in prison.

    A Philadelphia jury convicted Abu-Jamal of killing Officer Daniel Faulkner after the patrolman pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in an overnight traffic stop 27 years ago.

    (Source: AP)

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    July 22, 2008

    Abu-Jamal loses latest appeal for new trial

    A federal appeals court yesterday refused to reconsider the decision denying a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal in the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

    In a 2-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Abu-Jamal's request for a rehearing of his appeal in the controversial case, which has helped fuel an international debate about the death penalty.

    Abu-Jamal's lawyer, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, said he planned to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.

    In March, a 3-judge panel of the Third Circuit left intact Abu-Jamal's conviction but said a new jury should decide whether he deserved death or should be sentenced to life behind bars.

    Deputy District Attorney Ronald Eisenberg said no decision had been made on whether his office would ask the high court to reinstate the death sentence.

    Abu-Jamal and his lawyers contend that the panel should have ordered a hearing on their contention that prosecutors intentionally excluded blacks from his jury in violation of a later 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

    They noted that one of the panel members, Judge Thomas Ambro, wanted a hearing held on that issue, though he was in the minority on that issue.

    All 3 members of the panel, which also included Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica and Judge Robert E. Cowen, affirmed the December 2001 decision by U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr., who threw out the death sentence.

    Yohn concluded that the jury might have been confused by the trial judge's instructions and wording on the verdict form filled out when the jury decided on death.

    He found that the jury might have mistakenly believed it had to agree unanimously on any mitigating circumstances - factors that might have persuaded the jury to decide on a life sentence, rather than death.

    Abu-Jamal, 54, has been on death row since his 1982 conviction in the killing of Faulkner, who was shot to death near 13th and Locust Streets early on Dec. 9, 1981.

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 1989, and also rejected 3 other appeals.

    Unless the nation's high court agrees to hear the case, Abu-Jamal most likely would face a new Philadelphia jury to decide only whether the penalty should be life or death. The high court hears only a tiny percentage of all petitions filed each year.

    (source: Philadelphia Inquirer)

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    October 6, 2008

    WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Supreme Court Monday refused to hear arguments for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther accused of killing a police officer who has become an icon for anti-capital punishment campaigners.

    His lawyer Robert Bryan has already said he will seek to bring a second Supreme Court appeal -- on the grounds of racism -- for the 54-year-old former radio journalist accused of the 1981 murder of Daniel Faulkner.

    Abu-Jamal's death sentence was overturned in March by a federal court in Philadelphia, which found that the jury in the case had been incorrectly instructed. The judges voted two-to-one to uphold his conviction, however.

    Having escaped death row, his lawyers are now fighting a life sentence and want to bring him back before a jury for a new trial.

    They had asked the Supreme Court to approve a re-trial because of unreliable testimony from witnesses.

    Bryan has said he will not rest until his client is freed. "Even though the federal court granted a new trial on the question of the death penalty, we want a complete reversal of the conviction," he said in July.

    As part of his defense, Abu-Jamal has argued he was denied a fair trial in 1982 because the prosecution barred 10 qualified African-Americans from sitting on the jury, which in the end consisted of 10 whites and two blacks.

    The Philadelphia appeals court had rejected his arguments on lack of evidence of any racist intent on the part of the prosecution.

    The US penal code bans the exclusion of potential jurists because of the colour of their skin.

    Abu-Jamal's campaign has attracted support from Nelson Mandela, Hollywood celebrities Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon and British parliamentarians, according to campaign group Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition.

    Abu-Jamal was serving as the president of the Association of Black Journalists at the time of his arrest. He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Black Panther Party as a teenager.

    The Black Panther Party was a Leftist African-American organization from the 1960s and 70s established to promote black power and self-defense.

    Source: AFP News

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    October 20, 2008

    US Supreme Court asked to review Black Panther death sentence

    The state of Pennsylvania has asked the US Supreme Court to review a lower court's decision to overturn the death sentence of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted for the 1981 murder of a police officer, judicial sources said Monday.

    The Supreme Court and Abu-Jamal's lawyer Robert Bryan confirmed Monday that the appeal was lodged in early October.

    Since Abu-Jamal's conviction and death sentence, the case has become a focus for civil rights activists who contend racism was involved when he was found guilty by an overwhelmingly white jury for the 1981 shooting of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner.

    Abu-Jamal's death sentence was overturned in March by a federal court in Philadelphia, which found that the jury in the case had been incorrectly instructed. The judges voted 2-to-1 to uphold his conviction, however.

    On October 6 the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Abu-Jamal that it hear arguments for holding a new trial in the murder case.

    (source: Agence France Presse)

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    January 9, 2009

    27 Years Later...Still No Justice for Officer Daniel Faulkner

    Last month marked the 27th anniversary of the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. While the voice of Officer Faulkner has been silent for more than a quarter of a century, his killer is very much alive and his voice is heard quite often. The former Black Panther named Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook) gives numerous interviews, delivers college commencement speeches, and even has a street named in in his honor. Despite his conviction and subsequent death sentence, Abu-Jamal continues to thumb his nose at the justice system, while enjoying the adulation of foreign leaders as well as Hollywood celebrities.

    On December 9, 1981, Officer Daniel Faulkner made a routine traffic stop of the car driven by William Cook (Abu-Jamal's brother). According to witnesses, Cook exited the vehicle and began to struggle with Officer Faulkner. Abu-Jamal happened to be across the street, witnessing the struggle, he ran over and shot Faulkner in the back. Faulkner returned fire and hit Abu-Jamal in the chest. However, Abu-Jamal then stood over the officer as he lie on the ground and emptied his revolver, shooting him once in the face.

    Fellow officers arrived at the scene and saw Officer Faulkner lying in the street in a pool of blood, while Abu-Jamal sat gasping for air on the curb. Officer Daniel Faulkner was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead later that night. Abu-Jamal was taken into custody and charged with Faulkner's murder.

    In 1982, Abu-Jamal was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

    Despite the overwhelming facts, Abu-Jamal has maintained his innocence, and his lawyers have brought forth dozens of appeals. In 2001, they shopped the case to Federal District Court Judge William Yohn who actually overturned the death sentence. On March 17, 2006 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania filed an appeal with the U.S. Third Circuit, to reinstate the execution of Abu-Jamal. Gov. Ed Rendell promised to sign the death warrant.

    District Attorney Lynne Abraham has fought doggedly to reinstate the death penalty for Abu-Jamal. She has often characterized his conviction as "the most open-and-shut case" she has ever tried. Abraham has pointed out that despite his claims of innocence, Abu-Jamal "has never produced his own brother, who was present at the time of the murder, yet he has offered up various individuals who would claim that one trial witness or another must have lied; or that some other individual has only recently been discovered who has special knowledge about the murder; or that someone has fallen out of the skies, who is supposedly willing to confess to the murder of Officer Faulkner."

    Among the many facts that Abu-Jamal has not been able to explain is how he received the bullet wound in the chest, nor why he was discovered at the murder scene. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the NAACP have continued to support Abu-Jamal for the last 25 years.

    While imprisoned, Abu-Jamal has published a book, been interviewed by Vanity Fair and National Public Radio, and even given commencement speeches via videotape to Evergreen State College, UC Santa Cruz, Antioch College, and Occidental College. He has also received a Bachelor's Degree from Goddard College as well as a Master's Degree from California State University, both courtesy of the taxpayers.

    Incredibly, in 2004, the city of Paris, France awarded Abu-Jamal with honorary citizenship. FormerBlack Panther Angela Davis attended the ceremony and accepted the award on his behalf. In 2006, the French city of Saint-Denis named a street after the convicted cop-killer!

    Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela have demanded a new trial for Abu-Jamal. While actors Danny Glover, Ossie Davis, Susan Sarandon, and Ed Asner have joined rappers Snoop Dogg, and Public Enemy in supporting the murderer.

    In 1994, Maureen Faulkner (Daniel's wife) learned that National Public Radio was planning to air a series of taped monologues by Abu-Jamal. It was at that time that she began her work to educate the public about the circumstances of her husband´s murder, and the campaign to reinstate Abu-Jamal's death sentence.

    Officer Daniel Faulkner was a 5 year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department as well as a U.S. Army veteran. At the time of his murder, Faulkner was attending classes in pursuit of his bachelor's degree as he had hopes of becoming a criminal prosecutor. He left behind his wife Maureen, the 2 were married for only a year when he was killed.

    When a dedicated police officer is gunned-down by a lawless thug, it is an attack on all law-abiding citizens. When that officer's killer is allowed to draw breathe for another 25 years, it is disgusting. When the killer is praised by celebrities, given honors by colleges, and treated by the media as if he possesses sage wisdom, it is an abomination.

    Mumia Abu-Jamal (Wesley Cook) was sentenced to death for his crime by a jury of his peers, and that sentence should be carried-out.

    Please take a moment to remember Officer Daniel Faulkner and the sacrifice he and so many brave men and women have made for the rest of us.

    (source: American Chronicle)

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    March 23, 2009

    Ex-Panther says racism put him on death row

    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mumia Abu-Jamal sits on Pennsylvania's death row, perhaps the most recognized of the 228 condemned inmates at the Greene Correctional Facility, an hour south of Pittsburgh.

    Abu-Jamal, inmate AM8335, awaits three milestones. His new book, "Jailhouse Lawyers," will be released next month. He's also awaiting a pair of Supreme Court decisions, which could come in the next two weeks.

    The former Black Panther was sentenced to die for gunning down a Philadelphia police officer 28 years ago. The high court will decide whether he deserves a new hearing to determine whether his execution should go forward.

    The state is appealing a federal appeals court ruling on the sentencing question that went in Abu-Jamal's favor last year.

    The case has attracted international attention.

    Abu-Jamal's lawyers filed a separate appeal claiming that racism led to his 1982 conviction. That petition is scheduled for consideration by the Supreme Court on April 3. If either case is accepted by the justices for review, oral arguments would be held in the fall.

    The former radio reporter and cab driver has been divisive figure, with many prominent supporters arguing that racism pervaded his trial.

    Others counter that Abu-Jamal is using his skin color to escape responsibility for his actions. They say he has divided the community for years with his provocative writing and activism.

    He was convicted for the December 9, 1981, murder of officer Daniel Faulkner, 25, in Philadelphia.

    Faulkner had pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in a late-night traffic stop. Witnesses said Abu-Jamal, who was nearby, ran over and shot the police officer in the back and in the head.

    Abu-Jamal, once known as Wesley Cook, was also wounded in the confrontation and later admitted to the killing, according to other witnesses' testimony.

    Abu-Jamal is black, and the police officer was white.

    Incarcerated for nearly three decades, Abu-Jamal has been an active critic of the criminal justice system.

    On a Web site created by friends to promote his release, the prisoner-turned-author writes about his fight. "This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multi-billion dollar endowed universities but in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the hidden, dank dungeons of America."

    His chief defense attorney, Robert Bryan, has filed appeals asking for a new criminal trial.

    "The central issue in this case is racism in jury selection," he wrote to supporters last month.

    "We are in an epic struggle in which his life hangs in the balance. What occurs now in the Supreme Court will determine whether Mumia will have a new jury trial or die at the hands of the executioner," Bryan said. Ten whites and two blacks made up the original jury panel that sentenced him to death.

    A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals kept the murder conviction in place a year ago but ordered a new capital sentencing hearing.

    "The jury instructions and the verdict form created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from finding a mitigating circumstance that had not been unanimously agreed upon," Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica wrote in the 77-page opinion.

    The federal appeals court ultimately concluded that the jury was improperly instructed on how to weigh "mitigating factors" offered by the defense that might have kept Abu-Jamal off death row. Pennsylvania law at the time said jurors did not have to unanimously agree on a mitigating circumstance, such as the fact that Abu-Jamal had no prior criminal record.

    Months before that ruling, oral arguments on the issue were contentious. Faulkner's widow and Abu-Jamal's brother attended, and demonstrations on both sides were held outside the courtroom in downtown Philadelphia.

    If the Supreme Court refuses now to intervene on the sentencing issue, the city's prosecutor would have to decide within six months whether to conduct a new death penalty sentencing hearing or allow Abu-Jamal to spend the rest of his life in state prison.

    Many prominent groups and individuals, including singer Harry Belafonte, the NAACP and the European Parliament, are cited on his Web site as supporters.

    Prosecutors have insisted that Abu-Jamal pay the price for his crimes and have aggressively resisted efforts to take him off death row for Faulkner's murder.

    "This assassination has been made a circus by those people in the world and this city who believe falsely that Mumia Abu-Jamal is some kind of a folk hero," Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said last year, when the federal appeals court upheld the conviction. "He is nothing short of an assassin."

    The city has honored the fallen police officer with a street designation and a commemorative plaque placed at the spot where he was shot and killed.

    The officer's widow, Maureen Faulkner, wrote a book two years ago about her husband and the case: "Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice." She writes that she was trying to "definitively lay out the case against Mumia Abu-Jamal and those who've elevated him to the status of political prisoner.

    http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/23/...eref=rss_crime

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    April 6, 2009

    WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal's bid for a new trial on his 1982 conviction for murdering a Philadelphia police officer. Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death.

    The high court refused to hear arguments that the conviction was improper because Abu-Jamal's defense had been blocked from having blacks represented on the jury in the 1981 killing of officer Daniel Faulkner, who was white.

    Despite requests from Pennsylvania officials, the court Monday chose not to address the question of the death penalty for Abu-Jamal, who is now 54 years old and whose case has gained wide notoriety through media coverage and activist groups.

    The 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals had upheld the conviction but voided Abu-Jamal's death sentence.

    http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/Ne...ew-Trial%20Bid

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    April 12, 2009

    Who wants to free Mumia now?

    Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal seeking a new trial for death-row inmate and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in the 1981 shooting of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Earlier, a lower court rescinded Abu-Jamal's death penalty, which prosecutors have asked to be reinstated. Meanwhile, as the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, last week's ruling "virtually guarantees that the internationally known death-row inmate will never be freed."

    Perhaps there were tears shed in Paris, where he is an honorary citizen and where the suburb of St. Denis named a one-way street "Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal" in 2006. But I see it as a sign of healthy change that in America the ruling went largely unprotested.

    Call it progress. Being convicted for killing a police officer has lost the cachet it once had for the far left - especially since Oakland just buried slain police Sgts. Mark Dunakin, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai, and Officer John Hege.

    Consider that Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, introduced a House resolution honoring the four Oakland officers. She once signed a letter against Abu-Jamal's execution. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution naming a day in Abu-Jamal's honor. Ditto the European Parliament. The anti-Iraq war group Not in Our Name proudly advertised Abu-Jamal's endorsement as one of its celebrity signatories - unbothered by the prospect of dubbing a cop killer as a committed peacenik. Writer Alice Walker likened Abu-Jamal to South African leader Nelson Mandela.

    Oakland schools scheduled a Mumia teach-in for January 1999 - although it was mostly derailed after a sniper shot Oakland Officer James Williams Jr., whose funeral was held on the same day. The teach-in lesson plan had referred to Abu-Jamal not as a cop killer, but as a "political prisoner."

    Be it noted, the letter signed by Lee and others argued against Abu-Jamal's execution because "he well may be innocent." The usual Hollywood stars - Ed Asner, Mike Farrell - were happy to impugn the motives and behavior of Philly police and prosecutors. Devotees desperately clung to the notion that Abu-Jamal, formerly Wesley Cook, was a victim of racism. Indeed, they so wanted to believe that Abu-Jamal was unfairly convicted that they overlooked the gratuitous execution of Faulkner.

    But the evidence was overwhelming. A jury - and not all the members were white as it included 2 African Americans - convicted Abu-Jamal and sentenced him to death.

    After police pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, a battle followed. Faulkner was shot five times, once between the eyes. Authorities found Abu-Jamal near the mortally wounded Faulkner because he could not run away, as his brother did; Faulkner had shot Abu-Jamal in the chest. Also, four eyewitnesses identified Abu-Jamal. 2 witnesses heard Abu-Jamal admit to shooting Faulkner and saying that he hoped Faulkner would die.

    What is more, Abu-Jamal has never explicitly stated that he did not shoot Faulkner. He did not testify at his own trial before his conviction. He served as his own lawyer - with professional backup counsel - yet failed to produce his brother as a witness. Guilty.

    But he knows how to play to a certain crowd swayed more by race-laden rhetoric than fact. So from death row, he keeps cranking out books and radio commentaries, and self-congratulatory hype about how the racist system put him in prison. As in his latest self-homage, "This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multibillion-dollar endowed universities [but] in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the hidden, dank dungeons of America."

    I suppose it is possible that if the Supreme Court reinstates Abu-Jamal's justly deserved death sentence, apologists will again clamor for TV time to rail against the injustice of Abu-Jamal's conviction. But if his followers really believe he is innocent, they should remain committed to the cause, whether he faces execution or not.

    Their rallying cry is, after all, "Free Mumia."

    I would like to think that the Hollywood and Bay Area left have become wiser and now understand that the murder of a cop is not justifiable and cannot be overlooked because good liberals are too busy being righteous and denouncing the racist criminal justice system.

    Sure, there were a few left-wing loons who lionized Oakland cop killer Lovelle Mixon, but local politicians knew which funeral to attend and whom not to defend.

    Maybe the difference is that Dunakin, Romans, Sakai and Hege fell close to home.

    (source: San Francisco Chronicle)

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