Ex-Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal Will Get New Hearing in 1981 Police Death

[Eugene]

Source: WCAU-TV/NBC 10 Philadelphia

A former Black Panther and death row activist convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer decades ago will get a new appeals hearing after District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday dropped his opposition to it.

Mumia Abu-Jamal, 64, is serving a life sentence after spending decades on death row in the 1981 slaying of Officer Daniel Faulkner, who had pulled his brother over in an overnight traffic stop.

Faulkner's widow, Maureen Faulkner, said in an emailed statement that her family is disappointed with the district attorney's decision.

"Larry Krasner promised my family and me that he would do everything within his power to keep my husband’s remorseless killer in prison for the rest of his life," Maureen Faulkner's statement read. "We believe today’s decision not to appeal has broken that promise."

-snip-

By MaryClaire Dale
Published 2 hours ago | Updated 46 minutes ago


Read more: https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Ex-Black-Panther-Mumia-Abu-Jamal-Could-Get-New-Hearing-in-1981-Police-Death-508714091.html

[marble falls]

1. Even if he did do it (and the way the state and Phillie police tried to manufacture and skew ...

evidence no one will ever know other than Mumia), he's spent more than enough time in prison.

Free Mumia.

[Wabbajack_]

11. I don't know if he did it

But if he did the appropriate time he should spend in prison is life.

[marble falls]

12. The operative word: if. Which takes anymore punishment off the table - we'll never know ...

free Mumia.

[Dawson Leery]

2. This case will always be a disaster.

I never bought the state's arguments.

[marble falls]

3. The prosecutorial efforts to railroad the case and the police malfeseance to wrap this ...

case up for their desire to "get even" for losing one of their own is shamsful and criminal in itself. Mumia never ever had the chance for a fair trial. They "knew" it was him and they were going to crucify him, and they sculpted the evidence to that one end.

They didn't give justice to Mumia in any form. The case is so tainted there is no possible way to present an untainted argument.

[malachi]

7. They didn't "lose" him. They found him right where he was murdered, shot to death while lying on th

ground.

[Dawson Leery]

8. The Philly PD made up stories about Mumia, claiming he confessed when arrested

even though in the first report, the police stated that Mumia was silent in the same period.

This entire case is bulls**t.

[melm00se]

10. This site (admittedly pro-Faulkner)

provides refutation to some, if not most, of the claims made by the convicted

http://danielfaulkner.org/myths-about-mumia/

You might want to review Myth #7 which addresses your statement.

[marble falls]

4. A list of the "problems" with the state's case ...

http://mumiaabujamal.com/the-case/the-facts/


1. Two months after Mumia’s arrest, police claimed he confessed on the night of the murder. But the arresting officer’s report stated that “the Negro male made no statements.”

2. Cynthia White, a “witness” who testified that Mumia was at the scene, changed her story repeatedly, and a friend said she made a deal with police. Veronica Jones, another “witness,” admitted she was blackmailed into testifying by police.

3. Within minutes of the shooting, four witnesses, each unknown to the others, told police that someone other than Mumia – who had been shot and severely wounded by Faulkner – had fled the scene. Police never investigated this suspect.

4. Prosecutors got a mostly white jury by rejecting 11 qualified African-Americans.

5. Mumia was denied the right to represent himself and even to be in the courtroom, despite totally inadequate counsel. His trial lawyer admitted that he didn’t talk to a single witness before the trial and never tried to raise money to obtain expert witnesses.

6. There are at least 29 constitutional violations in Mumia’s case, including the fact that during the sentencing phase of the trial, prosecutors were allowed to introduce his membership in the Black Panthers as a reason to give him the death penalty. In another Supreme Court case, justices threw out the conviction of a neo-Nazi (citing Mumia’s case) because prosecutors used his membership in the Aryan Brotherhood as a reason to give him a stiffer sentence.

7. The judge in Mumia’s trial, Albert Sabo, has sentenced 32 people to death – more than twice as many as any other judge in the U.S.

8. The Philadelphia Police Department is one of the most corrupt in the entire country. It is the only police department to be sued by the U.S. Justice Department for corruption. There are more than 1,200 cases of police misconduct under review. More than 300 convictions by Philadelphia courts have been overturned because of manufactured and planted evidence used by police to frame innocent people.

9. Pennsylvania has more Blacks on death row in proportion to its population than any other state in the union. An African-American man growing up in Philadelphia is 11.5 times more likely to end up on death row than if he grew up in Georgia or Alabama.

[melm00se]

5. as a counterpoint

to the site you reference:

http://danielfaulkner.org/summary-of-case-facts/the-trial-of-mumia-abu-jamal/

[malachi]

6. Thanks for posting. I knew the family, good folks. Danny was a very decent man.

[marble falls]

9. Danny being decent (and no-one says he wasn't) has nothing to do with Mumia's innocence or guilt ...

No-one deserves to be murdered. Not even Mumia.