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from WS 45
     **  The "Voice of the Voiceless" on DEATH ROW.  **

AMERICAN BLACK activist and journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal, 
was sentenced to die at 10pm on August 17th.  Protests 
which took place in over twenty countries forced the US 
authorities to grant a stay of execution, just 11 days 
before he was to be killed.  He is still under sentence 
of death.  His supporters are still seeking justice for 
him.

Mumia has been the recipient of police attention 
since his teenage years.  At age 14 he was arrested for 
taking part in a protest against the racist pro-
segregation Governor of Alabama, George Wallace.  The 
next year he joined the Black Panther Party and was 
appointed its information officer in Philadelphia.  

In the 1970s he turned to journalism.  His work in 
this field saw him win awards and be elected President 
of the Philadelphia chapter of the Association of Black 
Journalists.  His writings and radio programme 
constantly ran items about racist practices in the 
Mayor's office and brutality against black people by the 
police department.  As a constant thorn in the side of 
the establishment, he became known as the "voice of the 
voiceless".

In the early hours of December 9th 1981 Mumia was 
moonlighting as a taxi driver when he saw his brother 
Billy being beaten by a policeman, Daniel Faulkner, on 
Locust Street, in downtown Philadelphia.  Mumia 
approached and was shot in the stomach.  He was found 
bleeding on the kerb, from where he was arrested and 
brought to Jefferson University Hospital.  Faulkner was 
dead.

Evidence put forward which suggested Mumia was shot by 
Faulkner as he approached the scene, and that a third 
black male shot Faulkner and fled, was suppressed at the 
trial.  

The witnesses

In the original trial in 1982 only one witness 
identified Jamal as the man with a gun in his hand.  She 
was Cynthia White, whom other witnesses said was not 
present.  One defence witness did, however, see her over 
half a block away at the time of the shooting.  Ms White 
had three prositution charges pending against her.  
Without explanation, these were dropped.   And it was 
disclosed at the trial that Ms White had been given 
police protection and allowed to continue working as a 
prostitute.  

The second witness said he did not see Officer 
Faulkner shoot Mumia at any time, and then gave a 
description of a man sounding nothing like Mumia.  
Furthermore this witness, Robert Chobert, told an 
arriving police captain that the shooter had run way.  
At the trial Chobert retracted his testimony, saying he 
had been mistaken and that Mumia was the shooter, 
although he said he never saw a gun or gun flashes.  
Chobert was, at that time, facing charges in an 
unrelated case but the jury was not informed of his 
motive to lie in hope of getting his sentence reduced.

The third prosecution witness, Mark Scanlan, could 
not identify Jamal.  He later admitted that he had been 
drinking and was "confused" about what he saw.

One witness who was not called was William Singletary, 
who said the shooter had run away.    Following this he 
was harassed by police officers and threatened at his 
place of business until he finally shut down and moved 
to another state.  Singletary's story was kept from 
Jamal & his defence at the time of his trial.

The "shouted confession"

The prosecution claimed that Mumia confessed as he 
lay on the floor of the hospital emergency room.  Yet 
the doctor who was present, Dr Regina Cudemo, heard no 
confession but did see an officer kick Mumia.  The 
doctor who made the initial examination, Dr. Anthony 
Coletta, found Mumia to be barely conscious.  

Two additional prosecution witnesses claimed - over 
eight weeks later - that Mumia was struggling violently 
and shouted out a confession.  These were Officer Garry 
Bell, Faulkner's partner and best friend; and a hospital 
security guard called Priscilla Durham who also knew 
Faulkner.  The supposed confession was only reported 
after Internal Affairs detectives interviewed these two 
in relation to a complaint made by Mumia that he had 
been beaten up in the hospital.

However police officer Gary Wakshul had stayed with 
Mumia from the time of his arrest until doctors started 
their treatment of his wounds.  He noted in his report 
that the prisoner made "no statements".  Despite a 'no 
vacation' notice on his personnel file he was sent away 
on vacation until after the trial.  Jamal's defence was 
refused an adjournment until his return.

The gun

Mumia was carrying a legally registered gun, many 
US taxi drivers do.  No test was performed on Mumia's 
hands to see if he had recently fired a gun, despite 
this being normal practice.  Nor did they test Mumia's 
gun.  Of if they did they suppressed their findings.  

A Mr Jackson, who stated he was not experienced and 
did not want to take the case, was appointed Mumia's 
lawyer against both his own wishes and those of the 
accused.  Jackson was later disbarred from legal 
practice because of incompetancy in another case.

There were just three black people on the jury for 
the trial of a black man in a city that is 40% black.  
Whipping up racist hysteria, Mumia's former membership 
of the Black Panther Party, and his current support for 
the MOVE grouping (a militant black grouping who call 
for a "green revolution"), was admitted  as "evidence" 
to show he had planned to kill a cop for years and 
should be given a death sentence! 

Of the 103 people under sentence of death in 
Philadelphia only 12 are white.  The trial judge has 
sentenced 31 people to death, only two of whom were 
white.  Furthermore, Judge Sabo has a lifelong 
association with the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of 
Police, who have been running a high profile campaign to 
have Mumia executed.  

Although blacks make up just 9% of the population of 
Pennsylvania state they represent 56% of the population 
on death row.  Mumia is being railroaded to a premature 
death, a state murder.  The facts of this case give 
every justification for condemning it as a racist 
miscarriage of justice.

Worldwide protests

An international campaign for justice has been 
growing over the last couple of months.  In Germany 
4,000 people marched through Berlin.  The campaign is 
also growing in South Africa, India, Italy, France, 
Spain, Britain and many other countries.   In Ireland 
the Workers Solidarity Movement and Militant Labour 
initiated the 'Justice for Abu-Jamal Campaign'.  This 
group has distributed thousands of leaflets about the 
case, collected petitions and organised protests.  
Activities have taken place in Belfast, Cork, Dublin and 
Galway. 

Make no mistake.  Mumia Abu-Jamal is on death row 
because of his politics.  Abu-Jamal's biggest crime was 
to be born black and have the bravery to confront the 
oppression which he was exposed to in America.   Our 
struggle is for freedom and justice.  So is Abu-Jamal's, 
and that struggle continues.

Dermot Sreenan