How Abu-Jamal Became a Political Prisoner by Anne Heidel Almost sixteen years ago, police officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed on a Philadelphia street corner. This murder aroused justified anger, yet the efforts bring the killer to justice overshadowed the protections guaranteed by civil liberties and the search for truth. Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death; sixteen years later he remains on death row, maintaining his innocence. His voice is amplified by advocates of human rights, civil liberties, and racial equality worldwide. From prison, Abu-Jamal has written for the Yale Law Journal, appeared on radio programs, and published a book, Live from Death Row. Several foreign governments, including Sweden and Germany, recognize Mumia Abu-Jamal as a political prisoner and local groups call for his immediate release. Why has he received so much attention amid the thousands of disputed capital cases? A founding member of the Black Panther Party's Philadelphia chapter, Mumia Abu-Jamal began a journalism career reporting events of interest to the African-American community. He was the only prominent journalist to investigate the police bombing of MOVE, a controversial group of Black leaders living with their families in a Philadelphia rowhouse. Among the conflicting stories of what happened on December 9, 1981, this much is undisputed: Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was carrying a .38-caliber gun, saw his brother being beaten by a police officer on a street corner. He got out of his car, attempted to intervene, and was critically wounded by gunfire. Officer Faulkner died of gunshot wounds and Abu-Jamal's brother left Philadelphia after hospital treatment. Although the official report states, "the negro male made no comments," several months later the author of the report told the court he had forgotten to add that Mumia had confessed to shooting Officer Faulkner. The most shocking element of Mumia's case is the manipulation of evidence and mismanagement of the judicial process. A reexamination of the medical examiner's report showed that the bullet in Officer Faulkner's brain was from a .44-caliber weapon and that the police did not do a routine test to check if Mumia's gun, a .38-caliber, had been recently fired. Two witnesses saw at least one other man running away from the scene of the crime. Detectives met in prison with the key witness,Veronica Jones, a 21-year old mother of three facing a five-year sentence for prostitution. After that meeting, she changed her story, denying that she saw anyone else running away, and officials granted her probation. At an appeals proceeding with Judge Sabo last year, Ms. Jones came forward to testify that she had withheld vital evidence because of police coercion; police officers interrupted her testimony and demanded to take her into custody for missing a New Jersey court date in 1994. Although the warrant did not actually name Ms. Jones, who was released from jail that afternoon, her additional testimony was not considered by Judge Sabo. Another witness, also facing prostitution charges at the time, recently served on a FBI grand jury investigating police corruption, where she confirmed that she had been threatened by the police if she did not cooperate with Mumia's prosecution. Barred from representing himself in court, Mumia was assigned a public defender who showed legal incompetence during proceedings and failed to interview key witnesses. The prosecution removed almost all of the black members from the jury through measures now declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Regardless of Mumia Abu-Jamal's guilt or innocence, it is clear that he deserves a new, fair trial. All of the court proceedings since 1981 have been conducted by Judge Sabo, a member of the Fraternal Order of Police who has sentenced 32 people to death in his career, 84% of them black. Judge Sabo came out of retirement to deny the appeal for a retrial in 1996. Political motivations for convicting Mumia Abu-Jamal, such as Philadelphia officials' campaign to "get tough on crime" and Mumia's investigative reporting of police misconduct, further discredit the court proceedings. The crusade to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal is currently led by Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, labeled "The Deadliest DA" by the New York Times. Although carrying out the death penalty usually costs three times more than a life sentence and she admits capital punishment is not a crime deterrent, Abraham has sought executions in every applicable case. Under Abraham, Pennsylvania's death row has grown to the fourth-largest in America with the highest percentage of African-Americans. Political insiders attest that Abraham will run for mayor in 1999, facing a popularity contest in a city frustrated by violent crime. Unless Mumia Abu-Jamal is granted a retrial, he faces execution at the hand of Governor Tom Ridge, who has signed more death warrants than ever before in Pennsylvania history. A successful civil rights attorney, Leonard Weinglass, took over as Mumia Abu-Jamal's lead counsel in 1992 and hopes to keep the trial, and Mumia, alive.

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