| Weekend
Edition
December 8 / 9, 2007
A
Flurry of New Projects on Mumia Abu-Jamal's Case
Spotlight
on Death Row
By LINN
WASHINGTON, Jr.
In
the storied history of Philadelphia few events match the controversial
case of death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal for generating creative
projects across the globe.
This
26-year-old case is the subject of a new round of projects from
feature-length films by Philly-based producers to a bevy of books
about Abu-Jamal authored from Chicago to Paris.
This
flurry of creative projects coincides with the release of new evidence
contradicting core elements of the highly disputed prosecution case
that placed Abu-Jamal on death row.
This
new evidence is previously unseen crime scene photos from the December
9, 1981 murder of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner.
The
photos show investigating police tampering with the crime scene,
including failing to properly secure key evidence and manipulating
other evidence.
These
photos, taken by a photojournalist before police crime scene photographers
arrived, also graphically highlight inaccuracies in ballistic and
eyewitness evidence presented at trial against Abu-Jamal.
These
photos, for example, show no bullet holes in the sidewalk where
prosecutors told jurors Abu-Jamal stood over Faulkner firing multiple
shots before shooting the policeman once between the eyes.
“We
are making the point that at minimum, [Abu-Jamal] needs a new trial,”
said Hans Bennett, co-founder of Journalists for Mumia, a Philadelphia-based
support that sponsored a 12/4/07 press conference publicizing the
photos.
A
new book presenting the ‘anguish and grief’ of Faulkner’s
widow – Maureen –received feature treatment recently
in the Philadelphia Inquirer, that city’s largest daily newspaper.
Beginning
on 12/2/07, the Inquirer ran three excerpts from this book presenting
Faulkner’s story entitled “Murdered by Mumia: A Life
Sentence of Pain, Loss and Injustice.”
This
book is co-authored by Michael Smerconish, a right-wing talk radio
host and media personality in Philadelphia, who also writes a weekly
column for the Inquirer.
The
three excerpted chapters carried a common theme raised repeatedly
by Mrs. Faulkner: Abu-Jamal is a cold-blooded killer and his “misguided
supporters…perpetuate the myth that [he] is a victim of a
racist justice system…”
Those
crime scene photos took center stage during a 12/6/07 NBC Today
Show interview with Faulkner and Smerconish that served as the national
launch of the “Murdered By” book.
The
mere asking of a few probing questions by Today Show co-host Matt
Lauer about those photos and other irregularities surrounding the
case outraged Faulkner and Smerconish, a source close to this pair
said.
Hours
after that Today Show interview, a website connected with the conservative
Media Research Center blasted Lauer for taking “up the cause
of the convicted cop killer [by asking] skeptical questions…about
the legitimacy of Abu-Jamal’s guilt…”
But
questioning all sides of an issue is what fair-&-balanced journalists
are supposed to do, reminded news media expert Dr. Todd Burroughs,
who teaches Communications Studies at Morgan State University in
Baltimore.
“It
was good to see Faulkner and Smerconish finally being asked some
critical questions about the legitimacy of Abu-Jamal’s trial
and all of the evidence that points to a set-up,” said Burroughs,
who is writing a journalistic biography on Abu-Jamal.
Mrs.
Faulkner questioned why the photos took 26-years to surface when
responding to a question from Lauer – inferring an illegitimacy
to these photographs.
However,
allies of Faulkner are largely responsible for the delay in the
photos surfacing.
The
photojournalist who took these photos had offered them to Philadelphia
prosecutors in 1981 and during a 1995 appeal hearing for Abu-Jamal.
Failure
of prosecutors to reply caused the photojournalist to think the
photos had no value.
Given
the case-challenging nature of these photos, prosecutors had good
reason to ignore them, said Dr. Michael Schiffmann, who uncovered
the existence of these photographs during his on-going investigations
of the case.
“They
didn’t want them on account of what they might show: an investigation
that was incredibly sloppy and manipulative,” said Schiffmann,
a professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and author
of a 2006 book on the Abu-Jamal case.
Lack
of interest in the photos by prosecutors coupled with the failure
of prosecutors to notify the defense of their existence as required
by fair trial procedures, Schiffmann notes, “might be reason
alone for a new trial.”
Schiffmann
included the photos in his book – “Race Against Death.”
Those
photos are also contained in a critically acclaimed British made
film examining the Abu-Jamal case that premiered simultaneously
at respected international film festivals in London and Rome at
the end of October.
The
Mayor of Rome hosted the screening in that Italian city of this
film supported by the Noble Prize winning human rights organization,
Amnesty International.
“In
Prison My Whole Life” – the first film ever publicly
backed by AI – also includes other startling evidence indicating
Abu-Jamal’s innocence.
This
film focuses on a journey across America to understand this contentious
case by William Francome, a young Englishman born on the day of
Abu-Jamal’s arrest: 12/9/81.
Mrs.
Faulkner expressed regret to a reporter recently that the Sundance
Film Festival recently selected “In Prison” for its
January 2008 screenings.
Francome,
in a recent posting to his Myspace page, urged supporters and opponents
of Abu-Jamal to not “lose sight of the fact” that Mrs.
Faulkner “lost” her husband.
“In
the course of making this film, I was honored to come across numerous
victim family members who are opposed to the death penalty and fight
for its repeal,” Francome stated.
Dr.
Schiffmann served as a technical consultant on the “In Prison”
film and is featured in the film during a sequence in Philadelphia
where he walks Francome through the crime scene.
Another
creative project comes from Abu-Jamal himself.
The
subject of this sixth book by Abu- Jamal is jailhouse lawyers –
inmates who help other inmates prepare legal appeals.
Harold
Wilson, released from Pa’s death row in November 2005 after
18-years, credits Abu-Jamal’s assistance in helping him prepare
appeals.
Ironically,
legal elements leading to a new trial for Wilson – prosecutorial
misconduct and ineffective assistance from his trial lawyer –
are key failings in the Abu-Jamal case.
Abu-Jamal’s
creative output of books and commentaries (print & audio) while
confined in death row cells the size of a small bathroom recently
resulted in his membership into the prestigious PEN, a worldwide
human-rights organization of prominent writers.
“In
two decades of knowing each other, I have not seen Mumia so happy,”
said Robert R. Bryan, Abu-Jamal’s lead attorney about the
PEN membership.
Bryan
credits support of famed writers like E.L. Doctorow and Alice Walker
for the PEN membership.
Further
Bryan is “especially grateful to the kindness” of former
PEN President Salman Rushdie.
“In
a quarter of a century of being locked up…Mumia’s literary
output has been prodigious,” Bryan noted. “He has written
five outstanding books that are published in various languages,
and also writes weekly commentaries that are published and broadcast
internationally.”
The
San Francisco based Bryan described the “In Prison”
film as a “superb movie which does much to expose the many
wrongs including racism and politics that have infected the case
from the outset…”
The
focus of the latest project of Philadelphia-based filmmaker Ted
Passon is the very thing that drives many death penalty proponents
crazy: the phenomenon of the Mumia Abu-Jamal case.
Death
penalty proponents bristle at the fact that Philadelphia born Abu-Jamal
garners international support, including many opposed to the death
penalty.
Death
penalty proponents castigate demands that Abu-Jamal receive a new
trial from Hollywood celebrities and dignitaries of foreign countries.
South
Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu visited Abu-Jamal in late October,
later issuing a statement saying, “I oppose the death penalty
on principle in every case and I support the pleas for a retrial
for Mumia Abu-Jamal.”
The
under-examined worldwide movement responsible for securing much
of the support of celebrities and dignitaries critical of this death
row journalist’s conviction is the subject of Ted Passon’s
film project.
“Most
[projects] focus on the ‘whodunit’ aspects of the Abu-Jamal
case but there is too little attention to the wider phenomenon,
the 25-year People’s Movement surrounding this case,”
Passon said during a recent interview.
Often
overlooked is Philadelphia’s home base for a pivotal group
in this movement – The International Concerned Friends and
Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal led by local activist Pam Africa.
“On
paper, the Mumia Movement should not have happened,” said
Passon, who grew up in a Philadelphia suburb and first became aware
of the case when he attended a pro-Abu-Jamal rally in the late 90s.
The
Movement, Passon said, “had no money, no access to powerful
politicians or the media. The miracle of this Movement is that it
has lasted so long.”
Maureen
Faulkner regularly receives fawning coverage in Philly area media
in contrast to the Mumia Movement that is regularly maligned in
Philadelphia.
During
the days before the Today Show book launch, Philly media devoted
much coverage to Faulkner while not a single Philadelphia media
outlet attended that Journalist for Mumia press conference presenting
the crime scene photographs.
Only
an out of town reporter from the Reuters news service covered that
press event.
Further,
Faulkner has the support of prominent politicians (local, state
and federal) and the active backing of police organizations nationwide.
Late
last year the US Congress approved a factually flawed Resolution
demanding that the French city of St. Denis rescind its naming of
a block-long street in honor of Abu-Jamal, a measure initiated through
the FOP with the support of Mrs. Faulkner.
Another
muscle move for Maureen Faulkner took place in 1994 when Philadelphia’s
police union the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) gained the support
of then US Senator Bob Dole who stopped NPR from broadcasting death
row commentaries by Abu-Jamal.
Passon
is one of two Philadelphians working on films about the Mumia Abu-Jamal
case.
The
other Philly film project now in-production comes from Tigre Hill,
maker of the well received film on Philadelphia’s 2003 mayoral
race “The Shame of a City.”
Hill
declined comment on his project beyond saying that “this is
a topic with a lot of passion on both sides.”
Interestingly,
while publicity about Smerconish’s book credits this lawyer
for thoroughly scrutinizing the 1982 trial transcripts to bolster
his conviction of Abu-Jamal’s guilt, a book awaiting publication
utilizes those same transcripts to reach a different conclusion.
The
author of “The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal” – J.
Patrick O’Connor – once served as an associate editor
for TV Guide when it was headquartered in suburban Philadelphia.
“As
I read and reread the available material…I could see that
Abu-Jamal’s trial was a monumental miscarriage of justice,”
states the introduction of this book by O’Conner, now living
in Chicago where he is editor of an internet-based crime magazine.
Proceeds
from the Faulkner-Smerconish book will be dedicated to a charity
founded by Mrs. Faulkner while French professor Dr. Claude Guillaumaud-Pujol
intends to donate proceeds from her September-published biography
to Abu-Jamal defense work.
Guillaumand-Pujol
says her short biography “emphasizes both the humanity and
universality” of Abu-Jamal. She emphasizes that her book is
“not anti-American… it shows that we were not born free
but that we must fight for freedom all our life.”
While
Abu-Jamal detractors demean authors like Dr. Guillaumaud-Pujol as
pathetically uninformed about the facts of this case, she is an
expert on the US justice system as is German author Schiffmann.
Schiffmann’s
doctoral thesis is the basis of his book – which presents
a chilling examination of court procedures and physical evidence
in the case plus exploring American law enforcement assaults on
the Black Panther Party.
The
thesis of Dr. Guillaumaud-Pujol’s centered on police brutality
and unfair justice in Philadelphia – a city she has repeatedly
visited for over the past decade.
Dave
Lindorff, Philly-based author of the seminal 2003 Abu-Jamal book
“Killing Time” said the continuing creative interest
in this case arises from a “sore” unique to Philadelphia:
deep racism in the justice system and city at-large.
Lindorff,
a frequent contributor to Counterpunch, feels this case is “emblematic
of everything that’s wrong with Philadelphia.”
Linn Washington Jr. is a columnist for The Philadelphia
Tribune and a graduate of the Yale Law Journalism Fellowship Program.
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