-Caveat Lector- .............................................................. Forwarded from the Internet Conspiracy Community: From: Ian Goddard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: More On Mumia Date: Friday, October 15, 1999 10:01 PM As my in box indicates, there are strong feelings on all sides of the Mumia Abu- Jamal case. Two days ago a death warrant was signed for the state-sponsored murder of Mumia. The following article written by Rick Finley is must reading for anyone interested in hearing the side of the story other than that of the media and the police whose brutality was a focus of Mumia's activism prior to his arrest. The case I cited is JUST ONE example of (http://www.erols.com/igoddard/mumia.htm) witness tampering and unethical actions perpetrated by the authorities in an effort to imprison and murder Mumia. The unconscionable witness intimidation proven and displayed openly in court in this case is proof of injustice and is prima facie evidence of an effort to frame an innocent man. What is more, even if you suspect Mumia, not the man seen running from the scene, shot officer Faulkner, how could anyone with clear conscience send a man to his DEATH in a case where there's even the slightest degree of doubt... in a case where witness tampering was necessary to get a conviction?! Keep up with news on & protests for Mumia Abu-Jamal: http://mojo.calyx.net/~refuse/mumia/103198majlists.html ================================================ http://mdle.com/WrittenWord/rfinley/finley21.htm ================================================ THE CASE FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL By Rick Finley (04/11/96) At 3:52 a.m. on December 9, 1981, award-winning black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal was driving a taxi-cab when he saw his brother being beaten on the sidewalk by a Philadelphia police officer. Jamal got out of his car to break up the scuffle, a crowd gathered, and in the ensuing confusing, both the officer and Jamal were shot. The officer, Daniel Faulkner, died, and Jamal was arrested and taken to the hospital for care. Mumia was beaten at the scene of the crime and at the hospital. When he awoke in his hospital bed, he found a grinning police officer trying to squeeze the contents of his urine bag back into his body. This animosity from the police was not a surprise. Mumia Abu-Jamal was a founding member of the Black Panther party at the age of fifteen, a member of the radical black group MOVE, and an extremely vocal critic of police brutality and police corruption in the city of Philadelphia. The police had been keeping Jamal under surveillance for years, and the incident involving Faulkner was a beautiful opportunity, in their eyes, to put him out of the way. Jamal was charged with the murder of the police officer, and one of the most unconstitutional and one-sided trials in recent history began. There were three main aspects of the prosecution's case. The first aspect was the testimony of three "eyewitnesses" who testified that they had seen Jamal shoot the police officer. The prosecution's star witness was a woman named Cynthia White, a prostitute with 38 convictions in Philadelphia alone, with three cases pending. Other witnesses, who even passed polygraph tests, claimed that White was not even at the scene. Why then, would she tell such a lie? It turns out that the police offered to not only allow her to continue being a prostitute, but to protect her with plainclothes police officers while she was doing it. Sounds like a good incentive to give a false testimony. It should also be noted that none of the prosecution's witnesses took polygraph tests. Another prostitute, Veronica Jones, was informed by police that she would be allowed to work the street unhindered if she would give testimony similar to White's. The third witness for the prosecution, Mark Scanlan, not only misidentified Jamal at the scene as being the driver of a Volkswagen, but admitted to having been drinking, and confessing that he "could have been mistaken" about where the events took place. The second part of the prosecution's case was an alleged "confession" given by Jamal at the hospital after the shootings. The does its best to cover several discrepancies in this "confession", but they are much too large to ignore. First of all, the prosecution did not even reveal this story until two months after the shooting, even though if it had been made the night of the murder, as they say, it would have been splashed all over the headlines the next day. The second weakness in this allegation lies in the fact that this confession was never included in the police report. The officer who made the report could have testified that this was true, but he was sent "on vacation" for the trial, and Jamal was not allowed by the court to subpeona him. Even without this officer's testimony, the confession story was contradicted by Dr. Anthony V. Colletta, who worked in the emergency room. Despite this, it remains an integral part of the prosecution's story. The third and final part of the prosecution's case is the physical evidence, and like the other two aspects of their case, it doesn't stand up either. Faulkner was shot by a .44 caliber pistol, while Mumia carried a .38 caliber. The prosecution did not even perform sufficient tests to show whether the gun was recently shot or fired the fatal bullet, or if they did, the results were harmful to their case and they did not report them. The final weakness in the prosecution's theory is the fact that the angle the bullet entered Faulkner's body was inconsistent with the position Mumia was in to shoot him, since the prosecution claimed Jamal was standing over Faulkner when he shot him. At least four witnesses claimed that there was a third man, a black male, at the scene, who shot the officer, and took off running in an easterly direction. Keep in mind the fact that Jamal almost died as a result of his wounds, so running was not a viable option. New evidence suggests that two other witnesses had similar stories and were intimidated by the police and told not to speak to the defense. The preceding was a summary of the prosecution's lies regarding the case, Jamal also had his constitutional rights violated repeatedly during the trial itself. In most cases involving a defendants indigence, a public defender is allotted thousands of dollars in order to secure experts. In Jamal's case, he was allotted a mere 150 dollars for each of the four experts he requested. In addition to this, the police refused to give him anything more than the names of over 100 witnesses at the scene, basically making it impossible to locate them for testimony. The prosecution withheld evidence regarding testimony that was unfavorable to them, and they used peremptory challenges to remove black jurors from the jury, an illegal tactic. The only juror approved by Jamal was removed without Jamal's knowledge, and was replaced by a white juror who had confessed to bias against Jamal. The court did not allow Jamal to proceed as his own attorney, and appointed an attorney for him who has since been disbarred for unrelated reasons. The court also banished Jamal from the courtroom on numerous occasions, violating his right to be present at his own trial, his right to assist his own defense, and his right to confront the witnesses against him. Outside of the courtroom, the prosecution effectively used the press against Jamal, who was not allowed to speak to it because of a decree by Philadelphia prison authorities. In one story, printed in the New York Post, Faulkner's widow claimed that during the portion of the court proceedings in which Faulkner's shirt was shown to the courtroom with bullet holes in it, Jamal turned towards her and smiled. The story made many people indignant, as it should have--if it were true. Unfortunately for the prosecution, it was later proven that Jamal was not even in the courtroom when the shirt was presented. With all this against him, it is not surprising that Jamal was found guilty, and sent to a trial to determine whether or not he should be executed. During this trial, the judge had the audacity to tell the jurors not to worry about sentencing Jamal to death, for he would be granted numerous appeals and he probably would not get the death penalty regardless of what they did. The prosecution also used Jamal's political beliefs to attempt to sentence him to death, even though the Supreme court has ruled twice since then in cases involving a white supremacist and a Satan worshiper, that the beliefs of a defendant cannot be used in determining whether or not to use the death penalty. When Jamal's case was appealed to the Supreme Court, it was not even granted a hearing. Jamal was sentenced to death, and currently sits on death row. [ His execution is now scheduled for Dec. 2, 1999: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/mumia.htm ] What can you do to help him? Recognition is the key. Public outcry has been the only thing that has helped Mumia Abu-Jamal so far, and pressure must be kept on politicians. Despite letters by 35 members of congress, Nelson Mandella, Jesse Jackson, and more, Jamal continues to be unheard. If you want to help, contact Amnesty International, or check out the Refuse and Resist page on the net at http://www.calyx.com/~refuse/mumia/index.html. Keep your eyes open for a benefit concert for Jamal around April 20th, with both speakers and musicians. Above all, get the word out about Mumia Abu-Jamal. Only blind eyes and deaf ears can allow such a travesty of justice. The last thing you can do is simple. E-mail this message out to everyone you can. This is not a good or bad luck chain letter. There are no threats of death, dismemberment or lifelong poverty. If, however, you have felt powerless in the past about your ability to help people, this is a way to make a difference. Chain letters such as these are exponential, and everyone who sends the message on to just five friends can inform an incredible amount in the long run. There is no minimum to send, just do what you can. E-mail your Congressional representatives here. [ http://visi.com/juan ] Copyright (c) Rick Finley ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ================================================== OTHER ARTICLES ON MUMIA: http://www.fair.org/extra/9511/mumia.html http://www.sff.net/people/tbisson/MUMIA.html http://www1.minn.net/~meis/justice_denied.htm http://mojo.calyx.net/~refuse/mumia/index.html http://mojo.calyx.net/~refuse/mumia/061698nytimes.html ------------------------------------------------------------ GODDARD'S JOURNAL: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/journal.htm ____________________________________________________________ *********************************** Lloyd Miller, Research Director for A-albionic Research (POB 20273, Ferndale, MI 48220), a ruling class/conspiracy research resource for the entire political-ideological spectrum. Quarterly journal, book sales, rare/out-of-print searches, New Paradigms Discussion List, Weekly Up-date Lists & E-text Archive of research, intelligence, catalogs, & resources. 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