------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 21, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
NEW WITNESS SAYS MUMIA WAS FRAMED: 'HE COULD DIE BECAUSE OF ALL THE LIES" By Betsey Piette Philadelphia More evidence that Mumia Abu-Jamal did not shoot Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was brought to light this week as a new witness testified that star prosecution witness Cynthia White had lied. Yvette Williams, in an affidavit filed on Feb. 7 by Abu-Jamal's lawyers in the federal court of appeals in Philadelphia, swears that White told her that police forced her to falsely identify Abu-Jamal as the shooter. As a potential witness in another homicide, Williams was in police custody with Cynthia White--arrested on charges of prostitution--in December 1981 after Faulkner was shot and killed. In her sworn statement, Williams declares that White told her the police were making her lie, forcing her to say she saw Abu-Jamal shoot Faulkner when she really did not see who did it. "She was terrified of what the police would do to her," Williams stated. "Police told her they would consolidate all her cases and send her to Muncy [a women's prison] for a long time if she didn't testify to what they told her to say." Williams also swore that Cynthia White was worried that "police would kill her if she didn't say what they wanted." Williams said that White told her "she definitely did not see who did it ... she had a drug habit and was high on drugs when it happened." Police took her in a car and "told her that she saw Mumia shoot Officer Faulkner," Williams testified. In her affidavit, Williams revealed her own fear about coming forward. "I was afraid of the police. They're dangerous. They can hurt you and get away with it. I know, I've been in trouble with the law and they know me. I'm still afraid of what they could do, but when Mr. Jamal's case was on TV--in the middle of December of last year--I kept thinking that man could die because of all the lies that Lucky [Cynthia White] told on that witness stand and Mrs. Faulkner would never know the truth." Williams's statement corroborates earlier testimony given at a 1997 post-conviction remand hearing by Pamela Jenkins, a prostitute who had been an informant for the FBI in the infamous 39th District police corruption scandal. Jenkins also refuted White's testimony, stating that White provided information and sex for police officers. During that hearing, government witnesses claimed that Cynthia White had died, but failed to produce any proof to back up their claim. In a motion filed with Williams's sworn statement, Abu- Jamal's attorneys--Brown, Kamish, Grossman and Farrell-- argue that his conviction should be overturned because "Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent and has the evidence to prove it." The attorneys are seeking to appeal Judge William Yohn's refusal to let them amend the habeas corpus petition filed by Abu-Jamal's previous attorneys. They want the courts to hear new evidence that proves his innocence, particularly testimony from Arnold Beverly that he, not Abu-Jamal, shot Faulkner. Last December, Yohn overturned Abu-Jamal's death sentence on technicalities, but refused to consider the death-row prisoner's petition for a new trial or to hear any of the evidence that would free him. Despite Yohn's ruling, Abu- Jamal still remains on death row. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
