Five eyewitnesses implicated Abu-Jamal as the killer. His legally-registered *** was found at the scene with five spent shells in the chamber—shells that matched the bullet retrieved from the slain officer’s brain. Abu-Jamal was found wearing a holster. A return round from the policeman’s ******** was embedded in Abu-Jamal’s chest. When police arrived Abu-Jamal lunged for a ***. To this day Abu-Jamal and his *******, both witnesses to the crime, remain curiously silent on what happened.
Numerous people report that they heard him confess—including an anti-death penalty activist sympathetic to his cause. “I shot the ******-f***** and I hope the ******-f***** dies,” three witnesses say he bragged. “I’m glad. If you let me go, I’ll **** all of you cops,” he screamed at a local hospital.
Since Abu-Jamal’s conviction, his defense team has put forth evidence and witnesses that, despite fueling the fervor of gullible supporters, have brought further discredit upon their cause in the eyes of mainstream observers.
On appeal, two defense witnesses testified to the dead acting in supernatural ways. William Singletary, who initially denied seeing anything, came forward years later and said a different man shot the policeman twice and when Abu-Jamal later tried to help the ************* officer, the officer raised his *** and shot him—a medical impossibility given that the cop was for all intents and purposes already dead. He also claimed that a Philadelphia Police helicopter circled overhead (none existed), that Abu-Jamal wore “a safari suit like the Arabs wear” that escaped everyone else’s notice, and that the policeman spoke after having been shot between the eyes. In 1997, Pamela Jenkins took the stand, claiming that a key prosecution eyewitness, Cynthia White, had recanted her entire testimony to her and outlined a police plot to frame Abu-Jamal. White, however, had died more than four years prior to the time when these conversations were supposed to have taken place. This inconvenient fact hasn’t stopped activists from claiming that prosecution witness White is still alive and that the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania worked together to fake her death!
A core tenet of the conspiracy theory is that several eyewitnesses saw “the real killers” flee the scene. Unfortunately for the defense, the accounts of these witnesses do not mesh with their story. One testified that Mumia Abu-Jamal was the killer and that he was the only person who attempted to escape the area. Another was angered by the defense’s efforts to intimate that she saw the “killers” flee when she told police that she saw people running about the scene long after the shooting had taken place. “No, I think the runner was part of the whole flow of the situation. There was a man ******. There’s panic. Someone was running, maybe two people are running, maybe three people are running, you know. There’s police, there’s news crews, etc.” Another of these defense “witnesses” failed a lie detector test.
An article of faith among “Mumiacs” is the idea that the bullet that ****** Officer Faulkner was a .44 caliber round, not matching Abu-Jamal’s .38 caliber ********. Spent shells found in Abu-Jamal’s *** were all .38 Caliber “Plus P” ammunition, the same type of special high-pressure bullet that blew apart the officer’s face and was discovered in his brain. Ballistics tests on this retrieved bullet reported rifling groves that were consistent with the chamber of the *** found beside the suspect, a *** purchased by and registered to Mumia Abu-Jamal. Even Abu-Jamal’s own ballistics analyst conceded under oath that the bullet was not a .44 caliber round.
To believe the story of innocence one has to buy into a conspiracy involving hundreds of people. One has to accept that the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey acted in collusion to fake the death of a woman to keep her from testifying in favor of Abu-Jamal. Believing the story of a frame-up is to think that the police planted crucial evidence at the scene, including a ****** weapon registered to Abu-Jamal. Accepting the defense’s version means that Officer Faulkner shot Abu-Jamal for no reason, that numerous eyewitnesses were ******* into lying, that blacks on the jury were tricked by the racist scheme, and that Abu-Jamal’s silence on this case—but apparently on nothing else—is just noble stoicism.
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Appeal Review...court will review:
Claim 14: Whether appellant was denied his constitutional rights due to the prosecution's trial summation.
Claim 16: Whether the Commonwealth's use of peremptory challenges at trial ******** appellant's constitutional rights under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).
Claim 29: Whether appellant was denied due process during post-conviction proceedings as a result of alleged judicial bias.
Claim 16 concerns the prosecutorial use of racism in jury selection. Claim 14 relates to the guilt phase. It includes the prosecutor's argument that if convicted Mumia would have "appeal after appeal." Claim 29 .... is limited to his conduct at the 1995 evidentiary (PCRA) hearing, rather than his ... behavior at trial. This restriction is because all of the prior attorneys mistakenly did not ****** Sabo's "misconduct" at trial, an unfortunate oversight and mistake
Seems like the evidence isn't in question, rather procedural issues having more to do with opinion rather than incorrect facts (re:"Unfortunately, it is limited to his conduct at the 1995 evidentiary (PCRA) hearing, rather than his monstrous behavior at trial. This restriction is because all of the prior attorneys mistakenly did not ****** Sabo's misconduct at trial, an unfortunate oversight and mistake." Lead Counsel, Defense)
Any well spoken and brilliant writer can inspire with his words, and the fact that he has a loyal following world-wide doesn't seem to change the physical act he supposedly committed. The jury found him guilty on the physical evidence, and it seems like the real area of contention is the Death Penalty phase.