Why is mumia innocent

Born Wesley Cook, the activist and journalist was driving in his taxi in Philadelphia just before 4 a. Abu-Jamal, parked just across the street, approached the scene. Within minutes he had been shot in the chest and Faulkner had been shot dead.

Abu-Jamal was arrested as the accused perpetrator. They did, however, assure the press that he was available and prepared to testify in court.

When asked why Weinglass had not previously introduced this as evidence, they declined to speculate. This was the first time that either has given a complete account of what happened the night Faulkner was shot, though Mumia has repeatedly insisted on his innocence over the years. He says that as he came on the scene he was shot by a police officer, and that he had nothing to do with the killing of Faulkner.

Weinglass has explained on a number of previous occasions that the legal strategy in was to have Mumia tell his story for the first time in federal court, since historically the federal courts had a relatively favorable record in capital cases. Now there is a serious question about whether there will even be a hearing before Judge Yohn where Mumia would be able to testify. Two other important statements, also released at the May 4 news conference, add credibility to the story of police corruption and complicity in the shooting of Daniel Faulkner.

Donald Hersing states that he worked undercover for the FBI during the early s, investigating graft that reached high into the police infrastructure to buy protection for those who ran prostitution, drug and gambling operations in Philadelphia. As a direct result of his testimony more than two dozen Philadelphia cops were indicted by a federal grand jury, including a former Deputy Commissioner. In the final affidavit, Linn Washington, a respected journalist for the Philadelphia Daily News, tells of his visit to the crime scene only a few hours after the shooting of Faulkner.

Unlike on previous occasions when police officers were shot, there was no attempt to cordon off the crime scene so that further investigations could take place. In Mumia Abu-Jamal was only 10 days away from execution when massive worldwide protest forced the government to grant a temporary stay.

The case is now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which is expected to issue a ruling at any moment on Mumia's appeal for a new trial. A new anti-Mumia group has been formed in recent months that has undertaken public activities advocating Mumia's guilt, including the purchase of an expensive full-page ad in the New York Times.

Some observers speculate this may be an indication that a new effort to execute Mumia will come soon, and that the FOP wants to be more active in the public debate that would follow any court ruling adverse to Mumia. Pamela Jenkins. Jenkins was a former prostitute and government informant, the girlfriend of police officer Thomas Ryan.

She testified at hearings last year that Ryan tried to make her falsely identify Mumia as the shooter at the time of the original trial, even though Jenkins was not at the scene of the shooting.

Jenkins' credibility was recently proved by her status as the key witness in the investigation that unraveled the massive police corruption scandal in Philadelphia's 39th Police District. Her testimony was instrumental in reversing the decisions of hundreds of cases. Cynthia White. Jenkins also recently testified that Cynthia White, or "Lucky," another prostitute and the prosecution's star witness, was successfully coerced to lie on the stand in exchange for exemption from criminal prosecution - that is, being given permission to work her corner.

None of the other nine eyewitnesses recall seeing White at the scene of the crime. Jenkins on March 5, saw White, who ran away and hopped into a pickup truck driven by former Philadelphia police officers Jenkins knew. It is likely White is being hidden to this day by the police to prevent her being called to testify by Mumia's legal team.

More on the mysterious "Lucky. He reported that a nurse found police with loaded guns pointed at Mumia as he lay unconscious in his hospital bed. However, the police forced him to change his story and intimidated him into leaving Philadelphia. Two prosecution witnesses were given special favors, including exemption from criminal prosecution, for their testimony.

He also argued for the death penalty because of Mumia's membership in the Black Panther Party, a practice later condemned as unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.

I'm always surprised when I look up those stats on the death penalty and am reminded that across every American demographic, the majority supports the death penalty. I'm not much of a Christian, but it's mystifying to me how anyone can read their Bible and miss the commentary on capital punishment. Without wanting to be disrespectful to the material we are discussing, did Levitt really sit down and read a page book in one sitting? Is he some kind of superman? I read as much as the next guy and I never find myself reading more than pages of a book a day, even if I'm at the beach or something.

Eloquence counts for a lot. Writing a book counts for more. Combine them, and you have a cause celebre. After all, someone who is not only eloquent but an author can't be guilty. It may be that death row inmates, instead of lifting weights, should bone up on The Elements of Style and Wariner's.

Mumia was chosen as the graduation speaker at my undergraduate college the year before I graduated. I never read his whole book, but we did spend some time studying the case in one of my courses. We watched a very pro-Mumia documentary, but the evidence presented in it was very inconclusive.

In fact, it made me lean more in favor of his guilt. That wasn't the case for most of my classmates who went on to hold rallies and, ultimately, elect him as graduation speaker. Personally, I don't know enough about the case to make a call of guilt or innocence, but I think the most interesting aspect of it is how people are swayed and what causes them to take action. Is that a technicality? The passage you quote implies that the idea of tampering evidence is only that of the uninformed.

When men can sit on death row for 10 - 15 years--sometimes outliving the grandparents of the little girl they raped and killed--we have a problem with justice. Very simply, I propose that if DNA, confession, video evidience, or other such overwhelming evidence proves a person is guilty, then they have ONE YEAR for the sake of their family and final affairs , and they are then executed. Further, for certain heinous crimes not all crimes, just those of a particularly heinous nature , one should not be able to get off on a technicality.

You are either guilty or not guilty. Well, if in your insanity you killed a child or stabbed someone times, you are still put to death--not so much as punishment After all, you can be sure that eventually some foolish judge will declare that the death penalty is excessive, and that a person shouldn't have to spend more than 20 years in prison or some such For these heinous crimes, there should be no appeal but innocence.

So the jury wasn't the proper blend of male and female, black and white? Too bad. The question is not whether you could have swayed another jury configuration, but whether you are guilty.

If the test proves them guilty, they get executed in two weeks. If they are innocent, they are freed, given a monthly stipend for the next 30 years, apologized to, and that's about the best we can do. Appeals from these death row inmates should be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court.

Get it over with and now. Either you're innocent or your guilty. It angers me that anyone can stay on death row so long. If we are sure they are guilty, we should be sure about executing them.