Mumia Abu-Jamal
On Dec. 9, 1981 Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was fatally shot after making a routine traffic stop. Mumia Abu-Jamal, a popular radio journalist, was arrested and charged with the officer's death. In 1982, Abu-Jamal was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
Below is The Inquirer's coverage of the fatal shooting, trial and appeals.
Below is The Inquirer's coverage of the fatal shooting, trial and appeals.
LATEST STORY
Carrying signs and chanting "Free Mumia," about two dozen supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal turned out yesterday at the federal courthouse to protest last week's appeals court decision that gave him a reprieve from death, at least for now, but let stand his murder conviction.
ON THE WEB
This site, which includes transcripts from the trial and appeals, was created by his supporters.
Prison Radio, a project of The Redwood Justice Fund, presents Abu-Jamal's recorded essays.
RECENT DECISIONS
Read the federal appeals court's opinion.
Read the Pa. Supreme Court's opinion on Abu-Jamal's appeal.
Read U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn's decision to lift Abu-Jamal's death sentence.
- Dead witnesses. Old evidence. A potential dearth of jurors willing to step into a case that has been an international cauldron - and to deliver a death sentence.
- At least for now, execution is off the table for the world-famous death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal following a federal appeals court decision yesterday that left intact his conviction in the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.
- French television made the latest court decision on Mumia Abu-Jamal the lead story on the nightly news. Supporters in San Francisco and New York City planned rallies for today.
- The call she was dreading woke Maureen Faulkner a little after 7 a.m. on the West Coast. It was Hugh Burns, a prosecutor from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, with news: A decision on Mumia Abu-Jamal was in.
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No death for Mumia Abu-Jamal - at least for now
- A federal appeals court today refused to reinstate the death sentence of world-famous death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, but left intact his murder conviction in the 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, lost another round in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday even as he awaits a pivotal ruling from a federal appeals court.
- In the nearly 26 years since his conviction for the murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner, the international tempest over Mumia Abu-Jamal has fixed primarily on this question: Did he do it, or was he framed by Philadelphia police?
- Harrison "Marty" Graham was sent to death row in 1988 for strangling seven women, whose corpses he kept beneath piles of trash in his North Philadelphia apartment. In 2003, a state trial-court judge threw out the sentence, and Graham now is serving life.
- A federal appeals court heard conflicting legal arguments this morning on whether Philadelphia's most notorious death-row inmate received a fair trial in 1982 when he was convicted of killing police officer Daniel Faulkner.
- On July 3, 1982, a Philadelphia jury took just four hours to sentence Mumia Abu-Jamal to death for murdering Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
- In a ruling that was immediately challenged by both prosecutors and the defense, a federal judge yesterday lifted the death sentence from Mumia Abu-Jamal for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel J. Faulkner.
- A key defense witness in the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder case came to the Criminal Justice Center yesterday, prepared to testify that Philadelphia detectives forced her to lie during Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial.
- A year after he dismissed Mumia Abu-Jamal 's motion for a new trial, Common Pleas Court Judge Albert F. Sabo is getting the case back.
- A key witness in the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder case has given a sworn statement saying she testified falsely at Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial after Philadelphia police promised her lenient treatment on criminal charges then pending against her.
- Lawyers for Mumia Abu-Jamal , the former radio reporter sentenced to death for killing a Philadelphia police officer 15 years ago, yesterday asked the state Supreme Court to overturn his conviction - and immediately began a campaign to have one of the justices withdraw from the case.
- In a sweeping rejection of the defense offered by Mumia Abu - Jamal , Common Pleas Senior Judge Albert F. Sabo yesterday turned down the celebrated death- row inmate's appeal for a new trial in the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
- Following are excerpts from Judge Albert F. Sabo's opinion rejecting Mumia Abu-Jamal 's petition for a new trial:
- He didn't show. Long-lost star defense witness William Cook failed to appear at the appeals hearing of his brother Mumia Abu-Jamal yesterday, continuing his baffling silence about what he saw the night a Philadelphia police officer was killed 14 years ago.
- After almost 14 years of silence, Mumia Abu-Jamal 's long-missing brother is ready to testify that his celebrity sibling did not kill Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, defense lawyers told a stunned courtroom yesterday.
- The Mumia Abu-Jamal spectacle - and the dozens of journalists from around the world who cover it - will return to Philadelphia today for final arguments about whether the celebrated death-row inmate deserves a new trial.
- From the streets of Rome and Berlin to City Hall in Philadelphia, in every major newspaper and on network news, too, the debate has been about guilt or innocence.
- Testimony in Mumia Abu-Jamal 's appeal hearing came to a raucous close yesterday amid chants, name-calling and raised fists that sent Officer Daniel Faulkner's incensed widow retreating from the courthouse.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal 's defense rested yesterday without the internationally known death-row inmate testifying - but with demands from Common Pleas Court Senior Judge Albert F. Sabo that Abu-Jamal explain his decision.
- A convict and former pimp nicknamed "Bippy" yesterday gave an elaborate account of not one, but two, mystery shooters - and of a red car containing the man who fired the final, fatal shot.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal 's lawyers yesterday presented testimony to support their theory that another man in addition to Abu-Jamal and his brother might have been present at 13th and Locust Streets when Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was killed 13 years ago.
- One witness says he saw a man with dreadlocks running from the crime scene moments after the policeman was shot - an account that contradicts an earlier one he gave.
- Amid jubilation and cries of victory from supporters, Mumia Abu-Jamal was granted a stay of his Aug. 17 execution yesterday so that he may pursue his state and federal appeals - a process that could take several years.
- The downward path of the bullet found inside Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1982 was the focus of attention yesterday at his appeal hearing - with the defense arguing that questions raised by that bullet should have been explored further during his trial.
- Common Pleas Court Senior Judge Albert F. Sabo opened yesterday's hearing in the Mumia Abu-Jamal appeal for a new trial by saying that he had been too lenient with the defense and that "it is time for the court to take back the reins."
- Thirteen years ago, Mumia Abu-Jamal asked to hear the testimony of Philadelphia Police Officer Gary Wakshul. Yesterday, the death-row inmate finally got his wish.
- Yesterday's appeals hearing for Mumia Abu-Jamal was more about who wasn't going to testify than who did and what they said.
- It was another difficult day on the stand for Mumia Abu-Jamal 's initial defense attorney, Anthony Jackson.
- The judge said he would not be "intimidated by mob pressure," the defense complained that important papers had been burned in a famous Philadelphia fire, and the gallery cheered "We love you, Mumia" as Mumia Abu-Jamal 's appeal hearing began at full volume yesterday.
- The battle over death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal escalated yesterday as a judge ordered immediate hearings on whether to grant a new trial, and Abu- Jamal's supporters vowed to take their protests to the judge's front door.
- The judge who presided over Mumia Abu-Jamal 's tumultuous murder trial 13 years ago refused to budge yesterday: He's staying on the case.
- In its first legal response to death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal 's appeal last month for a new trial, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has argued that the judge who initially presided over the 1982 trial should also hear the appeal.
- As supporters demonstrated noisily outside City Hall yesterday, lawyers for Mumia Abu-Jamal filed a 300-page appeal, claiming that important evidence was withheld during his 1982 murder trial and that the judge consistently showed bias against him.
- The widow says she wants to be there for the execution. "Finally," she says, "justice may be done."
- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said yesterday that convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal has no grounds to warrant overturning his murder conviction and subsequent sentence of death in the electric chair.
THE APPEALS
- In a final act of courtroom defiance, convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal yesterday threatened the judge who had moments before sentenced him to die in the electric chair, shouting "Judge, you have just sentenced yourself to die."
- Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death yesterday for murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal was found guilty yesterday of murdering police officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec. 9 in Center City.
- In highly impassioned and dramatic pleas for justice, the attorneys trying to convict and acquit Mumia Abu-Jamal summed up their cases yesterday with sharply conflicting versions of who killed police officer Daniel Faulkner.
- Having completed its presentation of material witnesses in the murder trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal , the defense yesterday began calling character witnesses, who testified about Abu-Jamal's reputation for peacefulness in the community.
- A key defense eyewitness in the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder trial, a witness who the defense had hoped would testify to having seen two men run from the slain body of police officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec. 9, testified instead that the two men had actually not left the scene.
- A defense witness at the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder trial testified yesterday that he saw a person with either dreadlock hair or long braids run from the scene of the shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec. 9.
- The defense in the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder trial will try to show that several men - men who were wearing their hair in dreadlocks as Abu-Jamal does - may have fled from the corner of 13th and Locust Streets soon after the shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner.
- Police officer Daniel Faulkner hit William Cook with a blackjack or a flashlight just before Faulkner was shot to death Dec. 9, according to testimony yesterday at the murder trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Cook's brother.
- A police ballistics expert testified yesterday at the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder trial that the bullet found in Abu-Jamal came from the gun of police officer Daniel Faulkner, but that the bullet found in the slain policeman and the bullet fragments found around him were all too badly deformed to be traced.
- During a long day of intense cross-examination in the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder trial, the prosecution's key eyewitness insisted that she saw Abu-Jamal run across Locust Street on Dec. 9 and shoot police officer Daniel Faulkner in the back, then shoot him again while he was lying on the ground.
- A second eyewitness testified yesterday that she saw Mumia Abu-Jamal shoot police officer Daniel Faulkner while he was lying wounded on the ground.
- Shoemaker said that he ordered Abu-Jamal to freeze, but that instead he began to move his hand toward what Shoemaker said he soon realized was a revolver. At that point, Shoemaker said, he kicked Abu-Jamal in the face, and then kicked away the revolver.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal 's murder trial turned into an angry brawl yesterday, a brawl that ended in the arrest of Abu-Jamal's two brothers after Common Pleas Court Judge Alfred Sabo ordered the defendant removed from the courtroom because of "unceasing disruptiveness."
- After concluding that Mumia Abu-Jamal was trying to disrupt the opening day of his murder trial and had no intention of actually representing himself, Common Pleas Court Judge Alfred Sabo yesterday stripped Abu-Jamal of his self-appointed role as his own attorney and ordered his back-up lawyer to defend him.
THE TRIAL
- After seven days of jury selection, a mostly white and mostly male panel has been selected to decide the guilt or innocence of Mumia Abu - Jamal , accused of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in December in Center City.
- Two additional jurors were selected yesterday for the murder trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal , bringing to 11 the number of jurors seated for the trial after six days of jury selection.
- Three more jurors were selected yesterday for the murder trial of Mumia Abu- Jamal , bringing to nine the number of jurors chosen in five days of jury selection.
- Four jurors were selected yesterday to serve in the Mumia Abu-Jamal murder trial, bringing to six the total selected in four days.
- Former radio reporter Mumia Abu - Jamal , who is acting as his own defense attorney in his murder trial, was barred yesterday from conducting his own jury selection because, Common Pleas Court Judge Albert F. Sabo ruled, he was taking too long and " unsettling" some potential jurors with his questions.
- Assistant District Attorney Joseph McGill said yesterday that he would ask Common Pleas Court Judge Albert S. Sabo to reduce or eliminate Mumia Abu-Jamal 's role in the questioning of prospective jurors for his murder trial.
- Jury selection in the murder trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former radio news reporter accused of shooting and killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner Dec. 9, began yesterday before Common Pleas Court Judge Albert S. Sabo.
- It was late Friday afternoon, and Common Pleas Court Judge Albert S. Sabo was denying one of a series of motions made by Mumia Abu-Jamal , 28, the former radio news reporter accused of shooting and killing a Philadelphia police officer on a Center City street Dec. 9.
- A Common Pleas Court judge yesterday refused to exclude from Mumia Abu-Jamal 's murder trial any of the evidence gathered after police officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed on Dec. 9.
- An unidentified man at 13th and Locust Streets, and not Mumia Abu-Jamal, fired the shots that killed police officer Daniel Faulkner, Abu-Jamal's backup attorney suggested to reporters yesterday.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal may represent himself in his trial on charges that he murdered Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, but he may not have MOVE leader John Africa assist him in his defense, Common Pleas Judge Albert F. Sabo ruled yesterday.
- Common Pleas Court Judge Paul Ribner yesterday set June 1 as the trial date for Mumia Abu - Jamal , the free-lance radio reporter charged with murdering police officer Daniel Faulkner.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal, the free-lance radio reporter accused of murdering police officer Daniel Faulkner, was ordered handcuffed and removed from a pretrial hearing yesterday after telling Common Pleas Court Judge Paul Ribner to " go to hell" and accusing him of orchestrating the case against him.
- A judge refused yesterday to order police to hold an identification lineup in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and as a result the murder trial in the slaying of police officer Daniel Faulkner could begin next month.
- A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge yesterday refused to order that the names and addresses of prosecution witnesses to the shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner be handed over to the attorney for Mumia Abu - Jamal, who is accused of murdering Faulkner.
- A Common Pleas Court judge yesterday denied a defense attorney's motion to throw out the testimony of a key prosecution witness in the murder case against free-lance radio reporter Mumia Abu - Jamal.
- The argument over whether Mumia Abu - Jamal, who is charged with murder in the Dec. 9 killing of police officer Daniel Faulkner, should be granted bail will go to state Superior Court today.
- A Common Pleas Court judge yesterday revoked bail for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is accused of killing police officer Daniel Faulkner, even though state Sen. Milton Street (R., Phila.) had vouched for the defendant and had offered to take him into his own custody.
- Assistant District Attorney Joseph McGill said yesterday that he would ask a Common Pleas Court judge this week to increase bail granted to the man charged with killing police officer Daniel Faulkner.
- A woman who said she was standing on the corner of 13th and Locust Streets early Dec. 9 testified yesterday that Mumia Abu - Jamal shot police officer Daniel Faulkner in the back as he was preparing to handcuff Abu-Jamal's brother.
HEARINGS AND JURY SELECTION
- A woman swathed in a blue shawl alleged yesterday that Mumia Abu-Jamal, whom she identified as her husband and who is accused of murdering police officer Daniel Faulkner, was beaten by police officers outside Thomas Jefferson University Hospital after the Dec. 9 shooting in Center City.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal , the free-lance radio reporter charged in the Dec. 9 slaying of a Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner, refused treatment yesterday for a partially collapsed lung, hospital officials reported.
- The bullets that killed police officer Daniel Faulkner early Wednesday may be too badly damaged to determine whether they were fired from a gun registered to Wesley Cook, the radio reporter known as Mumia Abu - Jamal who is charged with the slaying, a police captain said yesterday.
- A Philadelphia police officer was fatally shot early yesterday by a radio reporter after the officer had stopped the reporter's brother and was in the process of searching him, police said.
FATAL SHOOTING OF OFFICER FAULKNER
