Mumia 'debate' more like a jeer summit

A raucous, overflow audience jeered both District Attorney Seth Williams and filmmaker Tigre Hill last night as they and two other participants conducted a firestorm debate over the Mumia Abu-Jamal case at the National Constitution Center.

After it was over, lawyer and activist Michael Coard handed Hill a letter from Philadelphia lawyer David J. Wolfsohn demanding that he "immediately cease all screenings" of his new documentary about Mumia, "The Barrel of a Gun."

After a screening of the movie before a standing-room crowd of about 250 people, Williams and Hill struggled to get their words out as the predominantly pro-Abu-Jamal audience shouted at them. One woman shouted that Hill was with the Fraternal Order of Police. Another belted: "Who paid you? Don't lie."

The debate was supposed to be a presentation of the facts of the case. Today, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on whether the jury in the Abu-Jamal case was given proper instruction on how to deliberate on a decision about the death penalty.

"There will never be another trial," Williams said. "That is not what's being argued. The prosecution didn't make the case up."

With Williams, Hill and Coard on stage last night was Baruch College history professor Johanna Fernandez, who co-produced "Justice on Trial," a pro-Abu-Jamal film. Fernandez questioned Williams about a "fourth man" who one of the witnesses had placed at the scene of the 1981 fatal shooting of Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Fernandez and Coard raised a number of issues surrounding the case, including alleged evidence-tampering, a lack of a gunpowder test, poor representation, witness coercion and questionable testimonials.

"One extreme says one thing and another says another," Williams said. "Everything was submitted to evidence. On December 9, 1981, he shot him." Williams added that he did not know why Abu-Jamal had not been tested for gunpowder residue.

"It was clear Seth Williams doesn't know the details of the case," Fernandez said. "He was just spouting the rhetoric."

In an interview afterward with the Daily News, Hill said the debate turned out just as he'd expected.

"It's almost impossible to have a real debate, an intellectual one," Hill said. "I believe Michael Coard and Johanna Fernandez were taking it out of context."

Hill said that Abu-Jamal's attorney did not believe in the "fourth-man" theory and that Abu-Jamal was going to argue self-defense, "which means he did it. I personally came to the conclusion that Mumia was guilty and had a fair trial."

The letter handed to Hill by Coard says that "The Barrel of a Gun" has footage filmed by Hugh King, copyright owner of "Black and Blue," a documentary about police brutality containing an interview with Abu-Jamal that the letter claims also appears without permission in Hill's film.

One anti-Abu-Jamal attendee wore a shirt that read "Mumia your day is coming. Justice delayed is not justice denied."