fredbergen
29th August 2009, 05:07
Fake Socialist [CG's real name removed- Random Precision] alibis the racist legal lynchers (https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/debsian/2008-08/msg00087.html), but Mumia Is Innocent Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt! (http://www.internationalist.org/workerspowertofreemumia0703.html)
The drive to lynch Mumia Abu-Jamal has been a judicial horror show from the start. After Mumia was shot in the chest that December 9, police picked him up and rammed his head into a telephone pole. When the police wagon arrived at Jefferson Hospital, the cops threw him to the ground and beat him again. At the hospital doors Mumia was subjected to a new beating. His real “crime” in the eyes of the police is that he survived the attempt to murder him in the streets, so for the past 25 years they have been trying to lynch him in the courts. To accomplish this the government has fabricated a whole tissue of lies. “Mumia Abu-Jamal stood over Officer Faulkner and shot him in the face, mortally wounding him,” claims House Resolution 1082. False. This story was concocted by prosecutor Joseph McGill, the bullet casings on the sidewalk do not match the gun Jamal was licensed to carry as a taxi driver, the bullet removed from Faulkner’s body was a different caliber, the trajectory of the shot that killed the policeman is the opposite of someone standing over him, there were no divots (loose chips) in the sidewalk.
A cop later claimed that Mumia “confessed” in the police wagon, but his partner reported that Mumia said nothing. Two months later, at a conference of the police with the district attorney, a story was invented about Jamal “hollering” a confession in the hospital corridor, but this is denied by the physician, who said the patient had lost too much blood to be able to say anything loudly, and another police officer reported that that Mumia “made no comments.” None of this was brought out at the 1982 trial, because the police claimed the officer was “not available” and Jamal’s incompetent lawyer didn’t subpoena him. Witnesses on the scene were coerced by the police into saying that Jamal shot Faulkner. A main prosecution witness, a prostitute, Cynthia White, was known to “turn tricks” for the police. A second prostitute, Pamela Jenkins, who was a key government witness in the federal investigation into the 39th Precinct corruption scandal, reported the police pressure to perjure herself and name Jamal as the shooter.
A third prostitute, Veronica Jones, said in a 1996 hearing that police coerced her into changing her account that she saw two men run from the scene; when she insisted on telling the truth about what happened, she was taken from the stand in handcuffs and jailed on an “outstanding warrant.” Another witness, white cab driver Robert Chobert, later recanted key elements of his original testimony to an investigator for Jamal’s defense team. His recantation was never brought out in court. Another eyewitness, taxi driver William Singletary, stated flatly in a deposition that Mumia Abu-Jamal did not shoot Faulkner, that the shooter was a black male wearing a green army jacket who then fled the scene. Altogether five witnesses reported seeing a man in a green army jacket on the scene, several saying they saw him fleeing. (Jamal had on a red quilted ski jacket with a blue stripe.) Yet Singletary was never called to testify by the prosecution or the defense, and others were not questioned about the man in the army jacket.
The vital importance of this became clear when one Arnold Beverly, who had previously told members of Jamal’s defense team that he knew who shot the police officer, finally admitted, in June 1999, in a sworn and videotaped deposition, that “Jamal had nothing to do with the shooting” and that “I shot Faulkner in the face at close range.” Beverly was wearing a green army jacket that night. His deposition gives a detailed account of the events, and an explanation of why Faulkner was killed:
“I was hired, along with another guy, and paid to shoot and kill Faulkner. I had heard that Faulkner was a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area.”
Several witnesses reported seeing two men fleeing the scene. The second one was quite likely Kenneth Freeman, who had been in a car with Mumia’s brother, Billy Cook. Freeman, who was also wearing a green army jacket, later told Cook about “a plan to kill Faulkner. He told me that he was armed on that night and participated in the shooting.”
The drive to lynch Mumia Abu-Jamal has been a judicial horror show from the start. After Mumia was shot in the chest that December 9, police picked him up and rammed his head into a telephone pole. When the police wagon arrived at Jefferson Hospital, the cops threw him to the ground and beat him again. At the hospital doors Mumia was subjected to a new beating. His real “crime” in the eyes of the police is that he survived the attempt to murder him in the streets, so for the past 25 years they have been trying to lynch him in the courts. To accomplish this the government has fabricated a whole tissue of lies. “Mumia Abu-Jamal stood over Officer Faulkner and shot him in the face, mortally wounding him,” claims House Resolution 1082. False. This story was concocted by prosecutor Joseph McGill, the bullet casings on the sidewalk do not match the gun Jamal was licensed to carry as a taxi driver, the bullet removed from Faulkner’s body was a different caliber, the trajectory of the shot that killed the policeman is the opposite of someone standing over him, there were no divots (loose chips) in the sidewalk.
A cop later claimed that Mumia “confessed” in the police wagon, but his partner reported that Mumia said nothing. Two months later, at a conference of the police with the district attorney, a story was invented about Jamal “hollering” a confession in the hospital corridor, but this is denied by the physician, who said the patient had lost too much blood to be able to say anything loudly, and another police officer reported that that Mumia “made no comments.” None of this was brought out at the 1982 trial, because the police claimed the officer was “not available” and Jamal’s incompetent lawyer didn’t subpoena him. Witnesses on the scene were coerced by the police into saying that Jamal shot Faulkner. A main prosecution witness, a prostitute, Cynthia White, was known to “turn tricks” for the police. A second prostitute, Pamela Jenkins, who was a key government witness in the federal investigation into the 39th Precinct corruption scandal, reported the police pressure to perjure herself and name Jamal as the shooter.
A third prostitute, Veronica Jones, said in a 1996 hearing that police coerced her into changing her account that she saw two men run from the scene; when she insisted on telling the truth about what happened, she was taken from the stand in handcuffs and jailed on an “outstanding warrant.” Another witness, white cab driver Robert Chobert, later recanted key elements of his original testimony to an investigator for Jamal’s defense team. His recantation was never brought out in court. Another eyewitness, taxi driver William Singletary, stated flatly in a deposition that Mumia Abu-Jamal did not shoot Faulkner, that the shooter was a black male wearing a green army jacket who then fled the scene. Altogether five witnesses reported seeing a man in a green army jacket on the scene, several saying they saw him fleeing. (Jamal had on a red quilted ski jacket with a blue stripe.) Yet Singletary was never called to testify by the prosecution or the defense, and others were not questioned about the man in the army jacket.
The vital importance of this became clear when one Arnold Beverly, who had previously told members of Jamal’s defense team that he knew who shot the police officer, finally admitted, in June 1999, in a sworn and videotaped deposition, that “Jamal had nothing to do with the shooting” and that “I shot Faulkner in the face at close range.” Beverly was wearing a green army jacket that night. His deposition gives a detailed account of the events, and an explanation of why Faulkner was killed:
“I was hired, along with another guy, and paid to shoot and kill Faulkner. I had heard that Faulkner was a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area.”
Several witnesses reported seeing two men fleeing the scene. The second one was quite likely Kenneth Freeman, who had been in a car with Mumia’s brother, Billy Cook. Freeman, who was also wearing a green army jacket, later told Cook about “a plan to kill Faulkner. He told me that he was armed on that night and participated in the shooting.”