Mumia Abu-Jamal Beats the Racist System

Mumia Abu-Jamal Beats the Racist System

The wheels of justice just fell off–again.

In a tribute to the farce that is America’s justice system, former Black Panther Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has been awarded a reprieve and won’t be executed for murdering Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner on December 9th, 1981.

Life has been good to Abu-Jamal, not so good for his victim and his family.

It’s not as if there weren’t any eyewitnesses to Abu-Jamal shooting Faulkner point blank in the face. Two testified he confessed in the hospital by saying, “I shot the motherfucker, and I hope the motherfucker dies.”

It’s not as if there was no forensic evidence. His .38 caliber revolver and five shell casings consistent with bullets removed from the police officer’s body was found next to Abu-Jamal at the scene of the crime.

It’s not as if Abu-Jamal wasn’t found guilty and sentenced or that he didn’t exhaust the appeals process. His state and federal appeals failed to overturn the verdict.

It’s not as if he didn’t receive a fair trial. He and his brother refused to testify but the evidence was so clear-cut that the jury needed only three hours to reach a unanimous guilty verdict.

It’s not as if the current Philly District Attorney now believes he could be innocent. Seth Williams, the city’s first black DA, said, “There’s never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982.”

The fifty-eight year old Abu-Jamal, born Wesley Cook before his conversion to the Black Panthers, will live out his remaining years in prison because he beat the system.

DA Williams is giving up attempting to have him executed as decreed by a number of courts and judges because Abu-Jamal has gained so much notoriety and garnered so many influential supporters that Williams believes “Another penalty proceeding would open the case to the repetition of the state appeals process and an unknowable number of years of federal review again, even if we were successful. . ."
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=10204.)