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"The history of the criminal case of Mumia
Abu-Jamal, which is by now almost 25 years old, has been characterized by
bias right from the start: against a black man whom the court denied a
jury of his peers, against a member of the economic underclass who did
not have a real claim to a qualified defense, and against a radical,
whose allegedly dangerous militancy obliged the state to eliminate him
from the ranks of society."
So writes German author Michael
Schiffmann in his new book “Race Against Death. Mumia Abu-Jamal: a Black
Revolutionary in White America” (an expansion of Schiffmann's PhD
dissertation at the University of Heidelberg), just released in Germany
this past month. [The German-language version was recently published in
Europe, and the author is currently looking for a publisher for the
English-language version of the book.]
In 1982, Abu-Jamal was convicted of
killing white Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner and sentenced
to death in a trial that Amnesty International has declared a
"violation of minimum international standards that govern fair trial
procedures and the use of the death penalty."
Schiffmann writes that a third person
(not Abu-Jamal or his brother Billy Cook) most likely shot and killed
Faulkner on the morning of Dec. 9, 1981. This third person was Kenneth
Freeman (Billy Cook's friend and business partner), who—according to the
available evidence—was a passenger in Cook's car. Freeman likely shot him
in response to Faulkner’s shooting Abu-Jamal in the chest, and was
therefore the black male that six eyewitnesses reported to have seen
fleeing the scene moments before other police arrived.
“Race Against Death” asserts that
ballistics almost certainly rule out Abu-Jamal’s firing the first shot
(into Faulkner's back), and that much evidence shows that he also didn't
fire the lethal bullet to Faulkner's head. However, in the very unlikely
scenario that Abu-Jamal did shoot Faulkner, it would have been a response
to being shot himself and would therefore be justified self-defense.
MIT professor Noam Chomsky (a long-time
supporter of Abu-Jamal) writes that Schiffmann's "careful and
scrupulous inquiry into the events and the available evidence brings to
light much that is new or was obscured," and "raises
understanding of this painful and critically important case to a new
level. Not only his comprehensive research, but also his penetrating
evaluation of the background and import, should be the basis for further
engagement in the case itself and the intricate array of issues in which
it is embedded."
Building upon evidence presented in the
other two books written about Abu-Jamal's case (Dan Williams' 2001
“Executing Justice” and Dave Lindorff's 2003 “Killing Time”), Schiffmann
boldly presents both new evidence and an entirely original analysis of
previous ballistics evidence.
Pedro Polakoff’s photos
In May, 2006, Schiffmann discovered two photographs on
the internet that were taken by the only press photographer immediately
present at the 1981 crime scene—Pedro Polakoff. The photographer arrived
within 12 minutes of hearing about the shooting on the police radio and
about 10 minutes before the Mobile Crime Unit (responsible for forensics
and photographs) arrived. This unit had still not taken any photos when
Polakoff left after 30-45 minutes at the scene.
Upon contacting Polakoff, Schiffmann
learned that three of his 31 original shots had been published in Philly
newspapers at the time, and five others were lost. Schiffmann told Z
Magazine that he had published five of the 26 remaining photos to show
the following three points:
1) "The cops manipulated evidence and
supplied the trial court with stuff that was simply stage-managed. On
Polakoff's photos, P.O. Faulkner's police hat at first is clearly on the
roof of Billy Cook's VW, and only later on the sidewalk in front of 1234
Locust where it was photographed by the police photographer who arrived
10 minutes after Polakoff!
2) "In court Police Officer James
Forbes claimed that he had ‘secured’ the weapons of both Faulkner and
Mumia without touching them on their metal parts in order to not destroy
potential fingerprints. However, in the single photo reprinted in the
book you can see that Forbes is touching the weapons on their metal
parts, and quite a few of Polakoff's other photos make it clear that
Forbes touched and smudged these weapons all over, destroying any
potential fingerprint evidence that may have been on them.
3) "The second-most important
prosecution witness, cab driver Robert Chobert, simply was not parked in
the spot, allegedly right behind Officer Faulkner's police squad car,
where he claimed to have been and from where he claimed to have observed
Mumia fire the shot that killed the officer."
Polakoff's observations don't stop there.
Schiffmann writes in “Race”: "According to Polakoff, at that time
all the officers present expressed the firm conviction that Abu-Jamal had
been the passenger in Billy Cook's VW and had fired and killed Faulkner
by a single shot fired from the passenger seat of the car.
"Polakoff further reports that this
opinion on the part of the police about what had happened was apparently
based on the testimony of three witnesses who were still present at the
crime scene, namely, by the parking lot attendant in charge of the
parking lot on the northern side of Locust Street, by a drug addicted
woman apparently acquainted with the parking lot attendant, and another
woman. As Polakoff later heard from colleagues in the media, the parking
lot attendant had disappeared the day after, while the drug-addicted
witness died a couple of days later from an overdose.
“Whatever it was that these witnesses saw
or did not see, we will probably never know—the interesting fact in any
case is that neither of them ever appeared in any report presented by the
police or the prosecution."
Polakoff told Schiffmann that he was
simply ignored when he repeatedly contacted the DA's office to give them
his account—and his photos—of the crime scene. Schiffmann has informed
Mumia's lawyers about Polakoff's evidence—who are looking into it further.
No bullet traces in sidewalk
The prosecution claims that Mumia stood over and shot
at Faulkner 3-4 times (with only one shot hitting him) while Faulkner was
lying on his back. Schiffmann asserts that if this were true, there would
have had to have been 2-3 large divots in the pavement (next to
Faulkner's body) resulting from the bullets' impact. Since photos and
police reports do not reveal any damage or bullet fragments in that
location, Schiffmann concludes that the prosecution scenario must be
false.
While this "missing divots"
observation was publicly revealed in 2001 by Mumia's former lawyers,
Schiffmann is literally the first writer to investigate this further. To
support the assertion, Schiffmann interviewed a German ballistics expert
and was told that "such divots couldn't possibly have been
overlooked." He concludes: "They were simply not there."
Furthermore, photographer Pedro Polakoff
"emphatically denied that there could be any such divots beneath the
blood or anywhere else in the area of the sidewalk to be seen on his
photos."
After asserting the fraudulence of the
prosecution's scenario, Schiffmann goes further and declares that the
three prosecution witnesses supporting this scenario must have been lying.
Even ignoring previous evidence that
witnesses Robert Chobert and Cynthia White falsely testified, "the
absence of any bullet traces or bullets in the sidewalk in front of 1234
Locust is irrefutable physical evidence that these two, plus witness
Michael Scanlan, did not tell the truth at Mumia's trial. By that simple
observation, a central part of the prosecution's theory is simply blown
out of the water—and new evidence is on the table thereby for the
coaching, coercion and manipulation of witnesses."
Bullet and fragments at crime scene
Schiffmann's entirely original ballistics analysis is
the most explosive section of “Race Against Death.” Researched for more
than three years, this chapter analyzes both the unexplained bullet and
fragments found in the doorway of 1234 Locust Street and the copper
bullet jacket found on the sidewalk (all a full car-length from Officer
Faulkner's body).
Most likely, the bullet shot into Faulkner's back
(traveling at an upward angle and exiting slightly beneath his throat)
came from the sidewalk behind Faulkner as he was facing northwest towards
Mumia and towards the parking lot situated at the northeastern corner of
the intersection of 13th and Locust, where Mumia came from.
The most logical way for Mumia to
approach the scene was diagonally from northwest to southeast—but the
only bullet fragment found in or around 1234 Locust that could have had
anything to do with the shot in Faulkner's back traveled from northeast
to southwest, at a sharp angle from where Mumia was approaching the scene!
Schiffmann shows that even if Mumia had
approached the scene in an indirect and awkward way by almost
circumventing it first, the bullet fragment in question cannot have come
from a shot fired by him at that time. There was no evidence of any
bullet further east down Locust—where it would have been had Mumia shot
Faulkner from his more logical approach to the scene from a northwestern
direction.
Schiffmann writes in “Race” that
"this evidence shows that the first shot that hit Faulkner did not
come from the direction from which Abu-Jamal approached the scene, could
therefore not have been fired by Abu-Jamal, and was thus necessarily
fired by some third person, a possibility that the prosecution has always
adamantly denied."
Schiffmann told me: "The first key
point is that Mumia is no murderer. If he shot at all, he shot to defend
his own life, after he intervened at the scene in the first place to
protect his brother, who had already been beaten bloody."
"Second, it is very unlikely that
Mumia even took his gun out of its holster during that fateful night. What
if the destruction of fingerprint evidence on Mumia's gun (shown in
Polakoff's photos) was not just negligent, but deliberate? It would mean
that the police themselves were the ones who drew Mumia's weapon (which
had been empty apart from five spent cartridges to begin with) out of his
shoulder holster."
The third person: Ken Freeman?
Schiffmann cites six witnesses (including several that
were intimidated by police) that saw someone run away before police
arrived, and then argues that this third person was most likely Billy
Cook's business partner and friend, Kenneth Freeman.
In the 1995 PCRA hearings it was revealed
that Faulkner had a license application in his front pocket (concealed
from the defense for 13 years) for one Arnold Howard—who testified that
he had loaned his temporary (non-photo) license to Kenneth Freeman.
Schiffmann explained to me that
"Billy Cook's attorney Daniel Alva told Dave Lindorff (in his book
‘Killing Time’) that Cook had told him within days after the shooting
that Freeman had been with him that night. There wasn't the slightest
reason for Alva to have done so if it was not indeed true. Lying to
journalists doesn't belong to the duties of a defense attorney, and the
assumption that a well-respected member of the Philadelphia legal
community such as Alva would do so for no apparent reason makes little
sense to me."
Returning to his ballistics analysis,
Schiffmann argues: "A person coming out of the passenger seat of
Billy Cook's VW would have been ideally placed to fire the shot that hit
Faulkner in the back and exited through the region below his throat.
Faulkner had on a clip-on police tie that was apparently hit right at
that clip (since there was blood and lead on it). The tie was found
nowhere near 1234 Locust where it should have been found had Mumia fired
that shot in Faulkner's back. Instead, it was on the northern side of
Locust shortly before the intersection of 13th and Locust.
“And this, in turn, means that the
shooter must have been on the sidewalk in front of 1234 Locust—not in the
street coming from the parking lot, as Mumia was.”
Further supporting Schiffmann's argument
are the mysterious circumstances of Freeman's death. On May 13, 1985 (the
same day police firebombed the MOVE organization's headquarters), Freeman
was found dead in a parking lot. Likely murdered by police that day, he
was found naked, handcuffed, and had a drug needle in his arm. Given the
impossibility of injecting himself with the needle while handcuffed, the
official explanation for the 31-year-old's death (heart attack) seems
incredible.
"If Freeman was indeed killed by
cops, the killing probably was part of a general vendetta of the
Philadelphia cops against their 'enemies,' and the cops killed him
because they knew or suspected he had something to do with the killing of
Faulkner," said Schiffmann.
The Arnold Beverly confession
After years of careful analysis, Schiffmann concludes
that the scenario presented by career criminal Arnold Beverly in his 2001
affidavit (stating that he killed Faulkner and that Mumia was not
involved) is "too contradictory to be tenable."
However, Schiffmann is highly critical of
the courts' flippant rejection of the Beverly affidavit. Considering the
seriousness of a death-row homicide case, he argues that they should have
at least determined its credibility in a public court hearing.
The controversial Beverly scenario is no
longer an issue in the courts, but Schiffmann argues that this may not be
the worst thing. "The Beverly affidavit has often been a distraction
from what should be the really central issues: frame-up, unfair trial,
legal innocence, actual innocence. No Arnold Beverly is needed to show
that Mumia should be a free man and shouldn't have spent even one day in
jail."
Freiheit für Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Noam Chomsky argues that "Mumia's case is
symbolic of something much broader. ... The U.S. prison system is simply
class and race war. ... Mumia and other prisoners are the kind of people
that get assassinated by what's called 'social cleansing' in U.S. client
states like Colombia."
Schiffmann also feels that Mumia's case
is part of a much larger picture and devotes most of his book to
providing a proper historical context. "Determined not to write the
typical boring academic tract," Schiffmann told me: "My book's
not just about Mumia. His case is important because of the larger legal,
political, and social issues that his case exposes.
“I investigate the U.S.'s constitutional
tradition, the history of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, the
horrendous history of city development in the U.S. tragically exemplified
in Philadelphia, Mumia's extraordinary yet typical history of a Black
youth alienated by the false promises the U.S. ’offered’ for him as a
young man of the wrong color, and finally the development of the U.S.
into a virtual police state for many segments of the population."
Schiffmann emphasizes the extreme
importance of Mumia's current battle in the courtroom, but feels that
solid legal strategy will only go so far in gaining a new trial. The key
will be to exert maximum political pressure from the grassroots in
Philadelphia and around the world. A "broad, multi-faceted and
democratic mass-movement," emphasizing that "Mumia is all of us,"
must be used to ensure real justice.
Schiffmann urges those in the U.S. to
attend (or support locally) the massive Philadelphia demonstration being
organized to support Abu-Jamal on Dec. 9—the 25th anniversary of
Abu-Jamal's arrest. "We have kept Mumia alive. Against the odds, we
have won the first stage of an uphill battle. Now we must go on all the
way—and that is to free Mumia
Abu-Jamal!"
This review is based on both a reading of
the unpublished English language version of “Race Against Death” and the
author's recent interview with Schiffmann.
-Hans Bennett is a
Philadelphia-based photojournalist who has been documenting the movement
to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners for over five years.
For more, visit his website: http://www.insubordination.blogspot.com./
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