BY MONICA MOOREHEAD
A legal appeal on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther activist who was framed for murder, was filed for the third time with the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court on January 9.
The appeal asks that the Supreme Court make Pamela Dembe, a common pleas state judge, hear the testimony of Arnold Beverly, a former mob hit man who has confessed to killing police officer Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981. Abu-Jamal was framed for this killing.
Abu-Jamal was convicted by a biased jury of first-degree murder on July 3, 1982, and given the death penalty. He has survived two death warrants signed by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, who now heads the Office of Homeland Security for the Bush administration.
Only mass intervention by the political movement in the United States and worldwide saved Abu-Jamal from legal lynching by lethal injection.
Dembe recently refused to allow Beverly's testimony to be heard in her court, stating that she did not have the "jurisdiction" to hear this crucial testimony. Dembe could have ordered a new post-conviction relief hearing. That would allow all the evidence suppressed during the original 1982 trial to finally be heard. This evidence was also suppressed during hearings in 1995 and 1996.
All this evidence, including the Beverly confession, corroborates Abu-Jamal's profession of innocence. A lie-detector test has corroborated Beverly's claim that Abu-Jamal had nothing to do with the Faulkner killing.
Federal District Judge William Yohn threw out Abu-Jamal's death sentence in the middle of December, admitting that the original jury had been improperly instructed during the sentencing phase, but refused to overturn the conviction. Yohn ordered a new sentencing hearing, which could result in a life imprisonment term or another death sentence. A new sentencing hearing would listen only to evidence already admitted before the court.
A January 8 press release issued by Abu-Jamal's attorneys states that Beverly was paid to kill Faulkner "on behalf of corrupt elements in the Philadelphia Police Department and organised crime, because the officer was an obstacle to the 'protection racket' corrupt officers were running in Philadelphia".
The new appeal also seeks to introduce the testimony of court stenographer Terri Maurer-Carter, who says that she overheard the judge in Abu-Jamal's original trial, Albert Sabo, state that he was "going to help fry the n——r".
Abu-Jamal's lawyers are filing state and federal appeals at the same time, and estimate this will cost US$150,000 in legal fees.
[From the US socialist newspaper Workers World via <http://www.mumia.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, January 30, 2002.
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