Mumia Abu Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal, birth name Wesley Cook was born April 24 of 1954In 1968, Wesley was 14 years-old and participated in a protest at a George Wallace for president rally. While protesting, he was attacked by several white men. He stated that two men grabbed him. One kicked his head and face, while the other kicked him in the groin. As the two were still going, he yelled and screamed for the police he saw him getting thrashed on the ground. One police officer walked toward them and kicked Wesley in the face.(Jamal, Live p. 172) From this event he stated "I have been thankful to that faceless cop ever since, for he kicked me straight into the Black Panther Party.(Jamal, Live p.173)

Mumia was a well-recognized activist and award-wining journalist in Philadelphia. Some time before this, in 1969, Wesley was one of the founding members of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Black Panther Party. During this time he was the communications secretary. Wesley made his decision to take part in this organization after a discouraging event had taken place. After joining mainstream news organizations in the 1970's, Wesley Cook changed his name to Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia was a teenaged journalist and took interests in issues concerning police brutality. In Philadelphia, Mumia was recognized to have a rare talent in radio journalism. He had an amazing intellect and a burning empathy for underprivileged people. He became a skillful interviewer and a well-known figure in local broadcasting journalism. Mumia appeared in National Public Radio, the National Black Network, and local Philadelphia stations. He had his own talk show on WUHY-FM (which is now WHYY). Mumia's style of journalism allowed the voices of ordinary people to be broadcast. Mumia had a lot of friends in journalism and politics who admired him. He was known as the "voice of the voiceless."(Weinglass, p.213 Live) Despite his ever-changing experience of police brutality and years of a teenage Black Panther he kept the words from his mouth clean, but still his words of criticism were just as crucial. This gave reason for him to be under close surveillance of the FBI and local Philadelphia police.

In the late 1970's, Mumia was also an ardent sympathizer and supporter of a group called Move. This was a black militant anti-establishment and anti-police group. He began to wear his hair long in the image of a MOVE member. In 1981, Mumia's ascending obsession with MOVE had grown and compromised his standing as a journalist. Him no longer being an employee of WUHY was a price had to pay because of his obsession. In result to this event, he became taxicab driver for the night-shift to have some sort of income

Later that year on December 9th, while driving his taxi he stopped when he saw a policeman beating up a black man, who turned out to be his own brother (stopped for a minor traffic violation). The police officer's name was Daniel Faulkner. Witnesses say someone else shot the policeman and ran away. Mumia was shot in the chest by the cop and when the other police arrived they took turns beating Mumia for 45 minutes. After being on trial for six months he was charged with the murder. On July 3rd 1982, Mumia was sentenced to death.

There is no evidence to prove Mumia guilty, and evidence to support him wasn't allowed in court. The bullet that killed the policeman was from a completely different kind of gun than the one police say belonged to Mumia. His fingerprints weren't even on the gun, and they never tested his hands for powder burns to prove if he had fired a weapon recently.

Of 125 witnesses, only 2 said Mumia did it, and both of them changed their stories many times. One witness later admitted that the police made a deal with her: if she said Mumia did it, they would allow her to continue working as a prostitute. After admitting that, she was arrested for lying in court the first time. Another person came forward and admitted she was pressured by her police boyfriend to say Mumia was the shooter, and she wasn't even there when it happened.

To make things worse, The was tried before Albert Sobo. He was well-known for putting more people on death row than any other judge in the United States.(Weinglass, p.195 Live) The judge himself was a racist and had already sentenced 32 people to death, 24 of them black.

When Mumia asked for a new trial, the hearing was held before the SAME judge, who of course denied his appeal.

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