Mumia Abu Jamal

Black men and women who think Mumia Abu-Jamal is a "victim" because of race: Did Daniel Faulkner ask to be killed? Mumia Abu-Jamal is a cold-blooded killer who deserves to die. It's just a shame he can't be executed in the cruel manner that Officer Faulkner was. Lethal injection is too pleasant a death for someone like Mumia. The only way justice could possibly be served would be to take him to 13th and Locust and shoot him between the eyes. TRACY ROST Mullica Hill, N.J. To all inmates at Graterford: You guys want to lighten up on me a bit?

The official media line coming out of the hearings - reflected in your Aug. 17 editorial - is that no new information has surfaced to indicate Mumia Abu- Jamal's innocence. To prove innocence, however, was not the goal of these proceedings; it was to demonstrate that key elements of the original trial were flawed. Nevertheless, some of the testimony was astounding. We learned that driver's identification papers found in fallen Police Officer Daniel Faulkner's hand belonged to neither Mumia nor his brother, but to a third man who said he had lent them to a fourth.

The image of Philadelphia justice plays a central role in the belief of thousands of people across the United States and the world that death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent and did not get a fair trial. The Philadelphia police who arrested him in 1981 had a reputation, acquired especially during the years in which Frank Rizzo was police commissioner and mayor, for toughness bordering on brutality. Even today, scores of drug convictions are being overturned because Philadelphia police officers planted evidence on innocent people, then lied about it in court.

Mayor Rendell and others have referred to support for Mumia Abu-Jamal as a phenomenon of "outsiders" with little support in the Philadelphia area. Most recent to join in this attempt to dismiss the growing call for justice is Daily News staff writer Jim Nolan, whose portrayal of anyone to the left of George Lincoln Rockwell as part of some sort of radical fringe went out with McCarthyism. Nolan's reference to New Yorkers as from "that other country" is reminiscent of the Southern bigots of three decades ago who complained bitterly of "Northern agitators comin' down here to stir things up. " For many Philadelphians, this is a city under siege from within.

GERINGER OMITS COURT MISCONDUCT IN THE TRIAL OF ABU-JAMAL Dan Geringer's column (Sept. 18) represents a journalistic counterpart to a Mark Fuhrman (of O.J. Simpson trial fame) type detective, who boasted on tape that "you have to get out on the street, learn how to lie, cheat and set people up. " Geringer romanticized Danny and Maureen's blissful life together before Danny was slain by the "convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal," but fails to reveal the significant evidence of malfeasance by court and prosecution throughout Jamal's trial.

Your misguided editorial on the convicted Marxist-Leninist, Mumia Abu- Jamal, says:"The orchestrated worldwide campaign has generated enough doubt to justify serious consideration of a retrial. " I do not recall reading in our Constitution that trial is now by worldwide approval. Perhaps you would like to amend the Constitution to read that trial shall be best out of five, that if you do not like the verdict, you get a few more passes. I prefer what those "insensitive" founding fathers decided - a trial by a jury of one's peers.

ANY time the Daily News publishes a reasonably intelligent letter challenging the conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal, you can expect a small torrent of invective-laden replies that speak to none of the points in question. An example of this is in the "responses" to a July 29 letter from Nathaniel Miller criticizing the mob mentality of those clamoring to "fry Mumia. " Kevin McGrorty ( Aug. 3 ) implores the writer to "be sure you have your facts correct" before writing, but fails to point out any inaccuracies.

The latest documentary about Pennsylvania's most famous inmate is called Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey With Mumia Abu-Jamal . Which is fitting. Because the longer the distance from Philadelphia, the deeper the convicted cop killer's support tends to be. In England, journalist Tariq Ali suggests Abu-Jamal should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In France, he gets a street, a stamp, the first honorary citizenship of Paris since Pablo Picasso. Stephen Vittoria's movie, which opened Friday, is a compelling and powerful work, though perhaps not for the reasons the director intended.

Former death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal has lost his last legal appeal. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected a challenge regarding forensic evidence in his racially charged case. The onetime Black Panther was found guilty in 1982 of fatally shooting Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal spent nearly 30 years on death row while pursuing numerous legal appeals. On March 26, the state Supreme Court upheld a lower court's denial of the forensics claim. One of Abu-Jamal's appeals led a judge to order a new sentencing hearing.

FORMER DEATH-ROW inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal has lost his last legal appeal. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected a challenge regarding forensic evidence in his racially charged case. The onetime Black Panther was found guilty in 1982 of fatally shooting white Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal spent nearly 30 years on death row while pursuing numerous legal appeals. On March 26, the state Supreme Court upheld a lower court's denial of the forensics claim.

Mumia Abu-Jamal has been moved into the general prison population for the first time since going on death row for the killing of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Susan McNaughton, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said Abu-Jamal was moved Friday from the restricted housing unit at the Mahanoy facility in Frackville, Schuylkill County. In the restricted housing unit, Abu-Jamal had largely been in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day. Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 shooting death of Faulkner.

THIS NEWSPAPER has printed the cries of wanting justice for Officer Daniel Faulkner, rightly, because of his murder by Mumia Abu-Jamal. Yes, it was murder and murder should be punishable, but let me assure you that Pennsylvania's method of execution for murderers is not what Mumia deserves. I was one of the civilian witnesses to the last execution in Pennsylvania, that of Gary Heidnik, in 1999. We were seated in front of a window with drawn curtains to reveal Heidnik lying on a bed, covered with sheets as if he was in a hospital.

RE: COPS Net Big Bounty Via Court Overtime: Some of Philadelphia's Finest have been routinely milking the clock, racking up tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary overtime pay every year. It's such a common practice, they even have a slang term for it: It's called, "piling on," as if it were a never-ending, all-you-can-eat smorgasbord. Being that the city is in extreme financial turmoil, one can only hope that Commissioner Ramsey's New Year's resolutions will include cracking down on those who manipulate the system.

IF ALL THE circumstances and evidence, etc., were exactly the same, except that Wesley Cook a/k/a Mumia Abu-Jamal, were either white, Asian, Latino, etc., other than black, would racist Marc Lamont Hill be so up in arms over Abu-Jamal's new getting-away-with-murder sentence of life in prison without parole? Just asking. Diane McDowell Philadelphia Why does the Daily News continue to let a racist bigot like Marc Lamont Hill write a column in the paper? His latest column detailing how he supports Mumia Abu-Jamal is disgusting.

Illogical defense Mark Lewis Taylor's prime argument for releasing convicted killer Mumia Abu-Jamal seems to be that his lengthy stay in prison constitutes cruel and unusual punishment ("Why freedom makes even more sense now," Sunday). This is akin to someone intentionally raising his own thermostat higher and higher over a long period of time and then complaining that he's spent years being forced to sweat. If our increasingly left-leaning court system ceased its practice of allowing endless appeals to death sentences - often on the most idiotic grounds - then convicted murderers like Abu-Jamal would not be forced to languish on death row for years.

MUMIA Abu-Jamal is officially off death row. The cop-killer was transferred from a maximum-security prison in western Pennsylvania Wednesday to the Mahanoy state prison, a medium-security institution in Frackville, 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Corrections Department spokeswoman Susan Bensinger confirmed the move yesterday. Abu-Jamal, who shot to death Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in December 1981, had spent the past 16 years at Greene state prison in Waynesburg, more than 260 miles west of Philadelphia.