HotmailExcerpt: ‘Murdered By Mumia’
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It is interesting now to go back and look at the details of the murder that were reported in those first few days. In 1981, Philadelphia was a four-newspaper town: the Inquirer, Daily News, the Philadelphia Journal, and the legendary Evening Bulletin. The latter reported the most detailed account of the murder from an eyewitness who had not yet been identified. From his sworn statement and trial testimony, the man is now easily recognized as Robert Chobert. “Slain Policeman Had No Chance, Eye-Witness Says,” read the banner headline. Chobert was able to provide the grisly details. It was painful for me to read this then, and it is painful for me to read now. While cruising the area in his cab, Chobert witnessed Danny being knocked to the ground and the “gunman” standing over him firing three more shots. Little is left to the imagination. Danny’s last moment was looking through the barrel of a gun. Holding that weapon was the man who infamously had said that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
“That cop ain’t had a chance against that man,” said the witness, who told a reporter he was driving by in a cab when the shooting occurred. The policeman, Daniel Faulkner, was shot in the head at close range after being knocked to the ground by a bullet in the back, officials said . . .
“The guy was holding the cop on the arm,” he said. “The guy walked over and went Pow! Pow! Pow! . . . I saw the flame come out of the gun.”
As the assailant stumbled away, he looked “like he was drunk or something,” the witness said.
The cab driver said he didn’t see the policeman fire, “All I seen was that guy shooting,” he said.
The cab driver said the officer and his assailant appeared to be “about face-to-face” when he first saw them.
A third man [William Cook] was standing on the sidewalk near the wall “like he was froze,” the cab driver said.
The news coverage in the immediate aftermath of the murder has withstood the test of time. It’s the same picture that would later emerge at the trial. This is the heartbreaking tale of a young cop, deeply committed to his role as community protector, who was robbed of his promising future and his life with me, his young bride. The suspect was cast as a bright and formerly respected newsman whose attitudes transformed with his deepening fascination and involvement with radical politics. The facts sounded pretty straightforward. Multiple eyewitnesses, close to the murder itself, had seen Abu-Jamal shoot Danny at close range after Danny stopped Abu-Jamal’s brother while presumably driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Most significantly, with a bullet to Abu-Jamal’s stomach, Danny told us all the identity of his killer before he left this earth. I have since said that Danny left his burr in his killer. Between those lines, and under the microscope of a quarter century of reflection, it is clear to me now that the seeds were already being sewn on the local level for what this case was to become internationally.
I did not know, or pay attention to it at the time, but immediately after the murder, the Philadelphia chapter of the Association of Black Journalists issued a statement saying that it “supports our president, Mumia Abu-Jamal. He is our leader, our colleague and our brother. We’re concerned about stories that have been printed and broadcasts that portray him in an inaccurate and unfair light. We offer our condolences to both families involved in this tragedy. We will continue to monitor news reports of this incident.”
I also later learned that City Councilman Lucien Blackwell went on television and expressed his concern about the defendant getting a fair trial. Mjenzi Kazana, a community activist who worked out of State Representative David Richardson’s office, set up the Abu-Jamal Defense Committee and held meetings in the community. He also asked then Philadelphia District Attorney Ed Rendell to drop the charges until a “more thorough review” could be accomplished. Rendell, the future mayor and future governor of Pennsylvania, declined. Present at a news conference for the group was Jerome Mondesire, future leader of the Philadelphia NAACP, who then represented Congressman Bill Gray, himself the future head of the United Negro College Fund. Claude Lewis, a columnist for the Evening Bulletin, suggested that a special prosecutor be appointed “as one way of convincing the community that justice in this case will be done.”
To the extent that in these initial developments there was a sign of what this case was to become, I surely did not see it at the time. What should have been a simple story of senseless murder and young life lost would eventually assume a much larger cultural significance. Still, in the early days after the murder, nobody who read about the events in Philadelphia could have predicted that Abu-Jamal would become the poster boy for an international anti–death penalty campaign. Why should he? He murdered my husband.
Excerpted from “Murdered By Mumia” by Maureen Faulkner and Michael A. Smerconish. Copyright © 2007 Maureen Faulkner and Michael A. Smerconish. Excerpted by permission of The Lyons Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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