A great deal was revealed in the recent hearing on the motion for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. In spite of the fact that Judge Sabo barred many important witnesses and routinely denied defense motions, here is what some of the key witnesses revealed:
1 Anthony Jackson. Jackson was the attorney forced by Judge Sabo to defend Mumia in his first trial. Jackson recounted how the rulings of Judge Sabo and the withholding of evidence made it impossible to conduct an adequate defense.
2 Arnold Howard. Howard told how a swarm of cops rousted him out of bed on the morning Mumia was shot and arrested. It seems Howard was a suspect in the shooting of Officer Faulkner because his driver's license was found in Faulkner's hand. Howard was threatened and questioned for hours. It turned out that Howard had loaned his license to Kenneth Freeman who was a friend of Mumia's brother William and who was possibly driving William's VW when it was was stopped by Faulkner.
As a suspect in the shooting of Faulkner, Howard was tested to see if he had fired a gun (Mumia was not tested!) and both Howard and Freeman were put in an identification lineup. These facts were kept secret from the defense in the first trial, and Freeman is now dead.
3 William Singletary. Testified that he saw another man shoot Officer Faulkner and flee the scene, and that when Mumia bent over to help Faulkner he was shot by Faulkner (a story consistent with the direction of Mumia's wound). Singletary testified that police repeatedly tore up his written statements until he changed his story and signed a false statement dictated by police. This was a key example of suppression of evidence in the original trial.
4 William Harmon. Harmon is a Pennsylvania prison inmate who recently came forward to tell what he saw the night of Mumia's shooting and arrest. Harmon testified that there were two shooters. The first shot Faulkner in the back and escaped down the street. The second stepped out of a car and shot the wounded Faulkner in the face. (The prosecution said that Harmon should not be believed because he was a convicted pimp, hoping that the public would forget that the government's star witness in the first trial was a convicted prostitute!)
5 Dessie Hightower. Hightower repeated his testimony given at the first trial that Faulkner was shot by a man who escaped down the street.
It also came out in the hearing that Hightower was given a polygraph (lie detector) test which he passed, but those witnesses who changed their original testimony to conform to the police version were not given lie tests. This evidence was withheld from the defense in the first trial.
6 Sharon Smith. Smith recounted how she became physically ill watching the police viciously kick and beat Mumia, shouting "Kill the Black Motherfucker!" She was watching from her window the night of Mumia's arrest.
7 Robert Chobert. The night of Mumia's arrest, cab driver Chobert originally described someone different as the shooter. He later changed his testimony to name Mumia as the shooter in the first trial. The jury was not told that he was on probation for a contract arson. It now comes out that he was driving a cab without a license, was never charged, and was allowed to continue driving a cab for ten years without a license.
8 Gary Wakshul. Provided comic relief. Officer Wakshul wrote in his official report that Mumia made no statement the night he was shot and arrested. Now Wakshul suddenly remembers that Mumia "confessed" that night, but like the other cops who suddenly remembered, he was too upset to report it until two months later!
Wakshul also testified that a meeting was held between the police officers involved in the case and the prosecutor. When asked if the purpose of this meeting was to get their stories straight, Wakshul said he couldn't remember.
Source: Courtroom notes from the hearing for post-conviction relief.
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