Last week, prosecutors in Philadelphia said they would no longer seek the death penalty for Mumia abu Jamal, who was convicted in 1982 of fatally shooting Officer Daniel Faulkner. The incident that sent Jamal to death row occurred in the wee morning hours of Dec. 9, 1981. Faulkner was on routine patrol. Jamal was driving his cab, his moonlighting gig when he wasn’t appearing on radio as a free-lance journalist.
According to a tale that has been often told, Faulkner had stopped Jamal’s brother and the two became involved in a physical confrontation. According to police and prosecutors, Jamal witnessed the fight, rushed over and shot Faulkner.
Faulkner returned fire, wounding Jamal, who then fired the kill shots into Faulkner’s head as the officer lay on the ground. Police arrested the wounded Jamal when they arrived and recovered his handgun, which had all but one round spent.
That was the gist of the prosecution’s case against Jamal. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death, but his supporters had other ideas. Even though Jamal was wounded and had a handgun that was clearly discharged, Jamal’s supporters, for 30 years, have brazenly went with what cops call the S.O.D.D.I. defense.
The letters stand for “Some Other Dude Done It.” In 30 years, no one in the pro-Jamal camp has turned up this “other dude.” Nor have they explained why, after this “other dude” shot Faulkner, Faulkner fired at Jamal, not the “other dude.
Jamal, understandably, has done nothing to discourage such flapdoodle, even though he’s had plenty to say since 1981. His commentaries have been broadcast over the radio. He’s written several books, all of them condemning racism, the justice system and the death penalty.
In fact, Jamal has commented on just about any and everything, except this: he has NEVER given an account of what happened early on the morning of Dec. 9, 1981, beyond proclaiming his innocence and admitting he was on the scene.
On the matter of who fatally shot Faulkner of the Philadelphia Police Department? Well, you couldn’t pry Jamal’s lips open with a crowbar on that one.
It would seem that an “innocent” man so concerned about justice — as Jamal claims he is — would be eager to tell authorities who actually shot Faulkner. But on that matter, Jamal is still pulling his Harpo Marx routine.
Instead, Jamal continues to paint himself as the victim of a racist injustice.
“Because there will not be a hearing,” Jamal said in an Associated Press news story, “there is some disappointment, because we thought we could make some things happen in that hearing and really give a good fight, but we’ll have to fight in other ways.”
One of those ways could be Jamal’s giving up Faulkner’s “real” murderer, but Jamal already knows who that is: Mumia abu Jamal.
Jamal might have been an adequate journalist and he is a fine writer. But as the Faulkner case has shown, he’s prone to telling what might kindly be called “stretchers.” My favorite Jamal stretcher is his claim that Cuban society is “more just” than American society.
That quote came from Jamal’s book agent, whom I met at a Havana book fair several years ago. (She was an elderly white woman who greeted me — I kid you not — with a “black power” handshake.) I found the comment odd, considering that Jamal has never been to Cuba.
He hasn’t talked to any Cuban dissidents who now reside in Cuban prisons either. But when you live in the alternative universe that Jamal has created for himself, lying comes easy.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
