Mumia Abu-Jamal essays

Mumia Abu-Jamal essays For the last twenty years, a man has been locked up twenty-three hours a day in prison, denied contact visits with his family, and had his mail illegally opened by prison authorities. Now, one may ask, What is wrong with this? This seems typical for the treatment of a guilty convict. In this particular case however, many believe that this man, Mumia Abu-Jamal, is innocent, and has been yet another victim of the corruption and racism of the United States judicial system. In December 1981, Abu-Jamal was working as a cab driver when he came upon a cop beating Abu-Jamals brother with a flashlight. Abu-Jamal ran out to help his brother. There was a struggle, and both Abu-Jamal and the police officer, Daniel Faulkner, were shot. Witnesses saw one or more men run from the scene. When police officers arrived, Faulkner was dead. The officers then beat Abu-Jamal before taking him to the hospital. Suspiciously, it took them over half an hour to reach it. Due to fabrication of evidence and police manipulation of witnesses, Abu-Jamal was found guilty, in September 1982, of the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The trial and sentence were both terribly unjust, because there was truly not enough evidence against Abu-Jamal to actually convict him. The prosecution claimed that the shot that killed Faulkner came from Abu-Jamals .38-caliber gun. Abu-Jamal was legally registered to carry the gun as a nighttime cab driver. This claim of the prosecution contradicts the medical examiners report that the bullet removed from Faulkners brain was a .44-caliber. This fact was kept from the jury during the trial. Moreover, a ballistics expert examining the case found it absurd that police who had been at the scene failed to test Abu-Jamals gun to see if it had been recently fired, or to test Abu-Jamals hands for gunpowder residue. One of the most powerful claims of the pros ...