Mumia Abu-Jamal Launches Appeal, Maintains Innocence
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New lawyers for former journalist and Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal have released the first detailed accounts from the death-row inmate of the events surrounding the 1981 killing of a police officer.
The attorneys disclosed Abu-Jamal's description of the shooting Friday as they launched their defense in his appeal.
While Abu-Jamal's jailhouse writings about the justice system have brought his cause widespread attention, he has said little about the death of Officer Daniel Faulkner.
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"I did not shoot Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. I had nothing to do with the killing of Officer Faulkner. I am innocent," Abu-Jamal said in a statement taken Thursday at a state prison in Greene County.
Abu-Jamal said he did not testify at his 1982 trial because his rights were denied throughout the proceeding. Abu-Jamal said his former attorney had told him not to testify during the appeals process.
"Now for the first time, I have been given an opportunity to tell what happened to me in the early morning hours of December 9, 1981," Abu-Jamal said.
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His statement was released by Abu-Jamal's new legal team, which took over the case last month. A judge has stayed Abu-Jamal's execution as his appeal continues.
Faulkner, 25, was found shot at close range in the face, and Abu-Jamal was lying nearby, wounded by a bullet from Faulkner's gun. Abu-Jamal's gun, with five spent shells, was also found.
Abu-Jamal's attorneys also released a 1999 affidavit Friday from a man who said that he and another person shot Faulkner after they were hired to kill him.
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"The affidavit ... is so clearly ridiculous that it should be obvious to any fair-minded person that it is a complete fabrication," said Cathie Abookire, spokeswoman for Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham.
A former radio reporter, Abu-Jamal has maintained that he was framed by police and that his defense was undermined by an incompetent trial attorney.
U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. granted Abu-Jamal's request in March for new counsel.
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Yohn has stayed Abu-Jamal's execution while he decides whether to conduct new evidentiary hearings or decide the appeal based on the voluminous records of Abu-Jamal's trial and appeals in the state courts.
At issue is whether Abu-Jamal's constitutional rights were violated during his 1982 trial and at a 1995 state post-conviction appeal.