‘Race Against Death’ in Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case

In the latest attempt by the state to deny his legal rights and derail political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal of his 1982 death penalty conviction, prosecutors have called on the entire Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to recuse itself from hearing Abu-Jamal’s case in Philadelphia on May 17.

One of Abu-Jamal’s pending appeals cites routine practices of Philadelphia prosecutors that are racially discriminatory. In his case, this is specifically racial discrimination during jury selection. At the time of the trial, Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell was the elected district attorney in Philadelphia. Rendell’s wife Marjorie Rendell currently serves as a judge on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Instead of simply asking that Marjorie Rendell recuse herself, a move that the defense might favor, prosecutors say “they want to avoid any possible grounds for future appeal” by removing the entire court. They show no concern that Ed Rendell, as Pennsylvania’s governor, can reissue a death warrant should Abu-Jamal’s appeals be denied.

From the moment that Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the Dec. 9, 1981, shooting of a Philadelphia police officer, the bourgeois state—police, courts, prison and media—has used every means at its disposal in its drive to convict an innocent man.

“The history of the criminal case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, which is by now almost 25 years old, has been characterized by bias right from the start: against a Black man whom the court denied a jury of his peers, against a member of the economic underclass who did not have a real claim to a qualified defense, and against a radical, whose allegedly dangerous militancy obliged the state to eliminate him from the ranks of society.”

So writes German author Michael Schiffmann in his new book, “Race against Death—Mumia Abu-Jamal: a Black Revolutionary in White America,” just released in Germany this past month.

Schiffmann’s book builds upon evidence presented by two earlier books written about Abu-Jamal’s case: Dan Williams’ 2001 “Executing Justice” and Dave Lindorff’s 2003 “Killing Time,” and presents new evidence as well.

While researching his book last year, Schiffmann discovered two photographs on the Internet taken by Pedro Polakoff, the only press photographer present at the 1981 crime scene. Polakoff arrived 12 minutes after hearing about the shooting on the police radio and ten minutes before the arrival of the police unit responsible for forensics and photographs. No photographs had been taken by the police unit when Polakoff left 45 minutes later.

Three of Polakoff’s original shots were published in Philadelphia newspapers at the time. Schiffmann then published in his book five of the full set of 26 photos Polakoff gave him access to, demonstrating the following three points:

1) “The cops manipulated evidence and supplied the trial court with stuff that was simply stage-managed. On Polakoff’s photos, P.O. Faulkner’s police hat at first is clearly on the roof of Billy Cook’s VW, and only later on the sidewalk in front of 1234 Locust where it was photographed by the police photographer who arrived 10 minutes after Polakoff!

2) “In court, Police Officer James Forbes claimed that he had ‘secured’ the weapons of both Faulkner and Mumia without touching them on their metal parts in order to not destroy potential fingerprints. However, in the single photo reprinted in the book you can see that Forbes is touching the weapons on their metal parts, and quite a few of Polakoff’s other photos make it clear that Forbes touched and smudged these weapons all over, destroying any potential fingerprint evidence that may have been on them.

3) “The second-most important prosecution witness, cab driver Robert Chobert, simply was not parked in the spot, allegedly right behind Officer Faulkner’s police squad car, where he claimed to have been and from where he claimed to have observed Mumia fire the shot that killed the officer.”

Schiffmann also writes that Polakoff heard all the officers present express their conviction that Abu-Jamal had been the passenger in Billy Cook’s VW and had fired and killed Faulkner by a single shot fired from the passenger seat of the car—a very different story than what prosecutors presented at trial. However, the passenger in Cook’s car was Kenneth Freeman, not Abu-Jamal.

According to Polakoff, police opinion was based on the testimony of three witnesses who were still present at the scene—a parking lot attendant, a drug-addicted woman and another woman—all of whom either disappeared or died within days of the shooting.

No mention of these witnesses appears in any report presented by the police or prosecution. Schiffmann writes that Polakoff told him that he was simply ignored when he repeatedly contacted the DA’s office to give them his account—and his photos—of the crime scene.

“Race against Death” also presents explosive and entirely original ballistics analysis, arrived at after more than three years of research, that also clearly disputes the state’s case.

Schiffmann’s book is important, not just for his comprehensive research on Mumia’s case, but for placing the case in the historical context of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements; Mumia’s extraordinary yet typical history as a Black youth confronting racism; and the development of the U.S. into a virtual police state for many segments of the population. Schiffmann’s book has been published in Germany. It is still awaiting a U.S. publisher.