Abu-Jamal team pursues appeal as protesters converge on Philadelphia

Jacqueline Soteropoulos and Joseph A. Slobodzian / Inquirer 18aug01

Supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal march east on Market Street Photo: Jonathan Wilson

Mumia Abu-Jamal remained cloistered on death row yesterday as his attorneys and about 1,000 supporters of the convicted killer of a police officer converged on Center City for a court hearing and daylong demonstrations.

The protesters gathered outside the Criminal Justice Center for a rally that drew activists including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Ossie Davis, and comedian Dick Gregory.

Abu-Jamal, an author and former radio reporter, was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Officer Daniel Faulkner. Now 47, Abu-Jamal has become an international cause celebre for death-penalty opponents. His new legal team is seeking to have his state appeal reopened.

Faulkner's widow, Maureen, attended the court hearing and later watched demonstrators from a window in District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham's office.

"I think today was a pathetic attempt by a murderer to delay the appeals process," she told reporters. "We want closure in this case. I think it's a disgrace, as victims, that we have to continue to go through this emotional turmoil."

Faulkner said the evidence was clear that Abu-Jamal executed her husband.

"Be a man, stop being a coward," Faulkner said she wanted to tell Abu-Jamal. "Speak about how he murdered Danny. . . . He knows what he did."

The movable, daylong rally was a diverse mix of demonstrators - longtime Mumia supporters, anti-death-penalty groups, Native Americans, free-Palestine proponents, and revolutionary groups - all of whom had adopted Abu-Jamal as their symbol.

It drew supporters from Chicago, New York, Toronto, Canada and Europe. There were speeches by Bernard Birsingner, the mayor of Bobigny, a Paris suburb, and Francesc Arrou, a lawyer from Barcelona, Spain.

Police Commissioner John F. Timoney surveyed the scene by bicycle. Police did not report any arrests.

Abu-Jamal was not transported from his cell on death row of a Pittsburgh-area prison to the court hearing, which lasted about 30 minutes. One of his attorneys read a statement from him to Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe.

"Today, I am banned from a proceeding in my name, in my defense, with no reason," Abu-Jamal wrote. He also complained about his former legal team, a book published by his prior attorney, and his 1982 murder trial.

Abu-Jamal's new team of lawyers is trying to reopen his state court appeal based on a sworn statement by another man who claims he killed Faulkner.

But prosecutors believe that Abu-Jamal failed to file his petition within legal deadlines.

"We have to decide whether or not I can go forward in this case, and there's a serious question as to whether this request is timely," Dembe said.

She ordered Abu-Jamal's attorneys to file a legal brief by Sept. 7. Prosecutors must file their response by Sept. 21.

Dembe refused repeated requests by Eliot Lee Grossman, one of Abu-Jamal's attorneys, to schedule a hearing immediately for both sides to argue their position.

"Our concern is that we have an opportunity to be before you, and that Mr. Jamal have an opportunity to be before you," Grossman said.

Dembe said that it was not clear whether a hearing was necessary, and that she would not schedule one without consulting with judicial and law-enforcement officials because of potential demonstrations and disruption to regular court business.

After the hearing, Grossman told the crowd that Dembe did not schedule another hearing, prompting an angry response.

"We objected and told the court that what we wanted was a date certain," Grossman said, adding: "All we want is the opportunity for an innocent man to prove his innocence."

Grossman told the crowd that the District Attorney's Office opposes a new appeal in state court because "they are afraid of the truth. They know Arnold Beverly is telling the truth."

In 1999, a man named Arnold Beverly signed an affidavit saying that he - not Abu-Jamal - fatally shot Faulkner.

Inside the crowded courtroom, Jackson took a prominent seat in the first row of Abu-Jamal's supporters. Before the hearing, he told reporters that he believes there is reasonable doubt that Abu-Jamal is guilty of murder.

"In the case of Mumia, he certainly deserves another trial," Jackson said.

"The country needs to step away from the notion of killing to stop killing," he added, criticizing the death penalty as "Neanderthal."

Outside the courthouse, during Jackson's speech, a bearded man wearing a button with a photo of Faulkner shouted: "Why don't you go back and take care of your illegitimate kids?"

Several members of the audience turned around and yelled, "Shut up," and the man melted into the crowd.

Jackson has only recently reemerged into the spotlight after last winter's news that he fathered a child during an extramarital affair.

In another confrontation shortly before noon, MOVE member Pam Africa stopped the parade at 12th and Market Streets to launch into an obscenity-laced tirade against a group of construction workers about two stories up on the scaffolding of Loew's Hotel.

Both at the scaffolding at City Hall and at Loew's, some workers had displayed signs reading "Mumia Must Die" and "Fry Mumia, Die Mumia."

When some workers at 12th and Market flashed thumbs-down signs at the marchers, Africa erupted in anger.

Tourists and X Games fans gawked at yesterday's spectacle. Some drivers, stuck in traffic, rolled down their windows and made obscene gestures at the marchers that were returned in kind.

Abu-Jamal exhausted his state court appeals two years ago. His federal appeal, the last forum to reverse his conviction and death sentence, is pending.

Last month, the members of Abu-Jamal's new legal team filed a petition to suspend the federal appeal while they try to mount a new legal challenge before Dembe in state court.

Jacqueline Soteropoulos' e-mail address is jsoteropoulos@phillynews.com