Graphic of Bear


Issues Surrounding Mumia Abu-Jamal: Voice of the Voiceless

PRESS RELEASE MARCH 25, 2000


photo of Mumia

International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143, Phone: 215-476-8812, Fax:215-476-7551


For Immediate Release!
Stunning new
evidence emerges
in the case of
Mumia Abu-Jamal

 Rubin "Hurricane" Carter will spend Saturday morning March 25, 2000 visiting with Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row. He will then join International Concerned Family and Friends at a press conference at 3:30 PM in Pittsburgh, PA as they present breakthrough new evidence that shatters testimony given by the prosecution's key witness during Jamal's trial.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, now Executive Director of the International Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), based in Canada, Great Britain, and here in the US, is the subject of the recent film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington. Intense interest is focused on "Hurricane" Carter's visit as for the first time these two innocent men, both victimized by prosecutions bent on convicting in spite of the evidence, will have an opportunity to share their experiences. "Hurricane" spent 20 years in prison. Jamal has already spent 19 years of his life on death row.

The evidence that International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal will present tomorrow will shed light on the shocking intentional efforts by the state to obstruct justice and send Mumia Abu-Jamal to his death by hiding exculpatory facts.

Press Conference:

Saturday, March 25 3:30 p.m.

Wesley Center AME Zion Church
2701 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA

For more information, contact Pam Africa: 215-476-8812
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International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143, Phone: 215-476-8812, Fax:215-476-7551

ICFFMAJ wants to report the existence of facts drawn from the record in the Jamal case that seriously undercut the state's portrayal of events:
In our review of the transcript we have found from the mouth of the state's so-called star witness, Cynthia White, and District Attorney Joseph McGill evidence that there was a passenger in Billy Cook's Volkswagen on Dec. 9, 1981 at the time of the incident in question.

Read the following account taken verbatim from the pages from Commonwealth V. William Cook March 29, 1982 during a bench trial in municipal court in Philadelphia.


[McGill]			Q.	When the officer went up to the car, which
					side of the car did the officer go up to?



[Cynthia White]			A.	The driver side.



[McGill]			Q.	The driver side?



[Cynthia White]			A.	Yes.



[McGill]			Q.	What did the passenger do?



[Cynthia White]			A.	He had got out.



[McGill]			Q.	What did the driver do?



[Cynthia White]			A.	He got out of the car.



[McGill]			Q.	He got out of the car?



[Cynthia White]			A.	Yes.
The state has claimed repeatedly that there were only three people on Locust Street that night. The words of their star witness and the prosectition certainly suggest otherwise. The testimony elicited from Cynthia White in the Cook case differed markedly from her testimony in Jamal's case.

Their star witness who did not know left from right, short from tall, dark from light, or an afro from dreadlocks clearly and without objection stated there was a passenger in the car. The state, that would have you believe her, disregarded that fact like garbage.

What this record reveals is how easily the state can use a vulnerable witness who is by her profession open to state manipulation for their purpose. They used their power to compel her to say and see what they wanted her to say and see, but ignored her where she spoke words that supported other witnesses' reports that they saw another person.

International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal believes that this account is another added weight on the twisted scales of justice that demonstrates the patent unfairness of the trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

ICFFM4J March 25,2000

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                  IN THE MUNICIPAL COURT OF PHILADELPHIA



COMMONWEALTH                                              MC 81-12-0272

                                                           Aggravated Assault                                                                                                                         
                                                           Simple Assault
                                                           Resisting Arrest                                       
   vs.                                                     Enforcement 510             



WILLIAM COOK

                                    

                             March 29, 1982
 
           		
             Courtroom 675 City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


BEFORE:

                    HONORABLE MEYER ROSE, Judge





APPEARANCES:



                                     JOSEPH McGILL, Esquire,

                                     Assistant District Attorney,

                                     for the Commonwealth



                                     DANIEL PAUL ALVA, Esquire,

                                     for the Defendant





REPORTED BY:

                                     ADA WALLACH

                                     Municipal Court Reporter






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             Q. You've got to speak loud.

             A. I noticed a police car with the lights on and 
                the spotlight on.  The spotlight with the lights on
                the top of the police car, and it was pulling the
                Volkswagen over to the side of Locust Street.

                              And the  police got out of the police
                car and walked over to the Volkswagen.  And he didn't
                get all the way to the Volkswagen, and the driver of
                the Volkswagen was passing some words.  He had walked
                around between the two doors, walked up to the sidewalk.

             Q. Who walked?

             A. The passenger -- the driver and
             police officer. 

             Q.  When the officer went up to the car, which side
             the car did the officer go up to?

             A.  The driver side.

             Q.  The driver side?

             A.  Yes.

             Q   What did the passenger do?

             A.  He had got out.
      
             Q.  What did the driver do?

             A.  He got out of the car.

             Q.  He got out of the car?

             A.  Yes.

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