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Letter to the editor
Robert Zaller
Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: Ed-Op
Dear Editor,
Patrick DiMauro, in his response to my commentary on Mumia Abu-Jamal and the MOVE Nine, states that the bullet that killed Officer James Ramp in the Powelton Village shootout on Aug. 8, 1978, "was conclusively linked to a .223 caliber rifle that was purchased by Phil Africa." However, no fingerprints were found on the weapons police claim to have recovered from the MOVE compound and no eyewitness testimony was introduced at trial concerning the shooting.
Yet nine people were convicted of the shooting and sentenced to thirty years to life imprisonment. Eight survivors remain behind bars.
DiMauro states that the MOVE members were apprehended without "inflicting any type of major injury." Obviously, this was not for lack of trying, for the police responded to the initial shot in the standoff (which eight witnesses, including reporters, identified as having come from behind police barricades) with a withering barrage, and an attempt to flood the basement in which MOVE members, including children, were holed up. One surrendering MOVE member, Delbert Africa, was struck with a rifle butt, kicked, beaten and dragged through the street; three assaulting officers were indicted by a grand jury, but Judge Stanley Kubacki dismissed their case without trial. Yet DiMauro states, "I fail to see how human beings could have handled that police action in a more just manner."
Regarding Mumia Abu-Jamal, DiMauro states that "the bullet that killed [Officer Daniel] Faulkner was linked through ballistics to Abu-Jamal's gun," and Abu-Jamal was himself wounded by a bullet fired by Faulkner. However, sources I have read indicate that police tests of Abu-Jamal's gun were in fact inconclusive, and no tests were ever done on Abu-Jamal or his clothing to determine whether he had fired a gun at all; nor were such tests done on Faulkner. Such tests are an elementary part of any shooting investigation.
Finally, DiMauro says that neither Abu-Jamal nor his brother has ever taken the stand to assert Abu-Jamal's innocence. However, Billy Cook denied unequivocally in a sworn affidavit April 29, 2001 that Mumia Abu-Jamal had killed Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal likewise denied shooting Faulkner in a sworn affidavit May 3, 2001. These are matters of public record.
Mumia Abu-Jamal still seeks a new trial.
Robert Zaller
Professor
Department of History & Politics
Patrick DiMauro, in his response to my commentary on Mumia Abu-Jamal and the MOVE Nine, states that the bullet that killed Officer James Ramp in the Powelton Village shootout on Aug. 8, 1978, "was conclusively linked to a .223 caliber rifle that was purchased by Phil Africa." However, no fingerprints were found on the weapons police claim to have recovered from the MOVE compound and no eyewitness testimony was introduced at trial concerning the shooting.
Yet nine people were convicted of the shooting and sentenced to thirty years to life imprisonment. Eight survivors remain behind bars.
DiMauro states that the MOVE members were apprehended without "inflicting any type of major injury." Obviously, this was not for lack of trying, for the police responded to the initial shot in the standoff (which eight witnesses, including reporters, identified as having come from behind police barricades) with a withering barrage, and an attempt to flood the basement in which MOVE members, including children, were holed up. One surrendering MOVE member, Delbert Africa, was struck with a rifle butt, kicked, beaten and dragged through the street; three assaulting officers were indicted by a grand jury, but Judge Stanley Kubacki dismissed their case without trial. Yet DiMauro states, "I fail to see how human beings could have handled that police action in a more just manner."
Regarding Mumia Abu-Jamal, DiMauro states that "the bullet that killed [Officer Daniel] Faulkner was linked through ballistics to Abu-Jamal's gun," and Abu-Jamal was himself wounded by a bullet fired by Faulkner. However, sources I have read indicate that police tests of Abu-Jamal's gun were in fact inconclusive, and no tests were ever done on Abu-Jamal or his clothing to determine whether he had fired a gun at all; nor were such tests done on Faulkner. Such tests are an elementary part of any shooting investigation.
Finally, DiMauro says that neither Abu-Jamal nor his brother has ever taken the stand to assert Abu-Jamal's innocence. However, Billy Cook denied unequivocally in a sworn affidavit April 29, 2001 that Mumia Abu-Jamal had killed Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal likewise denied shooting Faulkner in a sworn affidavit May 3, 2001. These are matters of public record.
Mumia Abu-Jamal still seeks a new trial.
Robert Zaller
Professor
Department of History & Politics
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Patrick DiMauro
posted 10/10/08 @ 12:08 PM EST
Dear Editor,
In Robert Zaller's letter to the editor dated 10/10/2008, he was again very sparse with facts when making a defense for convicted cop killers. (Continued…)
Patrick DiMauro
posted 10/14/08 @ 6:45 PM EST
Dear Editor,
In Robert Zaller's letter to the editor dated 10/10/2008, he was again very sparse with facts when making a defense for convicted cop killers. (Continued…)
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