BY PETER SEIDMAN

PHILADELPHIA - A key witness in the 1982 murder trial of Pennsylvania death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal came forward May 21 to swear that she lied against him on the stand, under intense pressure from the cops. Leonard, Abu-Jamal's lead attorney, appealed the next day to the state supreme court seeking an order that Common Pleas Court Judge Alfred Sabo hear this new testimony and reconsider his refusal to grant the inmate's appeal for a new trial.

Abu-Jamal has been on death row for 14 years after having been framed up for the killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. An international campaign on his behalf forced Sabo to postpone indefinitely the day of execution last summer.

Veronica Jones, the witness, was a prostitute near the corner where Faulkner was shot. She gave investigating detectives an initial statement saying she saw two unidentified men running from the murder scene immediately after hearing shots being fired. But when called to the stand by the defense, Jones repudiated her story.

In her new sworn statement, Jones insists on the truth of her original assertion. She says she changed this story after she was arrested on major felony charges by the police two weeks prior to when she was scheduled to testify at Abu-Jamal's trial. Unable to make bail, she was being held in the county jail facing 10-15 years in prison when she testified.

"Approximately one week before I testified," Jones recounts, "I was visited in jail by two white plainclothes detectives. I was initially shocked at seeing them since the jailers had told me my lawyer was visiting. The detectives began by speaking, not of the facts of my case, but of the Jamal case. They told me that if I would testify against Jamal and identify Jamal as the shooter I wouldn't have to worry about my pending felony charges.

"I repeatedly told the detectives I didn't see the shooting, but only heard the shots and then saw two men run away. But this didn't satisfy them. The detectives threatened me by reminding me that I faced a long prison sentence...all the while persisting that I testify to their version of events. Frightened, I told them I wanted my lawyer present. When they finally left I knew if I did anything to help the Jamal defense I would face years in prison.

"It was only a matter of a few days that I was brought to court. I thought I was going to appear in my case. To my surprise, when I was brought into court I found myself in the midst of the Jamal case. Both detectives who had threatened me earlier were in plain view, standing in the rear of the courtroom. When asked by Jamal's attorney to confirm what I had first told the police...I steadfastly denied it for fear that I would be punished for helping the defense.

"At that time I was twenty-one years old and the mother of three young children."

Jones added that following her perjured testimony, she was released from jail and eventually sentenced to probation on all the outstanding felony charges against her. Cynthia White, another prostitute in the area who claimed to identify Jamal as Faulkner's killer, received "the same deal" from the cops, Jones said. During Abu-Jamal's appeal hearing last August, other witnesses came forward to insist that White was on a side street at the time and could not have seen the shooting.

Speaking at a May 22 news conference here, Weinglass said, "This is the first irrefutable evidence that the conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal was obtained through false testimony." He demanded a new trial and the conviction overturned.

Pete Seidman is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Congress and a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Philadelphia.  
 
 
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