BY JOHN STAGGS AND BOB STANTON
PHILADELPHIA - The August issue of Vanity Fair magazine
features the latest salvo in the campaign to push for the
execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. This is the latest in a stepped
up counter-campaign against the Abu-Jamal defense effort since
the successful April 24 demonstrations in Philadelphia and San
Francisco that drew some 10,000 people in each city.
Abu-Jamal, a well known radio journalist who is Black, was framed for the 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia cop Daniel Faulkner. His case has become a major focus in the fight against the death penalty. Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death in a trial that was a classic police frame- up with witness coercion, evidence tampering, and a "hanging judge" who made no secret of his aim to see the defendant convicted.
Abu-Jamal's fight for justice has won national and international support. The Fraternal Order of Police and Maureen Faulkner, the cop's widow, have spearheaded a counter- campaign to demand his execution.
The Vanity Fair article, which received extensive advance publicity, featured a claim by Philip Bloch that Abu-Jamal confessed to him in 1991. Bloch is a former Pennsylvania Prison Society worker who visited Abu-Jamal in prison.
Bloch claims he was moved to make this "confession" public out of concern for Maureen Faulkner. The alleged confession has been featured repeatedly in Philadelphia local TV and news media.
Following the April 24 demonstration this year demanding a new trial, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a series of expose's on the Black United Fund (BUF), which collects and distributes funds for the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The Inquirer attacks the BUF's tax exempt status and implied that city workers' donations were being siphoned to the defense case. The BUF was expelled by the city administration from the city employees' annual charity fund drive until they break relations with the Concerned Family and Friends. The BUF held a news conference June 3 with supporters, including state legislators and union heads, and filed an appeal of the city's action.
There have been other attacks on the defense campaign. On May 23 a motorcycle caravan of several thousand bikers rode into Philadelphia "to honor Daniel Faulkner," according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The demonstration included cops from 50 police departments from the region.
An advance for the campaign to free Abu-Jamal was the successful invitation for the framed-up journalist to speak via tape to the Evergreen State College graduation in Olympia, Washington, June 11, despite a national controversy over the invitation.
On July 4, several hundred protesters staged a peaceful protest at the Liberty Bell chanting "Brick by brick, wall by wall, we're going to free Mumia Abu-Jamal." About 200 people demonstrated the day before, in commemoration of the 17th anniversary of his death sentence.