>From: "C. Clark Kissinger" <cck1@earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: brc-mumia@yahoogroups.com
>To: <cck1@earthlink.net>
>Subject: [BRC-MUMIA] Declaration of Mumia Abu-Jamal from 5/4 press
>conference
>Date: Sat, 5 May 2001 16:32:01 -0400
>
>UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
>EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
>
>MUMIA ABU-JAMAL,                                
>                                                                 
>Case No. 99 Civ 5089 (YOHN)
>                         Petitioner,                        
>                                                                 
>-vs-                                                           
>                                                                 
>MARTIN HORN, Commissioner,                  
>Pennsylvania Department of Corrections,    
>and CONNOR BLAINE, Superintendent of   
>the State Correctional Institution at Greene, 
>                                                                 
>                         Defendants.                      
>
>
>
>DECLARATION OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
>
>I, MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, declare:
>1. I am the Petitioner in this action. If called as a witness I could and
>would testify to the following from my own personal knowledge:
>2. I did not shoot Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. I had nothing to do with
>the killing of Officer Faulkner. I am innocent.
>3. At my trial I was denied the right to defend myself, I had no confidence
>in my court-appointed attorney, who never even asked me what happened the
>night I was shot and the police officer was killed, and I was excluded from
>at least half the trial.
>4. Since I was denied all my rights at my trial I did not testify. I would
>not be used to make it look like I had a fair trial.
>5. I did not testify in the post-conviction proceedings in 1995 on the
>advice of my attorney, Leonard Weinglass, who specifically told me not to
>testify.
>6. Now for the first time I have been given an opportunity to tell what
>happened to me in the early morning hours of December 9, 1981. This is what
>happened:
>7. As a cabbie I often chose 13th and Locust Street because it was a
>popular
>club area with a lot of foot traffic.
>8. I worked out of United Cab on the night of 12/9/81.
>9. I believe I had recently returned from dropping off a fare in West
>Philly.
>10. I was filling out my log when I heard some shouting.
>11. I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw a flashing dome light of a
>police cruiser. This wasn’t unusual.
>12. I continued to fill out my log/trip sheet when I heard what sounded
>like
>gun shots.
>13. I looked again into my rear view mirror and saw people running up and
>down Locust.
>14. As I scanned I recognized my brother standing in the street staggering
>and dizzy.
>15. I immediately exited the cab and ran to his scream.
>16. As I came across the street I saw a uniformed cop turn toward me gun in
>hand, saw a flash and went down to my knees.
>17. I closed my eyes and sat still trying to breath.
>18. The next thing that I remember I felt myself being kicked, hit and
>being
>brought out of a stupor.
>19. When I opened my eyes, I saw cops all around me.
>20. They were hollering and cursing, grabbing and pulling on me. I felt
>faint finding it hard to talk.
>21. As I looked through this cop crowd all around me, I saw my brother,
>blood running down his neck and a cop lying on his back on the pavement.
>22. I was pulled to my feet and then rammed into a telephone pole beaten
>where I fell and thrown into a paddy wagon.
>23. I think I slept until I heard the door open and a white cop in a white
>shirt came in cursing and hit me in the forehead.
>24. I don’t remember what he said much except a lot of “niggers”, “black
>motherfuckers” and what not.
>24. I believe he left and I slept. I don’t remember the wagon moving for a
>while and when it did for sometime.
>25. I awoke to hear the driver speaking over the radio about his prisoner.
>26. I was informed by the anonymous crackle on the radio that I was en
>route
>to the police administration building a few blocks away.
>27. Then, it sounded like “l.D.’d as M-1” came on the radio band telling
>the
>driver to go to Jefferson Hospital.
>28. Upon arrival I was thrown from the wagon to the ground and beaten.
>29. I was beaten again at the doors of Jefferson.
>30. Because of the blood in my lungs it was difficult to speak, and
>impossible to holler.
>31. I never confessed to anything because I had nothing to confess to.
>32. I never said I shot the policeman. I did not shoot the policeman.
>33. I never said I hoped he died. I would never say something like that.
>
>I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that
>the above is true and correct and was executed by me on 3 May, 2001, at
>Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
>
>(signed)
>MUMIA ABU -JAMAL