Mumia Abu-Jamal
...Muslim his Ethnicity was Black and he converted to Islam. His former career's were an author, journalist, and a cab driver.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an extraordinary man, with a powerful intellect, a rare talent for radio journalism, a burning empathy for poor people, a lot of admiring friends in journalism and politics, and no prior record of crime or violence, despite personal experience of police brutality and years as a teenage Black Panther under the microscope of FBI and police surveillance.
The day after the 27-year-old Jamal's arrest, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Jamal's "searing and skillful interviews" had made him "a well-known figure in local broadcast journalism." Jamal had been on National Public Radio, the National Black Network, and local Philadelphia stations including WUHY-FM (now WHYY). He had been elected chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association of Black Journalists and had won mention in Philadelphia magazine as one of "81 people to watch in 1981."
You won't find many people on death row with credentials like that.
On Dec. 9, 1981, Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of police officer, Daniel Faulkner.
As I briefly described before Mumia Abu-Jamal was a journalist and political activist, as well as a cab driver in Philadelphia, Pa. On December 9, 1981, while driving his cab, he spotted his brother, William (Wesley) Cook in an altercation with police officer, Daniel Faulkner.
Faulkner had pulled Cook over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street and for not having his headlights turned on.
Abu-Jamal claims that he saw Faulkner beating his brother with a 17" flashlight and he stepped in to assist his brother William . During the struggle, Abu-Jamal and the policeman both were shot. Faulkner died at the scene. Abu-Jamal received non-fatal gunshot wounds to his chest.
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