What's this all about?

I was born on December 9th 1981, in a childrens hospital long since closed near Archway, North London. My mother Donna, had only been living in the country about a year, since she met my father Colin in New York (her native home), whilst he was teaching Sociology at Nassau Community College in Long Island. Here they are:

At the same time that I was coming into the world and a new life was beginning, another tragically ended on the other side of the world.

At around 4am in Philadelphia, shots rang out and Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was dead. Slumped over the curb, bleeding from a gunshot wound, was Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia, a former black panther/radio journalist/cab driver survived and was later convicted of the murder of officer Faulkner.

I cannot really go into all of the details and wouldn't want to make any mistakes so for more info check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal

Mumia was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 and has been incarcerated ever since (effectively, my entire life). However, this case has become a lightning rod of controversy. In 1996, Mumia released a book entitled 'Live From Death Row', a collection of essays he had written whilst behind bars. Whether you believe Mumia is innocent or not, it would seem that he definitely has a way with words, and before anyone knew what was happening, giant movements had grown on both sides of the debate over his guilt.

In the last ten years, Mumia has become a symbol for the anti death penalty movement and a regular radio commentator and writer. Many call for his freedom citing what they see as a flawed trial and a racist police force and judiciary. There has arisen an international support network, and mumia has become an honorary citizen of a few European cities from behind bars.

See: http://www.freemumia.org/ http://www.mumia.org/freedom.now/

For others, Mumia is a guilty man who not only has murdered a cop, but has arrogantly flaunted his 'celebrity' status and used his skill as a writer to rally a cause around him. They say that all of the debate over his guilt is based in lies, and that he deserves to be executed and the sooner the better. This movement has grown in response to the pro Mumia movement, and is largely spearheaded by the Fraternal Order of Police, an organisation of police brotherhood.

See: http://www.danielfaulkner.com/ http://www.fop.net/causes/faulkner/index.shtml

In the middle you have the vast majority of people, who still feel that they don't know what happened on the night and have no idea whether Mumia is guilty of the shooting of Faulkner or not. Alot of people believe there are definite questions over the fairness of the trial proceedings in 1982 and also in later appeals hearings but are not sure of the actual events. Amnesty International have cited problems with the fairness of the legal system in this case and have called for an in depth trial to figure out what did happen.

In terms of the actual events of the night, I think that there are multiple likely scenarios. It seems to me, if Mumia is guilty of killing Faulkner, then the police were negligable in the extreme in their investigation. The other scenario is that Mumia isn't guilty of murder and they tried to manipulate what they did have to make it fit.

I have read Mumia's books and followed his case for some time now, always being drawn in by the idea that Mumia had been away for my entire life. That said. it doesn't leave me feeling any more certain of what actually happened on the day I came into the world. Not only am I curious about the way that justice has been dealt, but also by the man himself. What's it been like spending every day that I have ever lived in a tiny cell on your own. And how has he been able to have such an outreach as to be able to create such movements (pro and anti) from such an isolated existence? You can read all you want but nothing is quite the same as going to find out!