France Names Street After Mumia Abu-Jamal



A street in a Paris suburb has been named in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

The Abu-Jamal has been a lightening rod for controversy here for two decades.

"In France, they see him as a towering figure," said Suzanne Ross, co-chair of the Free Mumia Coalition of New York City, who was part of an April 29 ceremony to dedicate the Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal in the city of St. Denis.

Abu-Jamal, a former radio reporter and member of the Black Panther party, was sentenced to death in 1982 for the shooting of 25-year-old Daniel Faulkner.

He has maintained his innocence.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year agreed to consider three counts of Abu-Jamal's appeal: allegations that there was racial bias in jury selection, that the prosecutor gave an improper summation and that a judge in a previous appeal was biased.

Daniel Faulkner has been honored by a memorial plaque at the scene of the shooting at 13th and Locust Streets in Philadelphia.

Faulkner's widow, Maureen, called the street dedication "disgusting'' and urged Philadelphia residents planning visits to Paris to cancel their trips.

NBC10.com

   

Not only that, but they've got Arab-sounding street names.

   

Well, it's better than having "Texas drive" in your city, or Dieppe Street.

   

France, once again earns our dislike.

   

eh mumia probably didn't do it. Back when I looked into the thing the bullet they pulled out of the cop didn't match the caliber of the gun mumia owned, so forget matching twist and the grooves, his gun didn't do it.

That and the accusations of police intimidating witnesses (ruled inadmissible by the judge) The judge's own bias, and a few discrepencies and impossibilities of the testimony of the police e.g. confessing with a lung filled with blood.

Could he have done it? Yes, but the police seemed busy planting evidence too, and the judge was hardly impartial. All of which blurs everything