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Thirty years ago today Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed and Mumia Abu Jamal was arrested for the murder. On December 9th, 1981 Officer Faulkner stopped Abu Jamal’s brother for a traffic violation. Abu Jamal, working as a taxi driver at the time, happened to witness the traffic stop and went to his brother’s car. What happened next is in question. Shots were fired and Officer Faulkner was killed. Abu Jamal maintains he was not the shooter. Some eye witnesses claimed another man was seen fleeing the scene. Others fingered Abu Jamal. During and after his trial Abu Jamal and his supporters documented police and prosecutorial misconduct that they say proves Abu Jamal was framed. In the years before his arrest Abu Jamal was a known activist, and a member of the Black Panther Party. He was also a target of the FBI’s notorious COINTELPRO undercover operation to infiltrate and disrupt political organizations. From the mid-1970s until the year of his arrest he was a popular radio journalist at a number of outlets, known as “the voice of the voiceless.” His arrest sparked an international campaign for his freedom and for the abolition of the death penalty that endures to this day. In 2008 Abu-Jamal’s defense won a key legal battle when a federal appeals court ruled that jurors on his case received erroneous instructions during his sentencing hearing, which may have led to an unjust application of the death penalty. The court ordered a new sentencing hearing. After appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, which failed to hear the case, The Philadelphia District Attorney on Wednesday announced it would drop its push for the death sentence and accept life in prison for Abu Jamal. District Attorney Seth Williams said neither his office nor the family of officer Faulkner wished to endure another hearing that could last, “an unknowable number of years.” In anticipation of today’s anniversary a coalition of Abu Jamal supporters organized a conference and day of organizing and fundraising at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia, featuring Prof. Cornel West, Ramona and Pam Africa, and many others. A similar conference will be held on Sunday in the Bay Area at Laney College, featuring Mumia supporters and activists including Angela Davis and Michelle Alexander.

GUEST: Dr. Johanna Fernandez, Professor of 20th Century American History at Baruch College in New York, producer and writer of the recent documentary about the case of Mumia Abu Jamal called Justice on Trial, and one of the lead organizers and co-MC of today’s conference in Philadelphia