PHILADELPHIA — Forty-one years and one week after Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was shot to death, the latest defense team for his convicted killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, sought Friday to persuade a skeptical judge to overturn his life sentence.
Abu-Jamal, 68, has filed eight appeals since his conviction on charges of killing Faulkner, who was 25 when he died on Dec. 9, 1981. His one victory came in 2001, when a federal judge overturned Abu-Jamal’s death sentence, but upheld his conviction.
In the latest appeal, his lawyers drew upon material they found in six file boxes related to Abu-Jamal’s case that city prosecutors turned over to the defense in 2019, saying staff had inadvertently found them while searching for office furniture.
