Mumia case poised for new hearing, reopening widow's wounds

Thirty years after her patrolman husband was killed in a traffic stop, Maureen Faulkner agreed to a 2011 deal that lifted the convicted killer's death sentence in hopes it would end his appeals and let his death row celebrity fade.

Now, with the case revived again, she fears there's no finality in the criminal justice system. And the city of Philadelphia is poised to revisit one of its most contentious murder cases: the 1981 slaying of 25-year-old white police Officer Daniel Faulkner and the chaotic trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the ex-Black Panther and radio journalist convicted of gunning him down.

"It's not fair that I have to do this, just to be slapped in the face constantly with this case, over and over and over again," Maureen Faulkner, 62, told The Associated Press this week. "I'm in a mental prison."

FILE - In this July 12, 1995 file photo, Mumia Abu-Jamal leaves Philadelphia's City Hall after a hearing. Philadelphia is poised to revisit one of its most contentious murders as prison activist Mumia Abu-Jamal fights for another day in court in a 1981 police slaying. Police widow Maureen Faulkner fears she will never find closure in the criminal justice system after nearly 40 years. She filed a petition Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019 to get Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office recused from the case after Krasner failed to oppose Abu-Jamal’s bid for a new court hearing.(AP PhotoChris Gardner, File)

Abu-Jamal, 65, gained fame through his prison writings and recordings on race and the criminal justice system. He had seemingly reached the end of his appeals once the city dropped the death sentence in 2011 over allegedly misleading jury instructions. The "Free Mumia" rallies, anti-death penalty protests and Hollywood support died down.

However, a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision in a related case, the 2017 election of reformist Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, and the surprise discovery this year of six lost boxes of prosecution files breathed new life into the case.

Together, they could be enough to win him a new trial.

FILE - In this March 6, 2019 file photo Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is poised to revisit one of its most contentious murders as prison activist Mumia Abu-Jamal fights for another day in court in a 1981 police slaying. Police widow Maureen Faulkner fears she will never find closure in the criminal justice system after nearly 40 years. She filed a petition Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019, to get Krasner’s office recused from the case after Krasner failed to oppose Abu-Jamal’s bid for a new court hearing. (AP PhotoMatt Rourke, File)

Abu-Jamal is now pursuing his fifth post-conviction review in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas, based on notes in the unearthed files that the defense says suggests prosecutors promised money to one eyewitness, helped another with her prostitution case and made notes about the race of prospective jurors.

"The fact that we have now seen new pieces of evidence that should have been disclosed years and years ago is certainly not the fault of anyone on the defense side," said Judith Ritter, a Delaware Law School professor who's steered Abu-Jamal's defense in recent years. "I don't know there are too many people who would say that 'finality' is more important than preventing wrongful or unconstitutionally attained convictions."

Faulkner was shot and killed in a scuffle after pulling over Abu-Jamal's brother in what was then "the red-light district" as the bars closed. Abu-Jamal, who moonlighted as a cab driver, came upon the scene and was found shot and wounded in the aftermath nearby. The prosecution witnesses testified that Abu-Jamal, then known as Wesley Cook, ran toward the scene and shot the officer. His brother never testified and soon left town.

"That single fact, I think, has always bedeviled the case. That there was another person who was at the scene, indisputably," lawyer Daniel R. Williams said this year. Williams represented Abu-Jamal in the 1990s and, like Maureen Faulkner, wrote a book about the case.

Late Thursday, Maureen Faulkner asked the state Superior Court to remove Krasner's office from the case, days after it decided not to oppose Abu-Jamal's bid for a hearing on the new evidence.

Faulkner believes Krasner has a conflict of interest because his wife's former law firm, and a top deputy in his office, had represented Abu-Jamal in the past.

Krasner's office did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the petition.

Ritter concedes that victims' interests should factor into the national debate about criminal justice reform, "but not at the expense of reliable, accurate and fair resolutions to criminal accusations."

Krasner, a longtime civil rights lawyer, has expressed similar views in championing the release so far of nine men exonerated in Philadelphia murder cases.

He likewise stood aside in January, when a city judge granted Abu-Jamal a chance to reargue his initial appeal because of an alleged conflict involving a former state justice on the panel.

Maureen Faulkner, outraged by what she sees as a lack of support from Krasner's office, plans another trip East next week.

She moved to California shortly after her husband's death, resuming her career as a nurse and building a new life in between the countless trips back home to defend his memory and the trial verdict.

"I feel like it's a boxing ring. I go in and I take my punches and I walk away," she said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.

While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.

“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.

Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)