Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal, originally named Wesley Cook, was born on April 24, 1954, in Philadelphia. He is known as a political activist and journalist. In 1982, he was found guilty of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner the year before and received a death sentence. While imprisoned on death row, he produced writings and commentary about the U.S. criminal justice system. Following multiple appeals, a federal court overturned his death penalty. In 2011, prosecutors agreed to a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, and he was moved into the general prison population in early 2012.

Abu-Jamal’s activism began early. At age 14 in 1968, he joined the Black Panther Party after being beaten by white racists and a police officer for disrupting a rally for segregationist candidate George Wallace. He helped establish the Philadelphia chapter, serving as its Lieutenant of Information, and lived at the party’s headquarters after dropping out of high school. He remained a member until October 1970, when he was 16. During this time, the FBI monitored him through its COINTELPRO program, later found to involve illegal activities.

After leaving the Panthers, he returned to high school but was suspended for distributing literature advocating black revolutionary student power. He earned his GED and briefly attended Goddard College in Vermont before returning to Philadelphia. Following the birth of his first child, Jamal, in 1971, he adopted the surname Abu-Jamal, meaning “father of Jamal.” He married Jamal’s mother, Biba, in 1973; they had a daughter, Lateefa, and later divorced. He married his second wife, Marilyn (“Peachie”), in 1977; their son Mazi was born in 1978. By 1981, he had divorced Peachie and married his third wife, Wadiya, who died in December 2022 after more than 40 years of marriage.

Abu-Jamal began working in radio journalism in 1975, first at Temple University’s WRTI, then at commercial stations like WHAT and WCAU-FM. He also worked briefly at WPEN. From 1979 to 1981, he was at NPR affiliate WHYY, where management asked him to resign for lacking objectivity. He served as president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists from 1978 to 1980. He was known for covering the MOVE organization, including the 1978 confrontation that left one police officer dead and the subsequent trial of the “MOVE Nine,” who were convicted of murder. He also supported MOVE and interviewed figures like Julius Erving.

Since his conviction, Abu-Jamal’s trial has faced serious criticism over constitutional issues, with some claiming his innocence and many opposing the death sentence. The Faulkner family, law enforcement groups, and some politicians maintain the trial was fair and his guilt clear. When his death sentence was overturned in 2001, *The New York Times* called him “perhaps the world’s best-known death-row inmate.” During his imprisonment, he has published books and commentaries, starting with *Live from Death Row* in 1995.