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GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
GLENN: There is
one of the most amazing stories that I think I've ever heard
when it comes to cop killings is still going on over 25
years later. It's the Mumia Abu-Jamal case in Philadelphia.
Michael Smerconish is with me. Mumia actually was convicted
of a crime of shooting Danny Faulkner. His widow is on the
phone with us as well. Let me go to Michael first.
They just put out a new book and it is a terrific read and a
story that just does not, it does not -- it is not just a
Philadelphia story. It is a story that is happening all over
the country and one you need to understand because it's not
about just a cop getting killed. It is also about political
correctness, it's about victimhood, of victimizing the
perpetrators and it is also about Hollywood.
So let me go to Michael Smerconish. First, Michael, recap
everybody's memory in case they don't know this story.
SMERCONISH: December 9, 1981, 10 minutes or so to 4:00 a.m.,
Danny Faulkner, a 25-year-old police officer driving a
patrol car, stops a car presumably for going the wrong way
on a one-way street. It seems like a routine traffic stop. A
guy named William Cook is the driver of that vehicle. His
brother is Mumia Abu-Jamal, aka Wesley Cook, driving a cab
across the street, sees the traffic stop. William Cook gets
out of a Volkswagen, strikes Danny Faulkner. The two of them
scuffle. Wesley Cook, Mumia Abu-Jamal sprints across the
street according to eye witnesses, pulls out his 38, shoots
Danny Faulkner in the book. Danny Faulkner spins around,
shoots Abu-Jamal in the stomach. Abu-Jamal then leans over
Danny Faulkner at point blank range, shoots and kills him
right between the eyes. Four eye witnesses. The ballistics
match. The gun was his. He confessed in the ER that night,
"I shot the M-Fer and I hope the M-Fer dies. He, Abu-Jamal,
has never testified and never offered an explanation. His
brother who was there and saw the whole thing, the only
words he's ever spoken, "I ain't got nothing to do with it."
And still he's become an international cause celeb. I can't
let it pass that you're in San Francisco today where Mumia
Abu-Jamal was named an honorary citizen of that city in the
same way that he was of Paris, France.
GLENN: I've got to
tell you, Michael, I landed at the airport yesterday and the
guy who picked me up who had absolutely no sense of humor
when I said it. We drove by there at the airport and they
had a Coast Guard station and I said, wow, Coast Guard? I
didn't think you were allowed to have Coast Guard here in
San Francisco. I mean, it's damn near not America in many
ways. I'm tired of cities like San Francisco trying to
preach to the rest of the country and not hold up any of
their part of the responsibility. You know, they just want
all their freedoms but none of the responsibility that comes
with being an American.
SMERCONISH: The further you get from Philadelphia, the
greater the distortions in this case and Maureen's been
fighting for 26 years. The anniversary of the murder is
Sunday and that's why she's written "Murdered by Mumia" now
to tell the world about the execution. And I was her
coauthor because I wanted to tell the world about her. She's
a remarkable woman. I think a lot of people, Glenn, most
people would have walked away from it.
GLENN: Okay. Maureen, you are absolutely amazing for not
walking away with it and the man that is in your life now is
equally as amazing, I believe, because he not only has stood
by your side now, you know, after 26 years, your husband has
been dead. You meet him, you develop a relationship and he
is just as dedicated to this as you are, if I'm not
mistaken.
MAUREEN FAULKNER: Yes, he is.
GLENN: That says an awful lot about him.
MAUREEN FAULKNER: Yes, he is. Paul, back in 1992 when
Leonard wineglass took over this case and started to give
misinformation and lies and spread them around the world
about my husband, I made a decision that I felt I needed to
stand up and speak out on behalf of Danny. And I talked to
Paul about this and I said, what should I do? I feel in my
heart I need to fight back. And Paul said, hon, if it was me
dead in the ground, I'd want you to fight for me. I'll be
beside you all the way; I'll help you.
GLENN: Unbelievable.
MAUREEN FAULKNER: -- with anything I can.
GLENN: I want to play something from The Today Show. This
was yesterday and you guys were on with Matt Lauer. And I
want to play, I want to play first -- we have two cuts, Dan,
right? What do we have first?
DAN: First is the part where he attacks Michael.
GLENN: Okay. Maureen, I'm going to get to something he said
to you here in a second because I found it just unbelievably
outrageous but let me start with Michael.
Michael, this is what he said to you and I don't think you
actually heard what he said, but listen to what he said to
you.
LAUER: Michael, Abu-Jamal's attorney since 2003 is a guy
named Robert Brian. He says that when the conviction and
sentence came down in 1982, there were constitutional
issues, there was racism, there was injustice, there was
evidence tampering. He also says, by the way, that you're a
guy who's involved in this for your own personal gain.
GLENN: Okay, stop for a second. First stop for a second.
First I want to say of course there was racism, of course
there was injustice. I mean, let's talk specifics here. But
he said that there was evidence tampering. You have made the
claim now that the mayor of Philadelphia, John Street, was
actually involved in, would you call it evidence tampering?
SMERCONISH: Well, let me tell you what I can say. Cynthia
White was one of four eye witnesses at the 1982 trial. She
was probably the most critical of the eye witnesses because
different witnesses saw different aspects of what
transpired. She saw the entire sequence. She identified
Abu-Jamal as Danny Faulkner's murderer. And what came to
light right at the outset of the trial is that then city
councilman John Street had paid her an unexpected visit
while she was in prison herself -- she was a prostitute --
and she gave a witness statement to the prosecutor
immediately thereafter because she was so unsettled by him
coming to her jail cell. And we quote verbatim the statement
that she gave under oath to the police in which John Street,
according to Cynthia White, essentially just said you could
have walked away and Maureen can give her interpretation of
that. My interpretation of it is that this is the then
future mayor of the City of Philadelphia encouraging this
witness not to participate in the prosecution's case.
GLENN: Maureen?
MAUREEN FAULKNER: Yes, he was a councilman at the time. And
another thing he did when he was in to talk to Cynthia White
was he asked her questions. He asked her questions about
where her mother lived, where her sister lived, where she
lived. And at the time he said, what did you see? And she
said, I saw Mumia murder the police officer. And he said,
did you go up to the police and tell them? And he she said,
yeah. And he said, why, why did you go up to the police? And
she said, because I didn't think it was right what Mumia did
to that police officer. And he said, well, you could have
walked away -- you had enough time to walk away." This is
our mayor.
GLENN: Let me ask you something. Michael, I mean, are you
surprised when you hear things like this? I mean, you know,
you've lived in Philadelphia and are still living in
Philadelphia, and you see what's happening in Philadelphia
and Mayor John Street now, the guy who did this and had that
conversation with that prostitute. You know, you've got
out-of-control crime in Philadelphia and you've got police
officers being killed left and right in Philadelphia.
Surprise you?
SMERCONISH: It's a pattern, and it's not just this one
instance. And no, it doesn't surprise me. Let me give you a
related instance. Paris, France named Abu-Jamal an honorary
citizen of that town and in a neighboring community they
renamed a street for Abu-Jamal. A group of French communists
-- and that's not a right wing talking point -- I mean
literally French communists who were behind that renaming
came to Philadelphia's city hall and representatives of the
street administration welcomed them into city hall and,
Glenn, you are not going to believe this, gave them replica
Liberty bells.
GLENN: I know.
SMERCONISH: So here's a group that supports a man that a
jury said murdered a cop from Philly and they are being
given replica Liberty bells. I mean, that's our equivalent
of the key to the city.
GLENN: Michael, what's his name from the today show, Matt
Lauer -- sorry, I've had like five hours sleep in two days.
So I'm not so quick on my feet today. But he said that you
were doing this for some other reason. Let me give you the
exact quote that he said. Here it is.
LAUER: That you're a guy who's involved in this for your own
personal gain because you didn't try this case. You are not
a lawyer. Why are you involved in this?
SMERCONISH: Well, I resent that charge and obviously Mr.
Brian --
GLENN: Stop. You are not a lawyer, Michael?
SMERCONISH: I am a lawyer. I have an ivy league law degree.
I practiced law for the last 15 years. I am now full time as
a writer and broadcaster, but I'm a lawyer in good standing.
And for 15 years Maureen Faulkner has been a pro bono
project for me. I interpreted that question to mean you're
not in the DA's office and you haven't been. And everybody
else having heard it and now me as well, no, I think he was
coming at it from some other place to sort of denigrate my
role. Maureen Faulkner has been -- there's no disrespect
intended in this but like a charitable endeavor for me.
MAUREEN FAULKNER: And Glenn, I have to tell you I was
outraged. I was absolutely outraged yesterday by that
question. No one realizes what Michael has done for me.
SMERCONISH: I'm not accepting and nor is Maureen, a dime for
this book and, in fact, I want to tell you that today in my
checking account sits $170,000 that I've been paid to write
Murdered by Mumia that on Monday -- and the only reason
we're waiting until Monday is we have a 500-person luncheon
in Philadelphia at which the governor of Pennsylvania, Ed
Rendell, will provide and we're doing a formal check
presentation. I'm not making a nickel. And the flap of the
book -- and this is what I read aloud on The Today Show, it
says that. This is typical. It diverts attention from the
fact that four eye witnesses, a confession, the ballistics,
everything say Abu-Jamal murdered a cop and is getting away
with it now because they continually throw up these canards.
GLENN: There was a protest outside of The Today Show and
they actually covered that protest. And then Matt Lauer,
Maureen, asked you this question. Here it is.
LAUER: Maureen, when you're ever alone, when you're alone
with your thoughts at night and when you even see pictures
of the protest like the one we have across the street, does
it ever cross your mind that perhaps they're right or do you
ever --
GLENN: Stop.
MAUREEN FAULKNER: I absolutely could not believe that
question. Does it ever cross my mind that they are right.
Excuse me. I sat through the 1982 trial. I am the widow of
Danny. If anyone wanted to know what happened the night my
husband was murdered, it's me. I sat through every single
court hearing, ballistics evidence, eyewitness testimony. I
know who brutally murdered Danny and it was Mumia Abu-Jamal.
GLENN: They say there's new evidence. They have pictures now
that show that there's -- if he shot him and aimed a gun
right through his head, it would have left, you know, an
imprint in the sidewalk and there's no damage to the
sidewalk. They say that there's now new photographic
evidence.
SMERCONISH: May I respond to that? There's always something
new. And people want to know -- and this is exactly why the
book must be read because it's an indictment of our judicial
system as well. People could say, how could it go for 26
years? Well, if they get away with it with the new photos,
they will get away with it for another 26 years. Glenn, one
year at this time of year, a guy stands up and he said, I
know who murdered Danny Faulkner, it wasn't Abu-Jamal, it
was me. And the defense lawyers believed that to be so
preposterous, they wouldn't run with the theory. But that
became an issue.
Another guy surfaced years later and he said, I was there, I
heard Danny Faulkner's dying breath, and his last words
were... get Maureen, get the children, overlooking, of
course, the fact that he died instantly and they never have
children. But these canards, every single year it's
something else and they just keep going like the Energizer
bunny and at some point it's got to stop.
GLENN: All right. Well, you've done a great job to try to
stop it by the new book, "Murdered By Mumia." It is well
worth your time to pick it up and read it because it is not
just this one officer. It's not just Philadelphia. There is
a pattern all across the country and quite honestly I think
the patterns that you see in this book are also some of the
patterns that you will begin to see with Joe Horn in Texas.
Educate yourself on this story. It is a fascinating story
and Maureen, I have so much respect for you and all that
you've done and your family and, of course, Michael, you
know how I feel about you, the same. This has been something
you've carried for a long, long time. Thanks, guys. Again
it's in bookstores now, "Murdered by Mumia."
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