IN LOVING MEMORY OF OFFICER DANIEL FAULKNER (DIED ON 9 DECEMBER 1981)

           31 years ago on this day (9 December 1981), Officer Daniel Faulkner was murdered by Mumia Abu-Jamal. To know more about this case, please see the following links before I give my condolences to his widow:

1. The truth of Officer Daniel Faulkner’s murder:

http://justice.danielfaulkner.com/

2. The Statement from Maureen Faulkner, widow of the slain cop:

http://justice.danielfaulkner.com/statement-from-maureen-faulkner/

3. The book to read. I recommend reading this book if you feel for the victims’ families: http://www.globepequot.com/murdered_by_mumia-9781599215587

4. The information on Officer Daniel Faulkner from ODMP:

Police Officer

Daniel J. Faulkner

Philadelphia Police Department, Pennsylvania

End of Watch: Wednesday, December 9, 1981

Bio & Incident Details

Age: 25

Tour: 5 years

Badge # 4699

Cause: Gunfire

Incident Date: 12/9/1981

Weapon: Handgun; .38 caliber

Suspect: Sentenced to life

Police Officer Daniel J. Faulkner was shot and killed while making a traffic stop.

Officer Faulkner stopped the driver of a light blue Volkswagen at the corner of Thirteenth and Locust Streets for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Officer Faulkner had the driver exit the vehicle. As the officer was speaking with the driver, the driver struck him in the face. Officer Faulkner struck the driver back and attempted to take him into custody. As the officer was attempting to subdue the driver, the driver's brother came running to the scene from a parking lot across the street. While Officer Faulkner's back was turned, the brother opened fire, shooting him in the back four times. Officer Faulkner fell to the ground but was able to return fire, hitting the suspect. The wounded suspect was able to fire again as he stood over the fallen officer, shooting him in the face.

The suspect attempted to flee but fell to the ground several feet from where he had just shot the officer. When back-up officers arrived, they found Officer Faulkner mortally wounded and the suspect, murder weapon in hand, laying several feet away.

The suspect, who was a member of the racist group Black Panthers, was charged with murder. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in two separate trials. In December 2001, a federal judge overturned the death sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing. In December 2011, the district attorney dropped a request for a new sentencing hearing and Officer Faulkner's murderer and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. In March 2012 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected his appeal to overturn the life sentence.

Officer Faulkner had served with the Philadelphia Police Department for 5 years. He is survived by his wife and is buried in Glenwood Memorial Gardens, Broomall, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

The Black Panthers is a racist, radical group that professed the murders of law enforcement officers. Members and former members of the group were responsible for the murders of at least 15 law enforcement officers and the wounding of dozens more across the nation.

CONDOLENCES:

            I strongly empathized and sympathized with Maureen Faulkner after she not only had to live with thirty years waiting for justice, but have to endure insults from Abolitionists. At least, there are good people around Pennsylvania who support her. I am one of them too. When I was a strong opponent of the death penalty, I believed the lies of the Abolitionists that Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent, but after reading through the court transcripts and everything I realized I had been fooled all along.

            Sadly for Pennsylvania, the death penalty exists on name only. Only three people had been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S.A in 1976. As Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald Castille complained this year that federally funded public defenders are thwarting the state's legal process through repeated delays and appeals. 

"When the families of murder victims and other concerned citizens ask why there is no effective death penalty in Pennsylvania, the dirty secret answer is: ask the federal court," Castille wrote in a sharply worded 34-page opinion this year (24 November 2011). 

             If you remember the murder of Officer Mark MacPhail (please also see the victims’ families quotes), Mumia Abu-Jamal has international support from Abolitionists around the world. I am satisfied that Troy Davis is dead and gone. Mumia is still serving a life without parole but some people want him to be released.

As Maureen Faulkner once said in an interview on http://calitreview.com/301

Why is Mumia’s death important to you? Would a firm declaration by the court of his guilt, coupled with a sentence of “life without parole” be acceptable to you?

The dirty little secret that few want to acknowledge is that there is no such thing as life without parole in the US. There are many ways a lifer can get off in the future. It happens. Additionally, there will always be dishonest or misguided people who will lie and lobby for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s release.

There already has been a firm declaration of Jamal’s guilt issued by “the court”. Just read the findings of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. (Like everything else they are posted on our website and easy to find.) The courts aren’t arguing about Jamal’s guilt any longer. That’s been proven. What they are arguing now is hair splitting procedural technicalities.

Unless Mumia Abu-Jamal is executed my family and I will never have any closure and we will always live in fear that someday in the future the phone will ring and we’ll be told that he has been set free. It wasn’t my choice to give him the death penalty. A jury of 12 people that Jamal personally helped to select felt death was the appropriate sentence for his crime. In my opinion the courts have been very remiss in upholding their duty to enforce the law and the will of the people in any semblance of an appropriate timeframe. But there’s not much I can do about that.

            I realized that life without parole is not honest at all. At the same time, I wonder why the Abolitionists did not attend Daniel Faulkner’s funeral, like they did not do with the vigil of Kelli O'Laughlin.

Maureen Faulkner talks to the media at The Evergreen State College in Olympia,…

 Let us not forget this slain Officer and remember to show support for his family and the good citizens of Pennsylvania. I will dedicate this prayer from the Book of Common Prayer: A Prayer for All Conditions of Men to Officer Daniel Faulkner and his loved ones:

O God, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for thy holy Church universal; that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those who are in any ways afflicted or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; [especially those for whom our prayers are desired]; that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

            May you R.I.P, Office Daniel Faulkner!