IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL petitioner,

Case No. 99 Civ. 5089 (YOBN)

-vs-

MARTIN HORN, Commissioner,

Pennsylvania Department of Correction, and CONNOR BLAINIE, Superintendent of the State Correctional Institution at Greene,

Respondents,

DECLARATION OF ARNOLD BEVERLY

I, ARNOLD R.. BEVERLY, state that the following facts are true and correct::

I was present when police officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed in the early morning hours of December 9, 1981 near tIle corner of Locust and 13th Streets. ‘have personal knowledge that Mumia Abu-Jamal did not shoot police officer Faulkner, I was hired, along with another guy, and paid to shoot and kill Faulkner. I had heard that Faulkner was a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area. Faulkner was shot in the back and then in the thee before Jamal came on the scene. Jamal had nothing to do with the shooting. Before the shooting, I was shown a picture of Faulkner and told that Faulkner was supposed to check something at Johnny Os (at 13th and Locust) sometime in the early morning hours 0f December 9. Two of us were hired for the shooting so that either of us could take the opportunity to make the hit, get the job done, and leave. The other guy gave Inc a .38 caliber policeman’s special and I was also carrying my own .22 caliber revolver. I waited at the speedline entrance at the north east of corner of Locust and 13th at the parking lot, I was wearing a green (camouflage) army jacket. The other guy waited on the south side of Locust street east of 13th Street towards Camac Street. While I was waiting at the speedline entrance for Faulkner to arrive at the location, I saw police officers in the area. Two undercover policemen were standing on the west side of 13th north of Locust. Also a uniformed police officer was sitting in a car in the corner of the parking lot, They were there while the shooting of Faulkner took place. I was not worried about the police, being there since I believed that since I was hired by the mob to shoot and kill Faulkner, any police Officers on the scene would be there to help me. After a while I saw Faulkner get out of a small police car parked behind a VW parked on Locust Street, east of 13th ~ Faulkner was alone. He got out of the police car end went up to the VW, I heard a shot ring out coming from east on Locust Street, Faulkner fell on his knee on the sidewalk next to the VW, I heard another shot and it must have grazed my left shoulder. I felt something hard on my left shoulder. I grabbed at my shoulder and got blood on my hand. I ran across Locust Street and stood over Faulkner, who had fallen backwards on the sidewalk, I shot Faulkner in the face at close range. Jamal was shot shortly after that by a uniformed police officer who arrived on the scene. Cop Cars came from all directions. Foot patrol also arrived. I saw a white shirt getting out of a car in the middle of the 13th & Locust intersection just as I was going down to the speedline Steps. I left the area underground through the speedline system and by pro-arrangement met a police officer who assisted me, exited the speedline underground about three blocks away. A car was waiting for me and I left the center city area.

The foregoing is stated subject to the penalties of 15 Pa.C.S. Section 4904 relating to unsworn falsification to authorities.

ARNOLD E. BEVERLY

This is not the first time that someone was reported wearing a green army jacket. On the scene that morning, Mumia was wearing a red and blue quilted waist-length jacket (property receipt 854920) and William Cook was wearing a dark blue nehru style coat with silver buttons (property receipt 854919). According to William Cook's affidavit, Kenneth Freeman was a passenger in his Volkswagon and was wearing a green army jacket. William Singletary testified during the 1995 PCRA that the passenger of the VW was wearing a long army overcoat and was the shooter (8/11/95; 235). As well, two police officers on the scene and two prosecution witnesses also reported that a person or people was/were wearing (a) green jacket(s) at the scene of the incident. Police Officer James Forbes along with another Officer was first on the scene. In his initial statement on 12/9/81, Forbes stated that Mumia "...was wearing a green jacket. I could see blood on the right side of his shirt." In his statement dated 12/16/81, Forbes continued to claim that, upon arrival at the scene, he saw a black male (purportedly Mumia) sitting at the curb wearing a green army jacket. The second officer to buttress the story of a black male in a green army jacket was Officer Trombetta. In his initial statement on 12/9/81, he said "while we had him sitting in the waiting room he said he was shot. That was when we discovered he was bleeding. He had one of those heavy green army jackets on and you couldn't see any blood at the time because of it." In his second interview dated 12/17/81, he again suggests Mumia was wearing a green army jacket. The two prosecution witnesses were Albert Magilton and Michael Scanlon. In 1995, Magilton wrongly described Mumia as wearing a green army field jacket when he was questioned by defense investigator Michael Newman. Scanlan described the driver of the VW as wearing a green army coat (6/25/82; 8.26), but he was confused about who shot Officer Faulkner. When he was asked to identify if the shooter was in the back of the police wagon, he said he thought that the man whom he saw was the man who was driving the VW (6/25/82; 8.46).

The confusion about the green jacket becomes much clearer when aligned with Arnold Beverly's statement and the witnesses' descriptions of the incident. Beverly stated that he crossed south on Locust St. from the speed line entrance in front of the infamous parking lot and finished the job he was sent to do. Cynthia White and Albert Magilton, both were prosecution witnesses and stated that they saw a black male crossing the street from the same direction moments before shooting broke out. Mumia's own recollection of the events that unfolded 12/9/81 in an affidavit released in spring of 2001, places him in his cab parked on 13th St. adjacent to the parking lot, not in it, writing in his fares log book when the shooting broke out. He was not facing the scene, so he used his mirrors to scan the scene. This is when he spots his brother, goes to the scene, and is shot by a uniformed Police Officer who was already there.

There is even more corraborating evidence to Arnold Beverly's detailed confession. An entry in the medical examiner's log recorded a statement made by Sergeant Westerman, a homicide detective, to an investigator in the Medical examiner's office by the name Stefan Makuch at about 9am on 12/9/81, just 5 hours after the shooting. Amongst other things, Sgt. Westerman was asked by Makuch about who had shot Mumia. According to Makuch, Westerman first consulted other officers in the homicide unit before answering "the assailant himself was shot subsequently by arriving reinforcements." At an in-camera hearing during the course of the trial on 6/28/82, Sgt. Westerman denied that he had said by whom Mumia was shot (6/28/82; 18-19). This evidence plainly suggests that the general belief of the Homicide office some 5 hours after the shooting was that Mumia was shot by arriving officers. This evidence was excluded from the original trial of an in-camera session: so Beverly could not have been aware that this evidence existed when he came forward and confessed.

At the trial, Dr. Hoyer, the Assistant Medical Examiner, shed even more light to the dark, vagueness of the prosecution's tale, although not brought to light until recent times. He gave testimony to the fact that the injury sustained to Faulkner's left knee was consistent to Faulkner falling on his left knee as was described by Beverly's affidavit (6/25/82; 181). It should be noted here that the prosecution described Faulkner being shot in the back and then he spun around to fire off one shot at Mumia as he fell backwards onto the pavement.

The police radio transcripts also serve great purpose in giving detail as to the inconsistency of the scenario presented by prosecution at the 1982 trial. Faulkner's call for a wagon, his last radio transmission came at 3:51:08. At 3:52:27, a report comes in from police officers Wakshul and Trombetta that a passer by reported a police officer had been shot. Officers Shoemaker and Forbes radio in from the scene at 3:52:36. Flashes and enquiries come over the airwaves that the suspects had fled the scene and they had the police officer's gun. Some fourteen minutes after the arrival transmition of Officer Forbesand Shoemaker, the first report came in that the suspect was in custody and that the weapon was recovered at the scene. It is easy to see how this reaction could happen when it is testified to by Alphonso Giordano at the suppression hearing that a white cab driver (by default, Robert Chobert, a prosecution witness) stated that "the man that shot the policeman ran away, and he was a MOVE member" (6/1/82; 70). William Singletary also told Highway Patrol Officer Vernon Jones about the shooter having fled the scene.

When the information is compiled of the police discussing a shooter wearing a green army jacket, when the police radio is reporting a shooter has fled the scene, and when a homicide detective is recanting his statement about who shot Mumia, the question begs to be answered: Why would the police have the need to switch up so much and what were

Why would Weinglass and Williams choose to avoid presenting direct evidence that Freeman was involved? Why would they not get an affidavit from Beverly if it could free their client? They were fearful for their lives. In Wolkenstein's affidavit , along with an investigator who worked briefly on the case before the 1995 PCRA by the name of Mike Newman, it was revealed that Weinglass had received a death threat from Ron Freeman, Kenneth Freeman's brother, that he would be "dead meat" if he pursued evidence that Freeman was a shooter. This death threat came from the warden's office of the prison where Ron Freeman was incarcerated. It also does not take a rocket scientist to understand that a proven corrupt police force involved in an assassination of a fellow officer would go to great lengths to hide what they'd done. It was very clear to many of the individuals who are close to Mumia and knew Weinglass that he was scared, to say the least. The defense presented by Weinglass and Williams was not a special strategy they comprised to get Mumia a new trial or to overturn his conviction. It was a straegy to go through the motions of a defense, pray to get him off on a technicality without having to present evidence of innocence, and hope to save their reputations by presenting evidence of innocence to the public, while hiding it from the courts. Their strategy was to save their own necks while tying to find some legal loophole to help their client. They put their own self interests before that of their clients.

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