now a growing smear campaign. Vanity Fair recently participated in that campaign when it published a
lengthy article by Buzz Bissinger (August 1999). Buzz Bissinger is publicist for Philadelphia Mayor Ed
Rendell. The major revelation in the scurrilous article was yet another ‘confession’ by Mumia Abu-Jamal. An
echo of the ‘confessions’ reported by Philadelphia officers two months after the event when their memories
were jogged by Mumia filing a complaint for police brutality, only this time, prison visitor Philip Bloch
waited ten years to reveal the ‘confession’. Apparently his conscience had started to trouble him. Bloch
became convinced of the guilt of Mumia Abu-Jamal when he allegedly confided in him his regret at killing
Officer Daniel Faulkner. (Mobilazation Support for Mumia)
Mumia Abu-Jamal:
“Once again we hear about a so-called confession, but instead of two months later this comes over a
decade later. We don’t hear it from a priest, from a lawyer, or from a personal friend but from an
official Visitor of the Pennsylvania Prison Society; over ten years later. A lie is a lie, whether made
today or ten years later. But I suppose Mr Bloch wanted his fifteen minutes of fame in which case I
hope he has received it. I find it remarkable that this rumor turned lie was never brought to my
attention by the author, by Mr Bloch himself or by Vanity Fair magazine which never contacted me.
Welcome to snuff journalism.
“I look forward to the state producing this witness, Mr Bloch, after I am granted a new trial! The
only thing worse than ‘a forgotten confession’ is one allegedly born on the ‘false wings’ of
harassment. If ever one needed proof of the state’s desperation here it is. I thank Vanity Fair, not
for their work but for stoking this controversy, because controversy leads to questioning and one
can only question this belated confession.” (Wideman 127)
In State sanctioned executions, the United States is in a league of its own, together with other major
violators of human rights, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. If the State succeeds in executing Mumia Abu-Jamal, he will
be the first Black revolutionary to be legally executed in the United Sates since the days of slavery. And if that were
to happen, then America would be right back where it was , two hundred years ago.
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