THE LIFE PENALTY

December 21, 2007 — TWENTY-SIX years and counting: That’s how long my family, my friends and I have been tormented by Mumia Abu-Jamal – the man who murdered my husband, Police Officer Danny Faulkner, by shooting him in the back as he lay wounded and helpless on the pavement.

He then put a gun to Danny’s forehead and squeezed off a final shot.

The same rare ammo that killed my husband was found in Abu-Jamal’s gun, which was registered in his name and recovered by police at his side, just 70 seconds after the fatal shot was fired.

Twenty-six years and counting: That’s how long I’ve had to listen to the lies and distortions of those who find the facts and trial testimony irrelevant. Everything from stories of a phantom killer whom none of the five eyewitnesses saw, to a man who said he spoke to my husband after he was shot even though he died instantly, to a supposed hit man hired by the Mafia to kill my husband.

Everything and anything to cloud the waters, stall the legal process and garner misguided support for a guilty killer.

Twenty-six years and counting: That’s how long I’ve had to hear my dead husband portrayed as a vicious, racist cop by people trying to gain sympathy for a guilty murderer. While his remorseless killer is portrayed by left-wing loons, anti-death penalty groups like Amnesty International, know-nothing celebrities, professors, students, communists and the French as a “political prisoner” or “a wrongly convicted intellectual.”

Twenty-six years and counting: That’s how long we’ve had to listen to the voice of my husband’s murderer on the radio “Live From Death Row” and hear his friends comment about his supposed eloquence, talent and “soulful humanity.”

Twenty-six years and counting: That’s how long the family and friends of murder victims may have to wait, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, for justice and closure.

To the average citizen, that’s absurd; to the average survivor, obscene. But it’s just what the average defense attorney and death-penalty opponent wants.

The longer the appellate process can be clogged with nonsense, the easier it is to argue that it takes too long to execute people – so we should abolish the death penalty.

They’d like you to believe that the process is far too drawn-out to represent anything akin to punishment. But remember, virtually every time, it’s the defendant and his attorneys that stall the process, not the prosecution. The anti-death-penalty crowd creates one of their main grievances about the death penalty. Very slick.

Twenty-six years and counting: That’s how long my family and I have had to pause, take a deep breath and swallow hard every time the phone rings because it just might be someone from the Philadelphia DA’s Office calling to tell us that Mumia Abu-Jamal has escaped justice on a technicality.

They might call to tell us that some judge has ruled that the prosecutor in the original trial was somehow a racist – even though he accepted four blacks to the jury. Or that the courts have decided that the jury was confused by the wording on a form – even though the jury never said they were confused. Or that the trial judge, who was forced to constantly control a seething and disruptive defendant, displayed sufficient evidence of legal bias to warrant a new trial.

While Mumia Abu-Jamal sits safe and sound on death row – writing books and recording radio commentaries – we live in fear. Imagine, just for a moment, what it’s like to live in constant grinding fear for 26 years . . . and counting.

Twenty-six years since I last spent Christmas with my beloved husband, since he held me in his arms, since we were able to tell each other how much in love we were. That’s the sad reality of my situation.

But I’m not alone. The families of murder victims across the country live with similar grim realities. It’s wrong and it has to change. That’s why I wrote my book – to shed light on an unjust system.

I have the book to show for my life over the last quarter century, and I have a candle to light for Danny – who would have celebrated his 52nd birthday today.

Maureen Faulkner is the widow of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, murdered in the line of duty by Abu-Jamal on Dec. 9, 1981. Her new book (with Michael Smerconish) is “Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice authors’ proceeds go to fund grants for children who have lost a parent to murder.