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All of the above, basically coming out of the mouth of Abu-Jamal's super-biased and super-partial prosecutor Joe McGill is not a huge surprise.
After all, in the Abu-Jamal case, as well as in so many others, the prosecution has mangled the facts right from the start to an extent where it requires an almost equally maniacal energy to try to set the distortions straight.
But turning to Tigre Hill, as the trailer of his film on Abu-Jamal already shows ten weeks before the expected release of the film, the facts were obviously also not very high on the list of those who framed the film as the movie, judging from the trailer, uncritically adopts all the basic premises (or should I say primitives) of the McGill/Smerconish narrative sketched in above.
It seems this film will be hammering home, in an extended and embellished form, a message that was already laid out in the Maureen Faulkner/Michael Smerconish book Murdered by Mumia and the subsequent interviews with the pro-prosecution people most involved in the case, two of the most important of which I have discussed here:
- NO
doubts about Abu-Jamal's perpetratorship, belief in his system- and
cop-hating motive, and his eligibility for the death-penalty because of
his fanatic single-mindedness.
But if the trailer gives any direction as to what the final film will be, the film's case will be built on sand. It seems clear that the main sources that have fed what one can watch now are interested parties such as Michael Smerconish, Joe McGill and a few assorted right-wing reactionaries -- and as the trailer thankfully makes clear, what they are armed with is fantasies and lies of the type sketched above. That, however, doesn't make all of this any less dangerous.
Michael Schiffmann, Journalists for Mumia, September 29, 2009
Source: http://www.thebigtalker1210.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=1169264
The Crime Scene
(1) Parked Ford sedan, officially unrelated (2) Billy Cook's VW (3) Faulkner's police car (4) Abu-Jamal's taxi (5) Michael Scanlan's car (Short Arrow at 1234 Locust) The trajectory of the bullet fragment, weighing 39.4 grains, inside the vestibule. The trajectory is based upon the alignment of the hole in the glass where the bullet entered and where it stopped in the wall. (Long Arrow From 4) Abu-Jamal's most likely direction when he approached from his car. Abu-Jamal's direction contradicts the trajectory of the bullet fragment in the wall. Faulkner was more likely shot through the back by someone standing on the curb next to Billy Cook's car, with the bullet traveling North, away from 1234 Locust, after exiting Faulkner's body.
The bullet(s)?
(1) Inserted police photo at far left of diagram, in front of Billy Cook's VW, designates where Faulkner's body was found (2) Billy Cook's VW (3) Faulkner's police car (The "X"-Marks, From Left to Right) X Entry location of bullet fragment, weighing 39.4 grains, found inside doorway vestibule, 6 ft., 10 in. south of the front door X unexplained copper bullet jacket on sidewalk X .38/.357 whole bullet, weighing 151.3 grains, with officially indeterminable rifling traits, found in the frame of entrance door, 3 ft., 7 in. up from the sidewalk (Schiffmann argues that the bullet is too low and too far away from Faulkner's body, to have exited Faulkner's throat) X 7 small lead fragments, total weight 18.2 grains, found in the lower wall, seven inches up from the sidewalk.
Michael Scanlan's account at Billy Cook's trial
