Marueen Faulkner's Letter To The Editor

(From Philly.com)

Letters MAUREEN FAULKNER: STORY IS NONSENSE

I was stunned that the Daily News dredged up William Singletary again to tell his ridiculous and discredited story.

The Dec. 8 article lets readers believe that Mr. Singletary is a legitimate eyewitness to my husband's murder (he's not) who was forced to flee Philadelphia in 1981, never to be heard from again. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Singletary, who suffers from the delusion that he is under some sort of threat, came back to Philadelphia 11 years ago, and made it out again without incident. For the better part of a day, he told his story at the 1995 Post-Conviction Relief Act hearings. (His bizarre testimony can be found at DanielFaulkner.com in the 1995 PCRA section.)

In 1995, no one wanted to hear the truth about what happened to my husband on Dec. 9, 1981, more than I did. So I listened intently while Singletary told Mumia's lawyers a fictional account similar to the one he told in your article about the mystery passenger in William Cook's car who allegedly shot Danny. Under cross-examination, things unraveled.

In addition to having totally changed the story he told in his signed statement to police, he admitted seeing a police helicopter overhead at 13th and Locust that morning shining a light that illuminated the entire block. And, according to Singletary, after Danny was shot, he saw "captains and lieutenants" running to the scene from the shadows of nearby alleys and streets.

Singletary also told the court that after Danny had been shot point-blank in the face, he spoke to him, saying, "Get Maureen. Get the children." But the police didn't have a helicopter in '81, and none of the other eyewitnesses, including Mumia's, saw any police brass running from the shadows.

Most important, though, medical and ballistics tests proved beyond doubt that my husband died instantly from the final shot that Mumia Abu-Jamal fired into his brain. It is a physical impossibility that he spoke to Singletary. For this reason, I am led to conclude that Singletary is a liar.

Your article failed to mention that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reviewed Singletary's extensive testimony in 1998 and unanimously found him to be completely without credibility, and that, in 1981, the prosecution used the consistent statements of four eyewitnesses to weigh the credibility of Singletary's account, not just Cynthia White's account, as he implies in the article.

The Daily News should be embarrassed to have run this story on the 25th anniversary of my husband's death. But on the positive side, the story shows your readers just how pathetic the Mumia defense really is, having to rely on kooks like William Singletary to support the myth of

Mumia Abu-Jamal's innocence.

-Maureen Faulkner Philadelphia