http://www.bolshevik.org/mumia/Weinglass_Questions.html 112 QUESTIONS FOR ATTORNEY LEONARD WEINGLASS A copy of the 43-page Motion and Offer of Proof is attached to this Press Release in M(icro$oft)SW(ord).
Dave Lindorff, who has written for In These Times, " Killing Time:An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, " Common Courage Books.
http://www.freemumia.org/articles/Mackler-2-25-03.html Mackler, a local Trot, slams the book. Runs one of the free Mumia groups.
"Executing Justice: An Inside Account of the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal by Daniel R. Williams, E. L. Doctorow. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312283172/ qid=1066275707/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/102-7191823-5406534?v=glance&s=books
>...Reviewer: ggerhardt1 (see more about me) from Portland, OR Because I know one of Mumia's attorneys, this book was more like "Everything You Wanted to Know About the Mumia Case but Were Afraid to Ask."
Political grandstanding, self-destructing testimony by defense witnesses, and a looney-tune conspiracy theory: this book tells enough about the case to give fair warning to anyone interested in becoming part of the pro-Mumia movement.
Along with Leonard Weinglass' RACE FOR JUSTICE and the trial transcripts, this book tells you what the kooks and radicals don't want you to know. --
Laugh-Out-Loud Funny, January 9, 2002
Reviewer: A reader from Omaha, NE The best tale of legal bungling I've read in a long time. Williams and his Kourtroom Keystone Kops explain in excrutiating detail how they screwed up not one, but two trials for Jamal. In the first half of the book, Williams excoriates Jamal's public defender for losing the original trial and earning Jamal the death sentence. Then he assembles his crack legal team consisting of an unlicensed Communist law student, a corporate attorney, who defrauds his own firm by working on Jamal's case on the sly, and creaking civil rights attorney Len Weinglass who, by William's own admission, is practicallly comatose throughtout the entire appeal. The unlicensed law student becomes the "brains" of the defense team and directs the entire legal strategy, which collapses as she drags in a collection of nuts and liars from the streets of Philadelphia. Williams spends dozens of pages in abject adoration of Jamal, swooning over "his honeyed baritone voice" and his animal magnetism. Equally cloying is his defense of former handyman Vincent Leaphart, aka John Africa, the founder of the MOVE movement. Leaphart, described by the New York Times as "somewhat of a madman" and by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "borderline retarded," assumes Christ-like proportions at William's hands. Among Leaphart's more intriguing teachings; MOVE women who give birth are required to bite off the umbilical cord and lick their newborns clean. Soap is forbidden and vermin and insects are welcomed into MOVE homes like old friends. Williams' book is loaded with suppositions, what-if's, could-have-beens and sheer speculation. But you never hear from the two people who could shed real light on what really happened that night Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner was shot down. Jamal still refuses to talk about his actions that fatal night, demanding that his personal declaration of innocence is evidence enough that he's not guilty. Jamal's brother Billy, who was a few feet away when the fatal shot was fired, is nowhere to be found. Williams' legal eagles never get around to looking for him even though the brother supposedly has all the evidence anyone needs to spring Jamal. Billy's attorney, in a newspaper interview, says Billy is not "mentally fit" to come forward. So much for brotherly love. Buy the book and do what I did -- read portions of it aloud to your lawyer friends. They'll choke with laughter. And spare a few tears for this Harvard-trained author who is so utterly gullible and yet oh-so-earnest. -- This text refers to the Hardcover edition