From Rachel Wolkenstein
ON NRCC ATTACK OF KATHY BOOCKVAR
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I do not know Kathy Boockvar or her views on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case. But I was co-counsel for Abu-Jamal when her husband Jordan Yeager represented witness Veronica Jones in “hanging judge” Albert Sabo’s courtroom in 1996. Yeager was a young lawyer for a witness challenging the police coercion that caused her to lie at Abu-Jamal’s trial, leading to his conviction and death sentence. Yeager himself became the subject of Judge Sabo’s intimidation tactics—and Veronica Jones was arrested off the witness stand
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What happened in the courtroom was so outrageous that the Philadelphia Daily News (October 2, 1996) editorialized against the conduct of the proceedings. Judge Sabo was “exhibiting his usual prejudice against the defense. …Such heavy handed tactics can only confirm suspicions that the court is incapable of giving Abu-Jamal a fair hearing. Sabo…is openly hostile to the defense and lavishly liberal with the prosecution. Defense attorneys barely get to voice their objections before Sabo overrules them with a snarl—and threatens to throw them out if they continue to object.”
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A memoir of Veronica Jones has just been published that reveals the full story of this police, prosecutorial and judicial intimidation to convict an innocent man as well as Jones’ intimate relationship with police officer Daniel Faulkner. (See, Veronica & the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal as told to her sister Valerie Jones)Rachel Wolkenstein, Esq.
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Brooklyn, New York
September 28, 2012
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Wolkenstein was co-counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal 1995-1999 and is the author of legal afterward for the Veronica Jones memoir.