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Mumia: A Case for Reasonable Doubt joins the likes of The Thin Blue Line, Brother's Keeper, and Paradise Lost in its depiction of a justice system that is sometimes not conscientious about whom it convicts. Mumia Abu-Jamal had been on death row for 14 years at the time this film was made in 1996, following his conviction in the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Yet the film makes a persuasive case that events, as told by eyewitnesses whose original statements are claimed to have been either coerced by the police or concocted to please the prosecution, did not unfold the way the investigating officers say they did. A "confession" the police claim they got from Mumia in the hospital (both he and Faulkner were shot) never happened, according to the attending physician who was with Mumia the whole time. Forensic evidence suggests the murder weapon was not the one carried by Mumia, who worked nights as a cab driver, and in any case the weapon had no prints on it. The judge on the case was a member of the Fraternal Order of Police and had the largest murder conviction record of any judge in the country. On the other hand, Mumia, formerly a member of the Black Panthers, refuses to give a full account of what happened the night of December 9, 1981, when the murder occurred. The seeds of doubt sowed by this film should be enough to make anyone crave knowing what really happened. --Jim Gay
