Cynthia White, a key prosecution witness along with Chobert, said she was on the sidewalk talking to an unidentified man a few feet from the police car when she saw Faulkner walk to the driver's side door of the Volkswagen and Billy Cook get out of the car.
The two started arguing and moved to the sidewalk, she said, and Cook struck Faulkner "with a closed fist to the cheek." Faulkner turned his assailant around and pulled his arms behind him, appearing to be about to place the man under arrest. She did not testify to seeing Faulkner strike the man.
Unlike any of the other witnesses, White claimed that Abu-Jamal had a gun in his hand as he crossed Locust Street toward the altercation. The defense argues that even if she were standing where she claims, she could not have seen his hands because her view was blocked by the police car and hampered by the shortage of light; several street lights were broken.
Attorneys for Abu-Jamal also point out that three witnesses (Chobert, Hightower and Scanlan) did not see her standing on the corner. Veronica Jones placed White a full block east of the scene.
In addition, the defense attorneys note, White contradicted herself in her four statements to police-telling them at one point that her vision was obscured, that she only heard gunshots, and that the shooter was 5' 8". Abu-Jamal is 6'1".
A critical part of the defense case is their claim that White's testimony was coerced by police, who allegedly offered her leniency on pending criminal charges. White had a record of 38 arrests, and was doing 18 months in a Massachusetts prison for prostitution at the time of the trial. She was arrested twice in the 10 days following the Faulkner killing.
Attorneys for Abu-Jamal allege that plainclothes Philadelphia police guarded White for several months in 1982 while she plied her street trade, based on an affidavit by defense investigator Robert Greer. "There were always two plainclothesmen near where she worked her corner on Locust," Greer said.
Scene of the CrimeChronologyDefense Motion