60-Second Critic: The Case That Won’t Die

The release this month of Murdered by Mumia (The Lyons Press; $24.95) — an account by Maureen Faulkner, the widow of slain police officer Daniel, of her odyssey since her husband’s death, and the celebrity achieved by the man convicted of it, Mumia Abu-Jamal — is sure to reignite passions over the case. Faulkner writes of the moment she answered the fateful police knock on her door and the emotional toll the “Free Mumia” movement continues to take on her. While co-author Michael Smerconish is braced for “boatloads” of blowback from Mumia supporters, he says, “The beauty of it is, she knows her side is finally going to be fully and accurately presented.”