We mark the 25th anniversary of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner’s murder over at Hot Air.

Widow Maureen Faulkner keeps the flame alive:

Maureen Faulkner says she has spent half her life seeking peace.

She is 50 now, and it was 25 years ago today that her husband of one year, Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, was shot dead on a Center City street, a crime for which Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death.

Yesterday, Maureen Faulkner hosted a luncheon at the Union League to keep her husband’s memory alive and to honor District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham for steadfastly challenging Abu-Jamal’s many appeals.

Abu-Jamal’s name was never mentioned at the luncheon.

Afterward, Faulkner, who never remarried and now lives in California, said she had spent “half my life” returning to Philadelphia for the appeals.

“I wish that some day, I can have closure and some peace in my life from this,” she said, vowing at the same time to not stop “fighting to have justice for Danny.”

Today, Abu-Jamal’s supporters plan to protest at City Hall to mark the anniversary of the crime that put him in jail, while Faulkner’s family will attend a memorial Mass at Annunciation Church in South Philadelphia.

During the luncheon, Faulkner choked up when she addressed Abraham and thanked her for “helping my friends and family through such a long 25 years.”

Abraham, for her part, called Abu-Jamal’s supporters “know-nothings” and said she wanted to “make sure history is not rewritten, that it is not revised” in the Faulkner case.

Her office is currently appealing a federal judge’s 2001 decision overturning Abu-Jamal’s death sentence in the case. It also is challenging an appeal by Abu-Jamal’s lawyers seeking to have his first-degree murder conviction thrown out.

Michael Smerconish’s book preview is here. More on the memorials being held this weekend.

In case you missed the roll call vote on the resolution protesting the decision by the city of St. Denis to honor Faulkner’s convicted Death Row murderer with a street name, here are the 31–all Democrats–who voted against the measure (via BOTW):

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Denouncing Mumia Chic
A street named Mumia Abu Jamal
Philadelphia fever: The Mumia parade

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