My given name is Edward Sistrunk. My Islamic name is Omar Askia Ali. My current address is one Kelly drive, Coal Township, PA 17866-1021.
Also go online and review my column of a newspaper, page 7, about my case. It came out 10/18/2016 entitled “The Long Test and Faith of Omar Askia Ali.” Also, if you contact me, I will make an arrangement to see that you hear a radio interview with my former attorney, the DA and investigator pertaining to my case. There’s also an article with the African Militant paper, May-June issue 2003. In an article in the Philadelphia Daily News, page 8, 8/15/95, Deborah [inaudible], chief of federal investigation at the DA’s office, is quoted as saying, “His case is not a question of Sistrunk’s innocence but rather a procedural issue.”
My arrest was motivated by an informant and not the contentions of the DA. [inaudible] probable cause. My contentions are enhanced by Assistant DA [inaudible]’s letter to me, 2001. To quote him: “Frankly, I do not know what you have in mind in seeking an informant, information from what little I remember. There was an informant that led to the displacement of several people in the lineup and which resulted in your identification.” This is the uncensored information from the FBI that my attorney received, that they would not have censored if they knew it was uncensored when they sent it to us.
During my lineup, I was treated to contrives which were aimed at framing me, and yes, I was misidentified by the lone traumatized victim who testified against me. Another victim identified whoever was number 2 at the lineup. There were at least two missed identifications. One was a police officer. I was permitted to appear in a lineup with two intelligent officers: one detective from homicide and one polygraph operator, all who worked, at the time, at the police administration still. They all wore white t-shirts while I wore a lavender-colored undershirt with no sleeves. This was brought to the attention of my then attorney in 1971.
I’ve said all this to say you can go to Final Call newspaper on page 7, 10/18/16, entitled “Again, The Long Test of Faith of Omar Askia Ali,” and you can find an article with the DA, a former attorney and investigator, giving information, and the formal police commissioner of Philadelphia giving testimony to my innocence. The former police commissioner, Sylvester Johnson, had also went to the DA office and said to them that they stacked the deck against me by utilizing an all-white jury twice.
Currently, the DA in Philadelphia, or at least he wasn’t the DA when I was tried, but the current DA has just been indicted for all sorts of corruption, but Philadelphia has a long history of corruption. During the time that I was arrested, it was under the reign of then Frank Rizzo who, for those who know, is the same crowd or the same law enforcement crowd, when Mumia was arrested. This is the same mentality that brought me to where I’m at currently at at this particular time.
And the more that we look into some of the information that I’ve just given to you, you will see exactly what I’m saying when you read those articles that I just quoted, because then you can get it from a perspective of those who are in office and those who were in office as to their perception about me and what happened in my case.
Thank you very much.