 Private investigator George Newman claimed in 2001 that Chobert had recanted his testimony . Commentators also noted that police and news photographs of the crime scene did not show Chobert 's taxi , and that Cynthia White , the only witness at the trial to testify to seeing the taxi , had previously provided crime scene descriptions that omitted it . Cynthia White was declared to be dead by the state of New Jersey in 1992 although Pamela Jenkins claimed that she saw White alive as late as 1997 . Mumia supporters often claim that White was a police informant and that she falsified her testimony against Abu @-@ Jamal . <unk> Durham 's step @-@ brother , Kenneth <unk> , who was imprisoned with Abu @-@ Jamal on other charges , has since claimed that Durham admitted to not hearing the hospital confession . The hospital doctors stated that Abu @-@ Jamal was " on the verge of <unk> " when brought in and they did not <unk> a confession . In 2008 , the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania rejected a further request from Abu @-@ Jamal for a hearing into claims that the trial witnesses <unk> themselves on the grounds that he had waited too long before filing the appeal . 
