Stripping the Award: Mumia Abu-Jamal

Apparently there is a bit of an urban legend that Mumia Abu-Jamal won a Peabody award in 1981, the year before he was found guilty for killing a cop.

The discrepancy was pointed out to me while fact-checking for Columbia Journalism Review. The tip was pointed out via a wikipedia article on Mumia.

In the end, to be conclusive, I called the Peabody Institute, run by the University of Georgia.

Drum roll please: No, Mr. Jamal never won a Peabody award. Although Mumia Jamal was an accomplished radio journalist in Philadelphia before his arrest, he has never, despite the claims on the cover of his book "Live From Death Row" won a Peabody award.

I’m not saying Mumia is guilty or innocent. Hell, if I was on death row and I thought it would help me I’d claim I won a Pulitzer. But the cold hard fact is, he simply was never awarded a Peabody.