[Ppnews] Mumia asks appeals court to reconsider ruling

Tue Jul 8 10:51:08 EDT 2008

Abu-Jamal asks appeals court to reconsider ruling

The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 07/07/2008 10:12:29 PM EDT

PHIADELPHIALawyers for death-row inmate Mumia 
Abu-Jamal on Monday asked a federal appeals court 
to reconsider its decision not to grant him a new trial.

Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death in 
the slaying of a Philadelphia police officer more 
than 25 years ago, a case that gained worldwide 
attention as the former Black Panther and radio 
reporter maintained he was the victim of a racist justice system.

In March, a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. 
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Abu-Jamal, 
54, must be given a new sentencing hearing. But 
the court did not throw out his conviction.

Robert R. Bryan, one of Abu-Jamal's lawyers, on 
Monday asked the panel and the full court to take 
another look. In his filing, he said the panel 
should have ordered a hearing on Abu-Jamal's 
contention that prosecutors intentionally 
excluded blacks from his jury in violation of a 
later 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Prosecutors are also appealing the appeals court's ruling.

Since Abu-Jamal's trial, activists in the United 
States and Europe have rallied around him as he 
has kept his case in the spotlight through books and radio broadcasts.

A Philadelphia jury convicted Abu-Jamal, who is 
black, of killing white police Officer Daniel 
Faulkner in 1981 after the patrolman pulled over 
Abu-Jamal's brother in an overnight traffic stop.

Prosecutors say Faulkner, 25, managed to shoot 
Abu-Jamal during the confrontation. A wounded Abu-Jamal,
his own gun lying nearby, was still at the scene 
when police arrived, and authorities consider the 
evidence against him overwhelming.

Abu-Jamal, born Wesley Cook, has argued in 
numerous appeals that racism by the judge and 
prosecutors corrupted his 1982 conviction at the hands of a mostly white jury.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld his 
conviction and death sentence in 1989. It also rejected three other appeals.

Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, 
<http://www.philly.com>http://www.philly.com

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