[Ppnews] Supreme Court lets Mumia Abu-Jamal's conviction stand

[Political Prisoner News]

Supreme Court lets Mumia Abu-Jamal's conviction stand

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/06/mumia.supreme.court/
By Bill Mears
CNN Supreme Court Producer


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has let stand the conviction of 
former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was sent to death row for 
gunning down a Philadelphia police officer 28 years ago.

He contends blacks were unfairly excluded from the jury, and has been 
an outspoken activist from behind bars.

The justices made their announcement Monday.

A separate appeal over whether Abu-Jamal deserves a new sentencing 
hearing has not been taken up by the 
<http://topics.cnn.com/topics/u_s_supreme_court>high court.

Prosecutors are appealing a federal appeals court ruling in 
Abu-Jamal's favor last year on the sentencing issue. The case has 
attracted international attention amid charges of prosecutorial 
misconduct and the inmate's outspoken personality.

<http://topics.cnn.com/topics/mumia_abu_jamal>Abu-Jamal, a former 
radio reporter and cab driver has been a divisive figure, with many 
prominent supporters arguing that racism pervaded his trial. Others 
countered Abu-Jamal is using his skin color to escape responsibility 
for his actions. They say he has divided the community for years with 
his provocative writing and activism.

He was convicted for the December 9, 1981, murder of Officer Daniel 
Faulkner, 25, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Faulkner had pulled over 
Abu-Jamal's brother in a late-night traffic stop. Witnesses said 
Abu-Jamal, who was nearby, ran over and shot the policeman in the 
back and in the head.

Abu-Jamal, once known as Wesley Cook, was also wounded in the 
encounter and later confessed to the killing, according to other 
witnesses testimony.

Abu-Jamal is black and the police officer was white.

Incarcerated for nearly three decades, Abu-Jamal has been an active 
critic of the criminal justice system.

On a Web site created by friends to promote the release this month of 
his new book, the prisoner-turned-author writes about his fight. 
"This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of 
multi-billion dollar endowed universities but in the bowels of the 
slave-ship, in the hidden, dank dungeons of America."

His chief defense attorney, Robert Bryan, had urged the justices to 
grant a new criminal trial, but the high court offered no explanation 
for its refusal to intervene.

"The central issue in this case is racism in jury selection," Bryan 
wrote to supporters last month. Ten whites and two blacks made up the 
original jury panel that sentenced Abu-Jamal to death.

A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a year 
ago kept the murder conviction in place, but ordered a new capital 
sentencing hearing. That court ultimately concluded the jury was 
improperly instructed on how to weigh "mitigating factors" offered by 
the defense that might have kept Abu-Jamal off death row.

Pennsylvania law at the time said jurors did not have to unanimously 
agree on a mitigating circumstance, such as the fact that Abu-Jamal 
had no prior criminal record.

Months before that ruling, oral arguments on the issue were 
contentious. Faulkner's widow and Abu-Jamal's brother attended, and 
demonstrations on both sides were held outside the courtroom in 
downtown Philadelphia.

Many prominent groups and individuals, including singer Harry 
Belafonte, the NAACP and the European Parliament, are cited on his 
Web site as supporters. Prosecutors have insisted Abu-Jamal pay the 
price for his crimes, and have aggressively resisted efforts to take 
him of death row for Faulkner's murder.

"This assassination has been made a circus by those people in the 
world and this city who believe falsely that Mumia Abu-Jamal is some 
kind of a folk hero," said Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne 
Abraham last year, when the federal appeals court upheld the 
conviction. "He is nothing short of an assassin."




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