Is Mumia Abu Jamal Off Death Row???
Top Cat | 19.12.2001 10:13
News is emerging that Mumia Abu Jamal, on death row for nearly 20 years, may have had a sentence reprieve. If this news is correct its an amazing development, considering the fallout from September 11 and the opportunity this affords the US state to repress acts of defiance. If anything we would have expected Mumia's fate to be sealed after S11. This article comes from Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal judge threw out Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence on Tuesday, ruling that the former journalist and Black Panther is entitled to a new sentencing hearing for killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981.
U.S. District Judge William Yohn ordered the state of Pennsylvania to conduct the hearing within 180 days.
"Should the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania not have conducted a new sentencing hearing ... the Commonwealth shall sentence petitioner to life imprisonment," the judge said in his 272-page ruling.
Yohn cited problems with the jury charge and verdict form, writing they "created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from considering any mitigating circumstance that had not been found unanimously to exist."
Yohn denied all of Abu-Jamal's other claims, finding no "constitutional defects" in his post-trial proceedings and refusing his request for a new trial.
The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Abu-Jamal was convicted of shooting Daniel Faulkner, 25, during the early-morning hours of Dec. 9, 1981, after the officer pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in a downtown traffic stop.
Celebrities, death-penalty opponents and foreign politicians have since rallied to Abu-Jamal's cause, calling him a political prisoner and saying he was railroaded by a racist justice system.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe ruled Nov. 21 that she did not have jurisdiction over Abu-Jamal's petition for a new trial, scuttling his hopes for another round of state-court appeals.
Abu-Jamal exhausted the state appeals process two years ago, but a petition filed in September argued that the defense had new evidence to clear him, including a confession by a man named Arnold Beverly.
In a 1999 affidavit, Beverly claimed he was hired by the mob to kill Faulkner because the 25-year-old officer had interfered with mob payoffs to police.
Abu-Jamal's former lawyers, Leonard Weinglass and Daniel R. Williams, said they thought the confession was not credible and Yohn refused to order Beverly to testify on Abu-Jamal's behalf
U.S. District Judge William Yohn ordered the state of Pennsylvania to conduct the hearing within 180 days.
"Should the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania not have conducted a new sentencing hearing ... the Commonwealth shall sentence petitioner to life imprisonment," the judge said in his 272-page ruling.
Yohn cited problems with the jury charge and verdict form, writing they "created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from considering any mitigating circumstance that had not been found unanimously to exist."
Yohn denied all of Abu-Jamal's other claims, finding no "constitutional defects" in his post-trial proceedings and refusing his request for a new trial.
The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Abu-Jamal was convicted of shooting Daniel Faulkner, 25, during the early-morning hours of Dec. 9, 1981, after the officer pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in a downtown traffic stop.
Celebrities, death-penalty opponents and foreign politicians have since rallied to Abu-Jamal's cause, calling him a political prisoner and saying he was railroaded by a racist justice system.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe ruled Nov. 21 that she did not have jurisdiction over Abu-Jamal's petition for a new trial, scuttling his hopes for another round of state-court appeals.
Abu-Jamal exhausted the state appeals process two years ago, but a petition filed in September argued that the defense had new evidence to clear him, including a confession by a man named Arnold Beverly.
In a 1999 affidavit, Beverly claimed he was hired by the mob to kill Faulkner because the 25-year-old officer had interfered with mob payoffs to police.
Abu-Jamal's former lawyers, Leonard Weinglass and Daniel R. Williams, said they thought the confession was not credible and Yohn refused to order Beverly to testify on Abu-Jamal's behalf
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Here's the Reuters story...
19.12.2001 12:51
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A federal judge overturned the death sentence of
former Black Panther and radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal on Tuesday,
ordering a new sentencing hearing for the convicted killer of a Philadelphia
police officer whose case has been championed by death-penalty opponents
worldwide.
Ruling on a defense petition for a new trial in the 20-year-old case, U.S.
District Judge William Yohn let stand Abu-Jamal's first-degree murder
conviction for the 1981 slaying of white Philadelphia police officer Daniel
Faulkner.
But in a 272-page opinion that stunned legal experts and stirred emotions on
both sides of the case, Yohn gave state prosecutors 180 days to conduct a
new sentencing hearing, citing errors in the death-penalty phase of the 1982
trial.
The judge said proceedings in the original penalty hearing "created a
reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from
considering any mitigating circumstance that had not been found unanimously
to exist."
"It is clearly painful to the petitioner, his family and friends, and the
family and friends of the victim, to have this issue renewed and reinforced
in their memories after the passage of so much time," Yohn wrote.
The judge said Abu-Jamal, 47, should get life imprisonment if the state
fails to meet the 180-day deadline.
The Philadelphia district attorney's office vowed to appeal, saying a new
hearing was not likely any time soon. Faulkner's widow Maureen spoke
tearfully to a Philadelphia radio station about how painful the ruling was
so near to Christmas.
Even Abu-Jamal's supporters were unhappy with the outcome, saying the
conviction should have been overturned.
"If they give him to a life sentence without bail, that's totally
unacceptable to us," said Jeff Mackler, a national coordinator of the group
Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
DIFFERING VIEWS OF ABU-JAMAL
Local authorities describe Abu-Jamal as a violent common criminal who does
not deserve to live. But his supporters, including opponents of the death
penalty worldwide, say Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner victimized by a
racist criminal justice system.
Abu-Jamal was convicted of murdering Faulkner during an early-morning
shootout on Dec. 9, 1981, after the 25-year-old police officer pulled over
Abu-Jamal's brother for a driving violation.
Prosecutors say Abu-Jamal watched from across the street as a scuffle broke
out between Faulkner and his brother, William Cook. He allegedly stepped up
behind Faulkner, pulled out a .38-caliber pistol and shot the police officer
in his back.
Abu-Jamal, who was wounded in the chest, contends he was shot while running
away.
His supporters contend that he was railroaded onto death row by corrupt
prosecutors and law enforcement officials.
Hollywood celebrities, European public figures and organizations such as
Amnesty International have issued calls for a new trial, while Abu-Jamal has
described prison life in the 1995 memoir "Live From Death Row."
But his case has made little headway until now, despite numerous legal
appeals.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in
1995, and let stand a lower court's decision to deny his appeal for a new
trial in 1998. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Abu-Jamal's appeal
two years ago.
Earlier this year, Abu-Jamal fired his defense team and mounted a new legal
offensive with a new set of lawyers.
JoAnne Epps, a former prosecutor who is now associate dean at the Temple
University School of Law, said she believes that a new sentencing hearing
could save Abu-Jamal's life because of changed social attitudes on issues
such as racial profiling.
"The death penalty is less likely. The passage of time certainly dissipates
the strength of some of the government's evidence," she said. "Times are
also different. Racial protesters pushed a lot of people's buttons 20 years
ago. But today, jurors are far more open to the whole picture."
Top Cat
Here's the NY times Link to story
19.12.2001 18:36
park ranger
Mumia still in legal interzone
26.09.2005 07:03
However, on a quick review of net materials, it seems he is still on death row, and he is still getting stitched up, although as already suggested, there is maybe less chance of him being executed at short notice.
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Rene Thomas
e-mail:
weallpoo@yahoo.co.uk