|
by THE 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 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.
Abu-Jamal is America's most famous death-row inmate -- revered by a
worldwide ``Free Mumia'' movement as a crusader against racial
injustice, and reviled by the officers's supporters as an unrepentant cop-killer
who deserves to die.
The judge refused Abu-Jamal's request for a new trial, upholding his
1982 conviction on first-degree murder charges.
The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Abu-Jamal was convicted of shooting officer 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 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.
On behalf of the
National Office of Refuse & Resist!
305 Madison Ave., Suite 1166
NY, NY 10165
http://www.refuseandresist.org
info@refuseandresist.org
Tel: 212.713.5657
| 
