• "I say, if your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life." -Calvin
• Visit our companion blog Greens for Greens at greensforgreens.org for news about the Green Party.
• Subscribe in a reader

• Support the Green Party
  Buy Green Party Merchandise

  
  
• 
  

• Recently Written

  • Firesign’s report on the presidential election live from monster island
  • NY election mix-up: ‘Osama’ on the ballot
  • Court makes Conn. 3rd state to allow gay marriage
  • The Grapes of Wrath, 2008
  • 5 Friends (Vote)
  • Vote Absentee
  • Kids keep parents in the dark about cyberbullying
  • Credit markets to Washington: Bailout isn’t enough
  • Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?
  • John McCain’s Fireside Chat w/ Sarah Palin

Search

• Links

  Greens for Greens
  Green Party of Suffolk
  Green Party New York
  On the Wilder Side
  Green Party of the United States
  Feministing
  Appalachian Greens
  Campus Greens
  Duane's Weblog
  
• 
  

• Admin

  • Register
  • Log in
  • 
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML
• 

• 

• 

• The articles on this site are the work of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of any Green Party organization

• Published by Roger Snyder

• Roger's Rumblings

[From AP]

By KATHY MATHESON
photo credit: Aoife city womanchile

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday said former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal cannot be executed for murdering a Philadelphia police officer without a new penalty hearing.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Abu-Jamal’s conviction should stand, but that he should get a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions. If prosecutors don’t want to give him a new death penalty hearing, Abu-Jamal would be sentenced automatically to life in prison.

Abu-Jamal, 53, once a radio reporter, has attracted a legion of artists and activists to his cause in a quarter-century on death row. A Philadelphia jury convicted him in 1982 of killing Officer Daniel Faulkner, 25, after the patrolman pulled over Abu-Jamal’s brother in an overnight traffic stop.

He had appealed, arguing that racism by the judge and prosecutors corrupted his conviction at the hands of a mostly white jury. Prosecutors, meanwhile, had appealed a federal judge’s 2001 decision to grant Abu-Jamal a new sentencing hearing because of the jury instructions.

Hundreds of people protested outside the federal building in Philadelphia in May and an overflow crowd — including legal scholars, students, lawyers, the policeman’s widow and Abu-Jamal’s brother — filled the courtroom when the appeals court heard arguments about the case.
The officer’s widow, Maureen Faulkner, has kept her husband’s memory alive over the years, and recently co-wrote a book about the case. The book, “Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice,” written with radio talk-show host Michael Smerconish, came out in December.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Go here The Associated Press: Court: Mumia Deserves New Hearing for further information.

Filed Under News  

Comments