WASHINGTONûA federal appeals court refused to overturn the conviction of death row journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu- Jamal on March 27 and rejected his call for a new trial. Abu-Jamal has been on death row for 26 years.
In 1982, Abu-Jamal was convicted of murder in the killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner following a controversial, racially tense trial that included a predominantly white jury. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals did order a new sentencing hearing in the case because of flawed jury instructions.
If he is re-sentenced, he could again get the death penalty or life in prison without parole. “It’s not a victory at all for Abu- Jamal,” Linn Washington Jr., an associate professor in the Department of Journalism at Temple University, told The Final Call. “This is not a new hearing for a new trial or any kind of a procedure that will lead to a new trial.
So this is a very bad ruling for him, in terms of his desire to either be released totally or to get a mechanism where he can fairly present evidence in court and win an acquittal.” The ruling does, however have a “silver lining,” according to Robert Bryan, Abu-Jamal’s lead attorney.
“On the negative side, the court ruled against granting a new jury trial on the issue of guilt and innocence,” Bryan told The Final Call. “And we were rather astounded that the court made that ruling.
“The silver lining to that ruling, to that dark cloud, is that it was a split court. We were before three judges. Two judges ruled against us; a third judge rendered a 41-page dissent in which he strongly criticized the majority and said that racism was at work in this case.
“The prosecution engaged racism in removing people of color, African Americans, from sitting on the jury of Mumia Abu-Jamal,” said Bryan. “So that really gives us a road map or, if you will, a very bright light in the darkness of where we go from here, because my goal is to achieve a new trial for Mumia,” said Bryan.
Abu Jamal’s legal team plans to appeal the decision of the three-judge panel to the entire nine-member Third Circuit Court, and if necessary to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Bryan. A world-renowned journalist and writer, Abu-Jamal’s recorded messages and his numerous books have been heard and read around the world.
Abu-Jamal (bornWesley Cook on April 24, 1954) is currently a prisoner at State Correctional Institution Greene near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Calls for a new and fair trial for Abu-Jamal have been worldwide, including from Amnesty International, the Congressional Black Caucus, Harvard University Law School’s Civil Rights Institute, former South African President Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and former French President Jacques Chirac.
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