Mumia Abu-Jamal may be "live from death row" again.

In the latest twist in a case that for nearly 3 decades has been at the center of the nation's anti-death-penalty movement, the Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a ruling that could reinstate the convicted cop killer's death sentence.

The high court overturned, in an unsigned 1-paragraph order, a lower court's decision to throw out the death sentence for Abu-Jamal, who has been called death row's most famous inmate and whose case has been a cause celebre for liberal academics, activists and artists.

A former Black Panther and radio journalist, Abu-Jamal, now 55, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

In 2008, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction, but overturned his death sentence because of a flaw in the jury instructions during the trial. The 3rd Circuit ruled that it was not made clear to jurors that they didn't need to agree unanimously on the existence of any specific mitigating factor, which could have spared Abu-Jamal the death penalty.

The appeals court said a new hearing had to be held to determine whether Abu-Jamal should receive the death penalty or life in prison. If the state chose not to have a new hearing, Abu Jamal would automatically receive life in prison, the court ruled.

The Supreme Court dismissed that ruling Tuesday in light of a case with similar issues it decided last week. In last week's case, the court reinstated the death sentence of Frank Spisak, a neo-Nazi who killed three people in 1983 in Ohio.

A lower federal court had similarly ruled in that case that the jury instructions regarding mitigating factors was faulty. But the Supreme Court ruled that it was not the place of a federal appeals court to make such a ruling on a state issue.

"Since the parties do not dispute that the Ohio courts 'adjudicated' this claim, i.e., they considered it and rejected it 'on the merits,' the law permits federal court to reach a contrary decision only if the state-court decision 'was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law,'" Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote in the majority opinion. "Unlike the court of appeals, we conclude the Spisak claim does not satisfy this standard."

On Tuesday, the high court said the 3rd Circuit should reconsider its ruling vacating Abu-Jamal's death sentence in light of the new precedent set in the Spisak case.

Neither Abu-Jamal's defense team nor an organization that rebuts claims made by his supporters returned e-mails Tuesday seeking comments.

Abu-Jamal has been a frequent commentator on the death penalty and other social issues since his incarceration. In 1995 his memoir, "Live From Death Row," was published. He has been made an honorary citizen of such world cities as Montreal, Paris and Copenhagen; the French city of St. Denis named a street Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal.

While Abu-Jamal has support from groups and people both in the U.S. and internationally, Officer Faulkner's family and groups including the Fraternal Order of Police are just as aggressive in their condemnations of him.

Officer Faulkner was killed during a traffic stop. He was able to shoot Abu-Jamal once in the chest before succumbing to injuries caused by multiple gunshot wounds. Police found the gun used in the killing at the scene.

When the racially charged case went to trial, four witnesses identified Abu-Jamal as the killer.

Abu-Jamal continues to maintain his innocence. He and his supporters claim he is the victim of racial injustice.

Source: The Washington Times, January 20, 2010

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Florida executes Dominick Occhicone

Florida executes 2 men in a day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida's death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term. STARKE, Fla. — Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, the last an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of killing a young girl.

Two Executions In Six Hours: Florida Set For Historical Double Execution Tuesday

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

Florida executes James Duckett

Double execution: 1st of 2 inmates is put to death in Florida Florida has executed James Duckett, a 68-year-old former cop convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987. The state is set to execute an 80-year-old man 6 hours later for a 1986 murder. Florida carried out the 1st double execution in more than 60 years, executing former police officer James Duckett and later scheduling the execution of 80‑year‑old Dominick Occhicone, amid Governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive push to increase death penalties in the state. Florida has put to death the 1st of 2 inmates in the state's 1st double execution in more than 60 years amid an aggressive death penalty push by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.

Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits. An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

Idaho | How Bryan Kohberger’s Guilty Plea Move Could Be His Death Sentence

If Bryan Kohberger successfully withdraws his guilty plea and goes to trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, it could lead to him being sentenced to death, experts told Newsweek . Kohberger, 31, filed a handwritten petition on Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, where he is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbings just over a year ago, a month before jury selection was set to start.

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