Death Penalty News

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A court ruling this week puts the police murder case of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal back in the spotlight years after it drew the attention of Amnesty International, Hollywood celebrities and death penalty opponents worldwide. Abu-Jamal, a one-time taxi driver and radio reporter, emerged over four decades in prison as a vocal critic of the American justice system, especially the racial bias he saw at the heart of his 1982 trial. His writings and commentaries from prison, including the 1996 book “Live from Death Row,” have earned him acclaim from progressive scholars and activists — along with the disdain of police unions, conservative politicians and the widow of Daniel Faulkner, the young patrolman slain in downtown Philadelphia on Dec. 9, 1981. “Thirty-eight years!” Maureen Faulkner cried out in court this fall during the latest post-trial arguments, leading city Judge Leon Tucker to have her escorted out. “This is wrong!” Tucker’s ...

Mumia Abu-Jamal After more than 30 years in the chambers of death, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has been released into the general prison population. Finally, as of Jan. 27, he is now able to embrace his loved ones and shake the hands of all those who have supported him in the struggle for freedom. In a short message sent to his spouse, Wadiya Jamal, Mumia said: “My dear friends, brothers and sisters — I want to thank you for your real hard work and support. I am no longer on death row, no longer in the hole, I’m in population. This is only part one and I thank you all for the work you’ve done. But the struggle is for freedom!” On Dec. 7, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced that he had abandoned pursuing the death sentence for Mumia after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the DA’s appeal to reinstate Mumia’s death sentence. On Dec. 9, a standing-room-only event at the Philadelphia Convention Center drew an unprecedented number of people, young and old, ...

Mumia Abu-Jamal Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal said he was surprised and somewhat disappointed that he did not get a new sentencing hearing in the racially charged murder case that had kept him on death row for nearly 30 years. Last week's decision by prosecutors to drop their bid for capital punishment meant Abu-Jamal received an automatic life term. He said in a phone call to supporters Friday that he had already been moved off death row to a new cell in the western Pennsylvania prison where he is incarcerated. "Because there will not be a hearing there is some disappointment, because we thought we could make some things happen in that hearing and really give a good fight," Abu-Jamal said, "but we'll have to fight in other ways." The call was broadcast to about 1,000 supporters gathered at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for an event marking the 30th anniversary of his arrest. Excerpts were posted Monday on prisonradio.org, wh...

Mumia Abu-Jamal In response to the Philadelphia prosecutors’ decision not to seek another death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal , Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International’s Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty, made the following comments: “This is a welcome decision by the Philadelphia prosecutors. However, Amnesty International continues to believe that justice would best be served by granting Mumia Abu-Jamal a new trial.” While not taking a position on Mumia Abu-Jamal's guilt or innocence, Amnesty International concluded in its report, “The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Life in the Balance” that his original trial was manifestly unfair and failed to meet international fair trial standards. “Mumia Abu-Jamal’s trial featured the dismissal of African American jurors, inadequate defense representation, an openly hostile judge, the use of political statements to argue for a death sentence, and law enforcement’s unseemly agitation for execution throughout the entire process,” sa...

Mumia Abu-Jamal PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors have called off their 30-year battle to put former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal to death in the killing of a white police officer, putting to an end the racially charged case that became a major battleground in the fight over the death penalty. Flanked by the police Officer Daniel Faulkner's widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision Wednesday. "There's never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982," said Williams, who is black. "While Abu-Jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, and that is where he belongs." Abu-Jamal was convicted of fatally shooting Faulkner on Dec. 9, 1981. He was sentenced to death after his trial the following year. Abu-Jamal, who has been incarcerated in a west...

Mumia Abu-Jamal The Supreme Court has rejected a request from Philadelphia prosecutors who want to re-impose a death sentence on former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of killing a white Philadelphia police officer 30 years ago. The justices on Tuesday refused to get involved in the racially charged case. A federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal after finding that the death-penalty instructions given to the jury at Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial were potentially misleading. Courts have upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction for killing Officer Daniel Faulkner over objections that African-Americans were improperly excluded from the jury. The federal appeals court in Philadelphia said prosecutors could agree to a life sentence for Abu-Jamal or try again to sentence him to death. Source: Associated Press, October 11, 2011 High court ruling means execution unlikely in 1981 cop-killing Philadelphia (CNN) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way...

The jury that sentenced Mumia Abu-Jamal (left) to death for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer was wrongly instructed, a U.S. appeals court said Tuesday. The court ordered the state of Pennsylvania to hold a new sentencing hearing within 180 days or to sentence Abu-Jamal to life imprisonment. The 3-judge panel upheld the findings of a district court judge and an appellate decision in 2008. Abu-Jamal, 57, has been on death row since 1982 when he was convicted of shooting Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. During his years in prison, he has written several books and become one of the best-known death-sentenced inmates in the world. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said he is considering whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The high court has already ordered the appeals court to reconsider its earlier finding that the sentence was invalid, resulting in Tuesday's opinion. The court found the judge gave confusing instruct...

An audience-packed room at Riverside Church in New York City on April 3 heard Mumia Abu-Jamal’s new legal team speak on the political and legal significance of the almost 30-year campaign to free this world-renowned political prisoner unjustly housed on Pennsylvania’s death row. The lawyers who spoke were Christina Swarns, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s Criminal Justice Project, and Judith Ritter, professor at Widener Law School. Pam Africa of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Suzanne Ross of the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) also made presentations. Source: Workers World, April 8, 2011 _________________________ Use the tags below or the search engine at the top of this page to find updates, older or related articles on this Website.

By Gloria Rubac Houston Published Oct 20, 2010 9:08 PM Fighting to abolish the death penalty is frustrating. But for a person wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, fighting to prove their innocence can be worse than frustrating. It can be almost impossible. It can be so maddening that it causes debilitating mental illnesses and suicide. People know of the cases of Troy Davis in Georgia and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal in Pennsylvania due to the political organizing around their cases that has resulted in some national media coverage. Now two people in Texas are in the national spotlight: Hank Skinner and Todd Willingham. Skinner has always insisted he was innocent. It sounds easy when he says, “Just test the DNA. If I am guilty, you can execute me. If I am innocent, I am out of here.” But the district attorney in Pampa, Texas, refuses to turn over the DNA for testing. The U.S. Supreme Court heard Skinner’s case on Oct. 13 and a ruling should come in...

10 October is the eighth World Day Against the Death Penalty. Campaigners are focusing on the US this year. New Europe looks at the issue, now almost extinct in Europe, apart from Belarus. As most nations end their use of capital punishment, a few cling on. The most well known is the US, but the use of state executions in their penal code puts them in some awkward company. China tops the list with an unknown number of executions, estimated to be in the thousands, also unknown is North Korea, followed by Iran, Iraq and the US. The US does seem to be moving towards abolition. Unlike many other states, the Federal government allow individual states to decide on the death penalty. 15 Northern states have abolished capital punishment and a further 10 haven’t carried out an execution in 10 years, giving a 50-50 split. Deciding exactly how many countries have the death penalty is not straightforward, as some have it in the law books but have no intention to use it. Altogether 139 nations ...

Mumia Abu-Jamal, one of the most well-known inmates on US death row, has described America's vast population of "invisible" prisoners in an interview with Reporters without Borders published Friday. The 55-year-old African American was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of a white policeman, a crime he has always denied committing, and has become a cause celebre among opponents of the death penalty. He was the president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists at the time of his arrest and has continued to write from death row, where he has now spent 28 years. "Prisons in America are vast and the number of prisoners is immense," he told Reporters without Borders, an advocacy group. "It's impressive to see how much money is spent by the US government and how invisible we are. No one knows. Most people don't care." "My reporting has to do with my reality," he told the group. "They mostly have been focusing on d...

Mumia Abu-Jamal on the phone with his defense counsel Robert Bryan. from ECPM on Vimeo . The 180 members of the public who had gathered to view the film Manners of dying had an opportunity to witness a discussion between Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lawyer Robert Bryan. The film screening organized Tuesday evening at Maison des arts du Grütli by the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights saw a phone discussion with the famous American death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal – 15 minutes live from death row. “ It was a very moving moment live from death row,” a member of the audience said. “Thanks for the privilege we had to discuss with him,” another person added. The emotion was palpable among the public. “Mumia doesn’t feel like a symbol of the anti-death penalty campaign,” said Robert Bryan. Today, Barack Obama can make the difference, he continued, referring to a petition to the US president already signed by 17,000 people. According to Bryan, the death penalty is a privilege...

The United States Supreme Court dismissed a lower court ruling that nullified the death sentence for journalist, activist and Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was also known as the "peoples' reporter." The justices made their announcement on Tuesday, ordering the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit its 2008 ruling granting a new sentence hearing for the 55-year-old activist, who has been on death row since 1982 for the killing in 1981 of a Philadelphia policeman, Daniel Faulkner, a crime which Abu-Jamal has always claimed he never committed. The Supreme Court denied Abu-Jamal's separate petition for a new trial in 2009. The appeals court has the option of re-imposing the death sentence or ordering a new federal trial to hear the claims of "racism" during the trial process by the prosecution. "We will take to the streets around the world the day after the Supreme Court ruling," Dr. Suzanne Ross of the free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition-New...

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 unanimou...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted an appeal by prosecutors and set aside a ruling that invalidated the death sentence of black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer. His case has become a prominent cause for many death penalty opponents. In a brief order, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a U.S. appeals court based in Philadelphia for further consideration in view of the high court's recent decision in an Ohio case that had raised similar issues. The Supreme Court in the Ohio case unanimously reinstated the death sentence of a neo-Nazi convicted of murdering three men. The court's action, which was not a ruling on the merits of the case, could lead to Abu-Jamal's death sentence being reinstated, too. The appeals court had ruled that Abu-Jamal, 55, deserved a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions. Abu-Jamal, a former member of the Black Panthers militant group, was convicted and se...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed an appeals court ruling that would have given Mumia Abu-Jamal a chance to avoid the dealth penalty. Some opponents of capital punishment have championed Abu-Jamal's case. Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose death sentence for killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981 has become an international cause célèbre for opponents of capital punishment, has suffered a significant setback at the US Supreme Court. In a summary order issued on Tuesday, the high court reversed a 2008 federal appeals court ruling that had required a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Abu-Jamal. The Supreme Court action sends the case back to the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to reconsider the issue in light of a similar decision handed down last week by the high court. In that case, with similar facts, the justices voted 9 to 0 to reverse an order that struck down the death sentence. Tuesday’s action by the Supreme Court likely moves Abu-Jamal significantly cl...

To: President Barack Obama WE THE UNDERSIGNED petition you to speak out against the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all the men, women and children facing execution around the world. This ultimate form of punishment is unacceptable in a civilized society and undermines human dignity. (U.N. General Assembly, Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty, Resolution 62/149, Dec. 18, 2007; reaffirmed, Resolution 63/168, Dec. 18, 2008.) Mr. Abu-Jamal, a renowned black journalist and author, has been on Pennsylvania’s death row for nearly three decades. Even though you do not have direct control over his fate as a state death-row inmate, we ask that you as a moral leader on the world stage call for a global moratorium on the death penalty in his and all capital cases. Mr. Abu-Jamal has become a global symbol, the “Voice of the Voiceless”, in the struggle against capital punishment and human-rights abuses. There are over 20,000 awaiting execution around the globe, with over 3,000 on ...