Court: Mumia Deserves New Hearing

[WhiteTara]

Source: AP

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.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iu7PTDiKqmVlPwnGH1mYVrTWha9gD8VLQSTG0

[Ordr]

1. Retry him and prove, again, that he's a murderer.

[noonwitch]

2. He's not getting a new trial, just a new sentencing hearing

If I were him, I'd stick with the life sentence they commuted his dp to a few years back. Now, he could end up on death row again.

[GoneOffShore]

7. And that would not be a bad thing.

[gorbal]

11. Admirable actually, think about it.

So he's basically risking his life to prove a point.

[darue]

3. the racist bastards who conducted the bombing of the MOVE building are liars all

I seriously wouldn't believe a damned thing they say about anything.

[darue]

6. the original judge speaks: "Judge had exclaimed, "Yeah, and I'm going to help them fry the ni**er"

Court stenographer Terri Maurer-Carter stated in a 2001 affidavit that the presiding Judge had exclaimed, "Yeah, and I'm going to help them fry the nigger", in the course of a conversation regarding Abu-Jamal's case.

read-up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Pennsylvania_v._Mumia_Abu-Jamal

[David__77]

4. Those responsible for the massacre of MOVE should be put on trial.

I have no idea whether or not Mumia killed anyone and, if so, whether or not it was self-defense. But I do think that the criminals who conducted the massacre of MOVE members should be brought to justice.

[darue]

5. Kenneth Freeman was most likely the killer

Freeman's handcuffed and naked corpse was discovered in North Philadelphia on the night of the police bombing of the MOVE communal residence in 1985 and neither his name nor the fact of his presence at the crimescene was raised at any stage during the course of the trial and sentencing in 1982.<35> At the time of his death, Daniel Faulkner was in possession of the replacement temporary driver license of Arnold Howard which the latter had recently "loaned" to Freeman for unspecified purposes.

read up here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Pennsylvania_v._Mumia_Abu-Jamal

[darue]

8. clearly the conviction is not "beyond a reasonable doubt" so let him go already! n/t

[DiverDave]

9. Here we go again

the guy did it.

He should never walk, never.

[AP]

10. the issue isn't whether he did it, but what degree it was

IIUC

he was convicted of the most serious, pre-meditated degree of murder.

PENNSYLVANIA CRIMES CODE
PART II. DEFINITION OF SPECIFIC OFFENSES
CHAPTER 25. CRIMINAL HOMICIDE

§ 2501. Criminal homicide.
(a) Offense defined.-A person is guilty of criminal homicide if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently causes the death of another human being.
(b) Classification.-Criminal homicide shall be classified as murder, voluntary manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter.

§ 2502. Murder.
(a) Murder of the first degree.-A criminal homicide constitutes murder of the first degree when it is committed by an intentional killing.
(b) Murder of the second degree.-A criminal homicide constitutes murder of the second degree when it is committed while defendant was engaged as a principal or
an accomplice in the perpetration of a felony.
(c) Murder of the third degree.-All other kinds of murder shall be murder of the third degree. Murder of the third degree is a felony of the first degree.
(d) Definitions.-As used in this section the following words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this subsection:
. . . .
"Intentional killing."
Killing by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing.
"Perpetration of a felony."
The act of the defendant in engaging in or being an accomplice in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing, or attempting to
commit robbery, rape, or deviate sexual intercourse by force or threat of force, arson, burglary or kidnapping.
"Principal."
A person who is the actor or perpetrator of the crime.

[Zhade]

12. Here we go again, indeed - more ignorance from people like you.

Sad.

[durutti]

13. Everyone: Read Killing Time by David Lindorff

The best, fairest account of the case available in English. Bottom line: *at most* Mumia is guilty of manslaughter. More likely, he's guilty of nothing. (This isn't to say that everything any of Mumia's supporters has claimed should be accepted at face value -- Arnold Beverly certainly isn't credible, for one; and Mumia never won a Peabody.) In either case, he should no longer be in prison, let alone awaiting execution.