High court lets Abu-Jamal's conviction stand

[cali]

Source: Google News


1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mumia Abu-Jamal has lost his bid for a new trial in the killing of a Philadelphia police officer in 1981.

The Supreme Court said Monday it will not take up Abu-Jamal's claims that prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from the jury that convicted him of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction but held his death sentence invalid. The appeals court said it would not second-guess state court rulings rejecting Abu-Jamal's claims of bias in the composition of the jury.

The high court considered only the conviction. The state has separately asked the court to reinstate the death sentence, but the justices have not acted on that request.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iklJiwgcMTe_JfL-f5oslXcQjdqgD97D0QO80

[underpants]

1. Mumia isn't going to go free

[cali]

2. doesn't bother me

the evidence that he killed Faulkner was overwhelming. That said, he may, from what I know, have deserved a new trial.

I've always thought the energy that some on the left put into trying to claim him innocent, was misplaced.

[Tempest]

3. All the energy was in protesting the death sentence

By death penalty activists.

His innocence is still questionable, considering two of the four witnesses have recanted their testimony and one was found to be outright lying (and then disappeared).

[cali]

5. no it wasn't. I was at enough protests where the ANSWER

folks were putting his supposed innocence front and center, to tell you that.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. So of 4 witnesses, two admitted to lying and a third was found to be lying?

Let me guess - the 4th witness was a cop?

[Demit]

4. me either.

If those folks who took up his cause had lived here, lived through the trial, I bet they'd have a different take on the subject. Mumia might be educated and a talented writer and even a victim of racist behavior, but that doesn't automatically make him innocent of this crime.

[NaturalHigh]

7. Good. Now the state should forget about trying to execute him...

and let the dirtbag rot in a miserable little cell and be forgotten. I have never understood why the far left tried to make a hero out of a piece of excrement like this.

[provis99]

8. put Leonard Peltier in that category, too.

[NaturalHigh]

9. Agreed.

I would be fine with letting those two share a cell to cut down on expenses.

[Barrett808]

13. Recommend reading "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse"

The conviction of Peltier relied on suborned testimony:

http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Crazy-Horse-Peter-Matthiessen/dp/0140144560/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239047685&sr=8-1

[DumpDavisHogg]

10. Is this Democratic Underground or Freeper Underground?

From some of the comments here, I wonder if it hasn't become the latter.

DU has become FU.

[cali]

11. Look, Mumia is a murderer

if you think that not supporting him makes someone a freeper, feel free to labor under that delusion.

[bottomtheweaver]

12. I used to think so.

Now I'm not so sure. I'd like to see the case retried. This sucks.

[Xithras]

22. I think he's a murderer AND I would like to see it retried.

I've read the material out there, talked to the Mumia protesters, and am reasonably familiar with the case, and am still fairly certain that he did it. Still, there is NO question that his trial was flawed, that the jury was improperly selected, and that relevant evidence was never brought up. Whether I think the guy is innocent or guilty is irrelevant...he didn't get the fair and impartial trial that anyone deserves in a free society, so he should be retried.

If we can let Ted Stevens off scott free because a prosecutor bent the rules a little, it's hypocrisy to tell Mumia that he shouldn't at least get a new trial for the same thing. I'm fairly sure he'd be re-convicted anyway.

[Psephos]

18. You don't even see the irony of using a suppression tactic like that, do you?

I'm not afraid of someone else's opinions, even if (horrors!) they aren't the same as my own. Actually, I rather relish it.

I sure as hell don't come to DU to be fed a diet of only those posts that meet someone else's approval.

[MrSlayer]

14. Can we please kill this asshole now?

This farce has gone on for almost 30 fucking years. Cook should have been in the grave a long time ago.

[tammywammy]

15. Agreed n/t

[cali]

16. not what I want to see happen. I'm glad he won't be put to death

I don't support the DP.

[bottomtheweaver]

17. Kinda funny the timing,

right after those cops were shot in Pittsburgh. Coincidence I'm sure.

[Nye Bevan]

19. This guy is one reason I oppose the death penalty

When he was on death row the drama was never-ending. Appeal after appeal, concerts being held by his defenders, the melodramatic books of "poems from death row", etc.- he was milking his death sentence for all it was worth and I was sick of hearing about him.

Much better we just lock up the murdering scumbag for the rest of his life and throw away the key.

[AngryAmish]

20. Free Mumia

[Seeking Serenity]

21. Hey, that's great. Where?

'Cause I'm payin' $1.99 a gallon for Mumia down here.