Breaking: Fed Court rules Mumia Abu-Jamal can not be executed without a new penalty hearing

[RB TexLa]

Court: Mumia deserves new hearing

By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago

PHILADELPHIA - 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.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080327/ap_on_re_us/mumia_abu_jamal_3