Mumia Abu-Jamal

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court put aside Federal Judge William Yohn's 2001 ruling lifting Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence and reversed Yohn's order for a new sentencing hearing. The Supreme Court demanded the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reconsider its 2008 ruling upholding Yohn's. The Circuit Court wrote, "The verdict form together with the jury instructions were misleading as to whether unanimity was required in consideration of mitigating circumstances" (Huffington Post, Jan. 19, 2010). Mumia allegedly killed police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

Judge Yohn could reconsider three other lines of appeal, all mooted and unresolved by him when he threw out Mumia's death sentence: 1) that Mumia had incompetent legal representation by his lawyer at his original trial; 2) that Mumia's First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when the prosecution tried to vilify him by bringing up Mumia's teenage membership in the Black Panthers and taking out of context Mumia's statement about misuse of police power during that period, to make him seem like a cop-hater; 3) that prosecutor Joseph McGill's closing arguments improperly attempted to lessen jurors' sense of responsibility in deciding whether Mumia should be put to death.

To support Mumia, see International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal: www.freemumia.com. Sign a petition to Pres. Obama to outlaw the death penalty for Mumia and internationally at www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition-sign.html.

--E. Barclay

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