U.S. Supreme Court Rejects New Trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Abu-Jamal was serving as the president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists at the time of his arrest. He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Black Panther Party as a teenager. The Black Panther Party was a Leftist African-American organization from the 1960s and 70s established to promote black power and self-defense.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court Monday refused to hear arguments for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther accused of killing a police officer who has become an icon for anti-capital punishment campaigners.

His lawyer Robert Bryan has already said he will seek to bring a second Supreme Court appeal — on the grounds of racism — for the 54-year-old former radio journalist accused of the 1981 murder of Daniel Faulkner.

Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was overturned in March by a federal court in Philadelphia, which found that the jury in the case had been incorrectly instructed. The judges voted two-to-one to uphold his conviction, however.

Having escaped death row, his lawyers are now fighting a life sentence and want to bring him back before a jury for a new trial.

They had asked the Supreme Court to approve a re-trial because of unreliable testimony from witnesses.

Bryan has said he will not rest until his client is freed. “Even though the federal court granted a new trial on the question of the death penalty, we want a complete reversal of the conviction,” he said in July.

As part of his defense, Abu-Jamal has argued he was denied a fair trial in…

Posted by ShiftShapers
Warning: Anyone who takes this blog seriously will be shot. Anyone who does not take it seriously will be buried alive by a Mitsubishi bulldozer. Welcome to (A)utonomous Resistance, GNN’s exclusive one-stop infoshop for radical resources and information....

RELATED ITEMS

• BREAKING! US Supreme Court Rejects Mumia Abu-Jamal's PCRA appeal
  Posted by hbjournalist on Monday, October 6th 2008
• Jury of Peers? (Mumia’s message to CR10)
  Posted by hbjournalist on Friday, September 26th 2008