Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on death row since 1983 (INQUIRER PHOTO)

Why does it take so long?

Why do cases such as Mumia Abu-Jamal's drag endlessly through the courts? It's nearly 20 years.

Is U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. - considering Abu-Jamal's latest appeal since 1999 - working at a pace his last name suggests?

And will Abu-Jamal firing his lawyers lead to more delays?

One would think both sides of Philly's most famous murder case want resolution. Those who think Abu-Jamal's a victim want to set him free. Those who think he's a killer want to make him pay with his life.

He was tried in 1982 for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. He was convicted, sentenced to death May 25, 1983. He's been on death row since. Coming up on 18 years.

In the United States, where 85 people were put to death last year, 19 so far this year, the average time from sentencing to execution is 9.5 years, says the Center for Death Penalty Information in Washington.

In Pennsylvania, where there are 241 death-row inmates, the average stay is 8.7 years, according to state officials.

Abu-Jamal, clearly, is not average.

But numbers don't tell the full story. Averages are low because the system constantly feeds new fish to death row, here and nationally. And in Pennsylvania, the death penalty's been carried out just three times since 1962.

Cases like Abu-Jamal's? Forget it. There is none. The smooth, articulate author and college graduation speaker is like no other inmate. He's a cause with an international following, an image of racial injustice.

Trial evidence says he's a murderer. Supporters say cops, judge and jury were loaded against him. And it all crawls along.

Legally, he's exhausted state appeals and been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. His plea for a new trial sits in the federal system.

When it went there in late 1999, lawyers expected district court action by spring 2000. There has been none.

I called Judge Yohn yesterday. A law clerk, after checking, said the judge "would not be able to comment."

Why? "Because the case is pending before him."

Ah.

I talked with another federal judge to whom I promised anonymity. The judge said Abu-Jamal's case, because of its national and international implications, would make any judge "super-careful."

Also, there are layers of issues (29 constitutional questions wrapped around race, judicial and police conduct) to be dealt with individually before the case as a whole can be judged on its merits.

Plus, it's not the only case pending.

Is Yohn a snoozer?

Not according to those who know him. Princeton, Yale Law. Decade in the Legislature, then the Montgomery County bench. Appointed to the federal bench by the first President Bush in 1991.

"Thoughtful, able, a first-class judge," said one judicial insider.

Meanwhile, Abu-Jamal's fired his New York lawyers, Leonard Weinglass and Dan Williams, for "conflict of interest" over a coming book supportive of him but not of those behind the pro-Abu-Jamal movement.

Weinglass yesterday confirmed he's off the case. When I asked why, he said, "I'm not going to get into it."

There seems little doubt firing counsel means more delay. Why? And how to explain it all?

Temple law professor Edward Ohlbaum: "How do you explain any of this stuff? In this case there are bumper stickers and soundbites. But these are serious questions, they require serious answers."

Asked to name a high-profile case with as long a history, Ohlbaum said, "Name another police shooting in which the defendant is published in the Yale Law Review?"

In other words, the case is unique, so expect its resolution to be unique.

Not that Abu-Jamal sits alone. There are seven other state inmates on death row since 1983, three since 1982 and one - Philadelphia's Leslie Beasley, convicted of killing two cops - since 1981.

Abu-Jamal probably still has years of appeals.

Why does it take so long? Because our system allows it. Because the case is so high-profile. Because even other cases that don't get attention take as long or longer.