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 | | | December 19 — Dec. 19 -- It appears a federal judge’s decision to overturn the death sentence of convicted Philadelphia cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal satisfied no one. NBC’s Pete Williams reports. |
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HOWEVER, HIS WRITINGS on the justice system have attracted supporters around the world and have made him a rallying point for death penalty opponents.
On Wednesday, French politicians and activists including National Assembly President Raymond Forni hailed the judge’s action. Abu-Jamal’s lawyers insist he is innocent and complained that the judge should have overturn the murder conviction.
Faulkner’s widow, Maureen, called U.S. District Judge William Yohn “sick and twisted” for issuing his decision Tuesday — only a week before Christmas and a little more than a week after the 20-year anniversary of the murder.
“It’s sad (Yohn) cannot look at this trial and realize that Mumia Abu-Jamal received a fair trial, and was in control of his own destiny,” Faulkner said. “Instead, he wants to play the middle road and try to appease both sides and it doesn’t work.”
Yohn ordered a new sentencing hearing but refused to grant a new trial and rejected all of Abu-Jamal’s other claims, including a purported confession by another man. The judge gave the state six months to either conduct the new hearing or sentence Abu-Jamal to life in prison.
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CALL FOR NEW TRIAL
Abu-Jamal’s supporters said they are relieved the death sentence was lifted, but they still called for a new trial, claiming Abu-Jamal was victimized by a racist justice system.
“The only way it would be a good ruling is if the judge was honest and fair and released Mumia,” said Pam Africa, leader of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. “He’s got enough factual evidence to release Mumia.”
In France, Forni issued a statement saying he was “delighted” by the judge’s action. “I pay homage to (those) who mobilized in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal and I hope that true justice will finally be delivered to him,” the French National Assembly president said.
Earlier this month, Paris City Council named Abu-Jamal an honorary citizen of the French capital, the first person to receive the symbolic title since Pablo Picasso in 1971.
Denmark’s Communist Party Marxist-Leninist issued a statement calling the ruling “a great victory for his supporters.”
PROSECUTOR WILL APPEAL | |
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District Attorney Lynne Abraham said she will appeal. Abu-Jamal “has always been a remorseless, cold-blooded killer,” she said. “We believe that the judge’s decision is legally flawed.”
Both sides observed the 20th anniversary of the shooting on Dec. 9. Faulkner’s supporters dedicated a plaque on the spot where he was gunned down and Abu-Jamal’s supporters held a mass rally at City Hall.
Abu-Jamal, 47, a cab driver and sometime radio reporter, was convicted of shooting Faulkner, 25, after the white officer pulled over Abu-Jamal’s brother. Prosecutors said Abu-Jamal was in his taxi across the street, saw the officer scuffling with his brother and ran toward the scene, shooting Faulkner first in the back and then in the face. Abu-Jamal has said he was shot by police as he ran to the scene and then beaten.
Faulkner was shot several times, and police found Abu-Jamal wounded by a round from Faulkner’s gun. Police also found a .38-caliber revolver registered to Abu-Jamal at the scene with five spent shell casings.
Defense attorneys say the bullet that killed Faulkner cannot be positively traced to the gun.
JURY CONFUSION
Yohn’s ruling had to do with how the jury was told to weigh mitigating and aggravating circumstances in deciding whether to impose the death penalty. | |
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The jury said it had found one aggravating circumstance (the victim was a police officer) and one mitigating factor (Abu-Jamal’s lack of a significant criminal record). In death-penalty cases, each juror is supposed to weigh aggravating factors against mitigating ones to decide if the defendant should be sentenced to death.
Yohn said the jurors should have been able to consider mitigating circumstances even if they did not unanimously agree that such circumstances existed. He said the jury instructions ran counter to a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
“I think what we have is a ruling that is fairly consistent with a number of other decisions this year,” said Larry Frankel, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Philadelphia. “What we have is a fairly common error, and it reinforces our concerns about the fairness of the process in the state court system of Pennsylvania.”
Abu-Jamal exhausted his state appeals two years ago, but a petition filed in September argued that the defense had new evidence to clear him, including a confession from a man named Arnold Beverly. In a 1999 affidavit, Beverly claimed he was hired by the mob to kill Faulkner because the officer had interfered with mob payoffs to police.
Abu-Jamal’s former lawyers, Dan Williams and civil rights attorney Leonard Weinglass, said they thought the confession was not credible, and Yohn refused to order Beverly to testify on Abu-Jamal’s behalf.
© 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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