US: Top Attorney Removes Block to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Appeal

The top lawyer in the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, United States has announced that his office will reverse its decision to stop the journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal from re-arguing his case.

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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Wednesday his office would no longer oppose a bid by imprisoned former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal to reargue his appeal case.

Krasner had previously tried to prevent this via an appeal on another judge’s ruling in January 2019 that had given Mumia the right to reargue his case before the court on the basis that the previous judge overseeing it was not impartial and should have recused himself.

Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, who ruled over Mumia’s appeal, had been the District Attorney (DA) at the time of Mumia’s initial case. According to Mumia’s lawyers, Castille, when he was DA, had had “personal significant involvement” in the Mumia’s original case from 1981 in which he was tried for the murder of a police officer and convicted to death.

The right to appeal was ruled on by Judge Leon Tucker who found sufficient evidence that Judge Castille should recuse have recused himself from Mumia's case, but also ruled that there was not enough evidence for the “personal significant involvement” claim by Mumi's lawyers

Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther Party member, well-known journalist, and activist was convicted in 1982 for the alleged murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Prosecutors claimed that the murder occurred when Mumia saw Faulkner stopping and questioning his brother William Cook. Abu-Jamal allegedly ran towards the officer shooting.

Police came to the crime scene and found Faulkner and Abu-Jamal bleeding. They took Mumia to the hospital and detained him immediately afterward.

Several people have testified against him, claiming he’s the man they saw shooting Faulker. Some have said they saw a third man shooting and running. Others have confessed to the murder, saying they were acting as hit men for the police, who commissioned them to get rid of Faulker for interfering with corrupt businesses.

Mumia, now 64 years old, was on death row between 1982 and 2011 when prosecutors called off the capital punishment case against him due to flawed jury instructions. They instead decided on a life sentence.