March 27, 2008

Mumia Abu-Jamal gets death sentence tossed

A federal appeals court has thrown out the death sentence of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Abu-Jamal was convicted of gunning down a Philadelphia police officer in 1982.

The case has attracted international attention stemming from allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

But the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit kept the conviction itself in place.

Prosecutors now have the choice of appealing the sentence reduction to the Supreme Court, while Abu-Jamal can also ask the high court to review his original conviction. If the ruling is not overturned on appeal, federal prosecutors would have to decide whether to conduct a new death penalty sentencing hearing or allow Abu-Jamal to spend the rest of his life behind bars.