WASHINGTON - A US federal appeals court has overturned the death sentence passed against human rights campaigner Mumia Abu-Jamal, while upholding his conviction for the murder of a police officer.
In a split decision, the three-member Philadelphia appeals court ruled that Abu-Jamal, a former radio journalist and member of the Black Panthers, should face a new sentencing hearing or have his sentence commuted to life in jail.
Abu-Jamal, born Wesley Cook, was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer the year before.
While in jail, he became a leading campaigner against the death penalty.
The Sunday Times-The South African Press Reporting.
His death sentence overturned by a US appeals court in Philadelphia yesterday, but his bid for a new trial was rejected.
The appeals court, in a 2-1 decision, disagreed, however. Its judges noted that Abu-Jamal's trial lawyers did not object at the time to the seating of the jury.
But his lawyers won a reversal of the death sentence on the grounds that jurors might have been confused by one aspect of the jury instructions. They were told they could weigh "any mitigating circumstances" as reason to spare his life.
But the judges worried that jurors may have thought that all 12 of them had to agree on a particular mitigating circumstance. For example, jurors were told that Abu-Jamal had significant prior criminal record and that he had been a journalist and activist.
The Supreme Court had overturned a death sentence in a 1988 case from Maryland because of the possibility jurors were confused on this point. Applying that logic to this case, the judges said there was "a reasonable likelihood" the jurors believed they all had to agree on a mitigating factor before they could use it to spare Abu-Jamal's life.
Globe Newspaper Company
What this means is that the third circuit court of appeals has ruled against a new trial
for Mumia Abu-Jamal. They have called for a sentencing hearing
which can result in either an execution or life in prison without parole.
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