On April 26th, the U.S 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the death sentence given to revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1982 was “unconstitutional,” and that prosecutors must either accept a ‘life sentence’ or grant a resentencing hearing within six months.

The ruling is only a small step in the right direction and supporters of Mumia should not at all let up on their commitments to securing justice for him.

    “Mumia was framed and his case was mishandled from the very crime scene, to the trial, to the sentencing and even on to the appellate level,” said an exasperated Zayid Muhammad who has been supporting Mumia’s case for over 20 years.

    “Mumia is innocent. His case was dogged by prosecutorial misconduct from the inception. There is now overwhelming evidence proving his innocence and that’s what we should be dealing with in court,” he continued.

    “Mumia spending the rest of his life in prison is no victory for the forces of justice, and no one should dare accept that,or expect us to accept that because we won’t,” he finished.

    The ruling upholds a 2001 ruling by federal appeals judge William Yohn . No court, however, has yet to reconsider the evidentiary issues that have been developing steadily since 1995.

    Pathetically, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Abraham, the area’s first African American prosecutor, said that they may appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court to have the death sentence reinstated…

THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY

NATIONAL MINISTRY OF CULTURE

PO BOX 25332, NEWARK, NJ 07101

BABAZAYID@YAHOO.COM

973 202 0745*

April 27, 2011