Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence Overturned

Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence Overturned: Jury
Instruction Confusing, District Court Rules, Shannon P.
Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer
Although supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal are lauding U.S. District
Judge William H. Yohn Jr.’s decision to overturn Abu-Jamal’s death
sentence, the decision comes as a major setback in his case, says
Shannon P. Duffy of The Legal Intelligencer.
Abu-Jamal, a journalist convicted of killing a Philadelphia police
officer in 1981, submitted a petition citing 29 different arguments
for a new trial. Of those 29 claims, only one — that the jury
received faulty instructions on how to deliberate his penalty —
was accepted. As a result, Abu-Jamal will receive new sentencing
but not a new trial. Abu-Jamal is the third Pennsylvania death-row
inmate to win a new sentencing hearing this year on the basis of
jury instructions, set forth in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision
in Mills v. Maryland.
–Kate Garsombke
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