2/07/11
LDF Joins Mumia Abu-Jamal Defense Team
(New York, NY) --On January
28, 2011, Mumia Abu-Jamal retained the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, Inc. (LDF) to represent him in the ongoing appeal of his capital murder
conviction and death sentence. LDF will serve as co-counsel in the case
with Judy Ritter, Esq., of Widener Law School in Wilmington, Delaware, who has
represented Mr. Abu-Jamal since 2003.
Mr. Abu-Jamal is the
world’s best known death-row prisoner. His case has attracted attention
from around the world and he is widely viewed as a symbol of the racial
injustices of the death penalty.
“Mumia Abu-Jamal’s
conviction and death sentence are relics of a time and place that was notorious
for police abuse and racial discrimination,” said John Payton, Director-Counsel
of LDF. “Unless and until courts acknowledge and correct these historic
injustices, death sentences like Mr. Abu-Jamal’s will invite continued
skepticism of the criminal justice system by the African American community.”
Mr. Abu-Jamal is on death
row in Pennsylvania for the 1981 murder of a police officer in
Philadelphia. His death sentence was vacated in 2001 after the Federal
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found constitutional
error in the jury instructions and verdict form used in his 1982 penalty
phase. That decision was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit in 2008 but then sent back to the Third Circuit by the
United States Supreme Court in 2010 for further review.
Christina Swarns, Director
of LDF’s Criminal Justice Project explained that, “LDF seeks to sweep the grave
injustices embodied in this case into the dustbin of history and, in so doing,
give communities of color reason to believe that they can and will receive
equal justice in Pennsylvania courtrooms.”
Mr. Abu-Jamal’s appeal is
currently pending before the Third Circuit. http://naacpldf.org/press-release/ldf-joins-mumia-abu-jamal-defense-team
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