Criminal Justice
Abu-Jamal: I’m off death row, surprised by DA move
Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal said Monday that he was surprised and somewhat disappointed that he did not get a new sentencing hearing in the racially charged murder case that had kept him on death row for nearly 30 years. Last week’s decision by prosecutors to drop their bid for capital punishment meant Abu-Jamal received an [...]
Widow OKs no death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Maureen Faulkner waited nearly 30 years for her husband’s murderer to be executed. But following a seemingly endless cycle of legal appeals, she said she realized it would never happen. On Wednesday, Faulkner gave her blessing to the decision by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams to stop pursuing the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose [...]
Death penalty dropped against Mumia Abu-Jamal
Prosecutors on Wednesday abandoned their 30-year pursuit of the execution of convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther whose claim that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause celebre. Abu-Jamal, 58, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison. His writings and radio broadcasts [...]
1965 shooting shows pitfalls of closing old cases
On a late-fall evening 46 years ago, gunfire shattered the revelry at a nameless juke joint in this rural crossroads. When the smoke cleared, Joseph Robert McNair, a black father of six, lay at the feet of the community’s white constable. That McNair was dead, and that Luther Steverson had killed him are about the [...]
Grover Norquist, Rod Paige to join NAACP in calling for reduced incarceration
David Keene, former Chairman of the American Conservative Union, and Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, will join a group of bipartisan leaders April 7th to speak about the NAACP’s upcoming report, “Misplaced Priorities: Under Educate, Over Incarcerate”. The report examines escalating levels of prison spending and its impact on state budgets and [...]
