News about Mumia Abu-Jamal

If the appeal goes well, it will bring convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, 68, back to the streets after more than 40 years in jail following the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981. Skirting a death sentence in the intervening years through a series of appeals, the case, although contentious, has come to show for several ways how the appellate court system can be detrimental to crime victims. Abu-Jamal's trial, despite being found guilty of the murder in 1982, has since been held on life without parole, much to Faulkner's widow and proponents of the death penalty, four years ago, when officials in the Philadelphia district attorney's office discovered evidence that the ex-radical may have been framed. The development has polarized an already polarizing situation, with up-and-coming Pennsylvania senator Dr. Mehmet Oz allegedly supporting Abu-Jamal's release during a partisan debate on Tuesday.