Portal:Philadelphia/Selected biography/September 2007

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Mumia Abu-Jamal is a former Black Panther Party activist, cab driver and local journalist from Philadelphia convicted for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. Mumia Abu-Jamal is serving a presently undefined sentence of imprisonment at State Correctional Institution - Greene near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania for the murder. His original sentence of death was quashed, and resentencing was ordered in December 2001 by a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Both Abu-Jamal and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have appealed the ruling alternately as to the appropriateness of affirming the conviction and the disaffirming of the validity of the original sentence. Abu-Jamal's celebrated case has received international attention. Supporters and some human-rights activists variously assert that he is innocent, that the incident in question was a setup, that he did not receive a fair trial, and/or express their opposition to the administration of the death penalty. Skeptics and opponents, including a very vocal block of Philadelphians who still remember the Faulkner murder, assert that he is guilty, that he received the benefit of due process and was legitimately convicted. Execution proponents among these assert that, under Pennsylvania law, his eventual judicial execution is warranted and mandated by the nature of his crime. The attention received has spawned controversies surrounding references to him in music and naming of public places, as well as his status as a celebrated author, honoree of municipal, educational and civil society organizations, and his engagement as a radio host, writer and commencement speaker in the United States.