Former Black Panther and award-winning journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner but has always maintained his innocence. On Thursday, a Philadelphia judge ruled Abu-Jamal can reargue his appeal in the case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The judge cited then-Chief Justice Ronald Castille’s failure to recuse himself from the case due to his prior role as Philadelphia district attorney when Abu-Jamal was appealing. We get an update from Johanna Fernandez, professor of history at Baruch College-CUNY and one of the coordinators of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. She has been in the courtroom for much of this case and is the editor of “Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal.”
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with an update on a major development that could be the path to freedom for former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, the award-winning journalist who was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner but has always maintained his innocence.
On Thursday, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge ruled Mumia Abu-Jamal can reargue his appeal in the case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court because then-Chief Justice Ronald Castille failed to excuse himself from the case due to his prior role as Philadelphia district attorney when Abu-Jamal was appealing his case. Abu-Jamal’s lawyers argued that statements Castille made about people accused of killing police officers indicated he should have recused himself. They cited campaign speeches and letters he wrote that called for the death penalty in such cases.
Abu-Jamal spent nearly three decades on death row before his sentence in the shooting death of officer Daniel Faulkner was thrown out over flawed jury instructions. Prosecutors then agreed, in 2011, to a sentence of life without parole. Judge Tucker’s decision on Thursday was split, because he denied Abu-Jamal’s claim that…