Court hears latest Mumia Abu-Jamal appeal

Story Highlights

• Ex-radio personality Mumia Abu-Jamal has another appeal hearing
• Abu-Jamal off death row for 1981 shooting death of Officer Daniel Faulkner
• His case has become an international cause celebre
• The former Black Panther says race played a role in his conviction

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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Two hundred supporters of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal protested outside a federal appeals court Thursday as lawyers challenged his 1982 conviction for the killing of a police officer.

Abu-Jamal has built a global following from prison through his politically charged writings and recorded speeches.

Actors, writers, death-penalty opponents and activists have rallied behind his claim of innocence over the years.

At the courthouse Thursday, Marcus Shell, 35, said Abu-Jamal didn't get a fair trial because of who he was -- "a former Black Panther, the voice of the voiceless."

"Mumia represents a lot of blacks locked up in prison today," Shell said.

Abu-Jamal, 53, a former radio reporter, was convicted of shooting police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

Faulkner had pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in a traffic stop when Abu-Jamal, according to witnesses, ran to the scene from his taxi and shot the 26-year-old officer repeatedly. Abu-Jamal was shot once, apparently by the downed patrolman.

A federal judge in 2001 threw out his death sentence, citing improper jury instructions, but upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction. Both sides are appealing.

Abu-Jamal's lawyer Robert R. Bryan planned to argue that prosecutors improperly rejected a large number of potential black jurors and that the trial judge was racially biased.

Philadelphia prosecutors say the evidence against Abu-Jamal is overwhelming. They will ask the appeals panel to reinstate the death sentence.

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