Philadelphia Dist. Atty. Seth Williams announces that Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther convicted of murdering a policeman in 1981, will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Mumia Abu-Jamal leaves a Philadelphia court in 1995. His supporters, who contend that he was framed by police, said Wednesday they would continue to push for his release.
Former Black Panther and convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal will be spared the death penalty, the Philadelphia district attorney announced, bringing a quiet end to a racially charged case that spanned 30 years.
Seth Williams, the city’s top prosecutor, said Wednesday that Abu-Jamal would spend the rest of his life in prison. He said the “decision to end this fight [over a death sentence] was not an easy one to make” and that he remained convinced that Abu-Jamal was guilty as charged and deserved to die for his crime.
But he said he also had concluded that prosecutors were not likely to win another death sentence for the 57-year-old convicted murderer in the face of steady opposition from the federal courts. And he said he did not want to put the widow of slain Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner through another sentencing hearing.
“The survivors of Officer Faulkner have suffered enough, and the best remaining option is to allow his murderer to die in prison,” Williams said in a statement.
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