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Prosecutor Won't Seek Death Penalty For Mumia Abu-Jamal

One of the highest-profile murder cases in recent decades just took another important turn: "Philadelphia's district attorney announced this morning that he will not continue to seek the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal," WHYY reports.

The decision means Abu-Jamal will "spend the rest of his life in prison for gunning down a white police officer nearly 30 years ago," The Associated Press says.

As Philly.com reminds us, "Abu-Jamal has drawn support from around the world by those who believe he is either innocent, or that his trial was flawed."

In January 2010, Tell Me More spoke with Craig Green, associate professor of Law at Temple University's Beasley School of Law, about the case. He said it's something of a story of two trials:

"One is about a very gruesome death and murder of a police officer in the line of duty, Daniel Faulkner, with very compelling and marshaled evidence against Mumia Abu-Jamal. And on the other hand, it's a trial of the system. There are allegations of police coercion and abuse, racial stacking the jury and racial application of the death penalty."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.