Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence thrown out
This is interesting – Mumia’s plight was one of the early incidents that raised my hackles – my brother gave me a VCD for my 17th birthday, I think, that was all about Mumia – and I was hooked. From that conciousness-raising, I’ve gone onto other things, but that was the start, really.
And while this doesn’t mean he’ll be set free,
“Should the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania not have conducted a new sentencing hearing … the Commonwealth shall sentence petitioner to life imprisonment,” the judge said in his 272-page ruling.
, which I still feel is better. And this is apparently continuing a trend away from the death sentence since 11.9.2001 – I can’t remember where I read it (please send the link if you have it), but several states have commuted sentences, and looked at their legislation with regards to the death penalty.