The US Supreme Court has overturned a decision by a lower court in Philadelphia to block the execution of a former "black power" militant. The US Supreme Court has overturned a decision by a lower court in Philadelphia to block the execution of a former "black power" militant.The lower court reversed the death penalty on Mumia Abu-Jamal in March 2008 after finding that the jury had been given flawed instructions.
The ex-Black Panther's conviction for murdering a policeman still stood. The Supreme Court made its ruling after a case in Ohio last week which turned on a similar legal issue. Under the law, jurors do not have to agree unanimously on a mitigating circumstance in a case. The Philadelphia 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the jurors in the Abu-Jamal case had received misleading instructions "as to whether unanimity was required in consideration of mitigating circumstances". Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a similar ruling by a Ohio appeals court in the case of Frank Spisak, a neo-Nazi who killed three people in 1982. The Black Panthers were a revolutionary "black power" group active in the US in the 1960s and 1970s. FOR MORE INFO ON MUMIA CLICK HERE TO GO TO FREEMUMIA.ORG
.
You need to be a member of Ask About L.U.S.T. to add comments!
Join Ask About L.U.S.T.