"APPEASEMENT" : IL FAUT SURTOUT MENAGER LES MUZZ !
Murdered cop's widow OKs dropping death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Maureen Faulkner calls judges who overturned sentence "dishonest cowards"
Thursday, December 8 2011
PHILADELPHIA — Maureen Faulkner waited nearly 30 years for her husband’s murderer to be executed. But following a seemingly endless cycle of legal appeals, she said she realized it would never happen.
On Wednesday, Faulkner gave her blessing to the decision by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams to stop pursuing the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose claim that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause celebre.
The 57-year-old former Black Panther convicted of gunning down white police Officer Daniel Faulkner will now spend the rest of his life in prison, without the possibility of parole.
“My family and I have endured a three-decade ordeal at the hands of Mumia Abu-Jamal, his attorneys and his supporters, who in many cases never even took the time to educate themselves about the case before lending their names, giving their support and advocating for his freedom,” Maureen Faulkner said. “All of this has taken an unimaginable physical, emotional and financial toll on each of us.”
Williams, the city’s first black district attorney, announced the decision two days short of the 30th anniversary of the patrolman’s death. Williams said that “it is time to put this case to rest, for the good of the city of Philadelphia and, most importantly, the family of Daniel Faulkner.”
“Another penalty proceeding would open the case to the repetition of the state appeals process and an unknowable number of years of federal review again, even if we were successful,” the district attorney said.
Abu-Jamal was originally sentenced to death. His murder conviction was upheld through years of appeals. But in 2008, a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing on the grounds that the instructions given to the jury were potentially misleading.
After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in two months ago, prosecutors were forced to decide whether to pursue the death penalty again or accept a life sentence without parole.
Widener University law professor Judith Ritter, who represented Abu-Jamal in recent appeals, welcomed the move.
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