Pennsylvania seeks death penalty for Mumia
2004 2004-07The page as the paper published it (Wayback Machine) →
From the paper's own web edition, recovered from the Internet Archive: the text as the paper put it online, not machine-read. The printed issue of July 2004 is not held.
On June 29, 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit lifted its stay in regard to consideration of any material in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The court had been awaiting a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Beard v. Banks, which could have resulted in the reinstatement of the death penalty against Mumia.
Indeed, while Mumia's attorney Robert R. Bryan told Socialist Action that "the decision in Banks clearly does not effect Mumia's case and the death penalty does not apply," state prosecutors in Pennsylvania have taken the opposite position, arguing that Mumia is now subject to the death penalty.
Both sides have been given 30 days to submit briefs on this single issue.
Following a determination, Bryan will additionally submit Mumia's appeal of the 2001 U.S. District Court of Appeals decision regarding racist jury selection practices and later, additional appeals of the District Court's rulings on a wide range of issues.
The article above first appeared in the July 2004 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.