Federal Judge Blocks Execution of Ex-Black Panther Abu-Jamal

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge issued a stay of execution Tuesday for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther and radio journalist who was scheduled to die Dec. 2 for killing a Philadelphia policeman 18 years ago.

U.S. District Judge William Yohn Jr. granted the indefinite stay, 13 days after Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas J. Ridge signed Abu-Jamal’s death warrant, according to a statement from Leonard Weinglass, the lead attorney for Abu-Jamal’s defense team.

Abu-Jamal’s lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court after the death warrant was signed in an attempt to get their client a new trial. Yohn said he needed time to study the 29 separate issues of constitutional violations raised in the petition.

“It is our hope . . . we will have the opportunity to present the facts concerning this case in a neutral and fair courtroom,” Weinglass said in the defense statement.

Abu-Jamal, who has written books from prison about the U.S. judicial system, was convicted of killing Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia in December 1981 while Faulkner was trying to arrest Abu-Jamal’s brother during a traffic stop.