HOLDING OUT HOPE

Writer in Prison for 45 Years Seeks UN Help to End His Life Sentence

The former Black Panther has maintained his innocence nearly 45 years after his conviction.

Black activist and writer Mumia Abu-Jamal has filed a petition with the United Nations to free him from his life sentence after exhausting all other legal avenues. The 72-year-old co-founder of the Philadelphia Black Panther chapter and former president of Philadelphia’s Association of Black Journalists was convicted in 1982 of murdering a police officer. He was driving his cab when he spotted his brother, William Cook, being detained by Officer David Faulkner. A shootout occurred, and Abu-Jamal was shot in the chest. The journalist spent 28 years on death row, but was later sentenced to life without parole after his original conviction was found to be unconstitutional. He says several elements of his trial were unjust, including an allegedly prejudiced judge, who was allegedly overheard using the N-slur and saying, “I’m going to help them fry.” Abu-Jamal says new evidence of the state’s main eyewitness, Robert Chobert, was shared with his defense team in 2018, including Chobert claiming he was promised money for his testimony. The UN has no direct enforcement powers to end Abu-Jamal’s sentence but his lawyers are hoping that condemnation from the world body would pressure authorities to support a retrial or a commutation of his sentence. “Hope is an element of struggle,” the former Black Panther said to The Guardian in an interview, further highlighting his struggles in prison. “The state creates a system of solitary confinement for people on death row to dehumanize them to the people who love them.”