By MaryClaire Dale
Associated Press
Friday, May 18, 2007

PHILADELPHIA, May 17 -- Lawyers for former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal argued in an appeals court Thursday that racism by a judge and prosecutors corrupted the 1982 trial at which he was condemned for killing a white police officer.

Abu-Jamal, 53, once a radio reporter, has attracted a legion of artists and activists to his cause in a quarter-century on death row, and hundreds protested outside the courthouse.

Their chants could sometimes be heard inside, where a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit explored defense claims of racial bias and flawed jury instructions.

"If there's one thread that runs through this case, it's racism," Abu-Jamal's attorney, Robert R. Bryan, said afterward.

A federal judge overturned Abu-Jamal's death sentence in 2001 but upheld his conviction. Both sides are appealing that order. Prosecutors want the sentence reinstated while Abu-Jamal seeks a new trial.

The appeals panel is weighing three issues: whether the trial judge was racially biased, whether the judge erred in instructing jurors on the death penalty, and whether the prosecution preferred white jurors to black jurors.

Bryan charged that prosecutors at the time fostered a "culture of discrimination" against African Americans that the Philadelphia district attorney's office still tries to conceal.

Ten whites and two African Americans served on the jury that convicted Abu-Jamal. Prosecutors struck 10 African Americans and five whites from the pool, while accepting four blacks and 20 whites, Bryan said.

But the judges suggested they needed to know the racial makeup of the 150-person jury pool before they could determine whether the selection had been biased.

No such record exists.

Prosecutor Hugh J. Burns Jr. argued that Abu-Jamal did not raise some of the appellate issues at the 1995 hearing, making it difficult for him to defend the challenges now.

The jury convicted Abu-Jamal of killing Officer Daniel Faulkner, 25, after the patrolman pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother, William Cook. Prosecutors call the evidence against Abu-Jamal overwhelming. Most important, Abu-Jamal had been shot -- by Faulkner, prosecutors say -- and was still at the scene when police arrived.