Mumia Abu-Jamal Trial: 1982

Jury deliberations on Friday, July 2, took less than six hours. Mumia Abu-Jamal was found guilty. The next day, as the jury considered whether to impose the death sentence or life imprisonment without parole, the prosecution reviewed his Black Panther experience 12 years earlier. The jury was read a newspaper interview published when he was 16 that included his quoting Mao Tse-tung of the People's Republic of China: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." The jury deliberated for an hour and 53 minutes, and sentenced Abu-Jamal to death.

Since 1982, Abu-Jamal has been on death row while the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected two applications for a new trial; civil disobedience rallies have been held from Philadelphia to San Francisco; prominent writers and artists have spoken out on his behalf; National Public Radio had scheduled him to comment on prison life and crime issues on its All Things Considered and then backed off; worldwide opponents of the death penalty have engaged in protests; Abu-Jamal has received honorary citizenships in Copenhagen and Palermo and an honorary law degree in California; donations to support his legal fees have mounted to well over $200,000; prominent attorneys have taken up his cause; he has written and published several books and numerous essays; and the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to grant him a writ of habeas corpus or consider his appeal.

In October 1999, to give defense and prosecution lawyers time to prepare arguments for a new trial, U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. suspended a death warrant that had set Abu-Jamal's execution for December 2.