Datum: Dienstag, 19. Januar 2010 22:21
Dear All: United State Supreme Court
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court issued the long-awaited ruling in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, which we have been litigating for 15 months. The decision was as we expected. Mumia’s case has been sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, for further proceedings consistent with the decision last weak in another case: „The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for further consideration in light of Smith v. Spisak, 558 U.S. ___ (2010).“
The decision is not bad and was unavoidable in view of the Spisak case ruling. Now we must resume litigating the issue of the death penalty in the lower federal court. It previous ruled that the trial judge misled the jury and thus Mumia was entitled to a new jury trial on the issue of death or life. That is still the issue. What occurred in Mumia’s case is different both procedurally and factually from the jury instructions in Spisak. The prosecution disagrees. Soon I will be posting more information on our website: http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org. That may be checked regularly for updated information. Petition for President Barack Obama It is crucial for people to sign the petition for President Barack Obama regarding Mumia, which is in 10 languages („Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty“). Please circulate the petition as widely as possible and, of course, sign. The link is: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html. Over 8,000 people, mostly from Germany, have signed in the few days since we launched the petition. These include: Günter Grass, Germany (Nobel Prize in Literature); Bishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize); Danielle Mitterrand, Paris (former First Lady of France); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor; Mike Farrell (actor); and Michael Radford (director of the Oscar winning film Il Postino). There is also a Facebook page for Mumia and our work to save him:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=407654295516&ref=mf Conclusion Mumia remains on death row under a death judgment. He is in greater danger than at any time since his arrest over 28 years ago. The prosecution has said it will continue pursuing his execution. I win cases, and will not let them kill Mumia.
Yours very truly, Robert R. BryanLaw Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal