Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal request continued

PHILADELPHIA – Arguments in a request by former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal (moo-MEE’-ah AH’-boo jah-MAHL’) to have his previous appeals vacated have been postponed.

The district attorney’s office turned over a document Monday that the defence says could show State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille was personally involved in the case. The judge Thursday ordered the parties to continue searching for additional documents before he hears arguments in October.

Lawyers for the former Black Panther, who spent 29 years on death row following his conviction in the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner, are petitioning to throw out the previous appeals to file a new appeal.

The defence has said Castille should have recused himself. When Castille was Philadelphia district attorney, his office succeeded in getting the state Supreme Court to uphold Abu-Jamal’s conviction.