From the office of attorney Robert Bryan, lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal...:

Mumia Abu-Jamal Gets New Judicial Review

Robert Bryan

Dear Friends and Supporters:

Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
issued the most important decision affecting my client, Mumia Abu-
Jamal, since the lower federal court ruling in December 2001. An
order was issued this morning that the court will accept for review
the following issues, all of which are of enormous constitutional
significance and go to the very essence of Mumia's right to a fair
trial due process of law, and equal protection of the law under the
Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution:
Claim 14 : Whether appellant was denied his constitutional rights
due to the prosecution's trial summation.

Claim 16 : Whether the Commonwealth's use of peremptory challenges
at trial violated appellant's constitutional rights under Batson v.
Kentucky , 476 U.S. 79 (1986).

Claim 29 : Whether appellant was denied due process during post-
conviction proceedings as a result of alleged judicial bias.

Claim 16 concerns the prosecutorial use of racism in jury
selection. The record establishes beyond question that racism is a
major thread that has run through this case since Mumia's 1981
arrest, and continues to today. Claim 14 relates to the guilt
phase. It includes the prosecutor's argument that if convicted Mumia
would have "appeal after appeal." That comment effectively lessened
the burden of the jurors, and turned the concept of reasonable doubt
and presumption of innocence on its head. Claim 29 is about the bias
and incredible racism of Judge Albert Sabo, the trial
judge. Unfortunately, it is limited to his conduct at the 1995
evidentiary (PCRA) hearing, rather than his monstrous behavior at
trial. This restriction is because all of the prior attorneys
mistakenly did not attack Sabo's misconduct at trial, an unfortunate
oversight and mistake.

The court has also issued a briefing schedule. The case is now on
the fast track, as I have been predicting. The opening briefs are
due to be filed by January 17, 2006.

Please post this e-mail and the attached Order on your web sites,
and circulate it.

Today we achieved a great victory in the campaign to win a new trial
and the eventual freedom of Mumia.

Your support, and activism, is badly needed and appreciated.

With best wishes,

Robert R. Bryan

2088 Union Street, Suite 4

San Francisco , California 94123

Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal

PS the order also grants the Prosecutions request to hear claim 25,
which was the claim which Judge Yohn used to suspend Mumia's death
sentence. Obviously the prosecution is seeking the reimposition of
that sentence.

Mumia is Innocent! Stop the Frame Up! Free Mumia!

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC,
P.O. Box 16,
College Station, NY, NY 10030

212-330-8029,
Web: www.FreeMumia.com, Email: info@FreeMumia.com