PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A federal judge on
Tuesday threw out the death sentence imposed
nearly two decades ago on Mumia Abu-Jamal,
revered by supporters worldwide as a crusader
against racial injustice but reviled by others as an
unrepentant cop-killer.

U.S. District Judge William Yohn cited problems
with the jury charge and verdict form in the trial
that ended with the former journalist and Black
Panther's first-degree murder conviction in the
death of a Philadelphia police officer. The judge
denied all of Abu-Jamal's other claims and refused
his request for a new trial.

The judge said jurors should have been able to
consider mitigating circumstances during
sentencing even if they did not unanimously
agree those circumstances existed.

Yohn ordered the state to either conduct a new sentencing hearing within 180 days or
sentence Abu-Jamal to life imprisonment.

The ruling could be appealed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

``I'm angry, outraged, and disgusted,'' said officer Daniel Faulkner's widow, Maureen
Faulkner. ``I think Judge Yohn is a sick and twisted person, after sitting on this case
for two years and making this decision just before Christmas. He wants to play the
middle road and try to appease both sides and it doesn't work.''

Lawyers for Abu-Jamal, 47, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Abu-Jamal, perhaps America's most famous death-row inmate, was convicted of
shooting Faulkner, 25, during the early-morning hours of Dec. 9, 1981, after the officer
pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother who was driving the wrong way down a one-way
street.

A scuffle ensued and Abu-Jamal, who was sitting in his taxicab across the street, ran
over. Prosecutors said Abu-Jamal drew his .38-caliber revolver and fired, hitting the
officer in the back. They said Faulkner turned and fired, hitting Abu-Jamal in the chest,
and Abu-Jamal then shot Faulkner in the face.

Abu-Jamal has said he was shot by police as he ran to the scene and then beaten.

Abu-Jamal's book, ``Live From Death Row,'' describes prison life and argues the justice
system is racist and ruled by political expediency. His jailhouse writings attract
supporters around the world, and his effort to win a new trial becomes a rallying point
for death penalty opponents.

Abu-Jamal exhausted the state appeals process two years ago, but a petition filed in
September he argued that the defense had new evidence to clear him, including a
confession by a man named Arnold Beverly. A judge ruled in November that she did
not have jurisdiction, scuttling his hopes for another round of state court appeals.

In a 1999 affidavit, Beverly claimed he was hired by the mob to kill Faulkner because
the officer had interfered with mob payoffs to police.

Abu-Jamal's former lawyers, Leonard Weinglass and Daniel R. Williams, said they
thought the confession was not credible and Yohn refused to order Beverly to testify
on Abu-Jamal's behalf.