USA - Pennsylvania. District Attorney Seth Williams announced he will not seek the death penalty against Mumia Abu-Jamal

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced this morning he will not seek the death penalty against Mumia Abu-Jamal. Williams said that he saw no point in triggering another 2 or 3 decades of appeals. "Every reviewing court has found the trial fair and the guilty verdict sound," he said. ". . . Our best remaining option is to let Mr. Abu-Jamal to die in prison." Williams made the announcement at an 11 a.m. press conference at the D.A.'s Office building, with Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, FOP president John McNesby and Faulker's widow, Maureen, in attendance. During a five-minute speech, Maureen Faulker denounced federal judges whose rulings reflect their personal opposition to the death penalty, but said she accepted the district attorney's decision. Williams said he had concluded that prosecutors were not likely to win another death sentence for the 58-year-old convicted murderer in the face of steady opposition from the federal courts. And he said he did not want to put the widow of slain Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner through another sentencing hearing. "The survivors of Officer Faulkner have suffered enough, and the best remaining option is to allow his murderer to die in prison," Williams said in a statement. Abu-Jamal's unyielding supporters said they were not satisfied with the outcome. "This is not an ending, it is a new beginning for the movement supporting Abu-Jamal's quest for release," said a statement on the website FreeMumia.com. A radio reporter and a black activist, Abu-Jamal had been a fierce critic of the Philadelphia police, which he accused of brutality, and his trial, conviction and death sentence turned his case into an international cause celebre. Supporters asserted that he had been framed by police. But over many years and multiple appeals, state and federal courts upheld his guilt for the murder. On Dec. 9, 1981, Faulkner stopped a car driven by William Cook, Abu-Jamal's young brother. Seated in a taxi nearby, Abu-Jamal saw what happened and ran to the scene. Witnesses said he exchanged gunfire with the officer, who was hit multiple times and died at a hospital. Abu-Jamal was struck by a bullet from Faulkner's gun. He was found slumped on a curb, and arrested at the scene. His revolver was found next to him. Federal judges, however, questioned the process that led to his death sentence. Ten years ago, a federal judge said the jury may have been confused over whether it could grant leniency, and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia affirmed that decision in several rulings. On October 11 (see), the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the district attorney's appeal, leaving Williams the option of convening a new jury to weigh a death sentence or accepting the lesser sentence of life in prison without parole for Abu-Jamal. .Abu-Jamal is being held at the state prison in Greene County in Western Pennsylvania. His supporters were elated, but still pressing for more. "The D.A. may think that the case can be laid to rest by sending Mumia off to life in prison," said a statement by We the People, which supports Abu-Jamal and believes he is innocent. "But an aroused public ... is ready to challenge anew the entire trial." Death sentences in Pennsylvania are heavily litigated and rarely carried out. In January, Pennsylvania had 219 murderers on death row, the 4th-highest total among the states. However, only three inmates have been put to death since 1976.