Mumia Abu-Jamal Denied by Court Again
March 26, 2025: Pennsylvania Supreme Court denies Mumia Abu-Jamal permission to appeal
In September 2024 the Pennsylvania Superior Court denied Mumia Abu-Jamal’s sixth Pennsylvania petition to reverse his 1982 conviction. A request to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for permission to appeal was denied on March 26, 2025. [In Pennsylvania, an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is not a right; a specific request for “allowance” (permission) is required.] This denial by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ends Mumia’s Pennsylvania court challenge to overturn his conviction.
Judge Lucretia Clemons presided over Mumia’s case since December 2021 and, without a hearing, issued a denial on March 31, 2023. This sixth petition was based on corroborative new evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, Brady violations, for undisclosed inducements given to witnesses Cynthia While and Robert Chobert; and new evidence of racial bias in jury selection, a Batson violation.
That sixth petition did not include the substantial evidence already in the record from the evidentiary hearings before the infamous Judge Albert Sabo from 1995-97; or the voluminous new discovered proof of Mumia’s innocence and the falsification of evidence against him by the police and prosecution, which was presented to the Pennsylvania and Federal courts in filings from 2001–2003.
None of that new evidence of innocence was considered by the courts—all those filings were dismissed on grounds that they were “not timely filed.” Yet, none of the evidence discovered from 1995-2003 was included in the sixth petition to make the required legal argument that new evidence in the sixth petition presented in 2021 was “material” and grounds to reverse Mumia’s conviction.
Mumia’s arrest, conviction and death sentence were politically motivated and racially biased. The evidence uncovered over the decades following his conviction is proof that Mumia is innocent and framed. Future advocacy and action, as well as new legal challenges to win Mumia’s freedom must be rooted in the understanding that Mumia is innocent and framed with the complicity of the Philadelphia police, prosecution, Pennsylvania courts and the FBI/U.S. Attorney’s office.
Rachel Wolkenstein continues to be legal advocate for Mumia since 1987. She was co-counsel 1995-1999 during the proceedings of his first Post-Conviction Relief Act petition (PCRA) petition; attorney in charge of the evidentiary investigation; arrested in court by Judge Sabo in August 1995 for opposing the denial of a witness subpoena for testimony of jury selection methods that created racially segregated jury pools.
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733