Supreme Court Clears the Way for the Legal Lynching of Troy Davis

Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence that points towards innocence, the top court of the land has rejected Troy Davis’ appeal. Now, the racist scum that have been put in place as executioners in Georgia will proceed with the killing of an innocent man, which they’ve been waiting to do all along.

This latest court decision is shameful and appalling. An american court has said, once again, that innocence does not matter and that the life of a black person is worth nothing.

To execute Troy Davis is an affront to justice and to humanity.

Justices Clear Way for Ga. Execution

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA (AP) — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for a Georgia man to be put to death for killing a police officer two weeks after it halted his execution to consider his appeal.

Troy Davis asked the high court to intervene in his case and order a new trial because seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. Former President Jimmy Carter and South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu are among prominent supporters who have called for a new trial.

The justices granted Davis a reprieve on Sept. 23, less than two hours before his scheduled execution. But they declined Tuesday to give his appeal a full-blown hearing. It was not immediately clear when his execution will be scheduled.

Davis’ supporters, who erupted in joy when his execution was halted last month, said they were heartbroken when they received word of the decision.

“Oh, God. I think it’s disgusting, terrible. I’m extremely disappointed,” said Martina Correia, Davis’ sister. “Well, we still have to fight. We can’t stop.”

Davis was convicted of the murder of 27-year-old officer Mark MacPhail, who was working off-duty as a security guard at a bus station. MacPhail’s family said they were relieved.

“I was hoping that would be the decision,” said MacPhail’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail. “I’m hoping that soon we will have some peace, that this will all be over.”

A divided Georgia Supreme Court has twice rejected Davis’ request for a new trial, and had rejected his appeal to delay the execution on Monday afternoon. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles also turned down his bid for clemency.

MacPhail had rushed to help a homeless man who had been pistol-whipped at a nearby parking lot, and was shot twice when he approached Davis and two other men.

Witnesses identified Davis as the shooter, and at the 1991 trial, prosecutors said he wore a “smirk on his face” as he fired the gun.

But Davis’ lawyers say new evidence proves their client was a victim of mistaken identity. Besides those who have recanted their testimony, three others who did not testify have said Sylvester “Red” Coles — who testified against Davis at his trial — confessed to the killing.

Coles refused to talk about the case when contacted by The Associated Press during a 2007 court appearance and has no listed phone number.

Prosecutors have said the case is closed. They also say some of the witness affidavits simply repeat what a trial jury has already heard, while others are irrelevant because they come from witnesses who never testified.

Troy Davis death warrant expired; no news yet from Supreme Court

The Georgia death warrant expired on September 30th and the Supreme Court has still not issued a ruling on whether they will hear Troy’s appeal. There might be some news on that front on Monday.

In the meantime, Let’s continue the fight to save Troy’s life!

From Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:

Click here to take action in support of Troy Davis

wsav.com

Troy Davis Latest
Friday, Oct 03, 2008 – 12:01 AM

The U.S. Supreme court still has not announced its decision whether to hear or deny Troy Davis’ appeal for a new trial. Davis is on death row for the 1989 murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark Macphail. Reaction was mixed nine days ago when the high court issued a stay of execution.

Family members on both sides share thoughts as they wait for word.

“We wait very patiently that the courts in Georgia have upheld the law and have done everything right by Troy and that they won’t find anything wrong with the case itself and so they’ll just say okay we can go go back and set an execution date. ” says MacPhail’s Widow Joan.

“He has a strong family base. One thing about Troy is that he is very prayerful hopeful and he’s standing on faith that something positive will happen from this, Troy’s sister Matina Correia.

Troy Davis will turn 40 next Thursday. An answer from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether to take up Troy Davis’ case could come any day now.

A letter from Troy Davis

To all,

I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith.

It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.

As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy.

I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.

I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.

So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated.

There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.

I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing, “I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!

– Troy Davis

Stop the execution of Troy Davis!

Troy Davis Update

The stay of execution granted is of course important but the struggle to save Troy Davis’ life goes on.

The stay was granted only until September 29. On this day the Supreme Court will hear Troy’s appeal for new evidence of his innocence to be considered. If the court decides to hear this appeal, the stay will be extended but if they reject it, the stay will be lifted and the execution will be carried out.

All actions of support and solidarity for Troy must continue. The pressure needs to be kept on.

An innocent man’s life hangs in the balance.

To find out more about Troy’s case and how you can get involved please visit the Troy Anthony Davis Web site.

Click on the link below

Troy Anthony Davis Website

TROY DAVIS GRANTED LAST MINUTE STAY OF EXECUTION!

cnn.com

By Rusty Dornin

JACKSON, Georgia (CNN) — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a last-minute reprieve to a Georgia man fewer than two hours before he was to be executed for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty police officer.
Troy Anthony Davis, 39, has his execution stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Troy Anthony Davis learned that his execution had been stayed when he saw it on television, he told CNN via telephone in his first interview after the stay was announced.

He said he was “thankful to God” for the news that came during an emergency session the U.S. Supreme Court convened.

Davis said “everyone should pray” for the slain officer’s family.

The 39-year-old also said that he is “very grateful for everything that everyone is doing” for him and that he would “accept” whatever decision the Supreme Court rendered in the coming days about his case.

At the Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, a crowd of Davis’ supporters, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, erupted in cheers when Sharpton announced the stay. Some shouted “Hallelujah!”

Davis has long said he didn’t kill Mark MacPhail, a Savannah, Georgia, police officer, and the U.S. Supreme Court was the last option for Davis to have his execution postponed. It was scheduled to move forward at 7 p.m. ET.

Seven of the nine witnesses who initially testified that Davis was the killer have recanted. There was no physical evidence presented at his trial, and no weapon was found. But Davis’ petitions for a new trial have been denied. Learn more about capital punishment in the United States »

The MacPhail family said they were angry about the stay.

“I am angry as can be. I’m disgusted. It should have been over by now,” MacPhail’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, told CNN. “Nobody thinks about what the victims’ family has gone through again and again.

“I was hoping it would be over today,” she said.

Earlier, she said, “There is no possibility he’s innocent, not according to what’s been said in court.”

MacPhail’s sister Anneli Reaves was outside the prison. She said that if witnesses now say that they lied when they testified that Davis was the killer, they should be charged with perjury.

“It should have happened today,” she said of the execution.

Davis, 39, was convicted in 1991 of killing the officer as he responded to an altercation in a Burger King parking lot.

Earlier Tuesday, Davis refused his last meal, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections, which will still provide him with macaroni and cheese, pinto beans, green beans, lettuce and tomato salad, corn bread, fruit cobbler and tea.

Prison officials said that he was offered ativan, a mild sedative. But Davis refused to take the drug, he said.

Many had asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial: celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte and the Indigo Girls; world leaders such as former President Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict XVI; and former and current U.S. lawmakers like Bob Barr, Carolyn Moseley Braun and John Lewis.

Amnesty International has issued a 39-page report questioning his conviction, and protesters have been gathering at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta this week. .

Davis’ sister, Martina Correia, said she was sleepless Monday night and was spending Tuesday at his side. She said she planned to stay until prison officials told her to leave at 3 p.m.

Before the stay was announced, she said, “We still hope the U.S. Supreme Court will look into my brother’s case and give some relief. We will have a lot of family time with him and recall old times and pray together.”

The Georgia Supreme Court turned down the plea for a stay in Davis’ execution Monday, saying the U.S. Supreme Court “properly has jurisdiction over Davis’ pending petition.”

Troy Davis Case – What’s the Rush?

nytimes.com

What’s the Rush?
By BOB HERBERT

Troy Davis, who was convicted of shooting a police officer to death in the parking lot of a Burger King in Savannah, Ga., is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday.

There is some question as to his guilt (even the pope has weighed in on this case), but the odds of Mr. Davis escaping the death penalty are very slim. Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always perverted, but there*s an extra dose of perversion in this case.

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That’s six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.

Mr. Davis’s lawyers have tried desperately to have the execution postponed for those few days, but so far to no avail. Georgia is among the most cold-blooded of states when it comes to dispatching prisoners into eternity.

So the lawyers are now trying to get the Supreme Court to issue a stay, or decide before Tuesday on whether it will consider the appeal.

No one anywhere would benefit from killing Mr. Davis on Tuesday, as opposed to waiting a week to see how the Supreme Court rules. So why the rush? The murder happened in 1989, and Mr. Davis has been on death row for 17 years. Six or seven more days will hardly matter.

Most of the time, the court declines to hear such cases.

If that’s the decision this time, Georgia can get on with the dirty business of taking a human life. If the court agrees to hear the appeal, it would have an opportunity to get a little closer to the truth of what actually happened on the terrible night of Aug. 19, 1989, when Officer Mark Allen MacPhail was murdered.

He was shot as he went to the aid of a homeless man who was being pistol-whipped in the parking lot.

Nine witnesses testified against Mr. Davis at his trial in 1991, but seven of the nine have since changed their stories. One of the recanting witnesses, Dorothy Ferrell, said she was on parole when she testified and was afraid that she*d be sent back to prison if she didn*t agree to finger Mr. Davis.

She said in an affidavit: “I told the detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn’t know who shot the officer.”

Another witness, Darrell Collins, a teenager at the time of the murder, said the police had ’scared’ him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime. He said they told him that he might never get out of prison.

“I didn’t want to go to jail because I didn’t do nothing wrong,” he said.

At least three witnesses who testified against Mr. Davis (and a number of others who were not part of the trial) have since said that a man named Sylvester “Redd” Coles admitted that he was the one who had killed the officer.

Mr. Coles, who was at the scene, and who, according to authorities, later ditched a gun of the same caliber as the murder weapon, is one of the two witnesses who have not recanted.

The other is a man who initially told investigators that he could not identify the killer. Nearly two years later, at the trial, he testified that the killer was Mr. Davis.

So we have here a mess that is difficult, perhaps impossible, to sort through in a way that will yield reliable answers. (The jury also convicted Mr. Davis of a nonfatal shooting earlier that same evening on testimony that was even more dubious.)

There was no physical evidence against Mr. Davis, and the murder weapon was never found. As for the witnesses, their testimony was obviously shaky in the extreme, not the sort of evidence you want to rely upon when putting someone to death.

In March, the State Supreme Court in Georgia, in a 4-to-3 decision, denied Mr. Davis’s request for a new trial. The chief justice, Leah Ward Sears, writing for the minority, said: “In this case, nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do so reliably.”

Amnesty International conducted an extensive examination of the case, documenting the many recantations, inconsistencies, contradictions and unanswered questions. Its report on the case drew widespread attention, both in the U.S. and overseas.

William Sessions, a former director of the F.B.I., has said that a closer look at the case is warranted. And Pope Benedict XVI has urged authorities in Georgia to re-sentence Mr. Davis to life in prison.

Rushing to execute Mr. Davis on Tuesday makes no sense at all.

Finality Over Fairness – Troy Davis’ Case

Another case of legal lynching is about to take place.

Troy Davis’ case epitomizes everything that is wrong with the american criminal justice system and the death penalty. This case is further proof of how racism is a determining factor in how the death penalty is administered in this country.

Some undisputed facts in this case:

- Troy’s fingerprints didn’t match those found at the crime scene

- There was no gun residue on Troy’s fingers and no physical evidence at all that connects Troy to the crime

- Seven out of nine witnesses said they were pressured into their statement

From Amnesty International

Troy Davis is an African American man on who has been on Georgia’s death row for the past 18 years, convicted of killing a white police officer named Mark McPhail. Now, after the Georgia Parole Board denied Troy clemency, he faces execution on September 23rd.

On Monday, March 17, 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court decided 4-3 to deny a new trial for Troy Anthony Davis, despite significant concerns regarding his innocence. This stunning decision by the Georgia Supreme Court to let Mr. Davis’ death sentence stand means that the state of Georgia might soon execute a man who may well be innocent.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, September 12. They did so despite overwhelming doubts of Davis’ guilt – and after stating last year that they would “not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused.” The Board has the power to step in at any point up until the scheduled execution, so your continued action is needed today!

Background
Restrictions on Federal appeals have prevented Troy Anthony Davis from having a hearing in federal court on the reliability of the witness testimony used against him, despite the fact that most of the witnesses have since recanted, many alleging they were pressured or coerced by police. Troy Davis remains on Georgia death row, and may be scheduled for execution in the near future.

Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail at a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia; a murder he maintains he did not commit. There was no physical evidence against him and the weapon used in the crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state’s non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.

One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester “Red” Coles – the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.

Take Action! Send a letter to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole

Click here for more information on Troy Davis’ Case

Tennessee man freed after 22 years on death row

tennessean.com

House release is a long-awaited triumph of democracy
By DWIGHT LEWIS • July 3, 2008

It was 9:52 a.m. Wednesday when the 2004 white GMC Yukon XL pulled out from inside the trap gate of the Tennessee Department of Correction’s Lois DeBerry Special Needs Facility in the Cockrill Bend area in west Nashville.

It was a long-awaited ride to freedom for 46-year-old Paul Gregory House, who had been on Tennessee’s death row for the past 22 years for a murder many say he did not commit.

“It’s a great day,” House, drinking a Pepsi and eating a candy bar, said as the vehicle in which he was riding came to a stop before a group of supporters and journalists. They were there to cover his release from prison on $100,000 bond while awaiting the state to retry him in October in the 1985 rape and murder of Carolyn Muncey in Union County.

“It’s been a long fight,” added his mother, Joyce House, who was seated alongside her son in the SUV driven by Paul House’s newly appointed lawyer, Dale Potter, an assistant public defender from the state’s Eighth Judicial District in LaFollette. “I think this is the last time I will be going in this prison. I told Paul, ‘You’re going home.’ “

Yes, it has been a long fight.

I first wrote about House back in October 2004 immediately after a New York Times story said he remained on Tennessee’s death row although six of the 15 members of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said that he is not guilty of the murder for which he was convicted in 1986 and should be freed immediately.

Eight other judges on the court said in an appeal decision that House should be executed, while another judge said the inmate should at least be given a new trial.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that DNA evidence from semen collected from Muncey’s clothing, along with other evidence, was strong enough that a jury would not have convicted House.

And last Dec. 20, Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee issued a ruling that ordered House be released unless prosecutors begin a new trial within 180 days after the order becomes final.

The state announced that it would retry House even though DNA has shown that the semen evidence used to help convict House was really that of Muncey’s husband, Hubert. In early June, a state court judge in Union County, not far from Knoxville, set a $500,000 bond for House, but another judge last week reduced the bond to $100,000. House, who has been suffering from multiple sclerosis for the past 12 years and cannot walk, was released from prison after an anonymous donor sent his mother $10,000 toward House’s bail.

“It’s hard to say that justice has been served now,” the Rev. Joe Ingle, a longtime prisoner-rights advocate who has ministered to Paul House. “An innocent man has been on death row for 23 years.

“The whole experience reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, where the Red Queen said ‘convict first, facts later.’ … The people who are to be commended are the lawyers and those people who have fought over the years for Paul’s freedom.

“That’s the better part of the American justice system. And that makes me proud to be an American” on the eve of Independence Day.

Ingle is right. Those people, such as House’s longtime attorney, Stephen M. Kissinger, the federal public defender in Knoxville, have been on the home front working for democracy.

“He is absolutely innocent,” Kissinger told me back in October 2004 when I first talked to him about the House case. “There is no doubt that he’s innocent. … It’s easily the best case of innocence I have seen in 20 years of practicing law.”

As you take time off Friday to celebrate the Fourth, and as you think about the words of the Declaration of Independence, say a thank-you for people such as Kissinger, Ingle and Stacy Rector, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing. Say a thank-you, because they help keep democracy working on the home front.

—————————-
nashvillecitypaper.com

House case shows more flaws in death penalty system
Posted: Thursday, July 3, 2008 1:56 am

Given his death sentence, the mound of evidence supporting his innocence and a U.S. Supreme Court formal recognition of those facts, it is a mystery how Paul House stayed in jail for the last two years.

House spent 23 years on Tennessee’s death row. New evidence in the murder case of Union County woman Carolyn Muncey appears to prove House’s innocence. Specifically, DNA evidence shows rape could not have been a motive for House to kill Muncey as prosecutors successfully argued in the mid-1980s. The DNA found on Muncey was that of her husband, according to advocates for House.

The highest court in the land over two years ago agreed no jury would have convicted House given the modern-day evidence. In June 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that, “this is the rare case where—had the jury heard all the conflicting testimony—it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror viewing the record as a whole would lack reasonable doubt.”

House’s case is another example of deep flaws in Tennessee’s death penalty system that forces for and against the death penalty should want to change.

Clearly, more uniform standards need to exist from jurisdiction to jurisdiction for prosecutors to follow given the state continues to pursue House despite the evidence to the contrary. Some measure of review for older cases should also automatically happen as those condemned to death may, like House, have a real case for innocence using modern-day DNA testing and forensics.

Some would call these kinds of safeguards coddling criminals. We argue that the death penalty is the ultimate use of the state’s power. After using it, there is nothing else the government can take away from a person. If we are going to grant the government this kind of power, the system itself should also be held more accountable.

Texas “Justice”

Texas has scheduled 12 executions between June 3 and September 18. The state has carried out 405 of the nation’s 1,100 executions since the reinstatement of the death penalty and it currently has about 380 prisoners on death row.

It is tied for third in the nation for death-row exonerations (eight) and since 1993, 33 other Texans (non-death row cases) have been exonerated through DNA evidence, including 17 from Dallas County. These 33 men have served a combined 427 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

And those are only the known cases.

In light of all these grim numbers and overwhelming proof that innocent people have been wrongly convicted, many of whom have ended up on death row in Texas, its governor Rick Perry, who has carried out more executions (166) than any governor in modern history (including his predecessor, George W. Bush), claims that an innocence commission in Texas is unnecessary.

Texas needs a way to learn from its grave mistakes
By The Editorial Board
Austin American-Statesman

Gov. Rick Perry says Texas does not need an innocence commission, which, he asserts, would add an unnecessary bureaucracy to state government. But the facts overwhelmingly point the other way. We urge the governor to take another look at establishing a commission that studies ways to bring greater fairness to the state’s justice system by examining its mistakes.

Perry’s leadership would greatly improve chances that the Legislature would create and finance an innocence commission next year. Also, Perry’s backing would send a message to the world that Texas is serious about correcting mistakes that send innocent people to prison and leave criminals on the street.

As it stands, 33 Texans have been exonerated by DNA evidence, all but three occurring after 2000. There have been other exonerations during that period as well, including more than a dozen residents of Tulia who were wrongly convicted on the false testimony of a single law enforcement official and bogus prosecution of a West Texas district attorney.

Texas has paid out more than $8 million since 2001 to dozens of innocent people convicted of and imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. Those people spent from four to 27 years behind bars for crimes someone else committed.

If those facts and figures aren’t persuasive enough, then the governor should listen to those closest to the justice system, including some fellow Republicans. Among those endorsing an innocence commission is Texas Supreme Court Justice Wallace Jefferson, who said, “The state has an interest in protecting its citizens from convictions when citizens are innocent.”

“Over 30 people have been exonerated, and there is no institutional response to those incidents,” Jefferson said on Tuesday. “When this happens as frequently as it seems to happen in Texas, there ought to be some examination of what went wrong in those cases.”

In 2005 and 2007, Jefferson backed the creation of an innocence commission, supporting legislation by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. An innocence commission could offer statutory reforms that reduce preventable errors.

As chief justice of the state’s highest civil court, Jefferson said he has discussed the matter with many chief justices across the nation. He said several states have commissions or institutions that Texas could model.

In Sunday’s editions, we discussed the main reasons why innocent people have been wrongfully convicted. They include intentional errors by unethical prosecutors or police who suppress evidence or coerce false confessions as well as unintentional mistakes by victims or witnesses who incorrectly identify attackers.

Another prominent Republican, Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she, too, favors a state innocence commission if it does not duplicate the work of other entities.

If any state needs an innocence commission dedicated to preventing people from being sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit, it is Texas. That much is clear. No one who professes to love justice should be satisfied with the status quo that is stealing time and money from the state and its residents.

As the state’s chief executive officer, Perry should use his moral and fiduciary duty to help establish such a commission.

Book Asserts Black Reporter Didn’t Kill White Cop in ’81

nytimes.com

Book Asserts Black Reporter Didn’t Kill White Officer in ’81
By JON HURDLE

PHILADELPHIA — A book published on Thursday asserts that a black radio journalist convicted of murdering a white Philadelphia police officer more than 26 years ago is not guilty of the crime and that it was actually committed by another man who is now deceased.

The book, “The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal,” by J. Patrick O’Connor, asserts that Officer Daniel Faulkner died on Dec. 9, 1981, from shots fired by Kenneth Freeman, a business partner of the brother of the convicted man, Mr. Abu-Jamal, who has been on death row for 25 years for a crime he says he did not commit.

The book, published by Chicago Review Press, is the latest to cast doubt on the conviction, which critics have said was tainted by racism, police corruption and judicial bias, turning Mr. Abu-Jamal
into a cause célèbre for death penalty opponents.

“Abu-Jamal’s trial was a monumental miscarriage of justice,” Mr. O’Connor writes, “representing an extreme case of prosecutorial abuse and judicial bias.”

The police charged Mr. Abu-Jamal with the murder, the book says, because he had antagonized them as a Black Panther and as a radio reporter.

Hugh Burns, chief of the appeals division in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case in 1982, dismissed the new accusations, saying, “There is zero credible evidence Freeman was involved.”

Mr. Burns also rejected the book’s assertion that two key prosecution witnesses had changed their stories after inducements from prosecutors determined to prove their case.

In March, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Mr. Abu-Jamal’s conviction but said his sentence might be reviewed.