Abu-Jamal's richly detailed appeal to the US Supreme Court, prepared by lead defense lawyer Robert R. Bryan, includes an examination of the "culture of discrimination" operative among Philadelphia prosecutors.
Bryan's appeal highlights 11 separate rulings where federal and Pa state courts specifically faulted Philadelphia prosecutors for engaging in intentional discrimination during jury selection. Six of those 11 rulings cited in Bryan's appeal came from the 3rd Circuit.
Further, Bryan's appeal, referencing dozens of court rulings nationwide, cites a US Supreme Court ruling where one Justice utilized a scholarly statistical study documenting Philadelphia prosecutors purging potential black jurors at twice the rate of whites during death penalty trials between 1981 and 1997.
Interestingly, just days before that 2008 3rd Circuit ruling, the US Supreme Court granted a Louisiana death row inmate a new hearing after finding race tainted jury selection practices during his trial.
This Supreme Court ruling applied standards less stringent than those the 3rd Circuit created in the Abu-Jamal ruling.
The author of that Supreme Court ruling, Justice Samuel Alito, formerly served on the 3rd Circuit where he participated in rulings granting relief to inmates victimized by prosecutorial jury selection improprieties less onerous than those in the Abu-Jamal case.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund's legal brief filed on behalf of Abu-Jamal's US Supreme Court appeal criticizes the 3rd Circuit panel's "departure from controlling precedent" – faulting that ruling for improperly increasing the evidentiary burden on defendants raising jury discrimination claims.
The NAACP Defense Fund's brief warns that the 3rd Circuit's ruling "threatens to dramatically reduce the pool of cases eligible for judicial review..." because it "directly contradicts" repeated US Supreme Court rulings.
Philadelphia prosecutors are asking the US Supreme Court to reinstate Abu-Jamal's death sentence and reject his request for relief regarding jury selection discrimination.
That 2008 3rd Circuit ruling upheld a federal District Court judge's elimination of Abu-Jamal's death sentence after finding flaws in forms used by the jury that condemned him to death.
The push by Philadelphia prosecutors to execute Abu-Jamal comes at a time when states around the nation are backing away from the death penalty.
This week, New Mexico became the 15th state to repeal the death penalty. NM Governor Bill Richardson, when signing the repeal legislation, noted the exonerations of four death row inmates in that state.
Six of the 130 death row exonerations nationwide come from Pennsylvania.
The judge presiding at Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial, Albert Sabo, has the dubious judicial distinction of handling the largest number of death penalty convictions in America. Courts have overturned two-thirds of those capital convictions in Sabo's court citing faults by prosecutors, defense attorneys and Sabo himself.
Philadelphia's District Attorneys Office is currently resisting actions by Philadelphia's Mayor to sharply reduce spending by all city government departments due to a billion dollar budget deficit.
Philadelphia prosecutors have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars battling Abu-Jamal's appeals in state and federal court.
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