United States Third Circuit

A judgment, which affirmed a murder conviction but vacated a death sentence and granted a new penalty hearing, is affirmed where jury instructions and verdict form created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from finding a mitigating circumstance that had not been unanimously agreed upon.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/17/2007
• Decided 03/27/2008
• Published 03/27/2008

Judges

• Before:  SCIRICA, Chief Judge, AMBRO and COWEN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Hugh J. Burns, Jr., Esquire (Argued), Ronald Eisenberg, Esquire, Office of District Attorney, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellants/Cross-Appellees, Martin Horn, Pennsylvania Director of Corrections;  Conner Blaine, Superintendent, SCI Greene;  District Attorney for Philadelphia County;  The Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania., Robert R. Bryan, Esquire (Argued), San Francisco, CA, Judith L. Ritter, Esquire (Argued), Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, DE, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal., Christina A. Swarns, Esquire (Argued), NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., New York, NY, for Amicus Curiae-Appellee, The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., Jill Soffiyah Elijah, Esquire, Criminal Justice Institute, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, for Amici Curiae-Appellees, National Lawyers Guild, National Conference of Black Lawyers, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice of Harvard Law School, Southern Center for Human Rights, National Jury Project.