US Supreme Court Rules Against Mumia

On Tuesday, January 19, the US Supreme Court granted the Philadelphia DA's petition for a writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court has vacated the lower federal courts' 2001/2008 rulings which had overturned Mumia's death penalty and granted a new sentencing-phase jury trial if the death penalty was to be reinstated. The case has now been remanded to the Third Circuit Court, which will now decide whether or not to re-impose the death sentence without the sentencing trial. At issue is how the recent "Spisak" ruling (which reinstated the death penalty for Spisak) impacts Mumia's case, since both involved the "Mills" issue of confusing jury instructions. About this, Mumia's attorney Robert R. Bryan says "What occurred in Mumia's case is different both procedurally and factually from the jury instructions in Spisak."

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