Mumia Abu-Jamal (born 1954) is an American convict, serving a life
sentence for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel
Faulkner. He was sentenced to death at his first trial in July 1982, and
his case became an international cause célèbre. Before his arrest, he
was an activist and radio journalist who became President of the
Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. He was a member of the
Black Panther Party until October 1970. Supporters and opponents
disagreed on the appropriateness of the death penalty, his guilt, and
whether he received a fair trial. He was described as "perhaps the
world's best known death-row inmate". During his imprisonment he has
published several books and other commentaries, notably Live from Death
Row (1995). In 2008, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court
of Appeals upheld the murder conviction but ordered a new capital
sentencing hearing because the jury was improperly instructed.
Subsequently, the United States Supreme Court also allowed his
conviction to stand but ordered the appeals court to reconsider its
decision as to the sentence. In 2011, the Third Circuit again affirmed
the conviction as well as its decision to vacate the death sentence, and
the District Attorney of Philadelphia announced that prosecutors would
no longer seek the death penalty. He was removed from death row in
January 2012.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1405:
Chinese explorer Zheng He led a massive fleet of 317 ships from
Suzhou on a trade mission to India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He>
1804:
U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former U.S.
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during a duel (pistols pictured)
in Weehawken, New Jersey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr%E2%80%93Hamilton_duel>
1882:
Anglo-Egyptian War: British naval forces began their
bombardment of Alexandria against Urabi forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Alexandria>
1957:
Prince Karīm al-Hussaynī succeeded Sultan Mahommed Shah as
the Aga Khan, becoming the 49th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_IV>
1960:
To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, featuring themes
of racial injustice and the destruction of innocence in the American
Deep South, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird>
1986:
The Parliament of New Zealand passed the Homosexual Law Reform
Act, legalising consensual homosexual sex.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_Law_Reform_Act_1986>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gaggle:
1. A group of geese when they are on the ground or on the water.
2. Any group or gathering of related things; bunch.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gaggle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea
that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're
licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no
matter what.
--Harper Lee
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harper_Lee>
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