well today marks the thirty years that former journalist movie abu jamal has been behind bars and this is a case that has garnered worldwide recognition and has made himself a hero of sorts and i want to walk you through a timeline to highlight some of the things that have happened in this case over the last thirty years started to summer night one thousand nine hundred one officer daniel faulkner was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop and lumia abu jamal was charged with first degree murder and the following year movie i was found guilty and sentenced to death in one thousand nine hundred one it moved me i was denied his petition for rehearing twice april sixth two thousand and nine the u.s. supreme court refuses to hear of appeal and just two days ago the philadelphia district attorney seth williams announced that his office would no longer pursue the death penalty in this case well there are multiple questions surrounding the original case and hundreds have called for a new trial to be given to abu jamal many others from archbishop desmond tutu to dr cornel west have call

justice system for that matter hold back a movie abu jamal questionable connection. became the key to really good like this to happen and if you see it in the relations to other countries where these revolutions benefit us stirring the pot u.s. officials can't get enough of the arab spring these days even trying to push it into russia thing is they're about twenty years too late about hardy. it is friday december ninth seven pm here in washington d.c. i'm christine freeze out there watching our team. well today is d.-day for the euro as leaders with the european union met in brussels to try to find a definitive solution to the region's debt crisis now a failure to come up with a solution said many could mean the failure of the euro zone and could set off dangerous economic fireworks that may have a wide spread negative impact on the global economy as you can imagine and this was the scene of high drama of course you put leaders from twenty seven countries in one room seventeen of which are euro zone members there are going to be some i guess you could say different i

justice system for that matter will look back and let me abu jamal is questionable conviction. the case that hillary clinton really would like this to happen and if you see it in their relations to other countries where these revolutions benefit us stirring the pot u.s. officials can't get enough of the arab spring these days even trying to push it into russia the thing is about twenty years too late to the party. all right it is friday december ninth four pm here in washington d.c. and christine for you watching our team. well today is the day for the euro as leaders with the european union meet in brussels to try to find a definitive solution to the region's debt crisis a failure to come up with a solution say many could mean the failure of the eurozone and could set off dangerous economic fireworks and may have a widespread negative impact on the global economy as you can imagine this is a scene of high drama after all people leaders from twenty seven countries in one room seventeen of which are members of the eurozone there are going to be some different interests at stake

such an cares of the capital punishment case against me abu jamal has finally come to an end he will now serve a life sentence in prison prosecutors call off their attempts of sentencing him to death after if thirty year high profile battle surrounding his case abu jamal a former journalist was convicted of fatally shooting police officer daniel faulkner during a traffic stop in philadelphia back in one thousand nine hundred one the former black panther claims he's the victim of a racist legal system and the case has made him an international cost celebrity of the decision comes two days before the thirtieth anniversary of the murder of officer daniel faulkner was originally sentenced to death his murder conviction was upheld through years of appeals but in two thousand and eight the federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing on the grounds that the instructions given to the jury were potentially misleading after the u.s. supreme court declined to weigh in two months ago prosecutors were forced to decide whether to pursue the death penalty again or accept a life sentence

you know that the supporters of mumia abu-jamal says he was treated unfairly. the jury which was all white at the time received misleading information here. so they do not see this case as the widow of officer faulkner or as you see it. >> right. they certainly don't. i noted today, i require a lot of qualifiers to come on the program. there are two issues here. one is the question of guilt or innocence. and the second is the question of sentencing. just so your viewers are clear, what has been determined today is only that there will now be a change in sentencing. the widow had a very difficult decision. it was technically the decision of the d.a. seth williams. but he yielded to her judgment and she said at this point, it is futile. because if we go back through a new sentencing process, and again it ends up in the court system, it is the judiciary that has stood in the way of the carrying out of the sentence. but the underlying conviction does not change, isn't going to be altered. that's why i strongly disagree with bishop desmond tutu. >> i had to ask you,

prosecutors in philadelphia have dropped their long-running fight to execute mumia abu jamal. black panther was sentenced to death for murdering a white police officer, daniel faulkner, during a traffic stop. abu jamal maintained he was a victim of racism and in 2008 a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hear. today, the district attorney said he wants to avoid more years of appeals. >> there's never been any doubt in my mind that mumia abu jamal shot and killed officer faulkner. and i believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by the jury of his peers in 1982. while abu jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life. and that is where he belongs. >> reporter: over the years, a free mumia movement has grown up around abu ya ja mall, including dozens of celebrities, amnesty international and supporters worldwide. in russia, anger over last sunday's parliamentary elections led to a third night of unrest. police detained scores of demonstrators in moscow as several hundred people protested. they condemn

but probably the major difference is the ability of this man mumia abu jamal to articulate his case so extraordinarily well and to articulate along with that the the plight of so many people on death row in our country certainly here he wrote the book live from death row he has done various videos that you can see on you tube he has really kind of fame everywhere but it's not just him as you just said i mean this case i think just like the recent case of troy davis it's brought attention to a much larger part of the story and that is the american judicial system itself do you think that this will continue to shed light on some of the things that are just plain wrong in the judicial system. well one hopes you know that these are all steps along the way the elimination of the death penalty in this case is really only one step and i hope it doesn't mean that he's going to be consigned to a life without parole and everybody's going to walk away and say ok we won because in fact justice has not been served in this case so i think the case as you mentioned of troy davis the case of cameron t

much things have changed artie's honest in new york when the capital punishment case against me abu jamal has finally come to an end he will now serve a sentence of life in prison prosecutors have called off their attempts of sentencing him to death after a thirty year high profile battles surrounding his case of boojum allah former journalist was convicted of fatally shooting police officer daniel faulkner doing it during a traffic stop back in one thousand nine hundred one in philadelphia the former black panther claims he is the victim of racist legal system he wrote a book called life from death row and the case has brought him international support you may have even seen bumper stickers or t. shirts on with free movie on them. well the decision comes two days before the thirtieth anniversary of the murder of officer daniel faulkner was originally sentenced to death his murder conviction was upheld through the three years of appeals but in two thousand and eight a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing on the grounds that the instructions given to the jury were potenti

. >>> prosecutors have called off their 30 year battle to execute former black panther mumia abu jamal he was sentenced to death in 1982 for the killing of a white police officer in philadelphia. over the years the case ginned worldwide attention. accusation -- accusations of racism in the justice is tell this morning the philadelphia d.a. drop the death penalty a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing or reduce his sentence to life in prison. >>> new poll finds governor brown's plan has bipartisan supporters among voters. 51% support the plan to reduce retirement benefits for new and public workers to increase the retirement age and have workers pay more. a propose is putting new workers on the hybrid 401(k) style plan the poll finds 41% think public pensions are too generous. 64% think pension reform should apply to new and current public employees. >>> mcafee is laying off 250 workers, 3% of its workforce. the company has not said how many of the lay-offs will be in the bay area. intel bought mcafee this year for 7.7 billion dollars. mcafee officials say they are pos

>> reporter: supporters will try to keep abu-jamal's voice in the spotlight, but for maureen falkner,he'll try to keep alive the memory of her husband and all victims of violent crime. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. >>> let's talk politics. republican presidential hopeful newt gingrich's campaign is clarifying remarks he made about the middle east peace process. in in an interview with the jewish channel cable network he described the peace process as, quote, delusional. here's some of what he had to say. >> well, i believe that the jewish people have the right to have a state and i believe that the commitments that were made at a time -- remember, there were -- there was no palestine as a state. it was part of the ought aman empire. i think we invented palestinian people, who are in fact arabs and historically part of the arab community. >> that channel is the jewish channel. since that interview was released, the gingrich campaign has issued a statement saying, quote, gingrich supports a negotiated peace agreement between israel and the palestinians. however, to understand what is

. >>> prosecutors have called off their 30 year battle to execute former black panther mumia abu jamal he was sentenced to death in 1982 for the killing of a white police officer in philadelphia. over the years the case ginned worldwide attention. accusation -- accusations of racism in the justice is tell this morning the philadelphia d.a. drop the death penalty a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing or reduce his sentence to life in prison. >>> new poll finds governor brown's plan has bipartisan supporters among voters. 51% support the plan to reduce retirement benefits for new and public workers to increase the retirement age and have workers pay more. a propose is putting new workers on the hybrid 401(k) style plan the poll finds 41% think public pensions are too generous. 64% think pension reform should apply to new and current public employees. >>> mcafee is laying off 250 workers, 3% of its workforce. the company has not said how many of the lay-offs will be in the bay area. intel bought mcafee this year for 7.7 billion dollars. mcafee officials say they are pos

today when the philadelphia district attorney said he will no longer seek the death penalty against abu-jamal. instead the former black panther will spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering a police officer in 1981. he claimed he was the victim of a racist legal system but despite a series of appeals, his conviction was upheld. he was the commanding officer of the 4077 mash. still to come, remembering tv's colonel potter. a&m ,,,, >> pelley: florida a&m has reversed the punishments handed out after the suspected hazing death last month of a member of the marching band. the band's direct director, who had been fired is now on administrative leave and four expelled students are back on campus. the state police asked the school to stop disciplinary action until the police investigation is complete. young harry bratsberg of muskeegan, michigan, was a talented high school debater. he figured he'd become a lawyer but then caught the acting bug and changed his career and his name. ♪ harry morgan, best known as colonel sherman t. potter on "m*a+s*h," died today. years before "m*a+s*h," moth

abu jamal instead will serve a life sentence. >>> rob building blagojevich is headed to prison for 14 years. he said he was sorry. he was convicted of trying to sell president obama's old senate seat and a long list of other corruption charges. blagojevich starts his prison term february 16th. >>> questions are being raised after a d.c. city official admitted to using his personal e-mail for work to avoid having his e-mails become public record. chief financial officer ghandi admitted in a deposition he does this to avoid including his e-mail in freedom of information requests from the media and the public. the d.c. attorney general says while it is not a crime, it is not good policy to follow. >> it doesn't have the effect of avoiding disclosure under freedom of information act or in litigation. >>> dorothy brazil, executive director of d.c. says some city staffers have gone to private cell phones and personal e- mails to avoid the several federal probes of council members and the mayor. >>> lightning fast internet access in d.c. will be up and running in a little over a year. the na

release of a man who till a few days ago was america's most high profile death row prisoner momi abu jamal was incarcerated thirty years ago for killing a white philadelphia police officer a crime he still denies committing earlier this week a court reduce the sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole his supporters claim the former black panther activist is an innocent political prisoner david lindorff an investigative reporter thinks the case shows the shortcomings of the u.s. justice system. first of all he clearly had a trial that was a sham there were in this document it clear evidence that a lot of the prosecution witnesses were perjuring themselves and the other thing is that he has almost no way to get out of jail now short of a new witness coming forward because of the way our system blocks appeals by by people who are in these situations well it really highlights the fact that you know first of all most of the people on death row in the united states are black and all of them are poor or you know find rich people on death row the united states of the of the thr

claim the black panther movement member is an innocent political prisoner activist in my cairo says abu jamal deserves a fair trial which apparently never received. but it is like many other cases in the united states a case where race entered into the prosecution where there are serious questions about the not only the efficacy but the effectiveness and fairness of the trial the elimination of the death penalty in this case it's really only one step and i hope it doesn't mean that now he's going to be consigned to a life without parole and everybody's going to walk away and say ok we won because in fact justice is not been served in this case it's on the record now that the judge was biased racially biased it's on the record that the. police corruption in the in the philadelphia police force involved the suborning of perjury and the actual extortion to get witnesses to perjure themselves this trial was corrupt from the beginning and that's why amnesty and human rights watch and so many other organizations say justice must be done and say that you've got to start with a fair trial. well if yo

release of a man who until a few days ago was america's most high profile death row prison a movie abu jamal was incarcerated thirty years ago for killing a white police officer it's a crime to this day that he still denies earlier this week a court reduced the sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole his supporters claim the former black panther movement member is an innocent political prisoner mike. deserves a fair trial she apparently never received. it is like many other cases in the united states a case where race entered into the prosecution where there are serious questions about the not only the efficacy but the effectiveness and fairness of the trial the elimination of the death penalty in this case it's really only one step and i hope it doesn't mean that he's going to be consigned to a life without parole and everybody's going to walk away and say ok we won because in fact justice is not been served in this case it's on the record now that the judge was biased racially biased it's on the record that the. police corruption in the philadelphia police for. involve

. >>> former black pacter -- panther abu jamal was sentenced to death for gunning down faulkner in 2001. the court ordered a new hearing in april. today, prosecutors announced they will no longer pursue the death penalty. >>> a transgendered woman, viciously attacked inside a baltimore county mcdonald's, now has her own scrape with the law. jessica kartalija has more. >> the video of two women attacking crissy polis inside the rosedale mcdonald's, went viral in practical prl. -- in april. police were called to her house after polis said she was the victim of a robbery. officers say she became belligerent, apparently unhappy with their handling of the matter. polis is set for trial. >> this set new efforts to strengthen anti-discrimination laws. >>> school children. the target in mondawmin mall hosted shop with a cop today. each child was given a $100 gift certificate to shop with the officer. target picked up the bill. >>> plenty to talk about. traveling westbound 70. we have that accident, still lingering there, at telegraph road. that's going to tie things up. as far as delays go, sti