Top US court rejects ex-Black Panther's plea

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal's bid for a new trial. He was convicted in 1982 of killing a white police officer and sentenced to death.

The high court upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction after his lawyers argued that the jury, composed of two blacks and 10 whites, had been unfair.

Since Abu-Jamal's conviction and death sentence, the case has become a focus for civil rights activists who contend racism was involved when he was found guilty for the 1981 shooting of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner.

Abu-Jamal's death sentence was overturned in 2008 by a federal court in Philadelphia, which found that the jury in the case had been incorrectly instructed.

The US Supreme Court has not ruled on his death sentence.