Mumia's Voice: Confined to Pennsylvania's death row, Mmia Abu-Jamal remains at the center of debate as he continues to write and options to appeal his police murder conviction dwindle.

Abu-Jamal, Mumia, 1954-; African Americans; Criminal justice system; Race discrimination; Race relations; Constitutional courts; Civil rights

This article features the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who became an internationally known broadcaster, author and cause célèbre from death row. In April 2004, Abu-Jamal released his book, "We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party." Two months later, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to consider the latest appeal of his conviction for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner. According to the Associated Press, the appeal contended that the trial judge was racially hostile and that a state Supreme Court justice should not have participated in the case because he was a former prosecutor. Although he began life as Wesley Cook in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Abu-Jamal's voice was born at the age of 15. In 1969, Abu-Jamal was named Wes Mumia. Wes Mumia became Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Mumia Abu-Jamal became part of the first generation of African American radio reporters that dominated the 1970s. While driving a borrowed cab for a living, Abu-Jamal saw his brother, William Cook, and the police officer Faulkner, in an argument during the early morning of December 9, 1981. Abu-Jamal ran toward the two men. Guns were fired. Abu-Jamal and Faulkner were shot, with Faulkner dying at that corner. Abu-Jamal's gun was found at the scene. Zealots and conspiracy theorists on the left and law-and-order types on the right have argued about the rest for more than 20 years. Abu-Jamal, the activist became the journalist, the journalist became the convicted murder, and the convicted murder became the symbol and the scholar, the object and the prism. INSET: Mumia on Mumia.