Mumia Abu-Jamal: Advocacy groups submit petition to United Nations calling for action
July 29, 2026
TAG24: “A coalition of human rights groups on Tuesday submitted a new petition to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention calling for intervention in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal after decades behind bars.
This December will mark 45 years in prison for author, broadcast journalist, and former Black Panther Party member Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1982 of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner the previous year. The writer and journalist was found at the scene, having been shot himself.
Abu-Jamal, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, saw his death sentence overturned in 2001. As of 2011, he is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a form of punishment advocates refer to as death by incarceration (DBI).
Despite international Mandela Rules limiting solitary confinement to 15 days, Abu-Jamal survived 29 years in solitary confinement on death row.
‘Continued detention of Mr. Abu-Jamal is not reasonable or necessary,’ reads the petition submitted by the Abolitionist Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Release Aging People in Prison Campaign.”