Mumia’s Lawyers File “Reply Brief” in PA Superior Court

On Weds., March 17, 2021, Mumia’s legal team (Judith Ritter and Sam Spital) filed our reply brief in Pennsylvania Superior Court in support of Mumia’s claims in the re-opened appeals.  This filing was a response to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s position on the issues that are being re-litigated, following Judge Tucker’s ruling to reopen all appeals filed by Mumia’s attorneys between 1998 – 2012. 

We focused on four arguments: 

(a) the Court’s jurisdiction to hear this case notwithstanding the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Reid that most petitioners seeking to re-open their cases post-Williams v. Pennsylvania cannot do so because their claims are not timely;

(b) trial counsel’s ineffectiveness in failing to present evidence that Robert Chobert was on probation at the time of his trial testimony;

(c) the admissibility of Yvette Williams’s declaration reporting what Cynthia White said to hear about lying against Mumia; and

(d) racial discrimination in jury selection in violation of Batson.

Read the Reply Brief (100 pages, PDF).

Also, Maureen Faulkner sought permission, again, to intervene in the Superior Court.  Essentially her argument is that the District Attorney is not in her view raising—or at least not vigorously raising—a jurisdictional/timeliness argument, which she says reflects ongoing bias and the need for disqualification. Read her lawyer’s attempt to quash Mumia’s right to a trial again (12 pages, PDF).