Writer in Prison for 45 Years Seeks UN Help to End His Life Sentence

Tim Shaffer/REUTERS Black activist and writer Mumia Abu-Jamal has filed a petition with the United Nations to free him from his life sentence after exhausting all other legal avenues. The 72-year-old co-founder of the Philadelphia Black Panther chapter and former president of Philadelphia’s Association of Black Journalists was convicted in 1982 of murdering a police officer. He was driving his cab when he spotted his brother, William Cook, being detained by Officer David Faulkner. A shootout…