Philadelphia, April 22 (RHC)-- In the U.S., Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that his office would no longer oppose a bid by imprisoned former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal to reargue his case.  The move paves the way for Abu-Jamal to get a new hearing to appeal his 1981 conviction for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist who spent nearly three decades on death row; he remains in a Pennsylvania prison serving a sentence of life without parole.

In other news, the New York State Parole Board has granted parole to U.S. political prisoner Judith Clark, who drove a getaway car during a 1981 robbery in Rockland County that left a security guard and two police officers dead.  The robbery was aimed at expropriating money from a Brink’s armored car for the Republic of New Afrika.

Clark was sentenced to 75 years for second-degree murder and robbery, although she did not fire any shots.  Clark’s parole comes two years after Governor Andrew Cuomo commuted her sentence of 75 years to life, citing her “exceptional strides in self-development” as a model prisoner who worked tirelessly to bring education, prenatal care and AIDS counseling to fellow prisoners. She’s scheduled for release from prison by May 15th.