Thirty-seven years ago, Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed a young police officer, Daniel Faulkner, who had stopped his brother at a traffic light. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to death.

What has happened since has been a travesty of justice and a continuing ordeal for the officer's widow, who became so agitated when an appeals court judge granted her husband's murderer the chance for another trial, the judge had her removed.

Fox News:

Prosecutors agreed to a sentence of life without parole, and Abu-Jamal's final appeal was rejected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2012. However, the judge ruled on Thursday that former Justice Ronald Castille should have recused himself because of statements he made as a prosecutor about police killers that suggest potential bias.

During a routine traffic stop on a vehicle belonging to Abu-Jamal's younger brother, William Cook, Officer Faulkner got into a physical confrontation with Cook. Abu-Jamal was in the vicinity and observed the fight, ran over and shot Faulkner in the back and, later, in the face.

Faulker, who noted that she has traveled back and forth from her home state of California numerous times in this case, also said she hopes that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner will appeal this decision.

"Mumia Abu-Jamal shot my husband between the eyes, he executed my husband," Faulker said. "I'm never going to let this go. All over the country, they're reducing sentences on murderers, they're allowing them out of prison, and it's wrong. It's so wrong."

The Philadelphia district attorney told the Associated Press that the latest decision is being reviewed.

Why Abdul-Jamal's case has been raised to international heights is something of a mystery. 

AP:

Abu-Jamal, a one-time taxi driver and radio reporter, emerged over four decades in prison as a vocal critic of the American justice system, especially the racial bias he saw at the heart of his 1982 trial.

His writings and commentaries from prison, including the 1996 book “Live from Death Row,” have earned him acclaim from progressive scholars and activists — along with the disdain of police unions, conservative politicians and the widow of Daniel Faulkner, the young patrolman slain in downtown Philadelphia on Dec. 9, 1981.

Popes, royalty, singers, actors - all the usual left-wing suspects have made this case a racial justice cause. But why? Three witnesses testified that Abdul-Jamal ran toward Faulkner and shot him in the back, then in the head. His gun was found at the scene. Bullet fragments had the same characteristics as bullets fired from his gun.

A case doesn't get more open and shut. Perhaps that's why the left chose to make this case an example of racism in the justice system. 

Abdul-Jamal has become such a celebrity that there's a chance that another trial would find him innocent - despite the overwhelming evidence against him. This would be "criminal justice reform," I suppose. Not a very convincing case to make.