After 30 years of "Free Mumia" signs, t-shirts and bumper stickers being omnipresent at every single even vaguely left-leaning rally, the state of Pennsylvania has announced that it will no longer seek the death penalty against the journalist and former Black Panther, who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981.

"There's never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982," said [Philadelphia District Attorney] Williams, the city's first black district attorney. "While Abu-Jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, and that is where he belongs."

Of course, Abu-Jamal has not actually be "freed." But look at the bright side! If you're a black man questionably convicted of murder, all you need is to be a well-connected and eloquent writer with access to the media, and then it'll only take 30 years of constantly arguing to overturn your conviction for the state to agree not to kill you.

[AP; image via AP]