WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- Mumia Abu-Jamal sits on Pennsylvania 's death row , perhaps the most recognized of the 228 condemned inmates at the Greene Correctional Facility , an hour south of Pittsburgh . Former radio host and convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal during a 1994 interview . Abu-Jamal , inmate AM8335 , awaits three milestones . His new book , `` Jailhouse Lawyers , '' will be released next month . He 's also awaiting a pair of Supreme Court decisions , which could come in the next two weeks . The former Black Panther was sentenced to die for gunning down a Philadelphia police officer 28 years ago . The high court will decide whether he deserves a new hearing to determine whether his execution should go forward . The state is appealing a federal appeals court ruling on the sentencing question that went in Abu-Jamal 's favor last year . The case has attracted international attention . Abu-Jamal 's lawyers filed a separate appeal claiming that racism led to his 1982 conviction . That petition is scheduled for consideration by the Supreme Court on April 3 . If either case is accepted by the justices for review , oral arguments would be held in the fall . The former radio reporter and cab driver has been a divisive figure , with many prominent supporters arguing that racism pervaded his trial . Others counter that Abu-Jamal is using his skin color to escape responsibility for his actions . They say he has divided the community for years with his provocative writing and activism . He was convicted for the December 9 , 1981 , murder of officer Daniel Faulkner , 25 , in Philadelphia . Faulkner had pulled over Abu-Jamal 's brother in a late-night traffic stop . Witnesses said Abu-Jamal , who was nearby , ran over and shot the police officer in the back and in the head . Abu-Jamal , once known as Wesley Cook , was also wounded in the confrontation and later admitted to the killing , according to other witnesses ' testimony . Abu-Jamal is black , and the police officer was white . Incarcerated for nearly three decades , Abu-Jamal has been an active critic of the criminal justice system . On a Web site created by friends to promote his release , the prisoner-turned-author writes about his fight . `` This is the story of law learned , not in the ivory towers of multi-billion dollar endowed universities but in the bowels of the slave-ship , in the hidden , dank dungeons of America . '' His chief defense attorney , Robert Bryan , has filed appeals asking for a new criminal trial . `` The central issue in this case is racism in jury selection , '' he wrote to supporters last month . `` We are in an epic struggle in which his life hangs in the balance . What occurs now in the Supreme Court will determine whether Mumia will have a new jury trial or die at the hands of the executioner , '' Bryan said . Ten whites and two blacks made up the original jury panel that sentenced him to death . A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals kept the murder conviction in place a year ago but ordered a new capital sentencing hearing . `` The jury instructions and the verdict form created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was precluded from finding a mitigating circumstance that had not been unanimously agreed upon , '' Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica wrote in the 77-page opinion . The federal appeals court ultimately concluded that the jury was improperly instructed on how to weigh `` mitigating factors '' offered by the defense that might have kept Abu-Jamal off death row . Pennsylvania law at the time said jurors did not have to unanimously agree on a mitigating circumstance , such as the fact that Abu-Jamal had no prior criminal record . Months before that ruling , oral arguments on the issue were contentious . Faulkner 's widow and Abu-Jamal 's brother attended , and demonstrations on both sides were held outside the courtroom in downtown Philadelphia . If the Supreme Court refuses now to intervene on the sentencing issue , the city 's prosecutor would have to decide within six months whether to conduct a new death penalty sentencing hearing or allow Abu-Jamal to spend the rest of his life in state prison . Many prominent groups and individuals , including singer Harry Belafonte , the NAACP and the European Parliament , are cited on his Web site as supporters . Prosecutors have insisted that Abu-Jamal pay the price for his crimes and have aggressively resisted efforts to take him off death row for Faulkner 's murder . `` This assassination has been made a circus by those people in the world and this city who believe falsely that Mumia Abu-Jamal is some kind of a folk hero , '' Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said last year , when the federal appeals court upheld the conviction . `` He is nothing short of an assassin . '' The city has honored the fallen police officer with a street designation and a commemorative plaque placed at the spot where he was shot and killed . The officer 's widow , Maureen Faulkner , wrote a book two years ago about her husband and the case : `` Murdered by Mumia : A Life Sentence of Loss , Pain and Injustice . '' She writes that she was trying to `` definitively lay out the case against Mumia Abu-Jamal and those who 've elevated him to the status of political prisoner . ''
Mumia Abu-Jamal 's case has become an international cause . He has two appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court . Racism responsible for his conviction , death sentence , appeal says . Abu-Jamal convicted in 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer .