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Senate vote on Justice Dept. nomination hinges on decades-old Mumia Abu-Jamal caseBY SEAN LENGELL | MARCH 5, 2014 AT 5:29 AM Justice Department nominee Debo Adegbile speaks with the media outside the Supreme Court in...President Obama's controversial pick to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division faces a potentially close -- and for Senate Democratic leaders, embarrassing -- vote Wednesday in the chamber.The nomination of Debo Adegbile is at risk despite a move in November by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to change the chamber's rules to make it easier to overcome Republican filibusters and confirm White House nominations.Adegbile has been widely praised by the legal community and liberal groups, who consider him one of the nation's preeminent civil rights lawyers.But Republicans and at least one Democrat oppose Adegbile because of his involvement in the legal representation of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a black nationalist who was convicted in 1982 of murdering Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.The issue stirs up a more-than-30-year-long debate over Abu-Jamal, who opponents say is a cold-blooded cop killer. His worldwide supporters, however, say he was wrongfully convicted, with some claiming he was framed by the police because is was black.Adegbile, as part of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, helped commute Abu-Jamal's death sentence to life in prison in 2011, a move opponents say makes Adegbile unfit to serve in the Justice Department."I believe he is too deeply committed to a host of liberal causes to be an effective leader of that office," Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at a February meeting of the panel.http://washingtonexaminer.com/senate-vote-on-doj-nomination-hinges-on-decades-old-mumia-abu-jamal-case/article/2545091http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2014/03/05/obama-morning-news-march-5-2014/
