about the Inky hiring John Yoo to be a columnist, the people I spoke with see Abu-Jamal and Yoo as both being equivalent. They've both been accused of terrible crimes. Neither is fully and completely proven to be a criminal. The people I spoke with feel that the Supreme Court, by refusing to consider Abu-Jamal's guilt, essentially stopped the fight one round before it was completed, when the other side was ahead on points, but when Abu-Jamal just might possibly have proven his case.
Your contention that the case against Abu-Jamal is resolved and finished is not accepted in many quarters. That's a PR problem and I don't have an easy answer for you.
Yoo has written memos that appear to have been made-to-order, that Dick Cheney's people said "Okay, we need an opinion that says..." Such a thing would be grossly inappropriate and would violates the lawyer's code of ethics. Nevertheless, the case appears to be pretty strong that that's exactly what happened.