The three-judge panel are to decide whether written instructions given to Abu-Jamal's 1982 jury may have implicitly encouraged jurors to choose the death penalty rather than a life sentence.

The court previously ordered a new sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal, but the U.S. Supreme Court this year ordered the court to reconsider.

After the hour-long hearing, several activists explained to the assembled crowd that the hearing's purpose was limited to deciding whether Mumia would get a new hearing on the sentencing phase of his 1981 trial.  The speakers, however, demanded either freedom or a new trial for the death row inmate, since his first trial was riddled with prosecutorial and judicial impropieties.

A decision by today's panel is not expected for months.

photos by Joseph Piette

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