Governor signs law to battle 'obscene celebrity' by convicts; is Abu-Jamal the target?
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed a “revictimization relief” law Tuesday, saying it was intended to battle “obscene celebrity” by convicts.
Corbett signed the law in Philadelphia near the location where police officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed in 1981, report the Associated Press, Pennlive.com and a press release. Faulkner’s widow was present for the signing.
The law authorizes personal-injury crime victims or prosecutors to seek an injunction “for conduct which perpetuates the continuing effect of the crime on the victim,” including conduct that “causes a temporary or permanent state of mental anguish.”
The law was unanimously passed last week after the man convicted in Faulkner’s shooting death, Mumia Abu-Jamal, delivered a recorded commencement address at Goddard College in Vermont. He briefly attended the school in the 1970s and continued his studies in prison, receiving a degree in 1996.
While the law is “not about any one single criminal,” Corbett said, “it was inspired by the excesses and pious hypocrisy of one particular killer.” Abu-Jamal has claimed he was the victim of racial injustice.
“This unrepentant cop killer has tested the limits of decency,” Corbett said. “Gullible activists and celebrities have continued to feed this killer’s ego.”
The Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is among the critics of the law. In a news release, the group’s executive director Reggie Shuford said the behavior prohibited under the law is unclear and it “can’t pass constitutional muster under the First Amendment.”
Hat tip to How Appealing.
