A federal court in Philadelphia is scheduled to hold a hearing today on the death sentence imposed on Mumia Abu-Jamal, the imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther. For decades, Abu-Jamal has argued that racism by the trial judge and prosecutors led to his 1982 conviction of killing a white police officer. Representing Abu-Jamal will be Judith Ritter, a law professor at Widener University. Last week, Abu-Jamal’s longtime attorney Robert Bryan stepped down.