:This was my edited lead, which user DrKiernan completely reverted without explanation: 
 Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook''' April 24, 1954) is an American activist, journalist, and convicted murderer who was sentenced to death in 1982 for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.Commonwealth v. Abu-Jamal, Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, First Judicial District, Philadelphia, Case Nos. 1357–59. The death sentence was ultimately commuted to life imprisonment.Decision of Appeal upon Judgment of Sentence in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v Mumia Abu-Jamal, Superior Court of Pennsylvania (July 9, 2013) Activists, celebrities, and political organizations have criticized the perceived lack of fairness of his trial and/or opposed his death sentence. The Faulkner family, public authorities, and police organizations have maintained that he was properly convicted and appropriately sentenced. Once described as "perhaps the world's best known death-row inmate" by The New York Times,{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/19/us/death-sentence-overturned-in-1981-killing-of-officer.html?pagewanted=all|title=Death Sentence Overturned In 1981 Killing of Officer|first=Sara|last=Rimer|work=The New York Times|page=1|date=December 19, 2001|accessdate=July 6, 2011}} the incarcerated Abu-Jamal has since published books and commentaries on social and political issues, including Live from Death Row (1995). 
   	  	   	  
   	  
 ==Early life and activism== 
   	  
 ==Early life and activism==