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By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press – 36 minutes ago 

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors on Wednesday abandoned their 30-year pursuit of the execution of convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther whose claim that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause celebre.

Abu-Jamal, 58, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison. His writings and radio broadcasts from death row had put him at the center of an international debate over capital punishment.

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Texas, which leads the United States in number of executions, is second to Virginia, carrying out less than half its death sentences.

Serving life in prison without possibility of parole, Robert C. Gleason opted to die by execution instead of old age and is Virginia's newest death-row inmate.

He earned the distinction by killing fellow prisoners in the state most likely to grant his wish. Since executions resumed in 1977, nearly three out of four condemned prisoners in Virginia have been put to death, the nation's highest rate.

Texas, which leads the United States in number of executions, is second to Virginia, carrying out less than half its death sentences. In most death-penalty states, the ratio is fewer than 1 in 10.

While Virginia's record is clear, its causes and implications are in dispute.

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A federal judge who overturned Justin Wolfe's death sentence has ordered his return to death row, citing harsher restrictions Wolfe had received in segregation elsewhere.

Wolfe, 30, was convicted in 2002 of a drug-related murder-for-hire in Prince William County. The case was tossed out in July by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson, who was critical of the evidence and who found prosecutorial misconduct.

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