century since Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the cold-blooded murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

The case has been appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court at least five times. It's been to the U.S. Supreme Court at least three times.

It's been appealed again and again with the same result: The conviction has been upheld.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a cop-killer.

Not a martyr. Not a political prisoner. Not a victim of a racist criminal-justice system.

"He's nothing short of an assassin," District Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference yesterday after a federal appellate panel again confirmed his conviction.

But yesterday's ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals also set aside the death penalty, ordering that Abu-Jamal either get a new penalty hearing or be resentenced to life in prison.

It's exactly the same order issued in December 2001, by U.S. District Court Judge William Yohn Jr.

You'd think it would be enough, already, that Abu-Jamal's lawyers would accept the oft-upheld verdict and that Abraham would resentence Abu-Jamal to life in prison.

But there's no such thing, apparently, as the final word on Mumia Abu-Jamal. No such thing as closure for the widow of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. No way to exhaust the endless incarnations of this case.

Abu-Jamal's lawyers vowed yesterday to take yet another appeal to the full Third Circuit Court and go on until his conviction is overturned.

And Abraham said she'd never agree to commute Abu-Jamal's sentence to life in prison.

Considering that this latest appeal took more than six years to be resolved - and that the outcome of the next appeal will no doubt trigger more appeals - this may go on until Abu-Jamal dies of old age.

It's a maddening loop with no end in sight.

This is justice?

Once the defense appeal is resolved, Abraham said, she'll decide what the D.A.'s next step will be.

Assuming, of course, she's still in office.

But she was adamant about continuing to pursue Abu-Jamal's execution.

"There's an extreme penalty to be paid for assassinating a police officer," she said.

I agree that no one deserves the death penalty more than a cop-killer.

But I'm convinced at this point that Abu-Jamal will never be put to death. And that's fine with me.

Not that I doubt his guilt. The evidence is overwhelming. And if he didn't kill Faulkner, I figure he'd have said so at some point - which he never did.

But it seems clear after two court rulings that the trial jury's death penalty will not stand. And presenting a new penalty hearing 26 years later - longer, by the time this is resolved - seems utterly implausible.

More importantly, executing Abu-Jamal will only anoint him a permanent martyr and perpetuate the movement he inspired among the willfully blind and willingly deceived.

It's gone on long enough.

Taking Abu-Jamal off death row will deflate the protests and dethrone him as a symbol of injustice.

Sure, some extremists among his supporters will never end their crusade.

But the anti-death-penalty agitators among them will consider it a victory and find another cause to champion.

It's time for finality in this horrendous saga, which has brought ugly notoriety to this city long enough.

It's time to accept the verdict of the court, let Abu-Jamal rot in jail, and consider it case closed.

The case is a remnant of a time that's best forgotten - the lingering aftermath of the racially polarized Rizzo era.

The city has matured racially since then, and managed to prevail over MOVE and other infamous moments.

If only this absurd cycle of appeal-after-appeal would end, and we could put Mumia Abu-Jamal behind us, too. *

E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns:

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