Mumia Abu-Jamal ailing, supporters say

A nonprofit advocacy group that supports former death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal reported that he had been hospitalized Monday afternoon.

Prison Radio, which distributes recordings made by Abu-Jamal in prison, said the 60-year-old had been transported from the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy in Schuylkill County at 1 p.m. to the intensive care unit at Schuylkill Medical Center.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections declined to comment on the report. "We never discuss an inmate's medical condition," said deputy press secretary Susan Bensinger in an e-mail.

Abu-Jamal, whose last broadcast was dated Mar. 24, was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. He was sentenced to death in 1983, but that sentence was overturned by a federal appeals court and reduced to life without parole. - Robert Moran