Supreme Court Considers Al-Amin

ATLANTA (AP) -- A lawyer for a former black militant convicted of killing a deputy told the Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday that the man's right not to testify at trial had been violated when prosecutors posed questions to him during closing arguments.The lawyer, Jack Martin, said prosecutors unfairly asked Jamil Al-Amin questions that the defendant could not answer because he chose not to take the stand in his own defense.Al-Amin, known as H. Rap Brown when he was a black militant leader in the 1960s, was convicted last year in the shooting death of Fulton County Sheriff's Deputy Ricky Kinchen, 38, in March 2000. He was sentenced to life without parole.At issue was a slide shown to jurors labeled "Questions for the defendant." It asked things like how did Al-Amin's Mercedes get to Whitehall, Ala., and why he would suddenly leave Georgia for Alabama if he weren't guilty."If this isn't comment on the defendant's failure to testify, then what is?" Martin asked.But, an assistant district attorney for Fulton County told the Supreme Court that the judge at trial was correct in allowing the questioning during closing arguments.There was "no doubt in the jury's mind that the appellant was the murderer," said prosecutor Anna Green.Green claimed there was such overwhelming evidence against Al-Amin that even if it was inappropriate to question the defendant, those questions wouldn't justify a new trial. The Georgia Supreme Court will decide in the next few months.Deputy Kinchen was killed and his partner, Deputy Aldranon English, was wounded when they went to serve a Cobb County warrant to Al-Amin on March 16, 2000. The warrant was for failing to appear in court for charges of driving a stolen car and impersonating a police officer.After his arrest, Al-Amin was being held at the Fulton County jail, but was ordered back to Georgia State Prison in Reidsville after an alleged escape attempt last March.He and two other inmates got out of their cells, cut a screen and attempted to break a window so they could lower themselves out of the jail with a rope made of sheets, officials said.The Muslim cleric had been moved to the Atlanta jail so he could consult with his attorneys on his appeal.Al-Amin was known as Brown when he was a black militant in the 1960s, working with the Black Panthers and other groups.Defenders have suggested Al-Amin was framed as part of a government conspiracy they said had dogged him since his days as a prominent Black Panther in the '60s.Al-Amin led one of the nation's largest black Muslim groups, the National Ummah, which has formed 36 mosques around the nation and is credited with revitalizing poverty-stricken areas.