MUMIA ON THEIR MIND

Like rival clans thrust together at gunpoint, the two halves of a Philadelphia courtroom audience watched each other warily last week, begrudging good behavior. Then a convict with cascading dreadlocks entered, and the people to the right of the aisle erupted. "Free Mumia!" they screamed. "Mumia, we love you!" Women blew kisses. Men punched the air with salutes. To the left of the aisle, the other half watched, silently enraged that the defendant might get another chance.

The catalyst of these emotions is Mumia Abu-Jamal, 41, a prizewinning journalist. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 p.m. on...