Convicted Murderer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, to Speak to College Graduates

PLAINFIELD, Vt. (AP) — An inmate serving a life sentence for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer is due to speak to graduates at Vermont's Goddard College, his alma mater.

Mumia Abu-Jamal will speak by video to about 20 students receiving bachelor degrees from the Plainfield school where he earned a degree in 1996.

The school says the graduates chose Abu-Jamal as a way to "engage and think radically and critically."

But the decision to allow Abu-Jamal to speak angered police and others in Vermont and Pennsylvania. Abu-Jamal was initially sentenced to death in the killing of Officer Daniel Faulkner but resentenced to life in 2012.

Goddard students design their own curriculums with faculty advisers and do not take tests or receive grades.

(Story by: The Associated Press)