Cumberland County District Attorney Skip Ebert says he will fight to keep a convicted killer of a police officer on death row.
Seifullah Abdul-Salaam was sentenced to death for the murder of 30-year-old New Cumberland Police Officer Willis Cole.
Cole was fatally shot during a coin shop robbery in 1994.
An appeals court ordered Abdul-Salaam be re-sentenced, saying his attorney was ineffective for not presenting mitigating circumstances related to the case.
Ebert says those circumstances are about Abdul- Salaam’s childhood trauma, and those circumstances should not impact how Abdul-Salaam
“The law says that the penalty must be death if the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances that is my position and I will pursue it,” said Ebert.
District Attorney Ebert says the decision in no way vacates Abdul-Salaam’s first degree murder conviction.
Ebert requested a new sentencing hearing. Abdul-Salaam will also be appointed a new attorney.
We reached out to the prosecutor and defense attorney for the case, but have not yet heard back.
