The former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has weighed in on the Senate’s rejection of
Debo Adegbile, President Obama’s pick to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Adegbile’s nomination was voted down after a confirmation fight that focused almost solely on his ties to Abu-Jamal’s legal defense. He was part of a team at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund that successfully argued the trial judge’s jury instructions violated Abu-Jamal’s rights in his conviction for killing a Philadelphia police officer. In a recording from prison, Abu-Jamal sharply criticized the Senate’s vote.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: “It is bitter irony that the man nominated for the nation’s highest civil rights post was himself denied the civil right of due process and the human right of self-defense. And this is so, simply because he dared to do what defense lawyers are legally and constitutionally required to do: defend their clients. For this, he was spat upon by vile men. For this, he was denied by a raft of lies.”

Critics have warned the Senate’s rejection of Debo Adegbile could set a dangerous precedent where legal nominees are judged based on who they’ve defended in court. The lawmakers who voted in opposition are also being accused of racist double standards: Chief Justice John Roberts was confirmed to the Supreme Court despite defending a Florida mass murderer who killed eight people.