NewsMarch 10, 2002
ATLANTA -- A jury on Saturday convicted former 1960s radical H. Rap Brown of killing one sheriff's deputy and wounding another in a shootout in March 2000. Jurors deliberated 10 hours over two days before finding the Muslim cleric now called Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin guilty of shooting to death Deputy Ricky Kinchen and wounding Deputy Aldranon English on a southwest Atlanta street...
By Mitch Stacy, The Associated Press

ATLANTA -- A jury on Saturday convicted former 1960s radical H. Rap Brown of killing one sheriff's deputy and wounding another in a shootout in March 2000.

Jurors deliberated 10 hours over two days before finding the Muslim cleric now called Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin guilty of shooting to death Deputy Ricky Kinchen and wounding Deputy Aldranon English on a southwest Atlanta street.

The trial moves Monday to a penalty phase, in which jurors will decide whether to recommend execution or life in prison for the 58-year-old Al-Amin.

He was found guilty of 13 counts, including murder, aggravated assault on a police officer, obstruction and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The verdict came at the end of the third week of the trial, which was postponed once after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because the judge feared anti-Muslim sentiment would taint the jury pool.

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English testified that Al-Amin -- a prominent Muslim iman in Atlanta's West End community -- pulled a high-powered assault rifle and opened fire when he and Kinchen tried to serve him with a warrant on minor Cobb County charges on March 16, 2000.

Prosecutors said Al-Amin shot Kinchen three times in the groin with a 9 mm as he lay bleeding in the street.

English picked Al-Amin out of a photo lineup from his hospital bed the day after the shooting and identified him again in court.

Defense attorneys tried to convince jurors that English was mistaken in his identification and that someone else shot the deputies.

They also suggested that 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 was arrested four days after the shootings in White Hall, Ala. The .223-caliber assault rifle and handgun were recovered in the woods near the area where he was arrested. The defense suggested that the weapons were planted by federal authorities.

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