The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a ruling that had set aside the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in a racially tinged case that has made the former Black Panther an international cause celebre. The justices ordered the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to revisit its 2008 ruling that Abu-Jamal deserved a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions at his 1982 trial. The Supreme Court pointed to its ruling in an Ohio case last week, when it said a neo-Nazi killer did not deserve a new sentencing hearing on those grounds. Prosecutors called the Ohio case directly on point. "The order pretty much says it all," Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Hugh J. Burns Jr. said. But Abu-Jamal's lead appellate lawyer, Robert R. Bryan, insists the facts differ. The 3rd Circuit could still order a federal trial court to consider Abu-Jamal's case anew on other pending defense claims. A mostly white Philadelphia jury convicted Abu-Jamal of killing white Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 after the patrolman pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother.