Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello strongly defended Thursday (Jan. 21) his band's right to perform for the benefit of death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In response to sharp protests from police and New Jersey officials, the guitarist called in to New York rock station K-Rock (92.3 FM) Thursday evening (Jan. 21) to defend the activist band's support for Abu-Jamal with a planned benefit show next Thursday at New Jersey's Continental Arena.

"The core of this case is clear-cut and unambiguous: Mumia did not receive a fair trial," Morello said. "There was gross prosecutorial misconduct... the jury was illegally purged of African-Americans ... Whether you believe Mumia is guilty or innocent, in the United States of America, you cannot execute a man if there hasn't been a fair trial."

Morello concluded his on-air comments by saying that he thought that millions of people around the world, and the thousands at next Thursday's show, would not stand idly by while the state of Pennsylvania executes an innocent man.

Abu-Jamal has been on death row in Waynesburg, Pa., since being convicted of the Dec. 9, 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal has proclaimed his innocence all along, and his supporters claim he was set up because of his work as a political commentator and his involvement with the Black Panther Party, a black-activist organization.

"It's a concert in which we hope to both educate and inspire people to get involved," Morello said on the air.

The comments came after a number of K-Rock listeners who'd bought tickets to the event complained on the air that they wouldn't have purchased them if they'd known that the Abu-Jamal case involved the murder of a police officer.

New Jersey State Police Col. Carl Williams told the Bergen Record that he planned to write a protest letter about the show to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which books the Continental Arena. In addition to Rage Against The Machine, the concert -- honoring journalist and death-row inmate Abu-Jamal -- is also scheduled to feature sets from the Beastie Boys and veteran punk-rockers Bad Religion.

"It bothers me that it's at a state-run arena," Williams reportedly said. Williams' officers are slated to back up the arena's private security. "We're putting our troopers in with a hostile crowd, and my people are going to be there trying to maintain law and order," he was quoted as saying. "This is amazing. I'm dumbfounded."

The one-off, sold-out show at the 16,000-capacity East Rutherford, N.J., venue was organized by Rage as a fund-raiser for the Philadelphia-based Black United Fund -- an organization connected to the International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Abu-Jamal's supporters say they believe Faulkner's real killer escaped on the night of the shooting and that evidence was withheld during the inmate's trial which would have exonerated him. Abu-Jamal has nearly exhausted his appeals, but supporters continue to hope that bringing attention to the case might help block his execution.

Pam Africa, coordinator of International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal, said earlier this month that she hopes the concert will build support for an April 24 rally in Philadelphia for the death-row prisoner. The rally has been dubbed the "Millions for Mumia March."

"[Rage Against The Machine] educate people about what's going on," Africa said. "We've [recruited] truly dedicated people who found out about Mumia through their children, and they found out about him through Rage concerts."

The Bergen Record reported that sports authority officials claimed they were deceived by the show's promoters about the fund-raising aspect of the show. A spokesperson for Epic Records -- Rage Against The Machine's label -- did not return calls for comment.

"[New Jersey Governor Christine Todd] Whitman believes that holding a concert for the benefit of a convicted cop killer is deplorable," Whitman spokesperson Wendy Patella said, according to the newspaper report.

The rock-and-rap community has been active in supporting Abu-Jamal over the past few months.

Among other projects, Rage frontman Zack de la Rocha is slated to appear on Unbound, a compilation benefiting Abu-Jamal's legal defense fund. The album is due to be released in March on Realized Records. Unbound is also supposed to feature new tunes from rappers Aceyalone, Poor Righteous Teachers and Dilated Peoples, as well as contributions from poets Saul Williams and Ursula Rucker.

(Contributing Editor Brian Hiatt contributed to this report.)