The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has appointed McKean County Court of Common Pleas Senior Judge John Cleland as the special master tasked with investigating whether the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is conflicted out of handling the appeal of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The court made the rare move Feb. 24 of granting a King’s Bench petition filed by Maureen Faulkner, the widow of slain police officer Daniel Faulkner, and agreeing to appoint a special master. Faulkner and her attorneys at Bochetto & Lentz are arguing that the District Attorney’s Office should be pulled off of Abu-Jamal’s appeal because of work District Attorney Larry Krasner and others in the office previously did in support of Abu-Jamal, who has been incarcerated since his 1982 conviction.