<p>Jamil Al-Amin, the former 1960s black militant known as H. Rap Brown, lost a bid in the Georgia Supreme Court Monday to overturn his conviction for the shooting death of a Fulton County sheriff's deputy four years ago.</p><p>In an unanimous decision, the state's highest appeals court said it found no reversible error in the trial that led to his conviction.</p><p>Al-Amin was convicted in March 2002 of the shooting death of Fulton County Sheriff's Deputy Ricky Kinchen, 38. He was sentenced to life without parole.</p><p>Kinchen was killed and his partner, Deputy Aldranon English, was wounded when they went to serve a Cobb County warrant to Al-Amin on March 16, 2000. The warrant was for failing to appear in court for charges of driving a stolen car and impersonating a police officer.</p><p>Al-Amin was captured in Alabama by U.S. marshals four days after the shootings.</p><p>The court said the evidence, which included a statement by the surviving officer and ballistics tests, was "sufficient for a rational trier of fact to have found Al-Amin guilty of the crimes for which he was convicted."</p><p>In a lengthy opinion, the court rejected a series of claims his attorneys raised in an effort to overturn the conviction.</p><p>Among other things, the court said it found no merit to a claim he was denied equal protection because the county's procedures for choosing grand juries and trial juries were flawed.</p><p>It also dismissed a claim Al-Amin's right to not testify was violated when prosecutors posed questions to him during closing arguments. In his summary, a prosecutor displayed a chart for the jury which contained a series of seven "questions for the defendant."</p><p>Defense attorneys sought a mistrial at that point. The trial judge denied the motion but instructed the jury that closing argument is not evidence.</p><p>The Supreme Court agreed that the prosecutor crossed the line by engaging in a mock cross-examination, but held that did not require an automatic reversal.</p><p>"The strength of the evidence against Al-Amin coupled with the contemporaneous curative instructions leads this court to conclude that the violation here was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt," the court said.</p><p>Al-Amin had lived quietly in Atlanta for years and led one of the nation's largest black Muslim groups, the National Ummah, which has formed 36 mosques around the nation and is credited with revitalizing poverty-stricken areas.</p><p>Defenders have suggested 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.</p>
