After 29 years as a patrolman with the Philadelphia police department, Jim McDevitt isn’t easily shocked. But he sure seems surprised to learn that Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is one of the 110 actors, writers, and intellectuals who signed an August ad in the New York Times calling for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the black death row in-mate convicted of shooting a white Philadelphia cop in 1981. “The ice cream guy?” he asks. “Are you kid- ding?” Nope. And if it seems unlikely that the inventor of Chunky Mon-key ice cream would be weighing in on matters of Life, Death, and American Justice, consider this:

Casey Kasem signed the ad, too. So did Alec Baldwin, Oliver Stone, and Sting. From an undisclosed lo-cation, Salman Rushdie fated his signature. Even Norman Mailer chimed in, back in the trenches for yet another convicted murderer.