POTTSVILLE (AP) Former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of shooting to death Phildelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981, has been hospitalized, but his lawyer says prison officials won't tell him why.

Attorney Bret Grote said Monday that his client is in the critical care unit of Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville after experiencing what prison officials described as a "medical crisis."Grote, of the Abolitionist Law Center, issued a statement saying a press conference was planned for 11 a.m. at the hospital.Abu-Jamal, 60, is a former Black Panther serving life in prison at SCI Mahanoy for the Dec. 9, 1981, murder of Faulkner.Abu-Jamal, born Wesley Cook, shot Faulkner in the back on a Philadelphia street around 4 a.m. as Faulkner tried to arrest Abu-Jamal's brother. Abu-Jamal, according to court testimony, then stood over the fallen officer and fired four more shots into him, including one into his face.Police arrived at the scene to find Abu-Jamal still there.His conviction was upheld through years of appeals, but he has gained international support for his claim that he's the victim of a racist justice system.In 2011, a federal appeals court found the death penalty instructions given to Abu-Jamal's trial jury in 1982 were potentially misleading, and his death sentence was overturned.He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison.Abu-Jamal continues to garner attention, however. His October 2014 video address to the graduating class of a small Vermont college, from which he had earned a degree in 1996, sparked outrage.Grote says neither he nor Abu-Jamal's brother, Keith Cook, have been allowed in to see him.Prison officials won't comment on inmate medical conditions or hospitalizations. A spokesman for the Schuylkill Medical Center says he had no information about Abu-Jamal.Faulkner, a U.S. Army veteran who had served as a police officer for five years, left behind a wife, Maureen. The couple were married in the fall of 1979.Grote's press release said that Monday morning Abu-Jamal had a "medical crisis."Grote said, "Literally after 20 hours of torture Mumia remains disappeared. His family and his lawyers have been prevented from receiving any information."Shackled to the bed, alone, and prevented from knowing that his family is close by he remains in intensive care. Prison officials and hospital officials when not spreading misinformation are denying Mumia's family access to visits, while also denying the family and his lawyers any information or records about his condition," Grote wrote.He said Abu-Jamal's family is "keeping vigil in the ICU critical care visiting room."Chris Parker contributed to this report.