Thursday night's (1/28) Rage Against The Machine [ tickets ] / Beastie Boys [ tickets ] benefit show at New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena will likely retain it's sold-out status by the time box office employees pull the window shut and settle up for the night, but not for lack of effort on the part of state and police officials who are outraged that the event is even taking place.

The event, a benefit to fund efforts to win a new trial for political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal -- convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 and sentenced to death -- has drawn fire from many sides since first being announced nearly two weeks ago.

Public condemnations from state officials and police organizations prompted a rare refund window in which ticketholders were given until Wednesday evening (1/27) to consider their support for the sold-out event and allowed to refund their tickets without question.

Sonicnet reports that as of Wednesday evening about 2,000 tickets had been returned. The number of refunds stunned venue officials, according to the report. Earlier published reports indicated that tickets were being re-purchased quickly after being returned to the inventory. The venue holds approximately 16,000 people.

The event was organized by Rage Against the Machine, who, upon hearing that Abu-Jamal's final death-row appeal had been rejected, chose to organize a benefit to fund a hoped-for re-opening of the case. Human rights organizations including Amnesty International have pressed for a re-trial, citing evidence that they feel exposes breaches in the investigative and trial process that produced Abu-Jamal's conviction.

Speaking to the New York Times, Rage guitarist Tom Morello said the band is modeling their efforts on the success of Bob Dylan's mid-70's campaign to re-open the case against former middleweight championship contender Rubin ''Hurricane'' Carter. Carter was sentenced to a triple life sentence for a triple murder. Following a media campaign focusing on possible tainted evidence in the case, a judge later overturned the sentence and freed Carter.

Police and governmental officials decry the martyr-like characterization of Abu-Jamal, an outspoken critic of the police who often used his radio program as a forum to question police agendas, but many are more upset about the way the event was produced and publicized.

Venue officials say they were unaware of the actual cause associated with the benefit until just before tickets went on sale, and found themselves powerless to back out of the controversial booking as a state-run facility constrained by free-speech protections on the part of the artists. (A move to block a 1997 Marilyn Manson concert based on fears of obscene content eminating from the stage was thrown out by a judge who ruled that at a public venue Manson's free speech was protected from disruption by state officials.)

Promotional information about the show reportedly minimized the association with Abu-Jamal, including information provided by the promoter on the face of the ticket, which simply reads ''Rage Against The Machine with special guests.''

The notion that ticket buyers may have been misled as to whether they were supporting the careers of the acts performing or actually voicing support for Abu-Jamal was a point many show protesters returned to in a campaign to urge ticket buyers who were originally unaware of the cause of the benefit to return their tickets. Ticket refunds were allowed through Wednesday evening via the box office and Ticketmaster.

The controversy has produced sparse comment from other acts on the bill. The Beastie Boys have issued no statements, while Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin has positioned his band's participation as raising awareness to the evils of the death penalty, while adding, ''I want to emphatically state that this does not mean we support cop killers.''

[Note: Live Daily is a publication of Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, the online ticket vendor of Ticketmaster-sold events.]