NEWS & NOTES : ABU-JAMAL DOCUMENTARY TO AIR FIRST ON HBO, THEN COURT TV.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

In an unusual arrangement, pay-cable's Home Box Office will air a documentary on controversial Death Row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, and then, four days later, the same report will air on basic cable's Court TV.

The film will air on HBO on July 7 at 10 p.m. and on Court TV on July 11 at 9 p.m.

HBO parent Time Warner is a part owner of Court TV.

Abu-Jamal was an African-American journalist with ties to radical groups when he was convicted in 1982 of the 1981 murder of a white policeman.

Some consider Abu-Jamal a cop killer, while others maintain he's a political prisoner and the victim of a racist, corrupt judicial system. His attorneys are currently appealing the conviction.

The special, ``Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt,'' will include a taped interview with Abu-Jamal, who tells his story on camera for the first time.

Katie Couric's hot to trot: On Tuesday, the ``Today'' show co-host will become one of the thousands of Americans to carry the Atlanta-bound Olympic torch, which will soon be making its way through New York.

At approximately 7 a.m., Couric will accept the torch from 75-year-old Brooklyn resident Ray Hughes outside the ``Today'' show's Studio 1A in Rockefeller Center, and carry it west across 49th Street to Sixth Avenue. The show's cameras will follow her progress.

The torch, which arrives in the city Monday, has been traveling across the United States since arriving in Los Angeles from Olympia, Greece, on April 27.