Operating from about 1971 to 1981, the BLA used tactics including . Seller with a 100% positive feedback. [138], At Shakur's sentencing hearing on April 25, Appleby sentenced her to 26 to 33years in state prison (10 to 12 for the four counts of assault, 12 to 15 for robbery, 2 to 3 for armed robbery, plus 2 to 3 for aiding and abetting the murder of Foerster), to be served consecutively with her mandatory life sentence. On May 2 1973, Black Panther activist Assata Shakur (fsn) Joanne Deborah Chesimard, was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. A student group won the right to use the lounge after a campus shutdown over proposed tuition increases. The Black Liberation Army (BLA) defined itself as a politico-military organization engaged in armed struggle against the U.S. government. [197] In October 1980, New Jersey and New York City Police denied published reports that they had declined to raid a BedfordStuyvesant, Brooklyn building where Shakur was suspected to be hiding for fear of provoking a racial incident. [26] Shakur is alleged to have said that she was glad that she had been shot; afterward, she was no longer afraid to be shot again. [201] Her autobiography was republished in Britain in 2014[129] and a dramatized version performed on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.[209]. [53] The JTTF would later serve as the "coordinating body in the search for Assata and the renewed campaign to smash the BLA", after her escape from prison. [58] Acoli was captured after a 36-hour manhuntinvolving 400 people, state police helicopters, and bloodhounds. ", U.S. fugitive a hero to Fidel, but a curiosity to many, Officials Can't Confirm Chesimard Is in Havana, "BBC Radio 4 - 15 Minute Drama, Assata Shakur - The FBI's Most Wanted Woman, Episode 4", "H.Con.Res.254 105th Congress (1997-1998)", Congresswoman Waters issues statement on U.S. Freedom Fighter Assata Shakur. "Our tinderboxes for radical violence". She escaped prison and fled . Krebs, Alan (February 3, 1978), "Notes on People". [149], A total of 408 potential jurors were questioned during the voir dire, which concluded on February 14. Shakur is the step-aunt of Tupac Shakur . Assata Olugbala Shakur is best known for her civil rights activism in the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. [95] The new jury selection was marked by attempts by Williams to be relieved of her duties, owing to disagreements with Shakur as well as with Hilton's attorney. [188][189] In part for his role in the event, Mutulu was named on July 23, 1982, as the 380th addition to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, where he remained for the next four years until his capture in 1986. Two years later, she escaped. "Mrs. Chesimard Bids U.S. Court Bar Trial Sessions on Her Sabbath". Johnston, Richard J. [171] She was also transferred from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women to a special area staffed by women guards at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility, where she was the only female inmate,[172] for "security reasons". [138] After Joseph W. Lewis, the jury foreman, read the verdict, Kunstler asked that the jury be removed before alleging that one juror had violated the sequestration order (see above). [8] In 1950, Shakur's parents divorced and she moved with her grandparents to Wilmington, North Carolina. She escaped from prison in 1979 and later fled to Cuba in 1984, where she gained political asylum. Pre-owned. Her other texts in the book are a July 4, 1973, speech ("To My People"), which was broadcast on many radio stations, an exposition on the theory of "armed revolutionary struggle", and many poems. (May 3, 1973), "2 Die in Shootout; Militant Seized". [165] The prosecutor was C. Richard Gibbons. The great African American revolutionary, Assata Shakur, turned 73 on July 16. 1977) Assata Shakur was born Joanne Deborah Byron and was raised middle-class in Queens. Assata Shakur has been living in Cuba since 1986, after escaping from prison where she was serving a life sentence imposed in a highly disputed trial. [199], Shakur was in Cuba by 1984; in that year she was granted political asylum there. For the book, see, Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, Howell, Ron (October 11, 1987) "'On the Run With Assata Shakur' -, "Hands Off Assata Shakur: Angela Davis Calls for Radical Activism to Protect Activist Exiled in Cuba. [206][207] The book was published by Lawrence Hill & Company in the United States and Canada but the copyright is held by Zed Books Ltd. of London due to "Son of Sam" laws, which restrict who can receive profits from a book. [173] When Kunstler first took on Shakur's case (before meeting her), he described her basement cell as "adequate", which nearly resulted in his dismissal as her attorney. Black brothers, black sisters, I want you to know that I love you and I hope . "Black Liberation leaders indicted". [57], Years later when she was living in Cuba, Shakur was asked about the BLA's alleged involvement in the killings of police officers. [202] She has praised Fidel Castro as a "hero of the oppressed"[12] and referred to herself as a "20th century escaped slave". [231] CUNY was sued by student and alumni groups after removing the plaque. Kamau Sadiki (born Fred W. X. Hilton), a co-defendant who shared a cell with Shakur during their trial for armed robbery in the Bronx (of which both were acquitted), is believed to be the father. Shakur has lived in Cuba since, despite US government efforts to have her returned. Trooper Harper was wounded in the left shoulder, reported in "good" condition, and given a protective guard at the hospital. [211] During the pope's visit to Cuba in 1998, Shakur agreed to an interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza. "Mrs. Chesimard Is Ousted Again as 2d Trial for Robbery Begins". Black Panther activist Assata Shakur was pulled over by New Jersey police, shot twice and then charged with the murder of a police officer in 1973. Her aunt helped her to later earn a General Educational Development (GED) degree. Assata Shakur expresses her concerns about how her fellow people have been treated in America. Her family struggled financially and argued frequently; Shakur spent little time at home. [166], After the Turnpike shootings, Shakur was briefly held at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility[167] in Yardville, Burlington County, New Jersey, and later moved to Rikers Island Correctional Institution for Women in New York City[10] where she was kept in solitary confinement[168][169] for 21months. On April 6, 1971, Shakur was shot in the stomach during a struggle with a guest at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. [169][174][175], On April 8, 1978, Shakur was transferred to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia, where she met Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrn[10] and Mary Alice, a Catholic nun, who introduced Shakur to the concept of liberation theology. In 2005, SUNY Press released The New Abolitionists (Neo)Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, edited and with an added introduction by Joy James, in which Shakur's Women in Prison: How We Are 1978 is featured. [92] Bloom had been assigned to defend Sadiki/Hilton over the summer, but White was not disclosed as a government witness until right before the trial. [63] At this trial, Harper said that Foerster reached into the vehicle, pulled out and held up a semi-automatic pistol and ammunition magazine, and said "Jim, look what I found",[63] while facing Harper at the rear of the vehicle. Friedly, Jock (January 13, 1999), "Waters seeks asylum for cop killer". In 2013 Assata Shakur, founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther and godmother of Tupac Shakur, became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted. Joanne Chesimard, a member of the Black Liberation Army also known as Assata Shakur . Johnston, Richard J. negras y a sus lderes, Shakur pas cuatro aos en la crcel antes de su condena en 1977, sustentada en pruebas poco slidas. The FBI put out a $2 million bounty for her recapture almost 50 years ago. [149] Acoli did not testify or make any pre-trial statements, nor did he testify in his own trial or give a statement to the police. [91], Sadiki's lawyer, Robert Bloom, attempted to have the trial dismissed and then postponed due to new "revelations" regarding the credibility of White, a former co-defendant by then working for the prosecution. [122] The prosecution showed surveillance photos of four of the six alleged robbers, contending that one of them was Shakur wearing a wig. I wanted to know everything." [134][151] Five jurors had personal ties to State Troopers (one girlfriend, two nephews, and two friends). [11] Often there were few or no other black students in her Catholic high school class. Shakur was charged with two bank robberies, the kidnapping of a Brooklyn heroin dealer, the attempted murder of two Queens police officers stemming from a January 23, 1973, failed ambush, and eight other felonies related to the Turnpike shootout. [203], In 1987, she published Assata: An Autobiography, which was written in Cuba. [58], According to a New Jersey Police spokesperson, Assata Shakur was on her way to a "new hideout in Philadelphia" and "heading ultimately for Washington". Bachman. Middlesex County Ethics Committee v. Garden State Bar Ass'n, 457 U.S. 423 (1982). [155] Judge Appleby rejected Kunstler's claim that the juror had violated the order. [133], Shakur was identified as a political prisoner as early as October 8, 1973, by Angela Davis,[180] and in an April 3, 1977, The New York Times advertisement purchased by the Easter Coalition for Human Rights. James, Joy, and Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean (2000). Sullivan, Joseph F. (February 24, 1977), "Chesimard Attorney Acts to Call Kelley; Wants F.B.I. I didn't feel like no Joanne, or no negro, or no amerikan. After elementary school, Shakur moved back to Queens to live with her mother and stepfather (her mother had remarried); she attended Parsons Junior High School. The students had chained and locked the entrance to a college building to protest the low numbers of black faculty and the lack of a black studies program. She then joined the BLA, a loosely knit offshoot of the Black Panthers, which engaged in an armed struggle against the US government through tactics such as robbing banks and killing police officers and drug dealers.[4]. [62][143] Hinds' disciplinary proceeding reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Middlesex County Ethics Committee v. Garden State Bar Ass'n (1982). [217][218] The Resolution was due in no small part to the lobbying efforts of Governor Whitman and New Jersey Representative Bob Franks. [165] The charges were dismissed without trial. [62], Following the 13-minute opening statement by Edward J. Barone, the first assistant Middlesex County prosecutor (directing the case for the state), William Kunstler (the chief of Shakur's defense staff) moved immediately for a mistrial, calling the eight-count grand jury indictment "adversary proceeding solely and exclusively under the control of the prosecutor", whom Kunstler accused of "improper prejudicial remarks"; Judge Theodore Appleby, noting the frequent defense interruptions that had characterized the previous days' jury selection, denied the motion. Patty Hearst Vintage Original 1975 FBI Wanted Poster Symbionese Liberation Army. [78], On the charges related to the New Jersey Turnpike shootout, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Leon Gerofsky ordered a change of venue in 1973 from Middlesex to Morris County, New Jersey, saying "it was almost impossible to obtain a jury here comprising people willing to accept the responsibility of impartiality so that defendants will be protected from transitory passion and prejudice. Due to the possibility of miscarriage, the prosecution successfully requested a mistrial for Shakur; Acoli's trial continued. Assata Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army, was convicted in 1977 for the murder of a state trooper during a shootout in New Jersey. [59][61], The stop occurred 200 yards (183m) south of what was then the Turnpike Authority administration building. (1975). [10] The official premiere of the film in Havana in 2004 was promoted by Casa de las Amricas, the main cultural forum of the Cuban government. [163] Appleby finally sentenced Shakur to 30days in the Middlesex County Workhouse for contempt of court, concurrent with the other sentences, for refusing to rise when he entered the courtroom. Shakur and others with the Black Liberation Army were convicted and sentenced in 1973 for the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. [96] Judge Arnold Bauman denied the application, but directed another lawyer, Howard Jacobs, to defend Shakur while Williams remained the attorney of record. Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography 65 likes Like "Schools in amerika are interested in brainwashing people with amerikanism, giving them a little bit of education, and training them in skills needed to fill the positions the capitalist system requires. They mounted a campaign of guerilla activities against the U.S. government, using such tactics as planting bombs, holding up banks, and murdering drug dealers and police. . Chesimard, a fugitive living in Cuba under the name Assata Shakur, was a member of the Black Liberation Army in 1973 when she shot and killed Trooper Werner Foerster during a traffic stop. [29][30][31][32] Law enforcement officials in Atlanta, Georgia, said that Shakur and Jackson had lived together in Atlanta for several months in the summer of 1971. [64] That night, the second night of jury deliberation, the jury asked Judge Appleby to repeat his instructions regarding the four assault charges 30minutes before retiring for the night, which led to speculation that the jury had decided in Shakur's favor on the remaining charges, especially the two counts of murder. [2] Acoli was granted parole in 2022 at the age of 85. [62][159], Davidson based his testimony on an August 4, 1976, examination of Shakur and on X-rays taken immediately after the shootout at Middlesex General Hospital. [44], As of February 17, 1972, when Shakur was identified as one of four BLA members on a short trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee, she was wanted for questioning (along with Robert Vickers, Twyman Meyers, Samuel Cooper, and Paul Stewart) in relation to police killings, a Queens bank robbery, and the grenade attack on police. [132], The nine-week trial was widely publicized, and was even reported on by the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS). "Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of . [240], In 2015, New Jersey's Kean University dropped hip-hop artist Common as a commencement speaker because of police complaints. [81] A contemporary New York Times editorial criticized Williams for failing to maintain courtroom "decorum," comparing her actions to William Kunstler's recent contempt conviction for his actions during the "Chicago Seven" trial. Assata Shakur, Joanne Byron, Barbara Odoms, Joanne Chesterman, Joan Davis, Justine Henderson, Mary Davis, Pat Chesimard, Jo-Ann Chesimard, . [123], One bank employee testified that Shakur was one of the bank robbers, but three other bank employees (including two tellers) testified that they were uncertain. Assata had several warrants for her arrest on charges . But one issue not raised during his visit was the fate of Assata Shakur, the legendary figure within the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army who now lives in Cuba, where she has political asylum. [134], Shakur's attorneys sought a new trial on the grounds that one jury member, John McGovern, had violated the jury's sequestration order. [62] Shakur again attempted to remove the trial to federal court. By Assata Shakur (guest author) posted on July 15, 2022 In honor of Assata Shakur's 75th birthday on July 16, Workers World is reprinting this slightly edited version of her open letter, first posted on WW on Dec. 30, 2014. Expand. [238] According to Dylan Rodriguez, to many "U.S. radicals and revolutionaries" Shakur represents a "venerated (if sometimes fetishized) signification of liberatory desire and possibility". Assata Shakur was born as JoAnne Deborah Byron in 1947, but after getting deep into political activism and fighting to end oppression with the Black Panther Party she changed her "slave name" and adopted the . [124] Shortly after deliberation began, the jury asked to see all the photographic exhibits taken from the surveillance footage.