[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. Shakur was identified as wanted for questioning after a September 1, 1972, bank robbery in the Bronx. [123] Before the passage of the Resolution, Franks stated: "This escaped murderer now lives a comfortable life in Cuba and has launched a public relations campaign in which she attempts to portray herself as an innocent victim rather than a cold-blooded murderer. [63][b] Trooper Harper asked the driver for identification, noticed a discrepancy, asked him to get out of the car, and questioned him at the rear of the vehicle.[58]. [134] All of the 15 jurorsten women and five menwere white, and most were under thirty years old. & the Militant". [41], Some sources identify Shakur as the de facto head of the BLA after the arrest of co-founder Dhoruba Moore. Chesimard v. Kuhlthau, 370 F. Supp. [63] The prosecution argued that Assata had fired the bullets that had wounded Harper, while the defense argued that the now deceased Zayd had fired them. By Mirinda Crissman July 15, 2022 In honor of Assata Shakur's 75th birthday on July 16, the IAC is reprinting this slightly edited version of her open letter, first posted on Dec. 30, 2014. Brown,[136] Stanley Cohen (who died of unknown causes early on in the Turnpike trial), Lennox Hinds, Florynce Kennedy, Louis Myers, Laurence Stern, and Evelyn Williams, Shakur's aunt. She's an activist, member of the Black Liberation Army, and escaped convicted murderer with a $2 million bounty currently on her head. In 1993, she published a second book, Still Black, Still Strong, with Dhoruba bin Wahad and Mumia Abu-Jamal. [126] The actual transfer took place on January 29. 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. [13], Shakur attended Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and then the City College of New York (CCNY) in the mid-1960s, where she became involved in many political activities, civil rights protests, and sit-ins. In 1977, she was convicted in the first-degree murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. [23] She identified as an African and felt her old name no longer fit: "It sounded so strange when people called me Joanne. [119] Judge Jacob Mishlerset set a tentative trial date of November 5 that year. ". (February 14, 1974). Title: Black Liberation Army Papers Creator: Black Liberation Army Inclusive dates: 1963-1998 Extent: 1.5 Linear feet (1 records box and 1 manuscript box) Abstract: . [210], In 1997, Carl Williams, the superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, wrote a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to raise the issue of Shakur's extradition during his talks with President Fidel Castro. Assata Olugbala Shakur (born July 16, 1947), as JoAnne Deborah Byron , married name Chesimard is an African-American activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA). Why Cuba will never send Assata Shakur to the U.S. [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. I didn't feel like no Joanne, or no negro, or no amerikan. [87] Shakur's aunt and lawyer, Evelyn Williams, was cited for contempt after walking out of the courtroom after many of her attempted motions were denied. [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. [81] The trial was delayed for a few days after Shakur was diagnosed with pleurisy. [111] On March 5, 1974, two new defendants (Jeannette Jefferson and Robert Hayes) were named in an indictment involving the same charges. . [9] [58] Acoli stopped and exited the car and, after being ordered to halt by a trooper, fled into the woods as the trooper emptied his gun. [162] According to tape recordings and police reports made several hours after the shoot-out, when Harper returned on foot to the administration building 200yards (183m) away, he did not report Foerster's presence at the scene; no one at headquarters knew of Foerster's involvement in the shoot-out until his body was discovered beside his patrol car, more than an hour later. [11][72][73][74] She was transferred from Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick to Roosevelt Hospital in Edison after her lawyers obtained a court order from Judge John Bachman,[75] and then transferred to Middlesex County Workhouse a few weeks later. 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]. The two men were charged with the murder of Officer Scarangella and attempted murder of Officer Rainey. [149], Shakur testified that Trooper Harper shot her after she raised her arms to comply with his demand. [161], According to Angela Davis, neutron activation analysis that was administered after the shootout showed no gunpowder residue on Shakur's fingers and forensic analysis performed at the Trenton, New Jersey, crime lab and the FBI crime labs in Washington, D.C., did not find her fingerprints on any weapon at the scene. Black militancy: notes from the underground. Patty Hearst Vintage Original 1975 FBI Wanted Poster Symbionese Liberation Army. [193] The Cuban government paid approximately $13 a day toward her living expenses. [3], Born in Flushing, Queens, she grew up in New York City and Wilmington, North Carolina. "[44][78] It gives an account of her life beginning with her youth in the South and New York. Shakur was forcibly subdued and photographed by the FBI on the judge's order, after having refused to cooperate, believing that the FBI would use photo manipulation; a subsequent judge determined that the manners in which the photos were obtained violated Shakur's rights and ruled the new photos inadmissible. [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. [93] Judge Gagliardi instructed both the prosecution and the defense not to bring up Shakur or Sadiki's connections to the BLA, saying they were "not relevant". [39][40] Shakur was alleged to have been directly involved with the Foster and Laurie murders, and involved tangentially with the Piagentini and Jones murders. One man involved in the killing was still wanted at the time of the arrests. (December 15, 1973). that somewhere in your heart you have love for me. $55.00 + $5.55 shipping. [62] Shakur again attempted to remove the trial to federal court. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1974 for murdering a New Jersey state trooper. Perlmutter, Emanuel (January 29, 1973), "Extra Duty Tours For Police Set Up After 2D Ambush", According to Churchill and Vander Wall (2002): "What had emerged in the 1980s was a formal amalgamation of FBI COINTELPRO specialists and New York City red squad detectives known as the Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF), consolidating the more, Sullivan, Joseph F. (May 3 or 4th, 1973). [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. [138], At the post-trial press conference, Kunstler blamed the verdict on racism, stating that "the white element was there to destroy her". [8] In 1950, Shakur's parents divorced and she moved with her grandparents to Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1977, she was convicted of the murder of State Trooper Foerster and of seven other felonies related to the 1973 shootout. ", then displayed a revolver and demanded money. [163], In October 1977, New York State Superior Court Justice John Starkey dismissed murder and robbery charges against Shakur related to the death of Richard Nelson during a hold-up of a Brooklyn social club on December 28, 1972, ruling that the state had delayed too long in bringing her to trial. In 1984, she was granted political asylum by the socialist Republic of Cuba then under the leadership of President Fidel Castro. Last week, it. [14] She was arrested for the first timewith 100 other BMCC studentsin 1967, on charges of trespassing. [67], Acoli drove the car (a white Pontiac LeMans with Vermont license plates)[62]which contained Assata Shakur, who was wounded, and Zayd Shakur, who was dead or dying5 miles (8km) down the road. After she ran away from home several times, her aunt, who would later act as one of her lawyers, took her in. Early life [ edit] "Police by Hundreds Comb 2 Boroughs for 6 Suspects in Ambush Shootings". [117] The text of Shakur's opening statement in the trial is reproduced in her autobiography. [156] McGovern later sued Kunstler for defamation;[157] Kunstler eventually publicly apologized to McGovern and paid him a small settlement. Waggoner, Walter H. (February 16, 1977), ". [138] When Judge Appleby told the court attendants to "remove the prisoner", Shakur herself replied: "the prisoner will walk away on her own feet". [198] Since her escape, Shakur has been charged with unlawful flight to avoid imprisonment. Black Liberation Army Member, Assata Shakur, Tried on Murder and Assault Charges New Jersey v. Chesimard, 555 F.2d 63 (3d Cir. She said she was taught a sugar-coated version of history that ignored the oppression suffered by people of color, especially in the United States. [59] The vehicle was "slightly" exceeding the speed limit. [195] In July 1980, FBI director William H. Webster said that the search for Shakur had been frustrated by residents' refusal to cooperate, and a New York Times editorial opined that the department's commitment to "enforce the law with vigorbut also with sensitivity for civil rights and civil liberties" had been "clouded" by an "apparently crude sweep" through a Harlem building in search of Shakur. . [223] The New Jersey State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation each still have an agent officially assigned to her case. [38] The FBI said these included the "execution style murders" of New York City Police Officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones on May 21, 1971, and NYPD officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie on January 28, 1972. Kaufman, Michael T. (February 9, 1972), "9 in Black 'Army' Are Hunted in Police Assassinations". On May 2, 1973, Assata was driving with Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli on the New Jersey Turnpike when New Jersey state troopers stopped them. Assata Shakur, Joanne Byron, Barbara Odoms, Joanne Chesterman, Joan Davis, Justine Henderson, Mary Davis, Pat Chesimard, Jo-Ann Chesimard, . The New York Amsterdam News section is an ad in support of Assata Shakur. [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. Trooper Harper was wounded in the left shoulder, reported in "good" condition, and given a protective guard at the hospital. "[225] In 2013, the FBI announced it had added Shakur to its list of 'most wanted terrorists', the first time that a woman was so designated. [230], On December 12, 2006, the Chancellor of the City University of New York, Matthew Goldstein, directed City College's president, Gregory H. Williams, to remove the "unauthorized and inappropriate" designation of the "Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community and Student Center," which was named by students in 1989. Assata Olugbala Shakur is best known for her civil rights activism in the Black Panther Party and Black 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. The Reemergence of Class in Critical Race Theory Symposium: Essay: Accumulation". "Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996," Public Law 104-132 is dated April 24, 1996 and . [99] Although both White and Rivers testified that Shakur was wearing overalls during the robbery, the person identified as Shakur in the photograph was wearing a jacket. Shakur was convicted May 2, 1973, of killing of a New Jersey state trooper during a shootout that left one of her fellow activists dead. New Jersey v. Chesimard, 555 F.2d 63 (3d Cir. [203], In 1987, she published Assata: An Autobiography, which was written in Cuba. (2001). [59][61], The stop occurred 200 yards (183m) south of what was then the Turnpike Authority administration building. Her aunt helped her to later earn a General Educational Development (GED) degree. Three indictments were dismissed without trial. "The Soul Survivor; Assata Shakur on the Making of a Radical". [195][200] In 1985, her daughter, Kakuya, who had been raised by Shakur's mother in New York, came to live with her. Assata Shakur. The following slightly edited article first appeared online on May 7, 2013, with the original headline, "Assata Shakur is a modern-day Harriet Tubman." . Janson, Donald (February 19, 1977). [97] After the selection of twelve jurors (60 were excused), Williams was allowed to retire from the case, with Shakur officially representing herself, assisted by lawyer Florynce Kennedy. In her 320-page memoir, Shakur gave one paragraph to her marriage, saying that it ended over their differing views of gender roles. [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. Assata Shakur was found guilty of the murder of both Foerster and her companion Zayd Shakur, . [134], On February 23, Shakur's attorneys filed papers asking Judge Appleby to subpoena FBI Director Clarence Kelley, Senator Frank Church and other federal and New York City law enforcement officials to testify about the Counter Intelligence Program, which they alleged was designed to harass and disrupt black activist organizations. [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. Joanne Chesimard, a leader of the Black Liberation Army, was convicted of killing a state trooper on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. Nelson, Jim (February 29, 1988). Assata Shakur: from civil rights activist to FBI's most-wanted A leading figure in the 70s Black Liberation Army, Shakur was given life for murder in 1977. 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