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May 11, 2022

Former Black Panther Sundiata Acoli Released After Half-Century in NJ Prison
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Sundiata Acoli - the oldest former member of the Black Panthers still
incarcerated - will be released from prison after nearly half a century.
He is 85 years old and suffers from dementia. The New Jersey Supreme
Court on Tuesday ruled that Acoli is not a risk to public safety. He was
convicted of killing a state trooper on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973.
Acoli has long said police ambushed his car, which was also carrying two
fellow members of the Black Liberation Army: Zayd Malik Shakur, who was
shot to death, and Assata Shakur, who was imprisoned over the incident
but later escaped to Cuba, where she has political asylum.


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