Black Panther Leader Geronimo Pratt dies in Tanzania

EMT

EMT

Platinum Member
Jan 13, 2010
14,483
15,308
geronimo.jpg


Elmer G. "Geronimo" Pratt, the former Minister of Defense for the Black Panther Party, died in Tanzania, Africa Thursday (June 3, 2011). In 1972, the revered leader was unjustly prosecuted and eventually served 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. He also served eight years in solitary confinement, conditions that tested his sinew. Pratt became a symbol of clear-cut cases of injustice when it was proven that he was a victim of J. Edgar Hoover's CointelPro movement that targeted African American leaders. It should be noted that Pratt is the godfather of Tupac Shakur, one of the most revered artists in the world, especially the Hip-Hop Nation. Geronimo Pratt was 63.

Pratt died at his home in a small village in Tanzania, where he had been living with his wife and child, according to Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco attorney who helped overturn Pratt's murder conviction. Hanlon said he was informed of the death by Pratt's sister. Pratt's case became a cause celebre for elected officials, Amnesty International, clergy and celebrities who believed he was framed by the government because he was African American and a member of the Black Panthers. "Geronimo was a powerful leader," Hanlon told The Times. "For that reason he was targeted."

Pratt was convicted in 1972 and sentenced to life in prison for the 1968 fatal shooting of Caroline Olsen and the serious wounding of her husband, Kenneth, in a robbery that netted $18. The case was overturned in 1997 by an Orange County Superior Court judge who ruled that prosecutors at Pratt's murder trial had concealed evidence that could have led to his acquittal.

Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt, a former Black Panther leader, dies in Tanzania - latimes.com
Features : R.I.P. Geronimo Pratt: Real Soldiers Don't Die
 
dah mkuu nilikua namtafuta sana huyu jamaa, yani alikua hapa bongo ilikua siri au nn jaman dah RIP Geronimo
 
RIP Geronimo. Mkuu EMT, hiyo video naona kama ni ya Pete Oneal, walikuwa ndugu?
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: EMT
2877715829_69a39c5380_z.jpg


Watoto wachanga wa JF wanaweza kuuliza hii inahusika vipi kwenye siasa lakini sisi watu tulioenda umri inakuwa ni jukumu letu kuwafundisha hawa watoto tulionao humu kuwa huyu ni mmoja kati ya wapiganaji wakubwa duniani hi huyu jamaa

JF inatakiwa iwe sehemu ya watu kujua na kuchambua na watu kuelewa siasa si CCM vs CHADEMA tuuu

===================

Full Story:

Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, a former Black Panther Party leader who spent 27 years in prison on a murder conviction that was later overturned, has died. He was 63. Pratt died at his home in a small village in Tanzania, where he had lived for at least half a decade, lawyer Stuart Hanlon, who helped Pratt win his freedom, told The Associated Press from San Francisco on Thursday.
  • Pratt was a former high ranking member of the Black Panther Party. He was targeted by the FBI program COINTELPRO, which aimed to “neutralize Pratt as an effective BPP functionary.”
  • In 1970 Pratt was arrested and charged with murder and kidnapping.
  • Pratt’s conviction was vacated on June 10, 1997, on the grounds that the prosecution had concealed evidence that might have exonerated the defendant.
  • Pratt continued to work on behalf of men and women believed to be wrongfully incarcerated until his death, including participation in rallies in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, whom he had met when both were active as Black Panthers. Geronimo was living in Tanzania at the time of his death.
Hanlon said he learned of Pratt’s death through the former activist’s family members. He did not know what caused Pratt’s death, but said he had suffered from high blood pressure.

Hanlon said Pratt refused to carry any resentment about his treatment by the legal system.

“He had no anger, he had no bitterness, he had no desire for revenge. He wanted to resume his life and have children,” he said. “He would never look back.”

The Los Angeles Times, which first reported Pratt’s death, quoted a family member as saying he died Thursday.

Pratt was convicted in 1972 of being one of two men who robbed and fatally shot schoolteacher Caroline Olsen on a Santa Monica tennis court in December 1968. No one else was arrested.

Pratt claimed he was in Oakland for Black Panther meetings the day of the murder, and that FBI agents and police hid and possibly destroyed wiretap evidence that would prove it.

His lawyers, who included high-profile defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, blamed his arrest on a politically charged campaign by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI against the Black Panthers and other perceived enemies of the U.S. government.

Pratt’s belated reversal of fortune came with the disclosure that a key prosecution witness hid the fact he was an ex-felon and a police informant.

Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey granted him a new trial in June 1997, saying the credibility of prosecution witness Julius Butler — who testified that Pratt had confessed to him — could have been undermined if the jury had known of his relationship with law enforcement. He was freed later that month.

Cochran, best known representing such clients as O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson, called the day Pratt’s freedom was secured “the happiest day of my life practicing law.”

Prosecutors announced two years after the conviction was overturned that they would abandon efforts to retry him.

“I feel relieved that the L.A. DA’s office has finally come to their senses in this respect,” Pratt said at the time. “But, I am not relieved in that they did not come clean all the way in exposing their complicity with this frame-up, this 27-year trauma.”

He settled a false imprisonment and civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and city of Los Angeles for $4.5 million in 2000.
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: EMT
Yes, a very important black man in History of America, more important kuliko mtu yeyote anavyoweza kujua. Ni jirani yangu pale Embasenyi Arusha na alikuwa akijulikana sana kwa jina maarufu kama Mnegro. Ingawa wazungu wa wakati huo walieneza propaganda mbovu kuhusu mtu huyu, lakini ukweli utabaki pale pale alikuwa mpigania haki za watu wanyonge.

Kwa vijana, huyu ndiye baba wa Ubatizo wa Tupac Amaru Shakur mwanamziki maarufu wa muziki wa kizazi kipya wa Hip Hop (inayoweka vionjo vya rap) soma zaidi : Geronimo Pratt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: EMT
hapo kwenye picha wapo watu wa5......anayezungumziwa hapo ni yupi?....halafu huyo mwenye rasta nadhani namfahamu......je anaishi Arusha?
 
Specifically mahali panaitwa Maji ya Chai baada ya kupita Usariver mbele tu ukishapita njia ya Ngurdoto kama unakwenda Moshi ndo unakuta Maji ya chai na ni katika kijiji cha Embasenyi ambacho hakipo mbali na barabara upande wa juu chini ya Mlima Meru, ukifika hapo Maji ya Chai alikuwa anajulikana kwa jina maarufu kama Mnegro na alikuwa akisaidia miradi mbalimbali hapo kijijini
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar Discussions

Back
Top Bottom
Forums
New posts
Post thread
Back