Assata Shakur
Assata Shakur |
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Assata Shakur (born Joanne Deborah Byron Chesimard July 16, 1947 in North Carolina) was an activist in the Black Panther Party, and currently remains an escaped convicted felon and fugitive living in asylum in Cuba since 1984. Shakur grew up in New York City and attended Manhattan Community College and CCNY, where she was involved in many political activities. Granted political asylum in Cuba (where she presently lives), Shakur remains a fugitive from New Jersey and the United States for her 1979 escape from prison. She had been incarcerated for the 1973 slaying of New Jersey State Police officer Werner Foerster. She was also convicted of a second murder, for the death of fellow activist Zayd Shakur, who was killed that night along with officer Foerster in the shooting. In the 1990s, she became perhaps most well known as the godmother and step-aunt of the late famed hip hop artist Tupac Shakur.
Imprisonment
On May 2, 1973, Shakur, at that time a member of the Black Liberation Army and no longer a member of the Black Panther Party, was stopped on the New Jersey State Turnpike by State Troopers James Harper and Werner Foerster, along with two Black Panthers: Zayd Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, for driving with a broken taillight. According to police records, Shakur opened fire on the troopers, and a gunfight ensued, during which Zayd Shakur was killed and Trooper Foerster, Assata Shakur and Trooper Harper injured. Shakur then exited the car, took Trooper Foerster's weapon, and allegedly shot him twice in the head.
Sundiata Acoli, Assata and Zayd Shakur then got back into their car and drove for eight miles. Sundiata then exited the car with the wounded Assata and the dead Zayd and fled into the woods and was captured after a manhunt the following day.
Over the next two-and-a-half years Assata Shakur was incarcerated while tried in six different criminal trials in New York and New Jersey. The charges ranged from kidnapping to assault and battery to bank robbery. Shakur was found not guilty in all of these trials except for the murder of both Foerster and her companion Zayd Shakur, for her involvement in the gun battle, despite the defense's claim that physical evidence showed she could not have fired a weapon during the incident (which is deemed irrelevant to the charge of Felony murder). Shakur's defense made their case on a claim that although the officers claimed Assata opened fire, it was not physically possible after having been shot in the arm and having a major tendon torn.
Escape and life as a fugitive
On November 2, 1979 she escaped the Clinton Correctional Instititution for Women of New Jersey, after members of the BLA conducted an armed action. [1] Charged with assisting in her escape was her brother, Mutulu Shakur, and Silvia Baraldini. 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.
After her escape, Assata lived as a fugitive for the next several years. In November 1980 she released a tape called "From Somewhere in the World" about the acts of white supremacist violence in the United States between 1979 and 1980. On July 1981, the left-wing organization National Committee to Honor New Afrikan Freedom Fighters mobilized 1,000 people to honor Assata Shakur and the BLA.
She fled to Cuba in 1984 where she was granted political asylum. In 1998, the United States Congress unanimously passed a resolution asking Cuba for the extradition of Joanne Chesimard. Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus later explained that they were against her extradition, but they had not recognized her name when the bill was proposed. Expectedly, they came under attack for casting their very powerful vote as United States Congressmen without knowing the issue for which they were voting.
The National Conference of Black Lawyers, and Mos Def are among the professional organizations and politically conscious, left-wing entertainers to support Assata Shakur. Hip-hop artist Common recorded a tribute to Shakur (A Song for Assata) on his Like Water for Chocolate album. New York City councilman Charles Barron continues to be an avid supporter of Shakur.
Shakur, to this day, maintains her innocence as does her partner Sundiata Acoli however neither has been able to explain how a New Jersey State Trooper was shot twice in the head with his own gun. Her story is told in detail within her book Assata: An Autobiography, which was written in Cuba, where she still resides in exile.
On May 2, 2005, her name was added to the FBI's Domestic Terrorist List with a $1 million reward for assistance in her capture.
The law enforcement community, especially those in New Jersey, supported this measure.
Shakur has one daughter.