But I had another mission too — to try to find several America fugitives. Chesimard, who changed her name to Assata Shakur, broke out of a New Jersey state prison in and fled to Cuba. But law enforcement officials say she would never have escaped from prison without the help of Cheri Dalton, who again drove a getaway car. Dalton answered the phone after a few rings.
Dalton laughed when I mentioned the money. I assured her I was not interested in bounty payments. I was a journalist in search of an interview. Morales, now 69, is believed to be a key figure in the bombing of Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan in which killed four people, including Frank Connor, 33, an assistant vice president with Morgan Guaranty Trust who lived in Fair Lawn with his wife and two young sons.
Morales was convicted on a variety of bombing charges in a New York court. More Kelly: Chris Christie's new book shows how he loves to kick people when they're down.
There's certainly a difference between that and a civil rights activist. There's certainly civil rights activist in our history who have moved the narrative forward, she did not. We'll notify you here with news about. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest?
Comments 0. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. The latest. From to , Shakur was alleged to have committed a series of audacious crimes, sometimes alongside other members of the BLA: two bank robberies in New York, the kidnap and murder of a drug dealer, armed robbery during which she was shot , and the attempted murder of policemen in an ambush.
She was either acquitted or the cases dismissed. In her autobiography, Shakur details the conditions in which she was kept during the days that followed — her food was spat in, she was not allowed to contact a lawyer, and Zayd Malik's dead body was left lying next to her. She recalls some compassion from a German nurse at the hospital, who protested about the tightness of the cuff on Shakur's ankle and covered it in gauze, and later showed her the call button so she could buzz the nurses' station for help.
It was in hospital that she first met Lennox Hinds , the national director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. Shakur's defence team filed a civil suit against the state, charging that her conditions were cruel and inhuman she was held for more than a year in solitary confinement, in the basement of the Middlesex county jail for men.
She ascribed to all her conditions a unifying theme: the smell. They have a smell unlike any smell on earth. Like blood and sweat and feet and open sores and, if misery has a smell, like misery. In January , after years of incarceration, the case was brought before a judge and jury in New Jersey. There is much evidence to suggest the trial was not fair: transcripts of the jury selection show at least two of the jurors expressed prejudice before the start of the trial.
There was evidence that the offices of the defence team were being bugged, and materials relating to her case that went missing from the home of her late lawyer Stanley Cohen were later found with the New York City police. Hinds called the trial "a legal lynching and a kangaroo court".
The defence could not get an expert witness to testify. As Shakur noted: "It was obvious I didn't have one chance in a million of receiving any kind of justice.
The jury reached a verdict after 24 hours — she was found guilty on all seven counts. As Hinds explained: "Under New Jersey law, if a person's presence at the scene of a crime can be construed as 'aiding and abetting' the crime, that person can be convicted of the substantive crime itself.
On the 40th anniversary, we are trying to bring the public's attention to the case. I don't think it's extreme to have her on this list," she says.
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