Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt, a former Black Panther leader, dies in Tanzania
latimesblogs.latimes.com | Jun 2nd 2011
Elmer G. "Geronimo" Pratt, a former Los Angeles Black Panther Party leader who
spent 27 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit and whose case
became a symbol of racial injustice during the turbulent 1960s, has died. He
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.
Pratt maintained that the FBI knew he was innocent because the agency had
him under surveillance in Oakland when the murder was committed in Santa
Monica.
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— Robert J. Lopez
Twitter: @LAJourno
Photo: Geronimo Pratt, left, with defense attorney Johnny L. Cochran Jr. in Los
Angeles in 1998. Credit: Nick Ut / Associated Press
Original Page:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/06/geronimo-pratt-dies.html
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