Assata Shakur

On the charges related to the New Jersey Turnpike shootout, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Leon Gerofsky ordered a change of venue in 1973 from Middlesex to Morris County, New Jersey, saying "it was almost impossible to obtain a jury here comprising people willing to accept the responsibility of impartiality so that defendants will be protected from transitory passion and prejudice."[79] Polls of residents in Middlesex County, where Acoli had been convicted less than three years earlier,[80] showed that 83% knew Shakur's identity and 70% believed that she was guilty.[62]

In December 1973, Shakur was tried for a September 29, 1972, $3,700 robbery of the Manufacturer's Hanover Trust Company in the Bronx, along with co-defendant Kamau Sadiki (born Fred Hilton).[81][82] In light of the pending murder prosecution against Shakur in New Jersey state court, her lawyers requested that the trial be postponed for six months to permit further preparation. Judge Lee P. Gagliardi denied a postponement, and the Second Circuit denied Shakur's petition for mandamus.[83] In protest, the lawyers stayed mute, and Shakur and Sadiki conducted their own defense.[81][82] Seven other BLA members were indicted by District Attorney Eugene Gold in connection with the series of holdups and shootings on the same day,[84] who—according to Gold—represented the "top echelon" of the BLA as determined by a year-long investigation.[85]

The prosecution's case rested largely on the testimony of two men who had pleaded guilty to participating in the holdup.[86] The prosecution called four witnesses: Avon White and John Rivers (both of whom had already pled guilty to the robbery) and the manager and teller of the bank.[87] White and Rivers, although having pled guilty, had not yet been sentenced for the robbery and were promised that the charges would be dropped in exchange for their testimony.[87] White and Rivers testified that Shakur had guarded one of the doors with a .357 magnum pistol and that Sadiki had served as a lookout and drove the getaway truck during the robbery; neither White nor Rivers was cross-examined due to the defense attorney's refusal to participate in the trial.[87] Shakur's aunt and lawyer, Evelyn Williams, was cited for contempt after walking out of the courtroom after many of her attempted motions were denied.[81] The trial was delayed for a few days after Shakur was diagnosed with pleurisy.[88]

During the trial, the defendants were escorted to a "holding pen" outside the courtroom several times after shouting complaints and epithets at Judge Gagliardi.[89] While in the holding pen, they listened to the proceedings over loudspeakers.[90] Both defendants were repeatedly cited for contempt of court and eventually barred from the courtroom, where the trial continued in their absence.[81] A contemporary New York Times editorial criticized Williams for failing to maintain courtroom "decorum," comparing her actions to William Kunstler's recent contempt conviction for his actions during the "Chicago Seven" trial.[91]

Sadiki's lawyer, Robert Bloom, attempted to have the trial dismissed and then postponed due to new "revelations" regarding the credibility of White, a former co-defendant by then working for the prosecution.[92] Bloom had been assigned to defend Sadiki/Hilton over the summer, but White was not disclosed as a government witness until right before the trial.[93] Judge Gagliardi instructed both the prosecution and the defense not to bring up Shakur or Sadiki's connections to the BLA, saying they were "not relevant".[92] Gagliardi denied requests by the jurors to pose questions to the witnesses—either directly or through him—and declined to provide the jury with information they requested about how long the defense had been given to prepare, saying it was "none of their concern".[94] This trial resulted in a hung jury and then a mistrial, when the jury reported to Gagliardi that they were hopelessly deadlocked for the fourth time.[93]

The retrial was delayed for one day to give the defendants more time to prepare.[95] The new jury selection was marked by attempts by Williams to be relieved of her duties, owing to disagreements with Shakur as well as with Hilton's attorney.[96] Judge Arnold Bauman denied the application, but directed another lawyer, Howard Jacobs, to defend Shakur while Williams remained the attorney of record.[96] Shakur was ejected following an argument with Williams, and Hilton left with her as jury selection continued.[97] After the selection of twelve jurors (60 were excused), Williams was allowed to retire from the case, with Shakur officially representing herself, assisted by lawyer Florynce Kennedy.[98] In the retrial, White testified that the six alleged robbers had saved their hair clippings to create disguises, and identified a partially obscured head and shoulder in a photo taken from a surveillance camera as Shakur's.[99] Kennedy objected to this identification on the grounds that the prosecutor, assistant United States attorney Peter Truebner, had offered to stipulate that Shakur was not depicted in any of the photographs.[99] Although both White and Rivers testified that Shakur was wearing overalls during the robbery, the person identified as Shakur in the photograph was wearing a jacket.[100] The defense attempted to discredit White on the grounds that he had spent eight months in Matteawan Hospital for the Criminally Insane in 1968, and White countered that he had faked insanity (by claiming to be Allah in front of three psychiatrists) to get transferred out of prison.[101]

Shakur personally cross-examined the witnesses, getting White to admit that he had once been in love with her; the same day, one juror (who had been frequently napping during the trial) was replaced with an alternate.[102] During the retrial, the defendants repeatedly left or were thrown out of the courtroom.[103] Both defendants were acquitted in the retrial; six jurors interviewed after the trial stated that they did not believe the two key prosecution witnesses.[100] Shakur was immediately returned to Morristown, New Jersey, under a heavy guard following the trial.[100] Louis Chesimard (Shakur's ex-husband) and Paul Stewart, the other two alleged robbers, had been acquitted in June.[104]

The Turnpike shootout proceedings continued with Judge John E. Bachman in Middlesex County.[105] New Jersey Superior Court Judge Leon Gerofsky ordered a change of venue in 1973 from Middlesex to Morris County, New Jersey, saying "it was almost impossible to obtain a jury here comprising people willing to accept the responsibility of impartiality so that defendants will be protected from transitory passion and prejudice."[79] Morris County, had a far smaller black population than Middlesex County.[106] On this basis, Shakur unsuccessfully attempted to remove the trial to federal court.[107]

Before jury selection was complete, it was discovered that Shakur was pregnant. Due to the possibility of miscarriage, the prosecution successfully requested a mistrial for Shakur; Acoli's trial continued.[108][109][110]

Shakur and four others (including Fred Hilton, Avon White, and Andrew Jackson) were indicted in the State Supreme Court in the Bronx on December 31, 1973, on charges of attempting to shoot and kill two policemen—Michael O'Reilly and Roy Polliana, who were wounded but had since returned to duty—in an ambush in St. Albans, Queens on January 28, 1973.[111] On March 5, 1974, two new defendants (Jeannette Jefferson and Robert Hayes) were named in an indictment involving the same charges.[112] On April 26, while Shakur was pregnant,[108] New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne signed an extradition order to move Shakur to New Jersey to face two counts of attempted murder, attempted assault, and possession of dangerous weapons related to the alleged ambush; however, Shakur declined to waive her right to an extradition hearing, and asked for a full hearing before Middlesex County Court Judge John E. Bachman.[113]

Shakur was extradited to New York City on May 6,[114] arraigned on May 11 (pleading not guilty), and remanded to jail by Justice Albert S. McGrover of the State Supreme Court, pending a pretrial hearing on July 2.[115] In November 1974, New York State Supreme Court Justice Peter Farrell dismissed the attempted murder indictment because of insufficient evidence, declaring "The court can only note with disapproval that virtually a year has passed before counsel made an application for the most basic relief permitted by law, namely an attack on the sufficiency of the evidence submitted by the grand jury."[116]

Shakur was indicted on May 30, 1974, on the charge of having robbed a Brooklyn bar and kidnapping bartender James E. Freeman for ransom.[115] Shakur and co-defendant Ronald Myers were accused of entering the bar with pistols and shotguns, taking $50 from the register, kidnapping the bartender, leaving a note demanding a $20,000 ransom from the bar owner, and fleeing in a rented truck.[117] Freeman was said to have later escaped unhurt.[117] The text of Shakur's opening statement in the trial is reproduced in her autobiography.[118] Shakur and co-defendant Ronald Myers were acquitted on December 19, 1975, after seven hours of jury deliberation, ending a three-month trial in front of Judge William Thompson.[117]

In July 1973, after being indicted by a grand jury, Shakur pleaded not guilty in Federal Court in Brooklyn to an indictment related to a $7,700 robbery of the Bankers Trust Company bank in Queens on August 31, 1971.[119] Judge Jacob Mishlerset set a tentative trial date of November 5 that year.[120][121] The trial was delayed until 1976,[119] when Shakur was represented by Stanley Cohen and Evelyn Williams.[122] In this trial, Shakur acted as her own co-counsel and told the jury in her opening testimony:

I have decided to act as co-counsel, and to make this opening statement, not because I have any illusions about my legal abilities, but, rather, because there are things that I must say to you. I have spent many days and nights behind bars thinking about this trial, this outrage. And in my own mind, only someone who has been so intimately a victim of this madness as I have can do justice to what I have to say.[123]

One bank employee testified that Shakur was one of the bank robbers, but three other bank employees (including two tellers) testified that they were uncertain.[122] The prosecution showed surveillance photos of four of the six alleged robbers, contending that one of them was Shakur wearing a wig. Shakur was forcibly subdued and photographed by the FBI on the judge's order, after having refused to cooperate, believing that the FBI would use photo manipulation; a subsequent judge determined that the manners in which the photos were obtained violated Shakur's rights and ruled the new photos inadmissible.[81] In her autobiography, Shakur recounts being beaten, choked, and kicked on the courtroom floor by five marshals, as Williams narrated the events to ensure they would appear on the court record.[124] Shortly after deliberation began, the jury asked to see all the photographic exhibits taken from the surveillance footage.[122] The jury determined that a widely circulated FBI photo allegedly showing Shakur participating in the robbery was not her.[125]

Shakur was acquitted after seven hours of jury deliberation on January 16, 1976,[122] and was immediately remanded back to New Jersey for the Turnpike trial.[126] The actual transfer took place on January 29.[127] She was the only one of the six suspects in the robbery to be brought to trial.[122] Andrew Jackson and two others indicted for the same robbery pleaded guilty; Jackson was sentenced to five years in prison and five years' probation; another was shot and killed in a gunfight in Florida on December 31, 1971, and the last remained at large at the time of Shakur's acquittal.[119][122]

Shakur's murder trial for the Turnpike shootout took place in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, not far from the East Brunswick site of the gunfight.

By the time she was retried in 1977, Acoli had already been convicted of shooting and murdering Foerster.[63] The prosecution argued that Assata had fired the bullets that had wounded Harper, while the defense argued that the now deceased Zayd had fired them.[128] Based on New Jersey law, if Shakur's presence at the scene could be considered as "aiding and abetting" the murder of Foerster, she could be convicted even if she had not fired the bullets which had killed him.[129]

A total of 289 articles had been published in the local press relating to the various crimes with which Shakur had been accused.[62] Shakur again attempted to remove the trial to federal court. The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey denied the petition and also denied Shakur an injunction against the holding of trial proceedings on Fridays.[59][130][131] An en banc panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed.[132]

The nine-week trial was widely publicized, and was even reported on by the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS).[62][133] During the trial, hundreds of civil rights campaigners demonstrated outside of the Middlesex County courthouse each day.[62]

Following the 13-minute opening statement by Edward J. Barone, the first assistant Middlesex County prosecutor (directing the case for the state), William Kunstler (the chief of Shakur's defense staff) moved immediately for a mistrial, calling the eight-count grand jury indictment "adversary proceeding solely and exclusively under the control of the prosecutor", whom Kunstler accused of "improper prejudicial remarks"; Judge Theodore Appleby, noting the frequent defense interruptions that had characterized the previous days' jury selection, denied the motion.[134]

On February 23, Shakur's attorneys filed papers asking Judge Appleby to subpoena FBI Director Clarence Kelley, Senator Frank Church and other federal and New York City law enforcement officials to testify about the Counter Intelligence Program, which they alleged was designed to harass and disrupt black activist organizations.[67] Kunstler had previously been successful in subpoenaing Kelley and Church for the trials of American Indian Movement (AIM) members charged with murdering FBI agents.[67] The motion (argued March 2)—which also asked the court to require the production of memos, tapes, documents, and photographs of alleged COINTELPRO involvement from 1970 to 1973—was denied.[67][135]

Shakur herself was called as a witness on March 15, the first witness called by the defense; she denied shooting either Harper or Foerster, and also denied handling a weapon during the incident. She was questioned by her own attorney, Stuart Ball, for under 40 minutes, and then cross-examined by Barone for less than two hours (see the Witnesses section below).[70] Ball's questioning ended with the following exchange:

On that night of May 2[n]d, did you shoot, kill, execute or have anything to do with the death of Trooper Werner Foerster?

No.

Did you shoot or assault Trooper James Harper?

No.[70]

Under cross-examination, Shakur was unable to explain how three magazines of ammunition and 16 live shells had gotten into her shoulder bag; she also admitted to knowing that Zayd Shakur carried a gun at times, and specifically to seeing a gun sticking out of Acoli's pocket while stopping for supper at a Howard Johnson's restaurant shortly before the shooting.[70] Shakur admitted to carrying an identification card with the name "Justine Henderson" in her billfold the night of the shootout, but denied using any of the aliases on the long list that Barone proceeded to read.[70]

Lawyer William Kunstler was the chief of Shakur's defense staff.

Shakur's defense attorneys were William Kunstler (the chief of Shakur's defense staff),[134] Stuart Ball, Robert Bloom, Raymond A. Brown,[136] Stanley Cohen (who died of unknown causes early on in the Turnpike trial), Lennox Hinds, Florynce Kennedy, Louis Myers, Laurence Stern, and Evelyn Williams, Shakur's aunt.[78][134][137] Of these attorneys, Kunstler, Ball, Cohen, Myers, Stern and Williams appeared in court for the turnpike trial.[138][139] Kunstler became involved in Shakur's trials in 1975, when contacted by Williams, and commuted from New York City to New Brunswick every day with Stern.[140]

Her attorneys, in particular Lennox Hinds, were often held in contempt of court, which the National Conference of Black Lawyers cited as an example of systemic bias in the judicial system.[141] The New Jersey Legal Ethics Committee also investigated complaints against Hinds for comparing Shakur's murder trial to "legalized lynching"[142] undertaken by a "kangaroo court".[62][143] Hinds' disciplinary proceeding reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Middlesex County Ethics Committee v. Garden State Bar Ass'n (1982).[144] According to Kunstler's autobiography, the sizable contingent of New Jersey State Troopers guarding the courthouse were under strict orders from their commander, Col. Clinton Pagano, to completely shun Shakur's defense attorneys.[145]

Judge Appleby also threatened Kunstler with dismissal and contempt of court after he delivered an October 21, 1976, speech at nearby Rutgers University that in part discussed the upcoming trial,[146] but later ruled that Kunstler could represent Shakur.[147] Until obtaining a court order, Kunstler was forced to strip naked and undergo a body search before each visit with Shakur—during which Shakur was shackled to a bed by both ankles.[62] Judge Appleby also refused to investigate a burglary of her defense counsel's office that resulted in the disappearance of trial documents,[135] amounting to half of the legal papers related to her case.[148] Her lawyers also claimed that their offices were bugged.[81]

Sundiata Acoli, Assata Shakur, Trooper Harper, and a New Jersey Turnpike driver who saw part of the incident were the only surviving witnesses.[149] Acoli did not testify or make any pre-trial statements, nor did he testify in his own trial or give a statement to the police.[150] The driver traveling north on the turnpike testified that he had seen a State Trooper struggling with a Black man between a white vehicle and a State Trooper car, whose revolving lights illuminated the area.[149]

Shakur testified that Trooper Harper shot her after she raised her arms to comply with his demand. She said that the second shot hit her in the back as she turned to avoid it, and that she fell onto the road for the duration of the gunfight before crawling back into the backseat of the Pontiac—which Acoli drove 5 miles (8 km) down the road and parked. She testified that she remained there until State Troopers dragged her onto the road.[64][149]

Trooper Harper's official reports state that after he stopped the Pontiac, he ordered Acoli to the back of the vehicle for Trooper Foerster—who had arrived on the scene—to examine his driver's license.[149] The reports then state that after Acoli complied, and as Harper was looking inside the vehicle to examine the registration, Trooper Foerster yelled and held up an ammunition magazine as Shakur simultaneously reached into her red pocketbook, pulled out a 9mm handgun and fired at him.[149] Trooper Harper's reports then state that he ran to the rear of his car and shot at Shakur who had exited the vehicle and was firing from a crouched position next to the vehicle.[149]

A total of 408 potential jurors were questioned during the voir dire, which concluded on February 14.[134] All of the 15 jurors—ten women and five men—were white, and most were under thirty years old.[134][151] Five jurors had personal ties to State Troopers (one girlfriend, two nephews, and two friends).[135][152] A sixteenth female juror was removed before the trial formally opened, when it was determined that Sheriff Joseph DeMarino of Middlesex County, while a private detective several years earlier, had worked for a lawyer who represented the juror's husband.[134] Judge Appleby repeatedly denied Kunstler's requests for DeMarino to be removed from his responsibilities for the duration of the trial "because he did not divulge his association with the juror".[134]

One prospective juror was dismissed for reading Target Blue,[153] a book by Robert Daley, a former New York City Deputy Police Commander, which dealt in part with Shakur and had been left in the jury assembly room.[154] Before the jury entered the courtroom, Judge Appleby ordered Shakur's lawyers to remove a copy of Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley from a position on the defense counsel table easily visible to jurors.[134] The Roots TV miniseries adapted from the book and shown shortly before the trial was believed to have evoked feelings of "guilt and sympathy" with many white viewers.[134]

Shakur's attorneys sought a new trial on the grounds that one jury member, John McGovern, had violated the jury's sequestration order.[155] Judge Appleby rejected Kunstler's claim that the juror had violated the order.[156] McGovern later sued Kunstler for defamation;[157] Kunstler eventually publicly apologized to McGovern and paid him a small settlement.[158] Additionally, in his autobiography, Kunstler alleged that he later learned from a law enforcement agent that a New Jersey State Assembly member had addressed the jury at the hotel where they were sequestered, urging them to convict Shakur.[158]

Shakur's broken clavicle was a key element of her defense, and the implications of her injury for the differing accounts of the shootout were points of contention.

A key element of Shakur's defense was medical testimony meant to demonstrate that she was shot with her hands up and that she would have been subsequently unable to fire a weapon. A neurologist testified that the median nerve in Shakur's right arm was severed by the second bullet, making her unable to pull a trigger.[110] Neurosurgeon Dr. Arthur Turner Davidson, Associate Professor of Surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, testified that the wounds in her upper arms, armpit and chest, and severed median nerve that instantly paralyzed her right arm, would only have been caused if both arms were raised, and that to sustain such injuries while crouching and firing a weapon (as described in Trooper Harper's testimony) "would be anatomically impossible".[62][159]

Davidson based his testimony on an August 4, 1976, examination of Shakur and on X-rays taken immediately after the shootout at Middlesex General Hospital.[159] Prosecutor Barone questioned whether Davidson was qualified to make such a judgment 39 months after the injury; Barone proceeded to suggest (while a female Sheriff's attendant acted out his suggestion) that Shakur was struck in the right arm and collar bone and "then spun around by the impact of the bullet so an immediate second shot entered the fleshy part of her upper left arm" to which Davidson replied "Impossible."[159]

Dr. David Spain, a pathologist from Brookdale Community College, testified that her bullet scars as well as X-rays supported her claim that her arms were raised, and that there was "no conceivable way" the first bullet could have hit Shakur's clavicle if her arm was down.[128][160]

Judge Appleby eventually cut off funds for any further expert defense testimony.[62] Shakur, in her autobiography, and Williams, in Inadmissible Evidence, both claim that it was difficult to find expert witnesses for the trial, because of the expense and because most forensic and ballistic specialists declined on the grounds of a conflict of interest when approached because they routinely performed such work for law enforcement officials.[161]

According to Angela Davis, neutron activation analysis that was administered after the shootout showed no gunpowder residue on Shakur's fingers and forensic analysis performed at the Trenton, New Jersey, crime lab and the FBI crime labs in Washington, D.C., did not find her fingerprints on any weapon at the scene.[162] According to tape recordings and police reports made several hours after the shoot-out, when Harper returned on foot to the administration building 200 yards (183 m) away, he did not report Foerster's presence at the scene; no one at headquarters knew of Foerster's involvement in the shoot-out until his body was discovered beside his patrol car, more than an hour later.[62][12]

On March 24, the jurors listened for 45 minutes to a rereading of testimony of the State Police chemist regarding the blood found at the scene, on the LeMans, and Shakur's clothing.[64] That night, the second night of jury deliberation, the jury asked Judge Appleby to repeat his instructions regarding the four assault charges 30 minutes before retiring for the night, which led to speculation that the jury had decided in Shakur's favor on the remaining charges, especially the two counts of murder.[64] Appleby reiterated that the jury must consider separately the four assault charges (atrocious assault and battery, assault on a police officer acting in the line of duty, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault with intent to kill), each of which carried a total maximum penalty of 33 years in prison.[64] The other charges were: first-degree murder (of Foerster), second-degree murder (of Zayd Shakur), illegal possession of a weapon, and armed robbery (related to Foerster's service revolver).[138] The jury also asked Appleby to repeat the definitions of "intent" and "reasonable doubt".[64]

Shakur was convicted on all eight counts: two murder charges, and six assault charges.[138] Upon hearing the verdict, Shakur said—in a barely audible voice— "I am ashamed that I have even taken part in this trial", and that the jury was racist and had "convicted a woman with her hands up".[138] When Judge Appleby told the court attendants to "remove the prisoner", Shakur herself replied: "the prisoner will walk away on her own feet".[138] After Joseph W. Lewis, the jury foreman, read the verdict, Kunstler asked that the jury be removed before alleging that one juror had violated the sequestration order (see above).[138]

At the post-trial press conference, Kunstler blamed the verdict on racism, stating that "the white element was there to destroy her". When asked by a reporter why, if that were the case, it took the jury 24 hours to reach a verdict, Kunstler replied, "That was just a pretense." A few minutes later the prosecutor Barone disagreed with Kunstler's assessment saying the trial's outcome was decided "completely on the facts".[138]

At Shakur's sentencing hearing on April 25, Appleby sentenced her to 26 to 33 years in state prison (10 to 12 for the four counts of assault, 12 to 15 for robbery, 2 to 3 for armed robbery, plus 2 to 3 for aiding and abetting the murder of Foerster), to be served consecutively with her mandatory life sentence. However, Appleby dismissed the second-degree murder of Zayd Shakur, as the New Jersey Supreme Court had recently narrowed the application of the law.[163] Appleby finally sentenced Shakur to 30 days in the Middlesex County Workhouse for contempt of court, concurrent with the other sentences, for refusing to rise when he entered the courtroom.[163] To become eligible for parole, Shakur would have had to serve a minimum of 25 years, which would have included her four years in custody during the trials.[163]

In October 1977, New York State Superior Court Justice John Starkey dismissed murder and robbery charges against Shakur related to the death of Richard Nelson during a hold-up of a Brooklyn social club on December 28, 1972, ruling that the state had delayed too long in bringing her to trial. Judge Starkey said, "People have constitutional rights, and you can't shuffle them around."[164] The case was delayed in being brought to trial as a result of an agreement between the governors of New York and New Jersey as to the priority of the various charges against Shakur.[164] Three other defendants were indicted in relation to the same holdup: Melvin Kearney, who died in 1976 from an eight-floor fall while trying to escape from the Brooklyn House of Detention, Twymon Myers, who was killed by police while a fugitive, and Andrew Jackson, the charges against whom were dismissed when two prosecution witnesses could not identify him in a lineup.[164]

On November 22, 1977, Shakur pleaded not guilty to an attempted armed robbery indictment stemming from the 1971 incident at the Statler Hilton Hotel.[165] Shakur was accused of attempting to rob a Michigan man staying at the hotel of $250 of cash and personal property.[165] The prosecutor was C. Richard Gibbons.[165] The charges were dismissed without trial.[166]

In 1987, she published Assata: An Autobiography, which was written in Cuba. Her autobiography has been cited in relation to critical legal studies[204] and critical race theory.[205] The book does not give a detailed account of her involvement in the BLA or the events on the New Jersey Turnpike, except to say that the jury "[c]onvicted a woman with her hands up!"[44][78] It gives an account of her life beginning with her youth in the South and New York. Shakur challenges traditional styles of literary autobiography and offers a perspective on her life that is not easily accessible to the public.[206][207] The book was published by Lawrence Hill & Company in the United States and Canada but the copyright is held by Zed Books Ltd. of London due to "Son of Sam" laws, which restrict who can receive profits from a book.[208] In the six months preceding the publications of the book, Evelyn Williams, Shakur's aunt and attorney, made several trips to Cuba and served as a go-between with Hill.[201] Her autobiography was republished in Britain in 2014[129] and a dramatized version performed on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.[209]

In 1993, she published a second book, Still Black, Still Strong, with Dhoruba bin Wahad and Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In 2005, SUNY Press released The New Abolitionists (Neo)Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, edited and with an added introduction by Joy James, in which Shakur's Women in Prison: How We Are 1978 is featured.[210]

In 1997, Carl Williams, the superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, wrote a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to raise the issue of Shakur's extradition during his talks with President Fidel Castro.[211] During the pope's visit to Cuba in 1998, Shakur agreed to an interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza.[212] Shakur later published an extensive criticism of the NBC segment, which inter-spliced footage of Trooper Foerster's grieving widow with an FBI photo connected to a bank robbery of which Shakur had been acquitted.[213] On March 10, 1998[214] New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman asked Attorney General Janet Reno to do whatever it would take to return Shakur from Cuba.[215] Later in 1998, U.S. media widely reported claims that the United States State Department had offered to lift the Cuban embargo in exchange for the return of 90 U.S. fugitives, including Shakur.[216]

The United States Congress passed a non-binding resolution in September 1998, asking Cuba for the return of Shakur as well as 90 fugitives believed by Congress to be residing in Cuba; House Concurrent Resolution 254 passed 371–0 in the House and by unanimous consent in the Senate.[217][218] The Resolution was due in no small part to the lobbying efforts of Governor Whitman and New Jersey Representative Bob Franks.[123] Before the passage of the Resolution, Franks stated: "This escaped murderer now lives a comfortable life in Cuba and has launched a public relations campaign in which she attempts to portray herself as an innocent victim rather than a cold-blooded murderer."[123]

In an open letter to Castro, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Representative Maxine Waters of California later explained that many members of the Caucus (including herself) were against Shakur's extradition but had mistakenly voted for the bill, which was placed on the accelerated suspension calendar, generally reserved for non-controversial legislation.[219] In the letter, Waters explained her opposition, calling COINTELPRO "illegal, clandestine political persecution".[219]

On May 2, 2005, the 32nd anniversary of the Turnpike shootings, the FBI classified her as a domestic terrorist, increasing the reward for assistance in her capture to $1 million,[193][220] the largest reward placed on an individual in the history of New Jersey. New Jersey State Police superintendent Rick Fuentes said "she is now 120 pounds of money."[221] The bounty announcement reportedly caused Shakur to "drop out of sight" after having previously lived relatively openly (including having her home telephone number listed in her local telephone directory).[222]

New York City Councilman Charles Barron, a former Black Panther, has called for the bounty to be rescinded.[223] The New Jersey State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation each still have an agent officially assigned to her case.[224] Calls for Shakur's extradition increased following Fidel Castro's transfer of presidential duties;[222] in a May 2005 television address, Castro had called Shakur a victim of racial persecution, saying "they wanted to portray her as a terrorist, something that was an injustice, a brutality, an infamous lie."[225] In 2013, the FBI announced it had added Shakur to its list of 'most wanted terrorists', the first time that a woman was so designated. The reward for her capture and return was also doubled to $2 million.[226]

In June 2017, President Donald Trump gave a speech "cancelling" the Cuban thaw policies of his predecessor Barack Obama. A condition of making a new deal between the United States and Cuba is the release of political prisoners and the return of fugitives from justice. Trump specifically called for the return of "the cop-killer Joanne Chesimard".[227]

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• Tomlinson, Gerald (1994). Murdered in Jersey. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-2078-9.
• Williams, Evelyn (1993). Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended the Black Liberation Army. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Lawrence Hill Books. ISBN 1-55652-184-7.