June 10,1997: Geronimo Pratt Released After 27 Years

On June 10, 1997, Black Panther Party Deputy Minister of Defense, and Chairman of its Los Angeles Chapter (after Bunchy Carter’s assassination), Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt is released from San Quentin Prison after 27 years as a u.s.-held Political Prisoner/POW.

A decorated Vietnam War veteran from Morgan City, Louisiana, Pratt was one of numerous Panthers to be targeted for prison slavery – eight of his 27 years caged in the California prison system took place in solitary confinement as a result of the fbi’s genocidal COINTELPRO War on the Black Liberation Movement and the BBP.

Through the committed efforts of Deputy Minister ji Jaga’s supporters and legal team, Stuart Hanlon and the late Johnnie Cochran, Jr., Pratt’s conviction was overturned when it emerged that the prosecution’s “star witness,” Julius Butler, had in fact been a paid informant for the FBI and LAPD (los angeles police department).

Photo by Nick Ut/AP/Shutterstock: Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt, center, and attorneys Stuart Hanlon, left, and Johnnie Cochran appear at a news conference, outside the 2nd District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles after the L.A. District Attorney tried to send Geronimo back to prison.

Pratt was awarded $4.5 million after winning his civil suit for wrongful imprisonment.

Stalwart throughout and beyond his incarceration, Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt relocated to Tanzania, Africa, and maintained his commitment to the people to the last, continuing his fight for human rights until making his final Transition on June 2, 2011, at age 63.