Assata Shakur, who was born Joanne Chesimard, was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. She was convicted in the May 2, 1973 killing of a New Jersey police officer during a shoot-out that left one of her fellow activists dead. She was shot twice by police during the incident. In 1979, she managed to escape from jail. Shakur fled to Cuba where she received political asylum. She once wrote,
"I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the U.S. government's policy towards people of color."Tune in Friday when we will cover these latest developments.
In 1998, Democracy Now! aired Shakur reading an open letter to Pope John Paul II during his trip to Cuba. She wrote the message after New Jersey state troopers sent the Pope a letter asking him to call for her extradition.
Comment: Dr. Lance deHaven-Smith, Professor, School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University, speaks below on elite political criminality. DeHaven-Smith coined a term in 2006 to delineate crimes of high office: State Crimes Against Democracy, such as Watergate, Iran-Contra, Plamegate, the assassinations of JFK, RFK, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the staged Gulf of Tonkin incident.