Former Black Panther, in prison for 47 years, denied release for the ninth time

[Equinox Moon]

Source: Guardian

Jalil Muntaqim, a former Black Panther who has been in prison for 47 years, has been told he must spend at least another 15 months behind bars having been denied release for the ninth time by a New York state parole board.

The three-member parole panel voted this week by two-to-one to keep Muntaqim, AKA Anthony Bottom, incarcerated in the maximum-security Sullivan correctional facility in upstate New York. His release had been vociferously opposed by the New York City police unions and by the widow of one of the two police officers he was convicted of murdering in 1971.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/former-black-panther-jalil-muntaqim-denied-release

[ffr]

1. If only he was a tRump supporter, he'd be racing for the exits.

Full presidential pardon too, no doubt.

[NO TO FASCISM]

2. I do not know the facts of this case

so I have no opinion about this.
But as a general principle,
if we are ever to get rid of the death penalty,
life without parole, must mean life without life without parole.

[Demonaut]

3. it was "twenty five years to life"

but he can stay there

[Scruffy1]

4. IMHO the two are not related.

The death penalty certainly doesn't isn't a deterrent. Life without parole probably isn'y either. Most murders are acts of passion. I don't think somebody that gets in a fight and ends up killing someone was thinking about the consequences at the time. Even those that plan a murder are proabaly not considering the consequences of getting caught all that much. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against life without parolle, but every state has different definitions of murder and it's own sentencing. Here in Minnesota life without parole means you must serve a minimum of 30 years. We haven't had a death penalty since the nineteenth centurty (IIRC) yet our muurder rate is very low compared to the rest of the US. It's actually rare for prisoners to be paroled because they are eligible for capital offenses anywhere in spite of the "revolving door" rhetoric.

[NO TO FASCISM]

6. Nobody thinks they will be caught

when they commit a crime. So the penalty is never a deterrent. I was talking about a political fact of life.

[PoliticAverse]

7. If the person committed a crime then by definition the penalty wasn't a deterrent. n/t

[LakeSuperiorView]

10. 1911 was when it was abolished. A 1906 botched hanging was the last execution.

The rope was too long and they had to pull up on the rope for 14 minutes after he hit the floor to complete the task.

I didn't think there was anything that could make the 1920 lynchings in Duluth worse, but the fact that the death penalty was abolished nine years earlier somehow makes it worse.

[winstars]

5. I am familiar with this case. It was the BLA, not the Black Panthers...

They killed a lot of people.

They liked to ambush cops with fake calls and then finish them off with their own service revolvers.

This double cop killing happened in Harlem.

In 1972, 2 other cops were killed in the East Village by the BLA.

One of the murderers was released last year.

Life without parole.

Sorry, you should not have assassinated a police officer.

Stay in jail.

[Botany]

8. He killed 2 cops?

If true fuck 'em.

[Honeycombe8]

9. I'm okay with this.

I don't know the facts. But if he murdered two police officers, he's where he belongs.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

11. Leonard Peltier is STILL in federal prison, too.

He was given two life sentences. Life sentences (at the time) were deemed to be 20 years. He's now entering his 43rd year incarcerated for crimes he did not commit, and the feds damn well know it: they've known it since 1975, when they manufactured evidence and presented false testimony against him. The forensics are so solid, that if this were anyone else, they'd have been freed long ago. He is now 74 years old and in failing health. Every time his attorneys have petitioned for parole the feds have refused to even consider it. They are now trying to seek clemency for him due to his deteriorating health. I doubt that this latest effort will work either. He deserves to walk the earth a free man, breath the free air, see the sun without bars, hold his great-grandchildren one last time.

Talk about a travesty of justice . . . .

Walk in beauty, Brother Leonard.