Assata Shakur first woman named on FBI most wanted list

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:01:00 +0000

Forty years ago to the day, Assata Shakur (birth name JoAnne Deborah Chesimard) was involved in a shootout at the New Jersey Turnpike, which left a state trooper dead. Shakur, then a Black Liberation Army and Black Panther Party member, was convicted of his murder in 1973. In 1979, with the help of allies in the black radical movement, Shakur escaped from prison, eventually emerging in Cuba, where she has lived since 1984. As of Thursday -- the reward on her capture and return doubled to $2 million -- the 66-year-old fugitive was named the first woman on the FBI's most wanted list.

Shakur was herself wounded by police shots during the Jersey Turnpike shootout and one of her militant comrades was killed. Despite the case's verdict, many of Shakur's supporters -- and commentators rightly skeptical of the criminal justice's system treatment of black liberation activists at the time -- question Shakur's murder conviction. Deserving of further questioning: Why, after 40 years, is Shakur (whose chosen name means "she who struggles") worthy of a $2 million bounty and a spot among the FBI's most wanted?

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Assata Shakur first woman named on FBI most wanted list