Geronimo Pratt has died at his home in Tanzania. I haven't found the cause of death.
The Los Angeles Times has an obituary.
Geronimo was born Elmer Pratt in Louisiana and grew up there. He volunteered for the Army, and served in Vietnam where he was awarded two Bronze Stars, a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. After discharge, he went west, attended UCLA, and joined the Black Panther Party. He became a leader in it and attracted the attention of the authorities.
He was arrested in 1970 and charged with the murder of a woman and wounding of her husband in a robbery that netted $18. He was convicted in a trial based on the testimony of a former Black Panther Party member/government snitch, who claimed that Pratt had admitted the killing. The FBI had good reason to know that this wasn't the case, seeing as they had him under surveillance in Oakland (for being a Black Panther) when the robbery/murder was committed in Santa Monica. But they didn't say so.
Pratt was represented by Johnnie Cochran at trial. Cochran and Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco lawyer, fought for his release for 20 years. In 1998 his conviction was overturned because the government had withheld evidence that would establish his innocence, and was released. The DA made a lot of noises about retrying him, I think as a bargaining chip in the negotiations over his wrongful imprisonment case. That was eventually settled for 4.5 million dollars, and he wasn't retried, of course. So far as I know, NOTHING ever happened to the individuals in the FBI, the police, or the DA's office who withheld the evidence that would have saved him 27 years in prison.
It's funny, I was talking about him last night at dinner, to a friend who made a disparaging comment about Johnnie Cochran. Hah! I set him straight!
The LA Times obituary isn't bad, except for one thing. Here's how it starts:
Elmer G. "Geronimo" Pratt, a former Los Angeles Black Panther Party leader whose 1972 murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years in prison for a crime he said he did not commit, has died. He was 63.
"He said" he didn't commit it. That's right.
I'm sorry you died so young, Geronimo. Also sorry for mistakes and omissions in this. I'm writing at white heat because what happened to him was so wrong.