Sundiata Acoli

Sundiata Acoli (born January 14, 1937,<ref name="a">"Who is Sundiata Acoli?" SundiataAcoli.org.</ref> as Clark Edward Squire) is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1974 for murdering a New Jersey state trooper.<ref name="nytimes-1">Template:Cite news</ref> Acoli was granted parole in 2022 at the age of 85.

Early life

Acoli was born on January 14, 1937, in Decatur, Texas, and raised in Vernon, Texas.<ref name="a"/><ref name="Chesler for WashPost"/> He graduated from high school in Texas aged 15, and graduated from Prairie View A&M University in 1956 with a degree in mathematics aged 19.<ref name="Chesler for WashPost"/><ref>Safiya Bukhari, The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison & Fighting for Those Left Behind, Feminist Press at CUNY, 2010.</ref><ref name="g"/> After university, he became a computer analyst for NASA working at Edwards Air Force Base in California.<ref name="Chesler for WashPost"/> In 1963 he moved to New York City, becoming involved in the civil rights movement, before moving again in the summer of 1964 to Mississippi, continuing that new Civil Rights activism.<ref name="Chesler for WashPost"/><ref>Akinyele Omowale Umoja, We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement, New York University Press, 2013, p. 108.</ref>

Acoli was radicalised by the assassination of Martin Luther King in April 1968 and that same year joined the Harlem chapter of the Black Panther Party as its finance minister.<ref name="Chesler for WashPost"/><ref name="g"/> He was arrested on April 2, 1969, in the Panther 21 conspiracy case,<ref name="g"/> in which members were accused of planned coordinated bombing and long-range rifle attack on two police stations and an education office in New York City.<ref name="e">Ron Christenson (ed.), Political Trials in History: From Antiquity to the Present, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1991, p. 351.</ref> A group called Computer People for Peace raised $50,000 bail for him but it was rejected by the judge.<ref name="nytimes-2">Template:Cite news</ref> Acoli and the other defendants were ultimately acquitted of all charges in that case.<ref name="nytime-acquittal">Template:Cite news</ref>

New Jersey Turnpike shooting

Assata Shakur (pictured in 1971), who accompanied Acoli and Zayd Malik Shakur on the night of May 2, 1973

Template:Further On May 2, 1973, at about 12:45 a.m.,<ref name="sullivan">Sullivan, Joseph F. (May 3, 1973). "Panther, Trooper Slain in Shoot-Out", The New York Times, p. 1.</ref> Acoli, along with Zayd Malik Shakur (born James F. Costan) and Assata Shakur (born JoAnne Chesimard), were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick for driving with a broken tail light by State Trooper James Harper, backed up by Trooper Werner Foerster in a second patrol vehicle.<ref name="wag2"/> The vehicle was also exceeding the speed limit.<ref name="sullivan"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Recordings of Trooper Harper calling the dispatcher were played at the trials of both Acoli and Assata Shakur.<ref name="wag2">Waggoner, Walter H. (February 14, 1977). "Jury in Chesimard Murder Trial Listens to State Police Radio Tapes". The New York Times, p. 83.</ref><ref name="johnston3"/> The stop occurred Template:Convert south of what was then the Turnpike Authority administration building.<ref name="sullivan"/><ref name="johnston3">Johnston, Richard J. (February 20, 1974). "Squires Jurors Hear Chase Tape". The New York Times, p. 78.</ref><ref name="kirsta">Kirsta, Alix (May 29, 1999), "A black and white case – Investigation – Joanne Chesimard". The Times.</ref> Acoli was driving the two-door vehicle, Assata Shakur was seated in the right front seat, and Zayd Shakur was in the right rear seat.<ref name="johnston2"/>Template:Efn Trooper Harper asked the driver for identification, asked him to get out of the car, and questioned him at the rear of the vehicle.<ref name="sullivan"/>

It is at this point, with the questioning of Acoli, that the accounts of the confrontation begin to differ (see the witnesses section of the Assata Shakur article).<ref name="sul3"/> However, in the ensuing shootout, Trooper Foerster was shot twice in the head with his own gun and killed,<ref name="wag2"/><ref name="sul3">Sullivan, Joseph E. (March 25, 1977). "Chesimard Jury Asks Clarification of Assault Charges", The New York Times, p. 50.</ref> Zayd Shakur was killed, and Assata Shakur and Trooper Harper were wounded.

According to initial police statements, at this point one or more of the suspects began firing with automatic handguns and Trooper Foerster fired four times before falling mortally wounded.<ref name="sullivan"/> At Acoli's trial, Harper testified that the gunfight started "seconds" after Foerster arrived at the scene.<ref name="johnston2">Johnston, Richard J. (February 14, 1974). "Trooper Recalls Shooting on Pike", The New York Times, p. 86. Retrieved June 17, 2008.</ref> At this trial, Harper said that Foerster reached into the vehicle, pulled out and held up an automatic pistol and ammunition magazine, and said "Jim, look what I found",<ref name="johnston2"/> while facing Harper at the rear of the vehicle.<ref name="johnston4">Johnston, Richard J. H. (March 9, 1974). "Jury Deliberations Begin in Murder Trial of Squire", The New York Times, p. 64.</ref> At this point, Assata Shakur and Zayd Shakur were ordered to put their hands on their laps and not to move; Harper said that Assata Shakur then reached down to the right of her right leg, pulled out a pistol, and shot him in the shoulder, after which he retreated to behind his vehicle.<ref name="johnston2"/> Questioned by prosecutor C. Judson Hamlin, Harper said he saw Foerster shot just as Assata Shakur was felled by bullets from Harper's gun.<ref name="johnston2"/> In his opening statement to a jury, Hamlin said that Acoli shot Foerster with a .38 caliber automatic pistol and then used Foerster's own gun to "execute him".<ref>Johnston, Richard H. (February 13, 1974). "Squire Charged With 'Execution'". The New York Times, p. 84.</ref> According to the testimony of State Police investigators, two jammed semi-automatic pistols were discovered near Foerster's body.<ref name="sul">Sullivan, Joseph F. (February 24, 1977), "Chesimard Attorney Acts to Call Kelley; Wants F.B.I. Director and Others to Testify on Program Aimed at Harassing Activists", The New York Times, p. 76, column 1.</ref>

In Shakur's version of events, she says she was shot and wounded with her hands up and couldn't have killed Foerster. Acoli said at the time that he was hit by a bullet, blacked out and couldn't remember what happened.<ref name="Chesler for WashPost">Template:Cite news</ref>

Acoli then drove the car (a white Pontiac LeMans with Vermont license plates)<ref name="kirsta"/>—which contained Assata Shakur, who was wounded, and Zayd Shakur, who was dead or dying—Template:Convert down the road.<ref name="wag2"/><ref name="sullivan"/> The vehicle was chased by three patrol cars and the booths down the turnpike were alerted.<ref name="sullivan"/> Acoli then exited the car and, after being ordered to halt by a trooper, fled into the woods as the trooper emptied his gun.<ref name="sullivan"/> Assata Shakur then walked towards the trooper with her bloodied arms raised in surrender.<ref name="sullivan"/> Acoli was captured after a 36-hour manhunt—involving 400 people, state police helicopters, and bloodhounds.<ref name="sullivan"/><ref name="sullivan2">Sullivan, Joseph F. (May 4, 1973). "Gunfight Suspect Caught in Jersey", The New York Times, p. 41.</ref><ref>Kupendua, Marpessa (January 28, 1998), "Sundiata Acoli", Revolutionary Worker. No. 94. Retrieved on May 9, 2008.</ref> Zayd Shakur's body was found in a nearby gully along the road.<ref name="sullivan"/>

Prison

A jury convicted Acoli of first-degree murder in 1974 and sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole until after 25 years served. With prison credits, his first opportunity for parole was pushed up to 1993 but he was denied and had been continuously denied parole seven more times until the New Jersey Supreme Court granted his request on May 10, 2022, after they decided that Acoli was no longer a threat to society.<ref name="Albin J. writing for the Court">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Upon entering New Jersey State Prison he was subsequently confined to a new and specially created Management Control Unit (MCU) created for him and other politically associated prisoners. He remained in MCU almost five years.<ref name="g">Joy James, Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, September 1, 2004.</ref>

In September 1979, Acoli was transferred to Marion, Illinois, federal prison. In July 1987 he was transferred to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. In the fall of 1992, Sundiata Acoli was denied parole.<ref name="g"/> He was up for parole again in 2012.<ref>"Sundiata Acoli, political prisoner for 39 years, wins appeal and is up for parole again", Prison Radio (April 29, 2012).</ref> On September 29, 2014, a New Jersey state appeals court officially granted Acoli's request for parole,<ref name=oooav>"Sundiata Acoli, Man Who Murdered State Trooper, To Be Released On Parole" Template:Webarchive, Huffington Post, September 29, 2014.</ref> though the state of New Jersey appealed this ruling.<ref name=oooav /> A higher court reversed this ruling in February 2017. On November 21, 2017, the appeals board denied parole, and Acoli was not scheduled to be eligible to apply again until 2032 when he would have been 94 years old.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered that he be made eligible to apply for parole again sooner, and he was ultimately granted parole in May 2022 at the age of 85.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Popular culture

Sundiata Acoli is hailed in the song "Sunshine" by hip hop music artist Yasiin Bey alongside Mumia Abu Jamal and Assata Shakur. He is also given a "revolutionary salute" at the end of the Dead Prez song "I Have A Dream, Too", along with Zayd Shakur and Assata Shakur.

External links

• Article Written by Sundiata Acoli
• Sundiata Acoli Speaks