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15m ago

Assata Shakur Dies in Cuba at 78 After Decades in Exile

Her passing ends a decades-long fugitive saga that strained U.S.–Cuba relations.

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FILE — Joanne Chesimard, a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, leaves Middlesex County courthouse, in New Brunswick, N.J., April 25, 1977.(AP Photo, File)
FILE - Photo of reward poster announcing the federal bounty for the capture of convicted killer Joanne Chesimard is now $1 Million in West Trenton, N.J. on Monday, May 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Tim Larsen, file)
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Overview

  • Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said she died in Havana on Sept. 25 from health problems and advanced age, and her daughter said the time of death was about 1:15 p.m.
  • She was convicted in 1977 for the 1973 New Jersey Turnpike shootout that killed State Trooper Werner Foerster and wounded another officer; she long maintained her innocence.
  • Members of the Black Liberation Army broke her out of New Jersey’s Clinton Correctional Facility in 1979 by taking guards hostage and fleeing in a prison van.
  • She resurfaced in Cuba in 1984, received political asylum from Fidel Castro, and remained there as U.S. officials repeatedly sought her extradition.
  • The FBI added her to its Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2013 as the first woman on it, with a combined reward of up to $2 million, and her legacy remained polarizing in law enforcement, activist communities, and hip-hop culture.