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Assata Shakur Dies in Cuban Exile at 78, Cuba Cites Health and Age

Her death closes a decades-long exile 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 and her daughter said she died in Havana on Sept. 25 from health conditions and advanced age.
  • The former Black Liberation Army member was convicted in 1977 in the New Jersey Turnpike shooting that killed Trooper Werner Foerster, a verdict she long disputed.
  • She escaped a New Jersey women’s prison in 1979 in a breakout staged by associates and resurfaced in Cuba in 1984, where Fidel Castro granted her asylum.
  • The FBI put her on its Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2013 and, with New Jersey, offered a $2 million reward as U.S. officials pressed unsuccessfully for extradition.
  • New Jersey’s governor and state police chief said she died without being held fully accountable, as supporters and critics continue to debate her legacy.