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Assata Shakur Dies in Havana at 78, Closing Decades-Long U.S. Pursuit

The confirmation from Havana effectively ends U.S. attempts to extradite the convicted fugitive.

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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 Shakur died on September 25 in Havana due to health problems and advanced age, confirming she was 78.
  • Her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, said on social media that her mother died at approximately 1:15 p.m. local time.
  • Shakur was convicted in 1977 of first-degree murder in the 1973 killing of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and received a life sentence, though she maintained her innocence and trial doctors testified her wounds were consistent with raised hands.
  • Members of the Black Liberation Army broke her out of a New Jersey prison in 1979, and Fidel Castro granted her asylum in Cuba in 1984 as U.S. authorities pressed unsuccessfully for her return.
  • The FBI placed her on its Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2013 with a combined reward of $2 million, and New Jersey officials said she appears to have died without being held fully accountable.