Assata Shakur

Assata Shakur was born JoAnne Deborah Byron and took the name Assata Olugbala Shakur in 1971, rejecting "JoAnne Chesimard" as a slave name. She joined the Black Panther Party in 1970 and helped run the Harlem chapter's Free Breakfast for Children program before moving to the Black Liberation Army. Around 12:45 a.m. on May 2, 1973, State Trooper James Harper stopped a two-door car on the New Jersey Turnpike near East Brunswick for a broken tail light. Sundiata Acoli was driving; Shakur sat in the right front seat; Zayd Malik Shakur sat in the right rear. Trooper Werner Foerster backed up Harper. The stop became a shootout. Foerster was killed. Harper was wounded. Zayd Malik Shakur was killed. Police shot Assata Shakur and Acoli, and both were wounded. Shakur took gunshot wounds in both arms and a shoulder and was hospitalized under heavy guard. Police killed a man at the scene, and the state then prosecuted Shakur for Foerster's death. Between 1973 and 1977 she was indicted ten times across New York and New Jersey, producing seven trials: three acquittals, one hung jury, one change of venue, one mistrial due to pregnancy, and one conviction. At her 1977 trial, an all-white jury convicted her on all eight counts, including Foerster's first-degree murder. Five jurors had personal ties to state troopers. On April 25, 1977, a judge sentenced her to life plus 26 to 33 years.