Marshall Conway Released From Prison

People

Marshall Conway

Outcome

unknown

In 1971, Marshall "Eddie" Conway, a leader of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party, was convicted of murder in the shooting death of Baltimore police officer Donald Sager. The April 1970 ambush of two officers in their patrol car in West Baltimore's Upton neighborhood killed Officer Sager and wounded his partner, Stanley Sierakowski. Conway maintained his innocence for the next four decades, arguing that his conviction was secured through the testimony of a police officer and a jailhouse informant who claimed Conway had confessed to him in a shared cell. The case hinged on this testimony, not physical evidence linking Conway to the crime. The shooting occurred at a time when federal and local authorities were aggressively infiltrating and disrupting the Black Panther Party through the FBI's COINTELPRO program. It was later revealed that the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panthers had actually been founded by undercover officers from the Baltimore Police Department. Conway was instrumental in exposing Warren Hart, a defense captain within the party who actually worked for the National Security Agency, after Hart fled the country. This context of government infiltration and manipulation raised serious questions about Conway's prosecution. Conway spent nearly 44 years in prison, during which he earned three college degrees, started a literacy program, and was considered an "exemplary" prisoner. In 2014, after an appellate court ruled that jurors in his trial had been given improper instructions under the Unger v. State decision, Conway negotiated a release agreement and was freed. He published his memoir, "Marshall Law: The Life & Times of a Baltimore Black Panther," in 2011. After his release, Conway continued community organizing and advocacy work in Baltimore until his death on February 13, 2023, at age 76.