Assata Shakur, the former Black Liberation Army and Black Panther Party member who was targeted for many years by the illegal operations of COINTELPRO under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, was falsely accused and convicted for the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and wounding James Harper. "Despite the testimony of expert witnesses, who argued that medical evidence showed that Shakur, who herself had been shot by police while sitting in a car, could not have shot either trooper, an all-white jury, with five members with personal ties to state troopers, convicted her." (Joy James, "Framing the Panther" in /Want to Start a Revolution?/ NYU Press, 2009). The President and the Department of Justice should publicly press for the state of New Jersey to pardon her as well.



