Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt aka Geronimo ji-Jaga died of a heart attack yesterday in his home in Tanzania.
The former high-ranking member of the Black Panther party and godfather of Tupac Shakur was unjustly incarcerated for 27 years after being falsely convicted of the kidnap and murder of Caroline Olsen on a Santa Monica, California tennis court in 1968.
Even though the husband of the victim that survived the robbery pointed out another man as the attacker, a judge ruled that the jury was not informed.
Pratt served his time, and eight years of that time he was in solitary confinement. He was freed in 1997.
Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco attorney who helped overturn Pratt’s murder conviction said to The Times,
“Geronimo was a powerful leader. For that reason he was targeted.”
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