BY HARRY RING
LOS ANGELES - Frame-up victim Geronimo Pratt scored a major victory when a state judge ruled he had been denied a fair trial and set aside his conviction. Meanwhile, authorities acted with vengeful slowness in carrying out the judge's order that Pratt be released from Mule Creek state prison in northern California and transferred to Los Angles County jail so he can be readily available for hearings that could lead to his freedom.

Pratt, a 1960s leader of the Black Panther Party, has served 25 years of a life sentence for a murder he did not commit. After years of stubborn effort, Pratt finally won an evidentiary hearing on his case before Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey in Orange County.

Dickey ruled May 29 that Pratt had not received a fair trial because important information had been withheld from the defense and jury, information which could have brought a different verdict.

As of June 4, his order to release Pratt from the state penitentiary to a county jail had not been complied with. Judge Dickey will have jurisdiction in the case until July 31. He ordered that Pratt be given a hearing to request bail June 10.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Gilbert Garcetti has until July 30 to decide whether he will drop the case, appeal the reversal of Pratt's conviction, or seek a retrial. An attempt to retry Pratt would be rough going. Julius Butler, the only available witness against him, stands exposed as a stool pigeon and alleged perjurer.

Judge Dickey's decision was based on a bedrock issue. The prosecution had denied Pratt a fair trial by permitting Butler to give "false testimony" about whether he was a cop informer, Dickey said, and withheld key information from the defense and the jury.

A one-time sheriff's deputy, Butler had infiltrated the Panthers and was as informer and provocateur for the FBI, the Los Angeles police, and, most recently revealed, for the district attorney's office. At the trial he testified under oath that he was not and never had been an informer.

The frame-up of Pratt was a product of the drive by the federal government to destroy the Panthers. In a secret directive to his agents, then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, ordered that steps be taken to "neutralize" the Panthers. Local cops and prosecutors joined in the ruthless drive to crush the organization.

In 1972, Pratt was convicted of killing Caroline Olsen and wounding her husband Kenneth in a 1968 holdup. At the time of the killing, Pratt was attending a Panther meeting in Oakland, 400 miles away.

The Black rights activist was indicted two years after the killing, when Butler told police Pratt had "confessed" to him that he was the killer.

The other principal witness against Pratt was Kenneth Olsen, since deceased. At the trial, he identified Pratt as the man who wounded him and killed his wife. The jury was not told that a year earlier, Olsen had identified another suspect as the killer.

During the 25 years since his conviction, Pratt has been denied parole 16 times. Four previous requests for a new trial were denied.  
 
 
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