BY HARRY RING
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County district attorney filed
an appeals court brief January 30 asking that Elmer "Geronimo"
Pratt be returned to prison. A one-time leader of the Black
Panther Party, Pratt served 25 years of a life sentence for a
murder he did not commit. He was released on bail May 29, 1997,
after a district court judge found ample evidence that Pratt
did not receive a fair trial. District Attorney (DA) Gil
Garcetti could have opted for a retrial of Pratt, but made the
appeal instead.
Pratt was charged with the 1968 murder of Caroline Olsen and the wounding of her husband in a holdup in Santa Monica, California. He was convicted in a 1972 trial and began his life sentence. At the time of the killing Pratt was attending a Panther meeting in Oakland, 300 miles away.
The principal witness against him was ex-Panther Julius Butler. He testified that Pratt had "confessed" to him that he had shot the Olsens. Under oath during the trial, Butler swore he was not a stool pigeon.
Since then, it was established that Butler indeed had been an informer and provocateur for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Los Angeles police, and the DA's office itself. At the hearing that reviewed the case last year, Judge Everett Dickey branded Butler a liar.
The frame-up of Pratt was part of an effort to smash the Panthers through the secret FBI operation called Cointelpro. This effort, which included the murder of several Panthers and the victimization of many others, was carried out by local cops in cooperation with the FBI.
Pratt's lawyers will ask the Los Angeles District Court of Appeals for 90 days to respond to the appeal from the DA.